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ANTE-NICENE FATHERS. 


MW 


THE 


TRANSLATIONS OF 


The Writings of the Fathers down to AD. 325. 


: THE REV. ALEXANDER ROBERTS, D.D., 


JAMES DONALDSON, LL.D, 


EDITORS. 
AMERICAN REPRINT OF THE EDINBURGH EDITION. 


REVISED AND CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED, WITH BRIE PREFACES AND 
OCCASIONAL NOTES, 


BY 


A. CLEVELAND COXE, D.D. 


VOLUME... VI. 


GREGORY THAUMATURGUS, DIONYSIUS THE GREAT, JULIUS AFRICANUS, ANATOLIUS AND 
MINOR WRITERS, METHODIUS, ARNOBIUS. 


AUTHORIZED EDITION. 


NEW YORK: 
CHARLES SGRIBNER’'S SONS. 
“1926 








FATHERS OF THE THIRD CENTURY: 


GREGORY THAUMATURGUS, DIONYSIUS THE GREAT, JULIUS AFRICANUS, ANATOLIUS 
AND MINOR WRITERS, METHODIUS, ARNOBIUS 


AMERICAN EDITION. 


CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED, WITH BRIEF NOTES AND PREFACES, 


BY 


A. CLEVELAND COXE, D.D. 


Ta dpxata yy Kparetrw. 


THE NICENE CouNGIL. 


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INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 


In this volume a mass of fragmentary material’ has been reduced to method, and so harmo- 
nized as to present an integral result. The student has before him, therefore, (1) a view of the 
Christian Church emerging from the ten persecutions ; (2) a survey of its condition on the eve 
of that great event, the (nominal) conversion of the empire; (3) an introduction to the era of 
Athanasius ; and (4) a history of events that led to the calling of the first Catholic council 
at Nicza. 

The moral grandeur and predominance of the See of Alexandria are also here conspicuously 
illustrated. The mastery which its great school continued to exercise over Christian thought, 
its hegemony in the formation of Christian literature, its guardian influence in the development of 
doctrinal technology, and not less the Divine Providence that created it and built it up for the 
noble ends which it subserved in a Clement, an Origen, and an Athanasius, will all present them- 
selves forcibly to every reflecting reader of this book. One half of this volume presents the 
Alexandrian school itself in its glorious succession of doctors and pupils, and the other half in 
the reflected light of its universal influence. Thus Methodius has no other distinction than that 
which he derives from his wholesome corrections of Origen, and yet the influence of Origen 
upon his own mind is betrayed even in his antagonisms. He objects to the excessive allegorizing 
of that great doctor, yet he himself allegorizes too much in the same spirit. Finally we come 
to Arnobius, who carries on the line of Latin Christianity in Northern Africa; but even here we 
find that Clement, and not Tertullian, is his model. He gives us, in a Latin dress, not a little 
directly borrowed from the great Alexandrian. 

This volume further demonstrates —what I have so often touched upon— the historic fact that 
primitive Christianity was Greek in form and character, Greek from first to last, Greek in all its 
forms of dogma, worship, and polity. One idea only did it borrow from the West, and that not 
from the ecclesiastical, but the civil, Occident. It conformed itself to the imperial plan of ex- 
archates, metropoles, and dioceses. Into this civil scheme it shaped itself, not by design, but by 
force of circumstances, just as the Anglo-American communion fell in with the national polity, 
and took shape in dioceses each originally conterminous with a State. Because it was the capital 
of the empire, therefore Rome was reckoned the jivs¢, but not the chief, of Sees, as the Council 
of Niczea declared; and because Byzantium had become “New Rome,” therefore it is made 
second on the list, but equal in dignity. Rome was the sole Apostolic See of the West, and, as such, 
reflected the honours of St. Paul, its founder, and of St. Peter, who also glorified it by martyrdom ; 
but not a word of this is recognised at Niczea as investing it even with a moral primacy. That was 
informally the endowment of Alexandria; unasserted because unquestioned, and unchallenged 
because as yet unholy ambition had not infected the Apostolic churches. 

It is time, then, to disabuse the West of its narrow ideas concerning ecclesiastical history. 
Dean Stanley rebuked this spirit in his Lectures on the Eastern Church He complained that 
“ Eastern Christendom is comparatively an untrodden field ;” he quoted the German proverb,} 
“ Behind the mountains there is yet a population;”’ he called on us to enlarge our petty Occi- 
dental horizon ; and he added words of reproach which invite us to reform the entire scheme of 











1 See the Edinburgh series. 2 See p. 3, ed. of 1861. 3 “‘Hinter dem Berge sind auch Leute,” 
Vv 


vi INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 





our ecclesiastical history by presenting the Eastern Apostolic churches as the main stem of Chris- 
tendom, of which the church of Rome itself was for three hundred years a mere colony, unfelt 
in theology except by contributions to the Greek literature of Christians, and wholly unconscious 
of those pretensions with which, in a spirit akin to that of the romances about Arthur and the 
Round Table, the fabulous Decretals afterwards invested a succession of primitive bishops in 
Rome, wholly innocent of anything of the kind. 

“ The Greek Church,” says Dean Stanley, “reminds us of the time when the tongue, not of 
Rome, but of Greece, was the sacred language of Christendom. It was a striking remark of the 
Emperor Napoleon, that the introduction of Christianity itself was, in a certain sense, the tri- 
umph of Greece over Rome ; the last and most signal instance of the maxim of Horace, Grecia 
capita ferum victorem cepit. The early Roman church was but a colony of Greek Christians or 
Grecized Jews. ‘The earliest Fathers of the Western Church wrote in Greek. The early popes 
were not Italians, but Greeks. The name of foe is not Latin, but Greek, the common and now 
despised name of every pastor in the Eastern Church. . . . She zs the mother, and Rome the 
daughter. It is her privilege to claim a direct continuity of speech with the earliest times; to 
boast of reading the whole code of Scripture, Old as well as New, in the language in which it 
was read and spoken by the Apostles. The humblest peasant who reads his Septuagint or Greek 
Testament in his own mother-tongue on the hills of Boeotia may proudly feel that he has access 
to the original oracles of divine truth which pope and cardinal reach by a barbarous and imper- 
fect translation ; that he has a key of knowledge which in the West zs only to be found in the 
hands of the learned classes.” 

Before entering on the study of this volume, the student will do well to read the interesting 
work which I have quoted ;* but the following extract merits a place just here, and I cannot 
deprive even the casual reader of the benefit of such a preface from the non-ecclesiastical and 
purely literary pen of the Dean. He says:? “The See of Alexandria was then the most impor- 
tant in the world.3 . . . The Alexandrian church was the only great seat of Christian learning. Its 
episcopate was the Evangelical See, as founded by the chair of St. Mark. . . . Its occupant, as 
we have seen, was the only potentate of the time who bore the name of fofe.4 After the Coun- 
cil of Nicza he became ¢he judge of the world, from his decisions respecting the celebration of 
Easter ; and the obedience paid to his judgment in all matters of learning, secular and sacred, 
almost equalled that paid in later days to the ecclesiastical authority of the popes of the West. 
‘The head of the Alexandrian church,’ says Gregory Nazianzen, ‘is the head of the world.’ ” 

In the light of these all-important historic truths, these volumes of the Ante-Nicene Fathers 
have been elucidated by their American editor.s He begs to remind his countrymen that eccle-. 
siastical history is yet to be written on these irrefragable positions, and the future student of his- 
tory will be delivered froin the most puzzling entanglement when once these ¢dods of the market 
are removed from books designed for his instruction. Let American scholarship give us, at last, 
a Church history not written from a merely Western point of view, nor clogged with traditional 
phraseology perseveringly adhered to on the very pages which supply its refutation. It is the 
scandal of literature that the frauds of the pseudo-Decretals should be perpetuated by modern 
lists of “ popes,” beginning with St. Peter, in the very books which elaborately expose the em- 
piricism of such a scheme, and quote the reluctant words by which this gigantic imposition has 
been consigned to infamy in the confessions of Jesuits and Ultramontanes themselves. 





t Late editions are cheap in the market, It is filled with the author’s idiosyncrasies, but it is brilliant and suggestive. 

2 Lect. vii. p. 268. On the verse of Horace (Z¢., i. book ii. 155), see Dacier’s note, vol. ix. 389. 

3 He adds: “ Alexandria, ¢77/ the rise of Constantinople, was the most powerful city in the East. The prestige of its founder still 
clung to it.” 

4 That is, of ‘ke pope,” as Wellington was called “ te duke.” But Cyprian was called Jada, even by the Roman clergy. 

$ He owes his own introduction to a just view of these facts to a friend of his boyhood and youth, the late Rev. Dr. Hill of the Ameri- 
can Mission in Athens. He was penetrated with love for Greek Christians. 





eee eS Qe oe teratary 


CONTENTS OF VOLUME VI. 


I. GREGORY THAUMATURGUS. A DECLARATION OF FAITH . A G fi Z 


II. 


III. 
IV. 


VI. 
Vil. 


VIII. 


IX. 


A METAPHRASE OF THE BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES - “ ° ° . 
CANONICAL EPISTLE . : 5 4 ° Q ° ° . 
THE ORATION AND PANEGYRIC ADDRESSED TO lonieen ° ° ° . e 
A SECTIONAL CONFESSION OF FAITH é ; 6 5 A ; a . A 
ON THE TRINITY , F 6 4 c 7 . . . e ° 
TWELVE TOPICS ON THE Phrrd Fi A 4 0 : . : s e ° A 
ON THE SUBJECT OF THE SOUL. ° . . ° ° ° ° ° ° 
Four HoMILIES . é 3 A : 5 ; 5 : - ° ° . ° 
ON ALL THE SAINTS. A * ; ° e . ° ° . ° 
ON THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO Mey ow ; A ° Py ° ° A e 
DIONYSIUS THE GREAT. ExTANT FRAGMENTS. : : ur ec A ‘ 
EXEGETICAL FRAGMENTS . 4 5 ‘ 5 5 ° . P 
JULIUS AFRICANUS. Extant Vee ja Ca. eh) SO nte cau eon neers 
ANATOLIUS AND MINOR WRITERS. 4 , A . , = A 
ALEXANDER OF CAPPADOCIA . ‘ A c - : e : . : 
THEOGNOSTUS OF ALEXANDRIA . f ; A 7 ° r ° ° 5 c 
PIERIUS OF ALEXANDRIA . 5 é A 4 2 c é ° : ° ° 
THEONAS OF ALEXANDRIA . : “ é 5 a ° ° ° ° z 
PHILEAS . , s A : A * 5 4 é BS . ° ° A 
PAMPHILUS . . : r é A : : 6 : ‘ F ° . ° 
MALCHION . . 
ARCHELAUS. THE ier OF THE eenaok WITH THE fel cee Manes A 
ALEXANDER OF LYCOPOLIS. OF THE MANICHZANS a . 4 : 
PETER OF ALEXANDRIA. THE GENUINE ACTS OF PETER . “ ( - 
THE CANONICAL EPISTLE ; 5 : A : : A A : P 
FRAGMENTS . 
ALEXANDER OF ALEXANDRIA. Peers ON THE are aes AND THE 
DEPOSITION OF ARIUS . 5 
METHODIUS. THE BANQUET OF THE TEN ARGUS 
CONCERNING FREE-WILL. * C ° ° 6 “ 
FROM THE DISCOURSE ON THE heeuene wicn A c : . 
FRAGMENTS . . 4 : ~ - : C P ; 
ORATION CONCERNING Caron AND peep A 5 ° 
ORATION ON THE PALMS 
THREE FRAGMENTS FROM THE Houae ON THE Wedoas AND Paceion OF Cran 
SOME OTHER FRAGMENTS ‘ 
ARNOBIUS. THE SEVEN BOOKS OF na Genteen AGAINST THE Heures 


vii 


PAGE 


18 
21 
40 
48 
50 
54 


72 

74 

81 
III 
125 
14! 
153 
155 
156 
158 
161 
165 
168 
179 
241 
261 
269 


280 


29I1 
309 
356 
364 
378 
383 
394 
399 
401 
413 





GREGORY THAUMATURGUS. 


FTRANSLATED BY THE REV. S. D. F. SALMOND, M.A.} 





Bilal WO al eh 


yee 


INTRODUCTORY NOTE 


TO 


GREGORY THAUMATURGUS. 


[a.D. 205-240-265.] Alexandria continues to be the head of Christian learning.’ It is 
delightful to trace the hand of God from generation to generation, as from father to son, inter- 
posing for the perpetuity of the faith. We have already observed the continuity of the great 
Alexandrian school: how it arose, and how Pantenus begat Clement, and Clement begat Origen. 
So Origen begat Gregory, and so the Lord has provided for the spiritual generation of the 
Church’s teachers, age after age, from the beginning. ‘Truly, the Lord gave to Origen a holy 
seed, better than natural sons and daughters ; as if, for his comfort, Isaiah had written,? forbidding 
him to say, “ I am a dry tree.” 

Our Gregory has given us not a little of his personal adventures in his panegyric upon his 
master, and for his further history the reader need only be referred to what follows. But I am 
anxious to supply the dates, which are too loosely left to conjecture. As he was ordained a 
bishop “very young,” according to Eusebius, I suppose he must have been far enough under 
Jit, the age prescribed by the “ Apostolic Canons” (so called), though probably not younger than 
thirty, the earliest canonical limit for the ordination of a presbyter. If we decide upon five and 
thirty, as a mean reckoning, we may with some confidence set his birth at a.p. 205, dating back 
from his episcopate, which began a.p. 240. He was a native of Neo-Cesarea, the chief city of 
Pontus, — a fact that should modify what we have learned about Pontus from Tertullian.3 He 
was born of heathen parentage, and lived like other Gentile boys until his fourteenth year (circa 
A.D. 218), with the disadvantage of being more than ordinarily imbued by a mistaken father in the 
polytheism of Greece. At this period his father died ; but his mother, carrying out the wishes of 
her husband, seems to have been not less zealous in furthering his education according to her 
pagan ideas. He was, evidently, the inheritor of moderate wealth ; and, with his brother Atheno- 
dorus, he was placed under an accomplished teacher of grammar and rhetoric, from whom also he 
acquired a considerable knowledge of the Latin tongue. He was persuaded by the same master 
to use this accomplishment in acquiring some knowledge of the Roman laws. This is a very 
important point in his biography, and it brings us to an epoch in Christian history too little noted 
by any writer. I shall return to it very soon. We find him next going to Alexandria to study 
the New Platonism. He speaks of himself as already prepossessed with Christian ideas, which 
came to him even in his boyhood, about the time when his father died. But it was not at Alexan- 
dria that he began his acquaintance with Christian learning. Next he seems to have travelled into 
Greece, and to have studied at Athens. But the great interest of his autobiography begins with the 
providential incidents, devoutly narrated by himself, which engaged him in a journey to Berytus 
just as Origen reached Ceesarea, A.D. 233, making it fora time his home and the seat of his 
school. His own good angel, as Gregory supposes, led him away from Berytus, where he pur- 
posed to prosecute his legal studies, and brought him to the feet of Origen, his Gamaliel ; and 
“from the very first day of his receiving us,” he says, “the true Sun began to rise upon me.” This 











1 Vol. ii, pp. 165, 342. 2 Isa, lvi, 3. 3 Vol. iii. p. 271. 
3 


4 INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 





he accounts the beginning of his true life ; and, if we are right as to our dates, he was now about 
twenty-seven years of age. 

If he tarried even a little while in Berytus, as seems probable, his knowledge of iy was, 
doubtless, somewhat advanced. It was the seat of that school in which Roman law began its 
existence in the forms long afterward digested into the Pandects of Justinian. That emperor 
speaks of Berytus as “the mother and nurse” of the civil law. Caius, whose /ustituces were 
discovered in 1820 by the sagacity of Niebuhr, seems to have been a Syrian. So were Papinian 
and Ulpian : and, heathen as they were, they lived under the illumination reflected from Antioch ; 
and, not less than the Antonines, they were examples of a philosophic regeneration which never 
could have existed until the Christian era had begun its triumphs. Of this sort of pagan philoso- 
phy Julian became afterwards the grand embodiment; and in Julian’s grudging confessions of 
what he had learned from Christianity we have a key to the secret convictions of others, such as 
I have named ; characters in whom, as in Plutarch and in many retrograde unbelievers of our day, 
we detect the operation of influences they are unwilling to acknowledge; of which, possibly, 
they are blindly unconscious themselves. Roman law, I maintain, therefore, indirectly owes its 
origin, as it is directly indebted for its completion in the Pandects, to the new powers and pro- 
cesses of thought which came from “the Light of the World.” It was light from Galilee and 
Golgotha, answering Pilate’s question in the inward convictions of many a heathen sage. 

It is most interesting, therefore, to find in our Gregory one who had come into contact with 
Berytus at this period. He describes it as already dignified by this school of law, and there- 
fore Latinized in some degree by its influence. Most suggestive is what he says of this school: 
““T refer to those admirable laws of our sages, by which the affairs of all the subjects of the 
Roman Empire ave now directed, and which are neither digested nor learnt without difficulty. 
They are wise and strict (if not Azows) in themselves, they are manifold and admirable, and, in a 
word, most thoroughly Grecian, although expressed and delivered to us in the Roman tongue, 
which is a wonderful and magnificent sort of language, and one very aptly conformable to impe- 
rial authority, but still difficult to me.” Nor is this the only noteworthy tribute of our author 
to Roman law while yet that sublime system was in its cradle. The rhetorician who introduced 
him to it and to the Latin tongue was its enthusiastic eulogist ; and Gregory says he learned the 
laws “in a thorough way, by his help. . . . And he said one thing to me which has proved 
to me the truest of all his sayings ; to wit, that my education in the laws would be my greatest 
viaticum,— my épddiov (for thus he phrased it);” i.e., for the journey of life. This man, one 
can hardly doubt, was a disciple of Caius (or Gaius) ; and there is little question that the digested 
system which Gregory eulogizes was “the Institutes” of that great father of the civil law, now 
recovered from a palimpsest, and made known to our own age, with no less benefit to jurispru- 
dence than the discovery of the Phzlosophumena has conferred on theology. 

Thus Gregory’s Panegyric throws light on the origin of Roman law. He claims it for “our 
sages,” meaning men of the East, whose vernacular was the Greek tongue. Caius was probably, 
like the Gaius of Scripture, an Oriental who had borrowed a Latin name, as did the Apostle of 
the Gentiles and many others. If he was a native of Berytus, as seems probable, that accounts 
for the rise of the school of laws at a place comparatively inconsiderable. Hadrian, in his 
journey to Palestine, would naturally discover and patronize such a jurist; and that accounts for 
the appearance of Caius at Rome in his day. Papinian and Ulpian, both Orientals, were his 
pupils in all probability; and these were the “sages” with whose works the youthful Gregory 
became acquainted, and by which his mind was prepared for the great influence he exerted in the 
East, where his name is a power to this day. 

His credit with our times is rather impaired than heightened by the epithet Zhaumatureus, 
which clings to his name as a convenient specification, to distinguish him from the other! Grego- 





¥ See Dean Stanley’s Zastern Church and Neale’s [ntroduction. 


INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 5 


ries whose period was so nearly his own. But why make it his opprobrium? He is not responsi- 
ble for the romances that sprung up after his death ; which he never heard of nor imagined. Like 
the great Friar Bacon, who was considered a magician, or Faust, whose invention nearly cost him 
his life, the reputation of Gregory made him the subject of legendary lore long after he was 
gone. It is not impossible that God wrought marvels by his hand, but a single instance would 
give rise to many fables ; and this very surname is of itself a monument of the fact that miracles 
were now of rare occurrence, and that one possessing the gift was a wonder to his contemporaries. 

To like popular love of the marvellous I attribute the stupid story of a mock consecration by 
Phedimus. If a slight irregularity in Origen’s ordination gave him such lifelong troubles, what 
would not have been the tumult such a sacrilege as this would have occasioned? Nothing is 
more probable than that Pheedimus related such things as having occurred in a vision ;* and this 
might have weighed with a mind like Gregory’s to overcome his scruples, and to justify his 
acceptance of such a position at an early age. 

We are already acquainted with the eloquent letter of Origen that decided him to choose the 
sacred calling after he left the school at Czsarea. The Panegyric, which was his valedictory, 
doubtless called forth that letter. Origen had seen in him the makings of a «jpvé, and coveted 
such another Timothy for the Master’s work. But the Panegyric itself abounds with faults, and 
greatly resembles similar college performances of our day. ‘The custom of schools alone can 
excuse the expression of such enthusiastic praise in the presence of its subject ; but Origen doubt- 
less bore it as philosophically as others have done since, and its evident sincerity and heartfelt 
gratitude redeem it from the charge of fulsome adulation. 

For the residue of the story I may refer my readers to the statements of the translator, as 


follows : — 
TRANSLATOR’S NOTICE. 


WE are in possession of a considerable body of testimonies from ancient literature bearing on 
the life and work of Gregory. From these, though they are largely mixed up with the marvellous, 
we gain a tolerably clear and satisfactory view of the main facts in his history, and the most patent 
features of his character.2, From various witnesses we learn that he was also known by the name 
Theodorus, which may have been his original designation ; that he was a native of Neo-Cesareia, 
a considerable place of trade, and one of the most important towns of Pontus; that he belonged 
to a family of some wealth and standing ; that he was born of heathen parents; that at the age 
of fourteen he lost his father; that he had a brother named Athenodorus; and that along with 
him he travelled about from city to city in the prosecution of studies that were to fit him for the 
profession of law, to which he had been destined. Among the various seats of learning which he 
thus visited we find Alexandria, Athens, Berytus, and the Palestinian Czesareia mentioned. At 
this last place — to which, as he tells us, he was led by a happy accident in the providence of 
God — he was brought into connection with Origen. Under this great teacher he received les- 
sons in logic, geometry, physics, ethics, philosophy, and ancient literature, and in due time also 
in biblical science and the verities of the Christian faith. Thus, having become Origen’s pupil, 
he became also by the hand of God his convert. After a residence of some five years with the 
great Alexandrian, he returned to his native city. Soon, however, a letter followed him to Neo- 
Ceesareia, in which Origen urged him to dedicate himself to the ministry of the Church of Christ, 
and pressed strongly upon him his obligation to consecrate his gifts to the service of God, and in 
especial to devote his acquirements in heathen science and learning to the elucidation of the Scrip- 
tures. On receipt of this letter, so full of wise and faithful counsel and strong exhortation, from 











T Recall Cyprian’s narratives, vol. v., and this volume zz/ra, Life of Dionysius of Alexandria. 

2 Thus we have accounts of him, more or less complete, in Eusebius (Azstorza Eccles., vi. 30, vil. 14); Basil (De Spiritu Sancto, 
xxix. 74; Epzst. 28, Num. 1 and 2; 204, Num. 2; 207, Num. 4; 210, Num. 3, 5, — Works, vol. iii. pp. 62, 107, 303, 311, etc., edit. Paris. 
BB. 1730), Jerome (De virts illustr., ch. 65; in the Comment. in Ecclestasten, ch. 4; and Epist. 70, Num. 4, — Works, vol. i. pp. 424 
and 427, edit. Veron.), Rufinus (H7s¢. Eccles., vii. 25), Socrates (H7st. Eccles., iv. 27), Sozomen (Azst. Eccles., vii. 27), Evagrius 
Scholasticus (Hist. Eccles., iti. 31), Suidas in his Lexzcom, and others of less moment. 


6 INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 

the teacher whom he venerated and loved above all others, he withdrew into the wilderness, seek. 
ing opportunity for solemn thought and private prayer over its contents. At this time the bishop 
of Amasea, a city which held apparently a first place in the province, was one named Phzedimus, 
who, discerning the promise of great things in the convert, sought to make him bishop of Neo- 
Cesareia. Fora considerable period, however, Gregory, who shrank from the responsibility of 
the episcopal office, kept himself beyond the bishop’s reach, until Phaedimus, unsuccessful in his 
search, had recourse to the stratagem of ordaining him in his absence, and declaring him, with all 
the solemnities of the usual ceremonial, bishop of his native city. On receiving the report of 
this extraordinary step, Gregory yielded, and, coming forth from the place of his concealment, 
was consecrated to the bishopric with all the customary formalities ;2 and so well did he dis- 
charge the duties of his office, that while there were said to be only seventeen Christians in the 
whole city when he first entered it as bishop, there were said to be only seventeen pagans in it at 
the time of his death. The date of his studies under Origen is fixed at about 234 a.p., and that 
of his ordination as bishop at about 240. About the year 250 his church was involved in the 
sufferings of the Decian persecution, on which occasion he fled into the wilderness, with the hope 
of preserving his life for his people, whom he also counselled to follow in that matter his example. 
His flock had much to endure, again, through the incursion of the northern barbarians about 260. 
He took part in the council that met at Antioch in 265 for the purpose of trying Paul of Samo- 
sata; and soon after that he died, perhaps about 270, if we can adopt the conjectural reading 
which gives the name Aurelian instead of Julian in the account left us by Suidas. 

The surname Thaumaturgus, or Wonder-worker, at once admonishes us of the marvellous that 
so largely connected itself with the Azstorica/ in the ancient records of this man’s life.3 He was 
believed to have been gifted with a power of working miracles, which he was constantly exercising. 
But into these it is profitless to enter. When all the marvellous is dissociated from the historical 
in the records of this bishop’s career, we have still the figure of a great, good, and gifted man, 
deeply versed in the heathen lore and science of his time, yet more deeply imbued with the 
genuine spirit of another wisdom, which, under God, he learned from the illustrious thinker of 
Alexandria, honouring with all love, gratitude, and veneration that teacher to whom he was 
indebted for his knowledge of the Gospel, and exercising an earnest, enlightened, and faithful 
ministry of many years in an office which he had not sought, but for which he had been sought. 
Such is, in brief, the picture that rises up before us from a perusal of his own writings, as well as 
from the comparison of ancient accounts of the man and his vocation. Of his well-accredited 
works we have the following: 4 Declaration of Faith, being a creed on the doctrine of the 
Trinity ; a Metaphrase of the Book of Ecclesiastes; a Panegyric to Origen, being an oration 
delivered on leaving the school of Origen, expressing eloquently, and with great tenderness of 
feeling, as well as polish of style, the sense of his obligations to that master; and a Canonical 
Epistle, in which he gives a variety of directions with respect to the penances and discipline to 
be exacted by the Church from Christians who had fallen back into heathenism in times of suf- 
fering, and wished to be restored. Other works have been attributed to him, which are doubtful 
or spurious. His writings have been often’ edited, — by Gerard Voss in 1604, by the Paris 
editors in 1662, by Gallandi in 1788, and others, who need not be enumerated here. 








I [See p. 5, supra. Cave pronounces it ‘‘ without precedent,” but seems to credit the story.] 

2 [So Gregory Nyssen says. It would have been impossible, otherwise, for him to rule his flock.] 

3 He could move the largest stones by a word; he could heal the sick; the demons were subject to him, and were exorcised by his 
fiat; he could give bounds to overflowing rivers; he could dry up mighty lakes; he could cast his cloak over a man, and cause his death: 
once, spending a night in a heathen temple, he banished its divinities by his simple presence, and by merely placing on the altar a piece of 
paper bearing the words, Gregory to Satan — enter, he could bring the presiding demons back to their shrine. One strange story told of 
him by Gregory of Nyssa is to the effect that, as Gregory was meditating on the great matter of the right way to worship the true God, 
suddenly two glorious personages made themselves manifest in his room, in the one of whom he recognised the Apostle John, in the other 
the Virgin. They had come, as the story goes, to solve the difficulties which were making him hesitate in accepting the bishopric, At 
Mary’s request, the evangelist gave him then all the instruction in doctrine which he was seeking for; and the sum of these supernatural 
communications being written down by him after the vision vanished, formed the creed which is still preserved among his writings. Such 
were the wonders believed to signalize the life of Gregory. 


PART I.— ACKNOWLEDGED WRITINGS. 


A DECLARATI 


ONES OF ah Aion 


THERE is one God, the Father of the living 
Word, who ts His subsistent Wisdom and Power 
and Eternal Image:? perfect Begetter of the 
perfect Begotten, Father of the only-begotten 
Son. There is one Lord, Only of the Only,3 
God of God, Image and Likeness of Deity, 
Efficient Word,# Wisdom comprehensive’ of 
the constitution of all things, and Power forma- 
tive® of the whole creation, true Son of true 
Father, Invisible of Invisible, and Incorruptible 
of Incorruptible, and Immortal of Immortal, 
and Eternal of Eternal? And there is One 
Holy Spirit, having His subsistence*® from God, 
and being made manifest 9 by the Son, to wit to 
men : 7° Image"! of the Son, Perfect /mage of the 
Perfect ; '* Life, the Cause of the living; Holy 


1 The title as it stands has this addition: ‘‘ which he had by reve- 
lation from the blessed John the evangelist, by the mediation of the 
Virgin Mary, Parent of God.”  Gallandi, Veterum Patrum Bz- 
bitoth., Venice, 1766, p. 385. [Elucidation, p. 8, zxfra.] 

2 xapaxrnpos aidiov. 

3 ovos ex movov, 

4 Adyos Evepyds. 

S mweprextixye 

6 rounttxy, 

7 aidios atdiov. 

8 Umapfiv, 

9 wedyvos. 

10 The words SnAady rots avOpiumors are suspected by some to be 
a gloss that has found its way into the text. 

II eixav, 

32 So John of Damascus uses the phrase, eixav rod Iarpds 6 
Yids, nat rod Yiod, rd Ivedua, the Son is the Image of the Father, 


Fount; Sanctity, the Supplier, 07 Leader, of 
Sanctification ; in whom is manifested God the 
Father, who is above all and in all, and God the 
Son, who is through all. There is a perfect 
Trinity, in glory and eternity and sovereignty, 
neither divided nor estranged." Wherefore there 
is nothing either created or in servitude '5 in the 
Trinity ;*© nor anything superinduced,’7 as if at 
some former period it was non-existent, and at 
some later period it was introduced. And thus 
neither was the Son ever wanting to the Father, 
nor the Spirit to the Son; * but without varia- 
tion and without change, the same Trinity abideth 
ever.*9 





and the Spirit is that of the Son, lib. 1, De fide orthod., ch. 13, vol. 
i. p. 151. See also Athanasius, Zfzst. 1 ad Serap.; Basil, ite v. 
contra Eunom.,; Cyril, Dial., 7, etc. 

13 xopnyds. 

, 14 amaddotptouvpévn. See also Gregory Nazianz., Orat., 37, p. 

15 SodAov, 

16 Gregory Nazianz., Orat., 40, p. 668, with reference apparently 
to our author, says: Ovdév rhs Tprddos SovAov, ovdé xtioTOv, ode 
émeigaxtov, nkovea Tov copav Tivos Aéyovtos —ln the Trtnit: 
there ts nothing etther tn servitude or created, or superinduced, 
as I heard one of the learned say. 

17 émeigaxrtov. 

18 In one codex we find the following addition here: ovre avéerat 
provas ‘eis dudda, ovde dvas eis tprada— Neither again does the 
unity grow into duality, nor the duality into trinity; or= Netther 
does the condition of the one grow into the condition of the two, 
nor that of the two into the condition of the three. 

19 [See valuable note and Greek text in Dr. Schaff’s History, 


vol. it. p. 799.] 


8 ELUCIDATION. 


RE ERR 





ELUCIDATION. 


Tue story of the “ Revelation” is of little consequence, though, if this were Gregory’s genu- 
ine work, it would be easy to account for it as originating in a beautiful dream. But it is very 
doubtful whether it be a genuine work ; and, to my mind, it is most fairly treated by Lardner, to 
whose elaborate chapter concerning Gregory every scholar must refer.‘ Dr. Burton, in his edi- 
tion of Bishop Bull’s works,? almost overrules that learned prelate’s inclination to think it genu- 
ine, in the following words: “ Hanc formulam minime esse Gregorii authenticam . . . multis 
haud spernendis argumentis demonstrat Lardner.” Lardner thinks it a fabrication of the fourth 
century. : 

Cave’s learned judgment is more favourable ; and he gives the text3 from Gregory of Nyssa, 
which he translates as follows: “There is one God, the Father of the living Word and of the 
subsisting Wisdom and Power, and of Him who is His Eternal Image, the perfect begetter of Him 
that is perfect, the Father of the only-begotten Son. There is one Lord, the only Son of the 
only Father, God of God, the character and image of the Godhead, the powerful Word, the com- 
prehensive Wisdom, by which all things were made, and the Power that gave being to the whole 
creation, the true Son of the true Father, the Invisible of the Invisible, the Incorruptible of the 
Incorruptible, the Immortal of the Immortal, and the Eternal of Him that is Eternal. There is 
one Holy Ghost, having its subsistence of God, which appeared through the Son to mankind, the 
perfect Image of the perfect Son, the Life-giving Life, the holy Fountain, the Sanctity, and 
the Author of sanctification, by whom God the Father is made manifest, who is over all, and in 
all; and God the Son, who is through all. A perfect Trinity, which neither in glory, eternity, or 
dominion is divided, or departed from itself.” 


8 Credibility, vol. ii. p. 635 2 Vol. v. p. 423. 3 Cave, Lives of the Fathers, vol. i. p. 402, ed. Oxford, 1840, 


TE epee 


A METAPHRASE OF THE BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES:! 





CHAP. I.? 


THESE words speaketh Solomon, the son of]. 
David the king and prophet, to the whole Church 
of God, a prince most honoured, and a prophet 
most wise above all men. How vain and fruit- 
less are the affairs of men, and all pursuits that 
occupy man! For there is not one who can tell 
of any profit attaching to those things which men 
who creep on earth strive by body and soul to 
attain to, in servitude all the while to what is 
transient, and undesirous of considering aught 
heavenly with the noble eye of the soul. And 
the life of men weareth away, as day by day, and 
in the periods of hours and years, and the deter- 
minate courses of the sun, some are ever coming, 
and others passing away. And the matter is like 
the transit of torrents as they fall into the meas- 
ureless deep of the sea with a mighty noise. And 
all things that have been constituted by God for 
the sake of men abide the same: as, for instance, 
that man is born of earth, and departs to earth 
again ; that the earth itself continues stable ; that 
the sun accomplishes its circuit about it perfectly, 
and rolls round to the same mark again; and 
that the winds in like manner, and the mighty 
rivers which flow into the sea, and the breezes 
that beat upon it, all act without forcing it to 
pass beyond its limits, and without themselves 
also violating their appointed laws. And these 
things, indeed, as bearing upon the good of this 
life of ours, are established thus fittingly. But 
those things which are of men’s devising, whether 
words or deeds, have no measure. And there is 
a plenteous multitude of words, but there is no 
profit from random and foolish talking. But the 
race of men is naturally insatiate in its thirst both 
for speaking and for hearing what is spoken ; and 
it is man’s habit, too, to desire to look with idle 
eyes on all that happens. What can occur after- 
wards, or what can be wrought by men which 
has not been done already? What new thing 





t Gallandi, Azblioth. Vet. Patr., iii. 387. 

2 [The wise benevolence of our author is more apparent than his 
critical skill. No book more likely to puzzle a pagan inquirer than 
this: so the metaphrase gives it meaning and consistency; but, over 
and over again, not Solomon’s meaning, I am persuaded. ] 

3 ra mvevpata, for which some propose pevpara, streams, as the 
dvewor are mentioned in their own place immediately. 








is there worthy of mention, of which there has 
never yet been experience? For I think there 
is nothing which one may call new, or which, 
on considering it, one shall discover to be strange 
or unknown to those of old. But as former things 
are buried in oblivion, so also things that are now 
subsistent will in the course of time vanish utterly 
from the knowledge of those who shall come 
after us. And I speak not these things unad- 
visedly, as acting now the preacher.* But all 
these things were carefully pondered by me when 
entrusted with the kingdom of the Hebrews in 
Jerusalem. And I examined diligently, and con- 
sidered discreetly, the nature of all that is on 
earth, and I perceived it to be most various ;5 
and I saw that to man it is given to labour upon 
earth, ever carried about by all different occasions 
of toil, and with no result of his work. And all 
things here below are full of the spirit of strange- 
ness and abomination, so that it is not possible 
for one to retrieve them now; nay, rather it is 
not possible for one at all to conceive what utter 
vanity © has taken possession of all human affairs. 
For once on a time I communed with myself, 
and thought that then I was wiser in this than 
all that were before me, and I was expert in 
understanding parables and the natures of things. 
But I learned that I gave myself to such pursuits 
to no purpose, and that if wisdom follows knowl- 
edge, so troubles attend on wisdom. 


CHAP. II. 


Judging, therefore, that it stood thus with this 
matter, I decided to turn to another manner of 
life, and to give myself to pleasure, and to take 
experience of various delights. And now I 
learned that all such things are vain ; and I put a 
check on laughter, when it ran on carelessly ; and 
restrained pleasure, according to the rule of mod- 
eration, and was bitterly wroth against it. And 
when I perceived that the soul is able to arrest the 
body in its disposition to intoxication and wine- 
bibbing, and that temperance makes lust its sub- 
ject, I sought earnestly to observe what object of 





© yuv éxxAnodgov. 
S rouxtAwratny. 
6 aronia, 


ae * be Fa, wy or ea 


a 
ae 


10 A METAPHRASE OF THE BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES, 





true worth and of real excellence is set before 
men, which they shall attain to in this present life. 
For I passed through all those other objects 
which are deemed worthiest, such as the erect- 
ing of lofty houses and the planting of vines, 
and in addition, the laying out of pleasure- 
grounds, and the acquisition and culture of all 
manner of fruit-bearing trees ; and among them 
also large reservoirs for the reception of water 
were constructed, and distributed so as to se- 
cure the plentiful irrigation of the trees. And I 
surrounded myself also with many domestics, 
both man-servants and maid-servants ; and some 
of them I procured from abroad, and others I 
possessed and employed as born in my own 
house. And herds of four-footed creatures, as 
well of cattle as of sheep, more numerous than 
any of those of old acquired, were made my 
property. And treasures of gold and silver flowed 
in upon me; and I made the kings of all na- 
tions my dependants and tributaries. And very 
many choirs of male and female singers were 
trained to yield me pleasure by the practice of 
all-harmonious song. And I had banquetings ; 
and for the service of this part of my pleasure, 
I got me select cup-bearers of both sexes beyond 
my reckoning, —so far did I surpass in these 
things those who reigned before me in Jerusa- 
lem. And thus it happened that the interests 
of wisdom declined with me, while the claims of 
evil appetency increased. For when I yielded 
myself to every allurement of the eyes, and to 
the violent passions of the heart, that make their 
attack from all quarters, and surrendered myself 
to the hopes held out by pleasures, I also made 
my will the bond-slave of all miserable delights. 
For thus my judgment was brought to such a 
wretched pass, that I thought these things good, 
and that it was proper for me to engage in them. 
At length, awaking and recovering my sight, I 
perceived that the things I had in hand were 
altogether sinful and very evil, and the deeds of 
a spirit not good. For now none of all the ob- 
jects of men’s choice seems to me worthy of 
approval, or greatly to be desired by a just mind. 
Wherefore, having pondered at once the advan- 
tages of wisdom and the ills of folly, I should 
with reason admire that man greatly, who, being 
borne on in a thoughtless course, and afterwards 
arresting himself, should return to right and 
duty. For wisdom and folly are widely sepa- 
rated, and they are as different from each other 
as day is from night. He, therefore, who makes 
choice of virtue, is like one who sees all things 
plainly, and looks upward, and who holdeth his 
ways in the time of clearest light. But he, on 
the other hand, who has involved himself in 
wickedness, is like a man who wanders helplessly 
about in a moonless night, as one who is blind, 
and deprived of the sight of things by his dark- 





ness. And when I considered the end of each 
of these modes of life, I found there was no 
profit in the latter ;? and by setting myself to be 
the companion of the foolish, I saw that I should 
receive the wages of folly. For what advan- 
tage is there in those thoughts, or what profit 
is there in the multitude of words, where the 
streams of foolish speaking are flowing, as it 
were, from the fountain of folly? Moreover, 
there is nothing common to the wise man and to 
the fool, neither as regards the memory of men, 
nor as regards the recompense of God. And 
as to all the affairs of men, when they are yet 
apparently but beginning to be, the end at once 
surprises them. Yet the wise man is never par- 
taker of the same end with the foolish. Then 
also did’ I hate all my life, that had been con- 
sumed in vanities, and which I had spent with a 
mind engrossed in earthly anxieties. For, to 
speak in brief, all my affairs have been wrought 
by me with labour and pain, as the efforts of 
thoughtless impulse ; and some other person, it 
may be a wise man or a fool, will succeed to 
them, I mean, the chill fruits of my toils. But 
when I cut myself off from these things, and 
cast them away, then did that real good which is 
set before man show itself to me, — namely, the 
knowledge of wisdom and the possession of 
manly virtues And if a man neglects these 
things, and is inflamed with the passion for 
other things, such a man makes choice of evil in- 
stead of good, and goes after what is bad instead 
of what is excellent, and after trouble instead 
of peace; for he is distracted by every man- 
ner of disturbance, and is burdened with con- 
tinual anxieties night and day, with oppressive 
labours of body as well as with ceaseless cares 
of mind,—his heart moving in constant agita- 

tion, by reason of the strange and senseless 
affairs that occupy him. For the perfect good 

does not consist in eating and drinking, although 

it is true that it is from God that their suste- 

nance cometh to men; for none of those things 

which are given for our maintenance subsist 

without His providence. But the good man 

who gets wisdom from God, gets also heavenly 

enjoyment; while, on the other hand, the evil 

man, smitten with ills divinely inflicted, and 

afflicted with the disease of lust, toils to amass 

much, and is quick to put him to shame who is 

honoured by God in presence of the Lord of all, 

proffering useless gifts, and making things deceit- 

ful and vain the pursuits of his own miserable 

soul. 





I The text is, rupAds Te OY THY mpdcoYKLY Kai Ud TOD GKOTOUS 
Tov Tpaypatwv apypyuévos, for which it is proposed to read, tupAos 
TE OY Kal THY TPdGoWLY Ud TOV TKOTOUS, etc. 

2 Or, as the Latin version puts it: And, in fine, when I consid- 
ered the difference between these modes of life, I found nothing but 
that, by setting myself, etc. 

3 avdpeias. 





s 


s 
. 
Fe 


ae an ty 


AY 


A METAPHRASE OF THE 


CHAP. IIL, 


For this present time is filled with all things 
that are most contrary’ to each other — births 
and deaths, the growth of plants and their up- 
rooting, cures and killings, the building up and 
the pulling down of houses, weeping and laugh- 
ing, mourning and dancing. At this moment a 
man gathers of earth’s products, and at another 
casts them away; and at one time he ardently 
desireth the beauty of woman, and at another 
he hateth it. Now he seeketh something, and 
again he loseth it; and now he keepeth, and 
again he casteth away; at one time he slayeth, 
and at another he is slain; he speaketh, and 
again he is silent; he loveth, and again he 
hateth. For the affairs of men are at one time in 
a condition of war, and at another in a condition 
of peace ; while their fortunes are so inconstant, 
that from bearing the semblance of good, they 
change quickly into acknowledged ills. Let us 
have done, therefore, with vain labours. For all 
these things, as appears to me, are set to mad- 
den men, as it were, with their poisoned stings. 
And the ungodly observer of the times and sea- 
sons is agape for this world,? exerting himself 
above measure to destroy the image 3 of God, as 
one who has chosen to contend against it+ from 
the beginning onward to the end.5 Iam per- 
suaded, therefore, that the greatest good for 
man is cheerfulness and well-doing, and that this 
shortlived enjoyment, which alone is possible to 
us, comes from God only, if righteousness direct 
our doings. But as to those everlasting and 
incorruptible things which God hath firmly es- 
tablished, it is not possible either to take aught 
from them or to add aught to them. And to 
men in general, those things, in sooth, are fear- 
ful and wonderful ;° and those things indeed 
which have been, abide so; and those which are 
to be, have already been, as regards His fore- 
knowledge. Moreover, the man who is injured 
has God as his helper. I saw in the lower parts 
the pit of punishment which receives the impi- 
ous, but a different place allotted for the pious. 
And I thought with myself, that with God all 
things are judged and determined to be equal ; 
that the righteous and the unrighteous, and 
objects with reason and without reason, are alike 
in His judgment. For that their time is meas- 
ured out equally to all, and death impends over 
them, and zz “zs the races of beasts and men 





! The text reads évavtuwtytwy, for which Codex Anglicus has 
EVAVTLWTATMV, 

2 Or, age. 

3 rAacha, 

4 Or, Him, 

5 The Greek text is, katpooxdmos 59 Tus movypds Tov aimva 
ToUTOV TEpLKeXnvev, ahavicat Urepduatervopevos To TOV @eor) 
mhaga, €€ apxys avT@ méxpt TEAOVS ToAEuELY Tipyucvos. 
well to notice how widely this differs from our version of iii, 11: 
hath made everything beautiful i in his time,” etc. 

6 The text is, @ Tive obv, GAA’ EoTuy, Exetva PoBepa TE OMov Kal 
OavuacoTa. 


“He 


It is | 








BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES. EY 


are alike in the judgment of God, and differ 
from each other only in the matter of articulate 
speech ; and all things else happen alike to 
them, and death receives all equally, not- more 
so in the case of the other kinds of creatures 
than in that of men. For they have all the 
same breath of 4fe, and men have nothing more ; 
but all are, in one word, vain, deriving their 
present condition’? from the same earth, and 
destined to perish, and return to the same earth 
again. For it is uncertain regarding the souls 
of men, whether they shall fly upwards; and 
regarding the others which the unreasoning crea- 
tures possess, whether they shall fall downward. 
And it seemed to me, that there is no other good 
save pleasure, and the enjoyment of things pres- 
ent. For I did not think it possible for a man, 
when once he has tasted death, to return again to 
the enjoyment of these things.® 


CHAP. IV. 


And leaving all these reflections, I considered 
and turned in aversion from all the forms of 
oppression 9 which are done among men ; whence 
some receiving injury weep and lament, who are 
struck down by violence in utter default of those 
who protect them, or who should by all means 
comfort them in their trouble.*? And the men 
who make might their right '* are exalted to an 
eminence, from which, however, they shall also 
fall. Yea, of the unrighteous and audacious, 
those who are dead fare better than those who 
are still alive. And better than both these is 
he who, being destined to be like them, has not 
yet come into being, since he has not yet touched 
the wickedness which prevails among men. And 
it became clear to me also how great is the envy 
which follows a man from his neighbours, like 
the sting of a wicked spirit; and Z saw that he 
who receives it, and takes it as it were into his 
breast, has nothing else but to eat his own heart, 
and tear it, and consume both soul and body, 
finding inconsolable vexation in the good fortune 
of others.'2 And a wise man would choose to 
have one of his hands full, if it were with ease 
and quietness, rather than both of them with 
travail and with the villany of a treacherous 
spirit. Moreover, there is yet another thing 
which I know to happen contrary to what is fit- 





7 ovoTacwv, 

8 [The key to the interpretation of this book, as to much of the 
book of Job, is found in the brief expostulation "of Jeremiah (chap. 
xii. 1), where he confesses his inability to comprehend the world and 
God’s ways therein, yet utters a profession of unshaken confidence 
in His goodness. Here Solomon, in monologue, gives vent to similar 
misgivings ; overruling all in the ‘wonderful ode with which the book 
concludes. I say Soomon, not unadvisedly. ] 

9 TuKOPavTLWr. 

Io The text is, Bia kataBeBAnuévor TOY érapuvervtwy a dAws 
ra oapvOnooucviwy avTovs Tacys TavTaxobev Katexovons amoptas, 
The sense is not clear. It may be: who are struck down in spite of 
those who protect them, and wie should by all means comfort them 
when all manner of trouble presses them on all sides. 

II yerpodixat, 

12 Following the reading of Cod. Medic., which puts teOéuevos for 
7LOeuevov, [See Cyprian, vol. v. p. 493, note 7, this series. | 


12 A METAPHRASE OF THE 


BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES. 


ee ac ana eae ae Vea EGER a aaa aa aT aha i ie im) 


ting, by reason of the evil will of man. He who 
is left entirely alone, having neither brother nor 
son, but prospered with large possessions, lives 
on in the spirit of insatiable avarice, and refuses 
to give himself in any way whatever to goodness. 
Gladly, therefore, would I ask such an one for 
what reason he labours thus, fleeing with head- 
long speed! from the doing of anything good, 
and distracted by the many various passions for 
making gain. Far better than such are those 
who have taken up an order of life in common, 
from which they may reap the best blessings. 
For when two men devote themselves in the 
right spirit to the same objects, though some 
mischance befalls the one, he has still at least 
no slight alleviation in having his companion by 
him. And the greatest of all calamities to a 
man in evil fortune is the want of a friend to 
help and cheer him.4 And those who live to- 
gether both double the good fortune that befalls 
them, and lessen the pressure of the storm of 
disagreeable events ; so that in the day they are 
distinguished for their frank confidence in each 
other, and in the night they appear notable for 
their cheerfulness. But he who leads a solitary 
life passes a species of existence full of terror to 
himself; not perceiving that if one should fall 
upon men welded closely together, he adopts a 
rash and perilous course, and that it is not easy 
to snap the threefold cord.© Moreover, I put a 
poor youth, if he be wise, before an aged prince 
devoid of wisdon, to whose thoughts it has never 
occured that it is possible that. a man may be 
raised from the prison to the throne, and that 
the very man who has exercised his power un- 
righteously shall at a later period be righteously 
cast out. Forit may happen that those who are 
subject to a youth, who is at the same time sen- 
sible, shall be free from trouble, — those, I 
mean, who are his elders.?7, Moreover, they who 
are born later cannot praise another, of whom 
they have had no experience,® and are led by an 
unreasoning judgment, and by the impulse of a 
contrary spirit. But in exercising the preacher’s 
office, keep thou this before thine eyes, that thine 
own life be rightly directed, and that thou prayest 
in behalf of the foolish, that they may get under- 
standing, and know how to shun the doings of 
the wicked. 





! mpotpomadny, 

2 xpnmaticacbat, 

3 xotwwviay aua Biov éotetAavTo, 

4 avaxtTynovomevov, 

$ The text is, Kat viKTwp ceprdrnte gepnvived@a, for which 
certain codices read genvornre patdpivecGat, and others pacdpdryrt 
oeuvuved@at, 
fi 6 Habe cites the passage in his Commentary on Ecclesiastes 

iv. 12]. 

7 {obs Ooor mpoyevéotepot, The sense is incomplete, and some 
words seem missing in the text. Jerome, in rendering this passage 
in his Commentary on Ecclesiastes, turns it thus: z#a autem ut sub 
sene rege versati stnt; either having lighted on a better manu- 
script, or adding something of his own authority to make out the 
meaning. 

% Sia Td érepou ametpaTws Exerr. 


CHAP. V. 


Moreover, it is a good thing to use the tongue 
sparingly, and to keep a calm and rightly bal- 
anced 9 heart in the exercise of speech.’° For it 
is not right to give utterance in words to things 
that are foolish and absurd, or to all that occur 
to the mind ; but we ought to know and reflect, 
that though we are far separated from heaven, 
we speak in the hearing of God, and that it is 
good for us to speak without offence. For as 
dreams and visions of many kinds attend mani- 
fold cares of mind, so also silly talking is con- 
joined with folly. Moreover, see to it, that a 
promise made with a vow be made good in fact. 
This, too, is proper to fools, that they are unrelia- 
ble. But be thou true to thy word, knowing that 
it is much better for thee not to vow or promise 
to do anything, than to vow and then fail of per- 
formance. And thou oughtest by all means to 
avoid the flood of base words, seeing that God 
will hear them. For the man who makes such 
things his.study gets no more benefit by them 
than to see his doings brought to nought by God. 
For,as the multitude of dreams is vain, so also 
the multitude of words. But the fear of God is 
man’s salvation, though it is rarely found. Where- 
fore thou oughtest not to wonder though thou 
seest the poor oppressed, and the judges misin- 
terpreting the law. But thou oughtest.to avoid 
the appearance of surpassing those who are in 
power. For even should this prove to be the 
case, yet, from the terrible ills that shall befall 
thee, wickedness of itself wiil not deliver thee. 
But even as property acquired by violence is a 
most hurtful as well as impious possession, so 
the man who lusteth after money never finds 
satisfaction for his passion, nor good-will from 
his neighbours, even though he may have amassed 
the greatest possible wealth. For this also is 
vanity. But goodness greatly rejoiceth those 
who hold by it, and makes them strong,"! impart- 
ing to them the capacity of seeing through ” all 
things. And it is a great matter also not to be 
engrossed by such anxieties: for the poor man, 
even should he be a slave, and unable to fill his 
belly plentifully, enjoys at least the kind refresh- 
ment of sleep ; but the lust of riches is attended 
by sleepless nights and anxieties of mind. And 
what could there be then more absurd, than with 
much anxiety and trouble to amass wealth, and 
keep it with jealous care, if all the while one is 
but maintaining the occasion of countless evils 
to himself? And this wealth, besides, must needs 
perish some time or other, and be lost, whether 
he who has acquired it has children or not; %3 
iand the man himself, however unwillingly, is 





9 evotaBovon. 

10 éy rH mept Adyous amovdy. 
Il avdpetous. 

12 xadopav, 

13 Job xx. 20. 





ps 


A METAPHRASE OF THE 





doomed to die, and return to earth in the self- 
same condition in which it was his lot once to 
come into being. And the fact that he is des- 
tined thus to leave earth with empty hands, will 
make the evil all the sorer to him, as he fails to 
consider that an end is appointed for his life sim- 
ilar to its beginning, and that he toils to no profit, 
and labours rather for the wind, as it were, than 
for the advancement of his own real interest, 
wasting his whole life in most unholy lusts and 
irrational passions, and withal in troubles and 
pains. And, to speak shortly, his days are dark- 
ness to such a man, and his life is sorrow. Yet 
this is in itself good, and by no means to be 
despised. For it is the gift of God, that a man 
should be able to reap with gladness of mind the 
fruits of his labours, receiving thus possessions 
bestowed by God, and not acquired by force. 
For neither is such a man afflicted with troubles, 
nor is he for the most part the slave of evil 
thoughts ; but he measures out his life by good 
deeds, being of good heart in all things, and 
rejoicing in the gift of God. 


CHAP. VI. 


Moreover, I shall exhibit in discourse the ill- 
fortune that most of all prevails among men. 
While God may supply a man with all that is 
according to his mind, and deprive him of no 
object which may in any manner appeal to his 
desires, whether it be wealth, or honour, or any 
other of those things for which men distract 
themselves ; yet the man, while thus prospered 
in all things, as though the only ill inflicted on 
him from heaven were just the inability to enjoy 
them, may but husband them for his fellow, and 
fall without profit either to himself or to his 
neighbours. This I reckon to be a strong proof 
and clear sign of surpassing evil. The man who 
has borne without blame the name of father of 
very many children, and spent a long life, and 
has not had his soul filled with good for so 
long time, and has had no experience of death 
meanwhile,‘ — this man I should not envy either 
his numerous offspring or his length of days; 
nay, I should say that the untimely birth that 
falls from a woman’s womb is better than he. 
For as that came in with vanity, so it also 
departeth secretly in oblivion, without having 
tasted the ills of life or looked on the sun.. And 
this is a lighter evil than for the wicked man not 
to know what is good, even though he measure 
his life by thousands of years.5 And the end of 


I Job i, ax; x Tim. vi. 7. 

2 apwaxtixa in the text, for which the Cod. Medic. has apraxra, 

3 evOupovpevos, 

4 @avarov meipay ov AaBwv, for which we must read probably 
@avarov, etc. 

5 The text gives, Hmep TH movnpe . . . dvapetpynoanevy ayabo- 
ryTa wy émyvy, for which we may read either yep to wovnpe . 


avapetpyoamevos .. . emeyvy, or better, . . . avauetpyoapery 
seo Cmyvavas, , 








BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES. 


A3 





both is death. The fool is proved above all 
things by his finding no satisfaction in any lust. 
But the discreet man is not held captive by these 
passions. Yet, for the most part, righteousness 
of life leads a man to poverty. And the sight 
of curious eyes deranges © many, inflaming their 
mind, and drawing them on to vain pursuits by 
the empty desire of show.? Moreover, the things 
which are now are known already; and it be- 
comes apparent that man is unable to contend 
with those that are above him. And, verily, 
inanities have their course among men, which 
only increase the folly of those who occupy 
themselves with them. 


CHAP, VII. 


For though a man should be by no means 
greatly advantaged by knowing all in this life 
that is destined to befall him according to his 
mind (let us suppose such a case), nevertheless 
with the officious activity of men he devises 
means for prying into and gaining an apparent 
acquaintance with the things that are to happen 
after a person’s death. Moreover, a good name 
is more pleasant to the mind§ than oil to the 
body ; and the end of life is better than the birth, 
and to mourn is more desirable than to revel, 
and to be with the sorrowing is better than to 
be with the drunken. For this is the fact, that 
he who comes to the end of life has no further 
care about aught around him. And discreet 
anger is to be preferred to laughter; for by the 
severe disposition of countenance the soul is 
kept upright.2 The souls of the wise, indeed, 
are sad and downcast, but those of fools are 
elated, and given loose to merriment. And yet 
it is far more desirable to receive blame from 
one wise man, than to become a hearer of a 
whole chorus of worthless and miserable men in 
their songs. For the laughter of fools is like 
the crackling of many thorns burning in a fierce 
fire. This, too, is misery, yea the greatest of 
evils, namely oppression ; '° for it intrigues against 
the souls of the wise, and attempts to ruin the 
noble way of life '' which the good pursue. More- 
over, it is right to commend not the man who 
begins, but the man who finishes a speech ; '? and 
what is moderate ought to approve itself to the 
mind, and not what is swollen and inflated. 
Again, one ought certainly to keep wrath in 
check, and not suffer himself to be carried rashly 
into anger, the slaves of which are fools. More- 
over, they are in error who assert that a better 


6 ekiarnor, 
7 rod opOjvat. 
Prov. xxii. 1. 
9 xatopSovTat, 
to Calumny, gvxofavtia, 
Il evotacuy. 
12 Ndywv dé, etc. But Cod. Medic. reads, Adyov Se, etc.,=it is 
right to commend a speech not in its beginning, but in its end. 


<6 


14 A METAPHRASE OF THE 





manner of life was given to those before us, and 
they fail to see that wisdom is widely different 
from mere abundance of possessions, and that 
it is as much more lustrous! than these, as silver 
shines more brightly than its shadow. For the 
life of man hath its excellence? not in the acqui- 
sition of perishable riches, but in wisdom. And 
who shall be able, tell me, to declare the provi- 
dence of God, which is so great and so benefi- 
cent? or who shall be able to recall the things 
which seem to have been passed by of God? 
And in the former days of my vanity I considered 
all things, and saw a righteous man continuing in 
his righteousness, and ceasing not from it until 
death, but even suffering injury by reason thereof, 
and a wicked man perishing with his wickedness. 
Moreover, it is proper that the righteous man 
should not seem to be so overmuch, nor exceed- 
ingly and above measure wise, that he may not, 
as in making some slip, seem /o sin many times 
over. And be not thou audacious and precipi- 
tate, lest an untimely death surprise thee. It is 
the greatest of all good to take hold of God, and 
by abiding in Him to sin in nothing. For to 
touch things undefiled with an impure hand is 
abomination. But he who in the fear of God 
submits himself,3 escapes all that is contrary. 
Wisdom availeth more in the way of help than a 
band of the most powerful men in a city, and it 
often also pardons righteously those who fail in 
duty. For there is not one that stumbleth not.‘ 
Also it becomes thee in no way to attend upon 
the words of the impious, that thou mayest not 
become an ear-witness 5 of words spoken against 
thyself, such as the foolish talk of a wicked ser- 
vant, and being thus stung in heart, have re- 
course afterwards thyself to cursing in turn in 
many actions. And all these things have I 
known, having received wisdom from God, which 
afterwards I lost, and was no longer able to be 
the same.® For wisdom fled from me to an 
infinite distance, and into a measureless deep, so 
that I could no longer get hold of it. Where- 
fore afterwards I abstained altogether from seek- 
ing it; and I no longer thought of considering 
the follies and the vain counsels of the impious, 
and their weary, distracted life. And being thus 
disposed, I was borne on to the things them- 


selves ; and being seized with a fatal passion, I: 


knew woman — that she is like a snare or some 
such other object.7__ For her heart ensnares those 
who pass her ; and if she but join hand to hand, 
she holds one as securely as though she dragged 





1 gavepwrépa, for which davorépa is proposed. 

2 mweprytyveTac, 

3 breixwy, 

4 x Kings viii, 46; 2 Chron, vi. 36; Prov. xx. 9; 1 Johni. 8, 

5 avtyKoos, 

© Guotos. 

7 The text is evidently corrupt: for thy yuvaixa, yqv Tuva, etc., 
Cotelerius proposes, Thy yuvaixa, cayryny twa, etc.; and Bengel, 
Tayny Tiva, etc. 








Wa ee a. Pail oe) 1 An 3 
. mo eke x 7 « 
fe 
F , ie 
‘ ¢ 


~ 


BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES. 





him on bound with chains. And from her 
you can secure your deliverance only by finding 
a propitious and watchful superintendent in 
God ;? for he who is enslaved by sin cannot 
(otherwise) escape its grasp. Moreover, among 
all women I sought for the chastity '° proper to 
them, and I found it in none. And verily a per- 
son may find one man chaste among a thousand, 
but a woman never." And this above all things 
I observed, that men being made by God sim- 
ple * in mind, contract "3 for themselves manifold 
reasonings and infinite questionings, and while 
professing to seek wisdom, waste their life in 
vain words. 


CHAP. VIII. 


Moreover, wisdom, when it is found in a man, 
shows itself also in its possessor’s face, and 
makes his countenance to shine; as, on the 
other hand, effrontery convicts the man in whom 
it has taken up its abode, so soon as he is seen, 
as one worthy of hatred. And it is on every ac- 
count right to give careful heed to the words of 
the king, and by all manner of means to avoid 
an oath, especially one taken in the name of 
God. It may be fit at the same time to notice 
an evil word, but then it is necessary to guard 
against any blasphemy against God. For it will 
not be possible to find fault with Him when He 
inflicts any penalty, nor to gainsay the decrees 
of the Only Lord and King. | But it will be bet- 
ter and more profitable fora man to abide by 
the holy commandments, and to keep himself 
apart from the words of the wicked. For the 
wise man knows and discerneth beforehand the 
judgment, which shall come at the right time, 
and sees that it shall be just. For all things in 
the life of men await the retribution from above ; 
but the wicked man does not seem to know 
verily ‘4 that as there is a mighty providence over 
him, nothing in the future shall be hid. He 
knoweth not indeed the things which shall be ; 
for no man shall be able to announce any one 
of them to him duly: for no one shall be found 
so strong as to be able to prevent the angel who 
spoils him of his life ; ‘5 neither shall any means be | 
devised for cancelling in any way the appointed 
time of death. But even as the man who is 
captured in the midst of the battle can only see 


8 karéxer 7 et. This use of % et is characteristic of Gregory 
Thaumaturgus. We find it again in his Pawegyr. ad Orig., ch. 6, 
H €i Kai Tapa wavtas, etc. It may be added, therefore, to the proofs 
in support of a common authorship for these two writings. 

9 énomtyy. 

10 gwibpoavvyny. 

11 {Our English version gives no such idea, nor does that of the 
LXX. The cwhpocvvy of our author is dzscretion, or perhaps 
entire balance of mind. Wordsworth gives us the thought better 
in his verse: ‘‘A perfect woman, nobly planned.” It was not in 
Judaism to give woman her place: the Magnzficat of the Virgin 
celebrated the restoration of her sex. 

12 Upright, a7Aot, 

13 émicT@vTas, 

14 Niavy. 

15 Wuxyr. 





A METAPHRASE OF THE 


— 


BOOK OF VECCLESIASTES. 15 





flight cut off on every side, so all the impiety of| be driving toward the same end, a certain sinis- 


man perisheth utterly together. And I am aston- 
ished, as often as I contemplate what and how 
great things men have studied to do for the hurt 
of their neighbours. But this I know, that the 
impious are snatched prematurely from this life, 
and put out of the way because they have given 
themselves to vanity. For whereas the providen- 
tial judgment! of God does not overtake all 
speedily, by reason of His great long-suffering, 
and the wicked is not punished immediately on 
the commission of his offences, — for this reason 
he thinks that he may sin the more, as though 
he were to get off with impunity, not understand- 
ing that the transgressor shall not escape the 
knowledge of God even after a long interval. 
This, moreover, is the chief good, to reverence 
God; for if once the impious man fall away 
from Him, he shall not be suffered long to mis- 


use his own folly. But a most vicious and false | 


opinion often prevails among men concerning 
both the righteous and the unrighteous. For 
they form a judgment contrary to truth regard- 
ing each of them; and the man who is really 
righteous does not get the credit of being so, 
while, on the other hand, the impious man is 
deemed prudent and upright. And this I judge 
to be among the most grievous of errors. Once, 


indeed, I thought that the chief good consisted | 
in eating and drinking, and that he was most | 


highly favoured of God who should enjoy these 
things to the utmost in his life; and I fancied 
that this kind of enjoyment was the only comfort 
in life. And, accordingly, I gave heed to noth- 
ing but to this conceit, so that neither by night 
nor by day did I withdraw myself from all those 
things which have ever been discovered to min- 
ister luxurious delights to men. And this much 
I learned thereby, that the man who mingles in 
these things shall by no means be able, however 
sorely he may labour with them, to find the real 
good. 
CHAP. IX. 


Now I thought at that time that all men were 
judged worthy of the same things. And if any 
wise man practised righteousness, and withdrew 
himself from unrighteousness, and as being saga- 
cious avoided hatred with all (which, indeed, is 
a thing well pleasing to God), this man seemed 
to me to labour in vain. For there seemed to be 
one end for the righteous and for the impious, 
for the good and for the evil, for the pure and 
for the impure, for him that worshipped? God, 
and for him that worshipped not. For as the 
unrighteous man and the good, the man who 
sweareth a false oath, and the man who avoids 
swearing altogether, were suspected by me to 


T mpdvota, 
2 (AacKopévoy, 


ter opinion stole secretly into my mind, that 
all men come to their end in a similar way. 
But now I know that these are the reflections of 
fools, and errors and deceits. And they assert 
largely, that he who is dead has perished utterly, 
and that the living is to be preferred to the 
dead, even though he may lie in darkness, and 
pass his life-journey after the fashion of a dog, 
which is better at least than a dead lion. For 
the living know this at any rate, that they are 
to die; but the dead know not anything, and 
there is no reward proposed to them after they 
have completed their necessary course. Also 
|hatred and love with the dead have their end ; 
for their envy has perished, and their life also 
is extinguished. And he has a portion in noth- 
ing who has once gone hence. Error harping 
still oh such a string, gives also such counsel 
as this: What meanest thou, O man, that thou 
dost not enjoy thyself delicately, and gorge thy- 
self with all manner of pleasant food, and fill 
thyself to the full with wine? Dost thou not 
perceive that these things are given us from God 
for our unrestrained enjoyment? Put on newly- 
washed attire, and anoint thy head with myrrh, 
and see this woman and that, and pass thy vain 
life vainly. For nothing else remaineth for thee 
but this, neither here nor after death. But avail 
thou thyself of all that chanceth; for neither 
shall any one take account of thee for these 
things, nor are the things that are done by men 
known at all outside the circle of men. And 
Hades, whatever that may he, whereunto we are 
said to depart, has neither wisdom nor under- 
|standing. These are the things which men of 
vanity speak. But I know assuredly, that neither 
| shall they who seem the swiftest accomplish that 
great race; nor shall those who are esteemed 
mighty and terrible in the judgment of men, 
overcome in that terrible battle. Neither, again, 
is prudence proved by abundance of bread, nor 
is understanding wont to consort with riches. 
Nor do I congratulate those who think that all 
shall find the same things befall them. But cer- 
tainly those who indulge such thoughts seem to 
me to be asleep, and to fail to consider that, 
caught suddenly like fishes and birds, they will 
be consumed with woes, and meet speedily their 
proper retribution. Also I estimate wisdom at 
so high a price, that I should deem a small and 
poorly-peopled city, even though besieged also 
by a mighty king with his forces, to be indeed 
great and powerful, if it had but one wise man, 
however poor, among its citizens. For such a 
man would be able to deliver his city both from 
enemies and from entrenchments. And other 
men, it may be, do not recognise that wise man, 











3 The text gives, caxeivny 5€ pataiws, etc, 


16 A METAPHRASE OF THE 


BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES. 





poor as he is; but for my part I greatly prefer 
the power that resides in wisdom, to this might 
of the mere multitude of the people. Here, 
however, wisdom, as it dwells with poverty, is 
held in dishonour. But hereafter it shall be 
heard speaking with more authoritative voice 
than princes and despots who seek after things 
evil. For wisdom is also stronger than iron; 
while the folly of one individual works danger 
for many, even though he be an object of con- 
tempt to many.* 
CHAP. X. 


Moreover, flies falling into myrrh, and suffo- 
cated therein, make both the appearance of that 
pleasant ointment and the anointing therewith 
an unseemly thing ;? and to be mindful of wis- 
dom and of folly together is in no way proper. 
The wise man, indeed, is his own leader to right 
actions ; but the fool inclines to erring courses, 
and will never make his folly available as a guide 
to what is noble. Yea, his thoughts also are 
vain and full of folly. But if ever a hostile spirit 
fall upon thee, my friend, withstand it coura- 
geously, knowing that God is able to propitiate 3 
even a mighty multitude of offences. These 
aiso are the deeds of the prince and father of all 
wickedness: that the fool is set on high, while 
the man richly gifted with wisdom is humbled ; 
and that the slaves of sin are seen riding on 
horseback, while men dedicated to God walk on 
foot in dishonour, the wicked exulting the while. 
But if any one devises another’s hurt, he forgets 
that he is preparing a snare for himself first and 
alone. And he who wrecks another’s safety, 
shatl fall by the bite of a serpent. But he who 
removeth stones, indeed shall undergo no light 
labour ;+ and he who cleaveth wood shall bear 
danger with him in his own weapon. And if it 
chance that the axe spring out of the handle,5 he 
who engages in such work shall be put to trou- 
ble, gathering for no good ® and having to put to 
more of his iniquitous and shortlived strength.? 
The bite of a serpent, again, is stealthy; and 
the charmers will not soothe the pain, for they 
are vain. But the good man doeth good works 
for himself and for his neighbours alike ; while 
the fool shall sink into destruction through his 
folly. And when he has once opened his mouth, 
he begins foolishly and soon comes to an end, 
exhibiting his senselessness in all. Moreover, it 
is impossible for man to know anything, or to 
Jearn from man either what has been from the 





3 cay wodAgis xatadpdvytos 3 so the Cod. Bodleian. and the 
Cod. Medic. read. But others read woAv = an object of great con- 
tempt. For xatadpévntos the Cod, Medic. reads evxarabpovnros, 

2 The text gives xpiosv, for which Cod, Medic. reads xpqouw, 


3 jAdcacOa, 

4 Reading aAAa prjy for aAAG ny}, 

$ oredaov, for which others read oreAdxous, 

© ovk én’ bya cvyKopicwr. 

Y éwavfwy aires Thy davTed déicoy Kal Oxvnopor Sivaysp. 








For 


beginning, or what shall be in the future. 
who shall be the declarer thereof? Besides, the 
man who knows not to go to the good city, sus- 
tains evil in the eyes and in the whole counte- 


nance. And I prophesy woes to that city the 
king of which is a youth, and its rulers gluttons. 
But I call the good land blessed, the king of 
which is the son of the free: there those who 
are entrusted with the power of ruling shall reap 
what is good in due season. But the sluggard 
and the idler become scoffers, and make the 
house decay; and misusing all things for the 
purposes of their own gluttony, like the ready 
slaves of money,’ for a small price they are con- 
tent to do all that is base and abject. It is also 
right to obey kings and rulers or potentates, and 
not to be bitter against them, nor to utter any 
offensive word against them. For there is ever 
the risk that what has been spoken in secret may 
somehow become public. For swift and winged 
messengers convey all things to Him who alone 
is King both rich and mighty, discharging there- 
in a service which is at once spiritual and rea- 
sonable. 


CHAP. XI. 


Moreover, it is a righteous thing to give (to 
the needy) of thy bread, and of those things 
which are necessary for the support of man’s life. 
For though thou seemest forthwith to waste it 
upon some persons, as if thou didst cast thy 
bread upon the water, yet in the progress of 
time thy kindness shall be seen to be not un- 
profitable for thee. Also give liberally, and give 
a portion of thy means to many; for thou know- 
est not what the coming day doeth. The clouds, 
again, do not keep back their plenteous rains, 
but discharge their showers upon the earth. Nor 
does a tree stand for ever; but even though men 
may spare it, it shall be overturned by the wind 
at any rate. But many desire also to know 
beforehand what is to come from the heavens ; 
and there have been those who, scrutinizing the 
clouds and waiting for the wind, have had nought 
to do with reaping and winnowing, putting their 
trust in vanity, and being all incapable of know- 
ing aught of what may come from God in the 
future ; just as men cannot tell what the woman 
with child shall bring forth. But sow thou in 
season, and thus reap thy fruits whenever the 
time for that comes on. For it is not manifest 
what shall be better than those among all natural 
things.° Would, indeed, that all things turned 
out well! Truly, when a man considers with 
himself that the sun is good, and that this life 
is sweet, and that it is a pleasant thing to have 
many years wherein one can delight himself 


8 apyupiw aywyrpor, 
9 Orota av’Tayv éorat auetvw Toy duvévtwy, perhaps = which of 
those natural productions shall be the better. 


25 Ae al 


A METAPHRASE OF THE 


BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES, 17 





continually, and that death is a terror and an 
endless evil, and a thing that brings us to nought, 
he thinks that he ought to enjoy himself in all 
the present and apparent pleasures of life. And 
he gives this counsel also to the young, that they 
should use to the uttermost ' the season of their 
youth, by giving up their minds to all manner of 
pleasure, and indulge their passions, and do all 
that seemeth good in their own eyes, and look 
upon that which delighteth, and avert themselves 
from that which is not so. But to such a man I 
shall say this much: Senseless art thou, my 
friend, in that thou dost not look for the judg- 
ment that shall come from God upon all these 
things. And profligacy and licentiousness are 
evil, and the filthy wantonness of our bodies 
carries death in it, For folly attends on youth, 
and folly leads to destruction. 


CHAP. XII. 


Moreover, it is right that thou shouldest fear 
God while thou art yet young, before thou givest 
thyself over to evil things, and before the great 
and terrible day of God cometh, when the sun 
shall no longer shine, neither the moon, nor the 
rest of the stars, but when in that storm and 
commotion of all things, the powers above shall 
be moved, that is, the angels who guard the 
world ; so that the mighty men shall fail, and 
the women shall cease their labours, and shall 
flee into the dark places of their dwellings, and 
shall have all the doors shut. And a woman shall 
be restrained from grinding by fear, and shall 
speak with the weakest voice, like the tiniest 
bird ; and all the impure women shall sink into 
the earth; and cities and their blood-stained 
governments shall wait for the vengeance that 
comes from above, while the most bitter and 
bloody of all times hangs over them like a blos- 
soming almond, and continuous punishments 
impend like a multitude of flying locusts, and 
the transgressors are cast out of the way like a 
black and despicable caper-plant. And the good 
man shall depart with rejoicing to his own ever- 
lasting habitation ; but the vile shall fill all their 
places with wailing, and neither silver laid up in 
store, nor proved gold, shall be of use any more. 
For a mighty stroke? shall fall upon all things, 
even to the pitcher that standeth by the well, 
and the wheel of the vessel which may chance to 


1 xaraxpyaba, t 
2 wabégee mAnyy. CEcolampadius renders it, magnus enim fons, 
evidently reading mny%. 








have been left in the hollow, when the course of 
time comes to its end3 and the ablution-bearing 
period of a life that is like water has passed away.+ 
And for men who lie on earth there is but one 
salvation, that their souls acknowledge and wing 
their way to Him by whom they have been made. 
I say, then, again what I have said already, that 
man’s estate is altogether vain, and that nothing 
can exceed the utter vanity which attaches to 
the objects of man’s inventions. And superflu- 
ous is my labour in preaching discreetly, inas- 
much as I am attempting to instruct a people 
here, so indisposed to receive either teaching or 
healing. And truly the noble man is needed 
for the understanding of the words of wisdom. 
Moreover, I, though already aged, and having 
passed a long life, laboured to find out those 
things which are well-pleasing to God, by means 
of the mysteries of the truth. And I know that 
the mind is no less quickened and stimulated by 
the precepts of the wise, than the body is wont 
to be when the goad is applied, or a nail is fast- 
ened in it.5 And some will render again those 
wise lessons which they have received from one 
good pastor and teacher, as if all with one mouth 
and in mutual concord set forth in larger detail 
the truths committed to them. But in many 
words there is no profit. Neither do I counsel 
thee, my friend, to write down vain things about 
what is fitting,° from which there in nothing to 
be gained but weary labour. But, in fine, I shall 
require to use some such conclusion as this: O 
men, behold, I charge you now expressly and 
shortly, that ye fear God, who is at once the 
Lord and the Overseer? of all, and that ye keep 
also His commandments; and that ye believe 
that all shall be judged severally in the future, 
and that every man shall receive the just recom- 
pense for his deeds, whether they be good or 
whether they be evil.° 


3 The text is, €v T@ KorAwpate Tavoapyevys xpdvoy Te mep.dpo- 
“Hs, for which we may read, €v T@ Kordmatt, maveaperns xpdvwr 
te meptdpouys, Others apparently propose for ravoaperis, defape- 
vis =at the hollow of the cistern. 

4 The text is, cai Ths 60 vdaTos Cwis mapodevcarvtos Tov AovTpo- 
$opov aiwvos, Billius understands the age to be called Aovtpoddpov, 
because, as long as we are in life. it is possible to obtain remission 
for any sin, or as referring to the rite of baptism. 

5 nAw emmepovnOevta, The Septuagint reads, Adyot copay ws Ta 
Bovxevtpa Kai ws HAot mehuTevpevor, like nails planted, etc. Others 
won nenupwpmevot, ignztz, The Vulg. has, guast clavi in altum 

efixt, 

& mepi to mpoajKov, for which some read, rapa Td mpocjxKor, 
beyond or contrary to what is fitting. 

7 émrontns. 

8 [The incomparable beauty of our English version of this twelfth 
chapter of Kohe/eth is heightened not a little by comparison with 
this turgid metaphrase. It fails, in almost every instance, to extract 
the kernel of the successive otixot of this superlatively poetic and 
didactic threnode. It must have been a youthful work. ] 


CANONICAL EPISTLE: 


CANON I. 


THE meats are no burden to us, most holy 
father,? if the captives ate things which their 
conquerors set before them, especially since 
there is one report from all, viz., that the barba- 
rians who have made inroads into our parts have 
not sacrificed to idols. For the apostle says, 
“Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: 
but God shall destroy both it and them.”3 But 
the Saviour also, who cleanseth all meats, says, 
“Not that which goeth into a man defileth the 
man, but that which cometh out.”4 And this 
meets the case of the captive women defiled by 
the barbarians, who outraged their bodies. But 
if the previous life of any such person convicted 
him of going, as it is written, after the eyes of 
fornicators, the habit of fornication evidently be- 
comes an object of suspicion also in the time of 
captivity. And one ought not readily to have 
communion with such women in prayers. If 
any one, however, has lived in the utmost chas- 
tity, and has shown in time past a manner of 
life pure and free from all suspicion, and now 
falls into wantonness through force of necessity, 
we have an example for our guidance, — namely, 
the instance of the damsel in Deuteronomy, 
whom a man finds in the field, and forces her, 
and lies with her. ‘“ Unto the damsel,” he says, 
“ye shall do nothing; there is in the damsel no 
sin worthy of death: for as when a man riseth 
against his neighbour, and slayeth him, even so 
is this matter: the damsel cried, and there was 
none to help her.’’5 


CANON I. 


Covetousness is a great evil; and it is not 
possible in a single letter to set forth those scrip- 


—— 





1 Of the holy Gregory, archbishop of Neo-Czsareia, surnamed 
Thaumaturgus, concerning those who, in the inroad of the barbari- 
ans, ace things sacrificed to idols, or offended in certain other matters, 
Gallandi, iii. p. 400. [Written a.p. 258 or 262.] There are scholia 
in Latin by Theodorus Balsamon and Joannes Zonaras on these 
canons. The note of the former on the last canon may be cited: — 
The present saint has defined shortly five several positions for the pen- 
itent; but he has not indicated either the times appointed for their 
exercise, or the sins for which discipline is determined. Basil the 
Great, again, has handed down to us an accurate account of these 
things in his canonical epistles. [Elucidation II.] Yet he, too, has 
referred to episcopal decision the matter of recovery through penalties 
[i.e., to the decision of his comprovincial bishops, as in Cyprian’s 
example. See vol. v. p. 415, Elucidation XIII.; also Elucidation I, 
p. 20, zufra. 

2 [Elucidation III. p. 20.] 

3 x Cor. vi. 13. 

4 Matt. xv. rx. 

5 Deut. xxii, 26, 27. 


18 





tures in which not robbery alone is declared to 
be a thing horrible and to be abhorred, but in 
general the grasping mind, and the disposition 
to meddle with what belongs to others, in order 
to satisfy the sordid love of gain. And all per- 
sons of that spirit are excommunicated from 
the Church of God. But that at the time of the 
irruption, in the midst of such woful sorrows 
and bitter lamentations, some should have been 
audacious enough to consider’ the crisis which 
brought destruction to all the very period for 
their own private aggrandizement, that is a thing 
which can be averred only of men who are im- 
pious and hated of God, and of unsurpassable 
iniquity. Wherefore it seemed good to excom- 
municate such persons, lest the wrath (of God) 
should come upon the whole people, and upon 
those first of all who are set over them in office, 
and yet fail to make inquiry. For I am afraid, 
as the Scripture says, lest the impious work the 
destruction of the righteous along with his own.°® 
“For fornication,” it says,7 “‘and covetousness 
are things on account of which the wrath of God 
cometh upon the children of disobedience. Be 
not ye therefore partakers with them. For ye 
were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light 
in the Lord: walk as children of light (for the 
fruit of the light* is in all goodness, and right- 
eousness, and truth), proving what is acceptable 

unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with 

the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather re- 

prove them ; for it is a shame even to speak of 

those things which are done of them in secret. 

But all things that are reproved are made mani- 

fest by the light.” In this wise speaks the apos- 

tle. But if certain parties who pay the proper 

penalty for that former covetousness of theirs, 

which exhibited itself in the time of peace, now 

turn aside again to the indulgence of coveteous- 

ness in the very time of trouble (i.e., in the 

troubles of the inroads by the barbarians), and 

make gain out of the blood and ruin of men 

who have been utterly despoiled, or taken cap- 

tive, (or) put to death, what else ought to be 

expected, than that those who struggle so hotly 

for covetousness should heap up wrath both for 

themselves and for the whole people ? 





© Gen. xviii. 23, 25. 
7 Eph. v. 5-13. 
8 rod hwrtos for the received mvevmatos, 


CANONICAL EPISTLE. 


19 





CANON IIL. 


Behold, did not Achar! the son of Zara trans- 
gress in the accursed thing, and trouble then 
lighted on all the congregation of Israel? And 
this one man was alone in his sin; but he was 
not alone in the death that came by his sin. 
And by us, too, everything of a gainful kind at 
this time, which is ours not in our own rightful 
possession, but as property strictly belonging to 
others, ought to be reckoned a thing devoted. 
For that Achar indeed took of the spoil; and 
those men of the present time take also of the 
spoil. But he took what belonged to enemies ; 
while these now take what belongs to brethren, 
and aggrandize themselves with fatal gains. 


CANON 


Let no one deceive himself, nor put forward 
the pretext of having found such property. For 
it is not lawful, even fora man who has found 
anything, to aggrandize himself by it. For Deu- 
teronomy says: “Thou shalt not see thy broth- 
er’s ox or his sheep go astray in the way, and 
pay no heed to them ; but thou shalt in any wise 
bring them again unto thy brother. And if thy 
brother come not nigh thee, or if thou know 
him not, then thou shalt bring them together, 
and they shall be with thee until thy brother 
seek after them, and thou shalt restore them to 
him again. And in like manner shalt thou do 
with his ass, and so shalt thou do with his rai- 
ment, and so shalt thou do with all lost things of 
thy brother’s, which he hath lost, and thou may- 
est find.” ? 
in the book of Exodus it is said, with reference 
not only to the case of finding what is a friend’s, 
but also of finding what is an enemy’s: ‘Thou 
shalt surely bring them back to the house of 
their master again.” 3 And if it is not lawful to 
aggrandize oneself at the expense of another, 
whether he be brother or enemy, even in the 
time of peace, when he is living at his ease and 
delicately, and without concern as to his prop- 
erty, how much more must it be the case when 
one is met by adversity, and is fleeing from his 
enemies, and has had to abandon his posses- 
sions by force of circumstances ! 


IV. 


CANON V. 


But others deceive themselves by fancying 
that they can retain the property of others 
which they may have found as an equivalent for 
their own property which they have lost. In 
this way verily, just as the Boradi and Goths 
brought the havoc of war on them, they make 
themselves Boradi and Goths to others. Accord- 
ingly we have sent to you our brother and com- 


1 pea. vii. 
2 Deut, xxii, 1-3. 
3 Ex, xxiii. 4. 


Thus much in Deuteronomy. And} 








rade in old age, Euphrosynus, with this view, 
that he may deal with you in accordance with 
our model here, and teach you against whom 
you ought to admit accusations,t and whom you 
ought to exclude from your prayers. 


CANON VI.5 


Moreover, it has been reported to us that a 
thing has happened in your country which is 
surely incredible, and which, if done at all, is 
altogether the work of unbelievers, and impious 
men, and men who know not the very name of 
the Lord ; to wit, that some have gone to such 
a pitch of cruelty and inhumanity, as to be de- 
taining by force certain captives who have made 
their escape. Dispatch ye commissioners into 
the country, lest the thunderbolts of heaven fall 
all too surely upon those who perpetrate such 
deeds. 

CANON vil.° 


Now, as regards those who have been enrolled 
among the barbarians, and have accompanied 
them in their irruption in a state of captivity, 
and who, forgetting that they were from Pontus, 
and Christians, have become such thorough bar- 
barians, as even to put those of their own race 
to death by the gibbet 7 or strangulation, and to 
show their roads or houses to the barbarians, 
who else would have been ignorant of them, it 
is necessary for you to debar such persons even 
from being auditors in the public congregations,§ 
until some common decision about them is come 
to by the saints assembled in council, and by 
the Holy Spirit antecedently to them. 


CANON VIII.? 


Now those who have been so audacious as to 
invade the houses of others, if they have once 
been put on their trial and convicted, ought not 
to be deemed fit even to be hearers in the pub- 
lic congregation. But if they have declared 
themselves and made restitution, they should 
be placed in the rank of the repentant.'° 


CANON IX.** 


Now, those who have found in the open field 
or in their own houses anything left behind them 
by the barbarians, if they have once been put 
on their trial and convicted, ought to fall under 
the same class of the repentant. But if they 





4 bv det Tas KaTnyoplas mpogiedGat. 
5 Concerning those who forcibly detain captives escaped from the 
barbarians. 

Concerning those who have been enrolled among the barbarians, 
and who have dared to do certain monstrous things against those of 
the same race with themselves. 

7 Evdw. 

8 akpoagews, 

9 Concerning those who have been so audacious as to invade the 
houses of others in the inroad of the barbarians. 

10 toy VTogTpebovTwr, 

11 Concerning those who have found in the open field or in private 
houses property left behind them by the barbarians, 


20 


ELUCIDATIONS. 





have declared themselves and made restitution, 
they ought to be deemed fit for the privilege of 
prayer.! 

CANON X. 

And they who keep the commandment ought 
to keep it without any sordid covetousness, de- 
manding neither recompense,? nor reward,3 nor 
fee,s nor anything else that bears the name of 


acknowledgment. 
CANON XI.5 


Weeping ® takes place without the gate of the 
oratory ; and the offender standing there ought 





1 [Partially elucidated below in (the spurious) Canon XI, See 
Marshall’s Penztential Discipline of the Primitive Church.] 

2 pxvvtpa, the price of information. 

3 gworpa, the reward for bringing back a runaway slave. 

4 edpetpa, the reward of discovery. iy i 

$ [This canon is rejected as spurious. Lardner, Credzé., ii. p. 


3. Ras 
6 mpdckAavors, discipline, 





to implore the faithful as they enter to offer up 
prayer on his behalf. Waiting on the word,’ 
again, takes place within the gate in the porch,® 
where the offender ought to stand until the cate- 
chumens depart, and thereafter he should go 


forth. For let him hear the Scriptures and 
doctrine, it is said, and then be put forth, and 
reckoned unfit for the privilege of prayer. Sub- 
mission,? again, is that one stand within the gate 
of the temple, and go forth along with the cate- 
chumens. Restoration '° is that one be associated 
with the faithful, and go not forth with the cate- 
chumens ; and last of all comes the participa- 
tion in the holy ordinances." 





7 axpdacts, 

8 év TH vapOnkt, 
9 Undmtwots, 
10 guatacts. 

1 aytacpatwr, 


ELUCIDATIONS, 


I. 
(The title, p. 18.) 


Tuis is a genuine epistle, all but the eleventh canon. It is addressed to an anonymous bishop ; 
one of his suffragans, some think. I suppose, rather, he consults, as Cyprian did, the bishop of 
the nearest Apostolic See, and awaits his concurrence. It refers to the ravages of the Goths 
in the days of Gallienus (A.D. 259-267), and proves the care of the Church to maintain discipline, 
even in times most unfavourable to order and piety. The last canon is an explanatory addition 
made to elucidate the four degrees or classes of penitents. It is a very interesting document 
in this respect, and sheds light on the famous canonical epistles of St. Basil. 


104, 
(Basil the Great, p, 18, note.) 


The “ Canonical Epistles” of St. Basil are not private letters, but canons of the churches with 
which he was nearest related. When there was no art of printing, the chief bishops were 
obliged to communicate with suffragans, and with their brethren in the Apostolic See nearest to 
them. See them expounded at large in Dupin, Ecclesiastical Writers of the Fourth Century, 
Works, vol. i., London, 1693 (translated), p. 139, etc. 


III. 
(Most holy father, p, 18.) 


This expression leads me to think that this epistle is addressed to the Bishop of Antioch or 
of some other Apostolic See. It must not be taken as a prescribed formula, however, as when we 
say “ Most Reverend” in our days; e.g., addressing the Archbishop of Canterbury. Rather, it is 
an expression of personal reverence. As yet, titular distinctions, such as these, were not known. 
In the West existing usages seem to have been introduced with the Carlovingian system of dign’ 
ties, expounded by Gibbon. 


a 


THE ORATION 


AND PANEGYRIC ADDRESSED 


TO ORIGEN.' 


ARGUMENT I.—FOR EIGHT YEARS GREGORY HAS 
GIVEN UP THE PRACTICE OF ORATORY, BEING 
BUSIED WITH THE STUDY CHIEFLY OF ROMAN 
LAW AND THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 


Aw excellent? thing has silence proved. itself 
in many another person on many an occasion, 
and at present it befits myself, too, most espe- 
cially, who with or without purpose may keep 
the door of my lips, and feel constrained to be 
silent. For I am unpractised and unskilled 3 in 
those beautiful and elegant addresses which are 
spoken or composed ina regular and unbroken 4 
train, in select and well-chosen phrases and 
words ; and it may be that I am less apt by 
nature to cultivate successfully this graceful and 
truly Grecian art. Besides, it is now eight years 
since I chanced myself to utter or compose any 
speech, whether long or short; neither in that 
period have I heard any other compose or utter 
anything in private, or deliver in public any lau- 
datory or controversial orations, with the excep- 
tion of those admirable men who have embraced 
the noble study of philosophy, and who care less 
for beauty of language and elegance of expres- 
sion. For, attaching only a secondary impor- 
tance to the words, they aim, with all exactness, 
at investigating and making known the things 
themselves, precisely as they are severally con- 
stituted. Not indeed, in my opinion, that they 
do not desire, but rather that they do greatly 
desire, to clothe the noble and accurate results 
of their thinking in noble and comely 5 language. 
Yet it may be that they are not able so lightly to 
put forth this sacred and godlike power (faculty) 
in the exercise of its own proper conceptions, 
and at the same time to practise a mode of dis- 
course eloquent in its terms, and thus to com- 
prehend in one and the same mind — and that, 


! Delivered by Gregory Thaumaturgus in the Palestinian Czsareia, 
when about to leave for his own country, after many years’ instruction 
under that teacher. [Circa A.D. 238.] Gallandi, Ofera, >. 413. 

2 xadodv, for which Heeschelius has tyadov, 

3 ametpos, for which Hoeschelius has avacnnrtos. 

4 axwdAvry, for which Bengel suggests dxoAov0y. 

5 evecde:, for which Ger. Vousius gives awevder. 





too, this little mind of man — two accomplish- 
ments, which are the gifts of two distinct per- 
sons, and which are, in truth, most contrary to 
each other. For silence is indeed the friend and 
helpmeet of thought and invention. But if one 
aims at readiness of speech and beauty of dis- 
course, he will get at them by no other disci- 
pline than the study of words, and their constant 
practice. Moreover, another branch of learning 
occupies my mind completely, and the mouth 
binds the tongue if I should desire to make any 
speech, however brief, with the voice of the 
Greeks ; I refer to those admirable laws of our 
sages © by which the affairs of all the subjects of 
the Roman Empire are now directed, and which 
are neither composed 7 nor learnt without diffi- 
culty. And these are wise and exact® in them- 
selves, and manifold and admirable, and, in a 
word, most thoroughly Grecian; and they are 
expressed and committed to us in the Roman 
tongue, which is a wonderful and magnificent 
sort of language, and one very aptly conform- 
able to royal authority,? but still difficult to me. 
Nor could it be otherwise with me, even though 
I might say that it was my desire that it should 
be.’ And as our words are nothing else than a 
kind of imagery of the dispositions of our mind, 
we should allow those who have the gift of 
speech, like some good artists alike skilled to 
the utmost in their art and liberally furnished in 
the matter of colours, to possess the liberty of 
painting their word-pictures, not simply of a 
uniform complexion, but also of various descrip- 
tions and of richest beauty in the abundant mix- 
ture of flowers, without let or hindrance. 





6 [See my introductory note, sugrva. He refers to Caius, Pa- 
pinian, Ulpian; all, probably, of Syrian origin, and using the Greek 
as their vernacular. ] 

7 ovykeiuevor, which is rendered by some conduntur, by others 
confecte sxnt, and by others still componantur, harmonized, — the 
reference then being to the difficulty experienced in learning the laws, 
in the way of harmonizing those which apparently oppose each other. 

8 axpiBecs, for which Ger. Vossius gives evoeBeis, pious. 

9 [A noteworthy estimate of Latin by a Greek. ] 

10 €i kai BovAnror, etc., for which Heeschelius gives ovre BovAnror, 
etc. The Latin version gives, non eniit aliter sentire aut posse 
aut velle me unguam dixerim. 


ar 


22 


ORATION AND PANEGYRIC ADDRESSED TO ORIGEN. 








ARGUMENT II.—HE ESSAYS TO SPEAK OF THE 
WELL-NIGH DIVINE ENDOWMENTS OF ORIGEN IN 
HIS PRESENCE, INTO WHOSE HANDS HE AVOWS 
HIMSELF TO HAVE BEEN LED IN A WAY BEYOND 
ALL HIS EXPECTATION, 


But we, like any ‘of the poor, unfurnished 
with these varied specifics ‘— whether as never 
having been possessed of them, or, it may be, 
as having lost them —are under the necessity 
of using, as it were, only charcoal and tiles, that 
is to say, those rude and common words and 
phrases ; and by means of these, to the best of 
our ability, we represent the native dispositions 
of our mind, expressing them in such language 
as is at our service, and endeavouring to exhibit 
the impressions of the figures? of our mind, if 
not clearly or ornately, yet at least with the faith- 
fulness of a charcoal picture, welcoming gladly 
any graceful and eloquent expression which may 
present itself from any quarter, although we make 
little of such.3 But, furthermore,‘ there is a third 
circumstance which hinders and dissuades me 
from this attempt, and which holds me back 
much more even than the others, and recom- 
mends me to keep silence by all means, —I 
allude to the subject itself, which made me in- 
deed ambitious to speak of it, but which now 
makes me draw back and delay. For it is my 
purpose to speak of one who has indeed the 
semblance and repute of being a man, but who 
seems, to those who are able to contemplate the 
greatness of his intellectual calibre,5 to be en- 
dowed with powers nobler and well-nigh divine.® 
And it is not his birth or bodily training that I 
am about to praise, and that makes me now 
delay and procrastinate with an excess of cau- 
tion. Nor, again, is it his strength or beauty ; 
for these form the eulogies of youths, of which 
it matters little whether the utterance be worthy 
or not.? For, to make an oration on matters of 
a temporary and fugitive nature, which perish in 
many various ways and quickly, and to discourse 
of these with all the grandeur and dignity of 
great affairs, and with such timorous delays, 
would seem a vain and futile procedure. And 
certainly, if it had been proposed to me to speak 
of any of those things which are useless and 
unsubstantial, and such as I should never volun- 
tarily have thought of speaking of, —if, I say, it 





I dapmanwr, 

2 yapaxtihpas THY THs WuxXhs TUT. 

3 agmagauevor ndéws, EmeL Kal mepippovncavtes. The passage 
is considered by some to be mutilated. 

4 The text 1s, aAAG yap éx Tpitwv adOis GAAws KwAvet, etc. For 
aAAwS Hoeschelius gives aAAa 5%. Bengel follows him, and renders 
it, sed rursum, tertio loco, aliud est quod prohibet. WDelarue 
proposes, aAAa yap év Tpitov avis aGAAwS KwWAVEL, 

S ro de TOAD THs E£ews. 

6 This is the rendering according to the Latin version. The text 
is, ameoKevacpevov non MElGove TapacKeEr]] MEeTAVATTATEWS THS TpPOS 
70 Oetov, Vossius reads, per’ avactacews, 

7 &v HTTwy Ppovtis kat’ agiay TE Kal Wy, Aeyouevwr. 

8 The text is, uy Kat Wuxpov H méprepov 7, where, according to 
Bengel, «7 has the force of ut xon dicam. 





had been proposed to me to speak of anything 
of that character, my speech would have had 
none of this caution or fear, lest in any state- 
ment I might seem to come beneath the merit 
of the subject. But now, my subject dealing 
with that which is. most godlike in the man, and 
that in him which has most affinity with God, 
that which is indeed confined within the limits 
of this visible and mortal form, but which strains 
nevertheless most ardently after the likeness of 
God; and my object being to make mention 
of this, and to put my hand to weightier matters, 
and therein also to express my thanksgivings to 
the Godhead, in that it has been granted to me 
to meet with such a man beyond the expecta- 
tion of men, — the expectation, verily, not only 
of others, but also of my own heart, for I neither 
set such a privilege before me at any time, nor 
hoped for it; it being, I say, my object, insig- 
nificant and altogether without understanding as 
I am, to put my hand to such subjects, it is not 
without reason? that I shrink from the task, and 
hesitate, and desire to keep silence. And, in 
truth, to keep silence seems to me to be also the 
safe course, lest, with the show of an. expression 
of thanksgiving, I may chance, in my rashness, 
to discourse of noble and sacred subjects in 
terms ignoble and paltry and utterly trite, and 
thus not only miss attaining the truth, but even, 
so far as it depends on me, do it some injury 
with those who may believe that it stands in 
such a category, when a discourse which is weak 
is composed thereon, and is rather calculated to 
excite ridicule than to prove itself commensu- 
rate in its vigour with the dignity of its themes. 
But all that pertains to thee is beyond the touch 
of injury and ridicule, O dear soul; or, much 
rather let me say, that the divine herein remains 
ever as it is, unmoved and harmed in nothing 
by our paltry and unworthy words. Yet I know 
not how we shall escape the imputation of bold- 
ness and rashness in thus attempting in our folly, 
and with little either of intelligence or of prepa- 
ration, to handle matters which are weighty, and 
probably beyond our capacity. And if, indeed, 
elsewhere and with others, we had aspired to 
make such youthful endeavours in matters like 
these, we would surely have been bold and 
daring ; nevertheless in such a case our rashness 
might not have been ascribed to shamelessness, 
in so far as we should not have been making the 
bold effort with thee. But now we shall be fill- 
ing out the whole measure of senselessness, or 
rather indeed we have already filled it out, in 
venturing with unwashed feet (as the saying 
goes) to introduce ourselves to ears into which 
the Divine Word Himself—not indeed with 
covered feet, as is the case with the general mass 





9 But the text reads, ov« evAdyws. 


oe ee 


ORATION AND PANEGYRIC ADDRESSED TO ORIGEN. 


of men, and, as it were, under the thick cover- 
ings of enigmatical and obscure sayings, but 
with unsandalled feet (if one may so speak) — 
has made His way clearly and perspicuously, and 
in which He now sojourns ; while we, who have 
but refuse and mud to offer in these human 
words of. ours, have been bold enough to pour 
them into ears which are practised in hearing 
only words that are divine and pure. It might 
indeed suffice us, therefore, to have transgressed 
thus far ; and now, at least, it might be but right 
to restrain ourselves, and to advance no further 
with our discourse. And verily I would stop 
here most gladly. Nevertheless, as I have once 
made the rash venture, it may be allowed me 
first of all to explain the reason under the force 
of which I have been led into this arduous 
enterprise, if indeed any pardon can be extended 
to me for my forwardness in this matter. 


ARGUMENT II]. — HE IS STIMULATED TO SPEAK OF 
HIM BY THE LONGING OF A GRATEFUL MIND. 
TO THE UTMOST OF HIS ABILITY HE THINKS HE 
OUGHT TO THANK HIM. FROM GOD ARE THE 
BEGINNINGS OF ALL BLESSINGS; AND TO HIM 
ADEQUATE THANKS CANNOT BE RETURNED. 


Ingratitude appears to me to be a dire evil; a 
dire evil indeed, yea, the direst of evils. For 
when one has received some benefit, his failing 
to attempt to make any return by at least the 
oral expression of thanks, where aught else is 
beyond his power, marks him out either as an 
utterly irrational person, or as one devoid of the 
sense of obligations conferred, or as a man with- 
out any memory. And, again, though? one is 
possessed naturally and at once by the sense and 
the knowledge of benefits received, yet, unless 
he also carries the memory of these obligations 
to future days, and offers some evidence of grat- 
itude to the author of the boons, such a person 
is a dull, and ungrateful, and impious fellow ; 
and he commits an offence which can be excused 
neither in the case of the great nor in that of 
the small: —if we suppose the case of a great 
and high-minded man not bearing constantly on 
his lips his great benefits with all gratitude and 
honour, or that of a small and contemptible man 
not praising and lauding with all his might one 
who has been his benefactor, not simply in great 
services, but also in smaller. Upon the great, 
therefore, and those who excel in powers of 
mind, it is incumbent, as out of their greater 
abundance and larger wealth, to render greater 
and worthier praise, according to their capa- 
city, to their benefactors. But the humble also, 
and those in narrow circumstances, it beseems 





I goahaov, But Ger. Voss has acdador, safe. : : 
2 Reading étw, with Heeschelius, Bengel, and the Paris editor, 
while Voss. reads ort. 





23 





neither to neglect those who do them service, 
nor to take their services carelessly, nor to flag 
in heart as if they could offer nothing worthy or 
perfect ; but as poor indeed, and yet as of good 
feeling, and as measuring not the capacity of 
him whom they honour, but only their own, they 
ought to pay him honour according to the pres- 
ent measure of their power, —a tribute which 
will probably be grateful and pleasant to him 
who is honoured, and in no less consideration 
with him than it would have been had it been 
some great and splendid offering, if it is only 
presented with decided earnestness, and with a 
sincere mind. Thus is it laid down in the 
sacred writings, that a certain poor and lowly 
woman, who was with the rich and powerful that 
were contributing largely and richly out of their 
wealth, alone and by herself cast in a small, yea, 
the very smallest offering, which was, however, 
all the while her whole substance, and received 
the testimony of having presented the largest 
oblation. For, as I judge, the sacred word has 
not set up the large outward quantity of the 
substance given, but rather the mind and dispo- 
sition of the giver, as the standard by which the 
worth and the magnificence of the offering are 
to be measured. Wherefore it is not meet even 
for us by any means to shrink from this duty, 
through the fear that our thanksgivings be not 
adequate to our obligations ; but, on the con- 
trary, we ought to venture and attempt every- 
thing, so as to offer thanksgivings, if not adequate, 
at least such as we have it in our power to 
exhibit, as in due return. And would that our 
discourse, even though it comes short of the per- 
fect measure, might at least reach the mark in 
soine degree, and be saved from all appearance 
of ingratitude! For a persistent silence, main- 
tained under the plausible cover of an inability 
to say anything worthy of the subject, is a vain 
and evil thing; but it is the mark of a good 
disposition always to make the attempt at a suit- 
able return, even although the power of the 
person who offers the grateful acknowledgment 
be inferior to the desert of the subject. For my 
part, even although I am unable to speak as the 
matter merits, I shall not keep silence; but 
when I have done all that I possibly can, then I 
may congratulate myself. Be this, then, the 
method of my eucharistic discourse. To God, 
indeed, the God of the universe, I shall not 
think of speaking in such terms: yet is it from 
Him that all the beginnings of our blessings 
come ; and with Him consequently is it that the 
beginning of our thanksgivings, or praises, or 
laudations, ought to be made. But, in truth, not 
even though I were to devote myself wholly to 
that duty, and that, too, not as I now am —to 





3 Luke xxi. 2. 


24 


ORATION AND PANEGYRIC ADDRESSED TO ORIGEN. 





wit, profane and impure, and mixed up with and 
stained by every unhallowed * and polluting evil 
— but sincere and as pure as pure may be, and 
wnost genuine, and most unsophisticated, and 
uncontaminated by anything vile ; — not even, I 
say, though I were thus to devote myself wholly, 
and with all the purity of the newly born, to this 
task, should I produce of myself any suitable 
gift in the way of honour and acknowledgment 
to the Ruler and Originator of all things, whom 
neither men separately and individually, nor yet 
all men in concert, acting with one spirit and 
one concordant impulse, as though all that is 
pure were made to meet in one, and all that is 
diverse from that were turned also to that ser- 
vice, could ever celebrate in a manner worthy of 
Him. For, in whatsoever measure any man is 
able to form right and adequate conceptions of 
His works, and (if such a thing were possible) 
to speak worthily regarding Him, then, so far as 
that very capacity is concerned, — a capacity with 
which he has not been gifted by any other one, 
but which he has received from Him alone, he 
cannot possibly find any greater matter of thanks- 
giving than what is implied in its possession. 


ARGUMENT IV.— THE SON ALONE KNOWS HOW TO 
PRAISE THE FATHER WORTHILY. IN CHRIST AND 
BY CHRIST OUR THANKSGIVINGS OUGHT TO BE 
RENDERED TO THE FATHER. GREGORY ALSO 
GIVES THANKS TO HIS GUARDIAN ANGEL, BECAUSE 
HE WAS CONDUCTED BY HIM TO ORIGEN. 


But let us commit the praises and hymns in 
honour of the King and Superintendent of all 
things, the perennial Fount of all blessings, to 
the hand of Him who, in this matter as in all 
others, is the Healer of our infirmity, and who 
alone is able to supply that which is lacking ; to 
the Champion and Saviour of our souls, His 
first-born Word, the Maker and Ruler of all 
things, with whom also alone it is possible, both 
for Himself and for all, whether privately and 
individually, or publicly and collectively, to send 
up to the Father uninterrupted and ceaseless 
thanksgivings. For as He is Himself the Truth, 
and the Wisdom, and the Power of the Father 
of the universe, and He is besides in Him, and 
is truly and entirely made one with Him, it can- 
not be that, either through forgetfulness or un- 
wisdom, or any manner of infirmity, such as 
marks one dissociated from Him, He shall either 
fail in the power to praise Him, or, while having 
the power, shall willingly neglect (a supposition 
which it is not lawful, surely, to indulge) to praise 
the Father. For He alone is able most perfectly 
to fulfil the whole meed of honour which is proper 
to Him, inasmuch as the Father of all things has 





t wavayet, which in the lexicons is given as bearing only the 
good sense, ad/-hallowed, but which here evidently is taken in the 
opposite. 








made Him one with Himself, and through Him 
all but completes the circle of His own being 
objectively,? and honours Him with a power in 
all respects equal to His own, even as also He 
is honoured ; which position He first and alone 
of all creatures that exist has had assigned Him, 
this Only-begotten of the Father, who is in Him 
and who is God the Word ; while all others or 
us are able to express our thanksgiving and our 
piety only if, in return for all the blessings which 
proceed to us from the Father, we bring our offer- 
ings in simple dependence on Him alone, and 
thus present the meet oblation of thanksgiving 
to Him who is the Author of all things, acknowl- 
edging also that the only way of piety is in this 
manner to offer our memorials through Him. 
Wherefore, in acknowledgment of that ceaseless 
providence which watches over all of us, alike 
in the greatest and in the smallest concerns, and 
which has been sustained even thus far, let this 
Word? be accepted as the worthy and perpetual 
expression for all thanksgivings and praises, — I 
mean the altogether perfect and living and verily 
animate Word of the First Mind Himself. But 
let this word of ours be taken primarily as an 
eucharistic address in honour.of this sacred per- 
sonage, who stands alone among all men ;* and 
if I may seek to discourse 5 of aught beyond this, 
and, in particular, of any of those beings who are 
not seen, but yet are more godlike, and who have 
a special care for men, it shall be addressed to 
that being who, by some momentous decision, 
had me allotted to him from my boyhood to rule, 
and rear, and train, —I mean that holy angel of 
God who fed me from my youth,° as says the 
saint dear to God, meaning thereby his own 
peculiar one. Though he, indeed, as being him- 
self illustrious, did in these terms designate some 
angel exalted enough to befit his own dignity 
(and whether it was some other one, or whether 
it was perchance the Angel of the Mighty Coun- 
sel Himself, the Common Saviour of all, that he 
received as his own peculiar guardian through 
his perfection, I do not clearly know), —he, I 
say, did recognise and praise some superior angel 
as his own, whosoever that was. But we, in ad- 
dition to the homage we offer to the Common 
Ruler of all men, acknowledge and praise that 
being, whosoever he is, who has been the won- 
derful guide of our childhood, who in all other 
matters has been in time past my beneficent 
tutor and guardian. For this office of tutor and 
guardian is one which evidently can suit 7 neither 





2 éxmweptéy in the text, for which Bengel gives éxmeptiwy, a word 
used frequently by this author. In Dorner it is explained as = going 
out of Himself in order to embrace and encompass Himself. See 
the Poctrine of the Person of Christ, A. Il. p. 173 (Clark). 

Adyos. 

4 [The unformed theological mind of a youth is here betrayed. ] 

5 The text gives weAnyopetv, for which others read peyadnyopetv, 

6 Gen, xlviii. 15. [Jacob refers to the Jehovah-Angel. 

7 The text gives €“ol, etc... . . cupepov eivar Katapaiverar 
Bengel’s idea of the sense is followed in the translation. 


ORATION AND PANEGYRIC ADDRESSED TO ORIGEN. 


25 





me nor any of my friends and kindred ; for we 
are all blind, and see nothing of what is before 
us, so as to be able to judge of what is right 
and fitting; but it can suit only him who sees 
beforehand all that is for the good of our soul: 
that angel, I say, who still at this present time 
sustains, and instructs, and conducts me; and 
who, in addition to all these other benefits, has 
brought me into connection with this man, which, 
in truth, is the most important of all the services 
done me. And this, too, he has effected for me, 
although between myself and that man of whom 
I discourse there was no kinship of race or blood, 
nor any other tie, nor any relationship in neigh- 
bourhood or country whatsoever ; things which 
are made the ground of friendship and union 
among the majority of men. But to speak in 
brief, in the exercise of a truly divine and wise 
forethought he brought us together, who were 
unknown to each other, and strangers, and for- 
eigners, separated as thoroughly from each other 
as intervening nations, and mountains, and rivers 
can divide man from man, and thus he made 
good this meeting which has been full of profit 
to me, having, as I judge, provided beforehand 
this blessing for me from above from my very 
birth and earliest upbringing. And in what man- 
ner this has been realized it would take long to 
recount fully, not merely if I were to enter mi- 
nutely into the whole subject, and were to attempt 
to omit nothing, but even if, passing many things 
by, I should purpose simply to mention in a sum- 
mary way a few of the most important points. 


ARGUMENT V.— HERE GREGORY INTERWEAVES THE 
NARRATIVE OF HIS FORMER LIFE. HIS BIRTH 
OF HEATHEN PARENTS IS STATED. IN THE 
FOURTEENTH YEAR OF HIS AGE HE LOSES HIS 
FATHER. HE IS DEDICATED TO THE STUDY OF 
ELOQUENCE AND LAW. BY A WONDERFUL LEAD- 
ING OF PROVIDENCE, HE IS BROUGHT TO ORIGEN. 


For my earliest upbringing from the time of 
my birth onwards was under the hand of my par- 
ents ; and the manner of life in my father’s house 
was one of error,’ and of a kind from which no 
one, I imagine, expected that we should be deliv- 
ered ; nor had I myself the hope, boy as I was, 
and without understanding, and under a super- 
stitious father.2 Then followed the loss of my 
father, and my orphanhood, which; perchance 
was also the beginning of the knowledge of the 
truth to me. For then it was that I was brought 
over first to the word of salvation and truth, in 
what manner I cannot tell, by constraint rather 
than by voluntary choice. For what power of de- 
cision had I then, who was but fourteen years of 


1 ra matp.a €6n Ta TeTAGYHLEVA, 

2 [The force of the original is not opprobrious. ] 4 

3 Reading # 54. Others give 7 57; others, 75; and the conjec- 
ture # Bn, “ or my youth,” is also made. 








age? Yet from this very time this sacred Word 
began somehow to visit me, just at the period 
when the reason common to all men attained its 
full function in me ; yea, then for the first time 
did it visit me. And though I thought but little 
of this in that olden time, yet now at least, as I 
ponder it, I consider that no small token of the 
holy and marvellous providence exercised over 
me is discernible in this concurrence, which was 
so distinctly marked in the matter of my years, 
and which provided that all those deeds of error 
which preceded that age might be ascribed to 
youth and want of understanding, and that the 
Holy Word might not be imparted vainly to a 
soul yet ungifted with the full power of reason ; 
and which secured at the same time that when 
the soul now became endowed with that power, 
though not gifted with the divine and pure rea- 
son,‘ it might not be devoid at least of that fear 
which is accordant with this reason, but that the 
human and the divine reason’ might begin to 
act in me at once and together, — the one giving 
help with a power to me at least inexplicable,° 
though proper to itself, and the other receiving 
help. And when I reflect on this, I am filled at 
once with gladness and with terror, while I re- 
joice indeed in the leading of providence, and 
yet am also awed by the fear lest, after being 
privileged with such blessings, I should still in 
any way fail of the end. But indeed I know not 
how my discourse has dwelt so long on this mat- 
ter, desirous as I am to give an account of the 
wonderful arrangement (of God’s providence) 
in the course that brought me to this man, and 
anxious as nevertheless I formerly was to pass 
with few words to the matters which follow in 
their order, not certainly imagining that I could 
render to him who thus dealt with me that trib- 
ute of praise, or gratitude, or piety which is due 
to him (for, were we to designate our discourse 
in such terms, while yet we said nothing worthy 
of the theme, we might seem. chargeable with 
arrogance), but simply with the view of offering 
what may be called a plain narrative or confes- 
sion, or whatever other humble title may be 
given it. It seemed good to the only one of my 
parents who survived to care for me — my moth- 
er, namely — that, being already under instruc- 
tion in those other branches in which boys not 
ignobly born and nurtured are usually trained, I 
should attend also a teacher of public speaking, 
in the hope that I too should become a public 
speaker. And accordingly I did attend such a 
teacher ; and those who could judge in that de- 
partment then declared that I should in a short 
period be a public speaker. I for my own part 
know not how to pronounce on that, neither 


4 doyov. 
5 Word. ; , 
6 The text, however, gives adéxTpe@. 


26 





should I desire to do so; for there was no ap- 
parent ground for that gift then, nor was there 
as yet any foundation for those forces ' which 
were capable of bringing me to it. But that 
divine conductor and true curator, ever so watch- 
ful, when my friends were not thinking of such a 
step, and when I was not myself desirous of it, 
came and suggested (an extension of my studies) 
to one of my teachers under whose charge I 
had been put, with a view to instruction in the 
Roman tongue, not in the expectation that I was 
to reach the completest mastery of that tongue, 
but only that I might not be absolutely ignorant 
of it; and this person happened also to be not 
altogether unversed in laws. Putting the idea, 
therefore, into this teacher’s mind,? he set me to 
learn in a thorough way the laws of the Romans 
by his help. And that man took up this charge 
zealously with me ; and I, on my side, gave my- 
self to it— more, however, to gratify the man, 
than as being myself an admirer of the study. 
And when he got me as his pupil, he began to 
teach me with all enthusiasm. And he said one 
thing, which has proved to me the truest of all 
his sayings, to wit, that my education in the laws 
would be my greatest wiaticum 3— for thus he 
phrased it — whether I aspired to be one of the 
public speakers who contend in the courts of jus- 
tice, or preferred to belong to a different order. 
Thus did he express himself, intending his word 
to bear simply on things human; but to me it 
seems that he was moved to that utterance by a 
diviner impulse than he himself supposed. For 
when, willingly or unwillingly, I was becoming 
well instructed in these laws, at once bonds, as it 
were, were cast upon my movements, and cause 
and occasion for my journeying to these parts 
arose from the city Berytus, which is a city not 
far distant + from this territory, somewhat Latin- 
ized,5. and credited with being a school for these 
legal studies. And this revered man coming 
from Egypt, from the city of Alexandria, where 
previously he happened to have his home, was 
moved by other circumstances to change his resi- 
dence to this place, as if with the express object 
of meeting us. And for my part, I cannot ex- 
plain the reasons of these incidents, and I shall 
willingly pass them by. ‘This however is certain, 
that as yet no necessary occasion for my coming 
to this place and meeting with this man was 
afforded by my purpose to learn our laws, since 
I had it in my power also to repair to the city 
of Rome itself.° How, then, was this effected? 





1 airway, causes. 

2 Reading TovTw émi vodv Badrwv. 

3 edddiov, 

4 The text is amoxéovoa, Heeschelius gives améxouca, 

5 ‘Pwpaixwrépa Tos, 

© The text is, ovSév ovTws avayxatoy fy Scov émi Tos vopors 
yuav, duvaroy by Kat emt THY ‘Pwnaiwy arodnujoat ToAcy, Bengel 
takes dcov as mapéAxov. Migne renders, xullam ef futsse necesst- 
tatem huc veniendt, discendi leges causa, stguidem Romam posset 





ORATION AND PANEGYRIC ADDRESSED TO ORIGEN. 





The then governor of Palestine suddenly took 
possession of a friend of mine, namely my sister’s 
husband, and separated him from his wife, and. 
carried him off here against his will, in order to 
secure his help, and have him associated with 
him in the labours of the government of the 
country ; for he was a person skilled in law, and 
perhaps is still so employed. After he had gone 
with him, however, he had the good fortune in 
no long time to have his wife sent for, and to 
receive her again, from whom, against his will, 
and to his grievance, he had been separated. 
And thus he chanced also to draw us along with 
her to that same place. For when we were 
minded to travel, I know not where, but certainly 
to any other place rather than this, a soldier sud- 
denly came upon the scene, bearing a letter of 
instructions for us to escort and protect our sis- 
ter in her restoration to her husband, and to 
offer ourselves also as companion to her on the 
journey ; in which we had the opportunity of 
doing a favour to our relative, and most of all to 
our sister (so that she might not have to address 
herself to the journey either in any unbecoming 
manner, or with any great fear or hesitation), 
while at the same time our other friends and 
connections thought well of it, and made it out 
to promise no slight advantage, as we could thus 
visit the city of Berytus, and carry out there with 
all diligence? our studies in the laws. Thus all 
things moved me thither, — my sense of duty ® to 
‘my sister, my own studies, and over and above 
these, the soldier (for it is right also to mention 
this), who had with him a larger supply of pub- 
lic vehicles than the case demanded, and more 
cheques? than could be required for our sister 
alone. ‘These were the apparent reasons for our 
journey ; but the secret and yet truer reasons 
were these, — our opportunity of fellowship with 
this man, our instruction through that man’s 
means ‘° in the truth "' concerning the Word, and 
the profit of our soul for its salvation. These 
were the real causes that brought us here, blind 
and ignorant, as we were, as to the way of secur- 
ing our salvation. Wherefore it was not that 
soldier, but a certain divine companion and 
beneficent conductor and guardian, ever leading 
us in safety through the whole of this present life, 
as through a long journey, that carried us past 
other places, and Berytus in especial, which city 
at that time we seemed most bent on reaching, 








profictsct. Sirmondus makes it, 2%/la causa adeo necessaria erat 
qua possem per leges nostras ad Romanorum ctvitatem pro- 
Jictscz. 

7 The text gives éxmovijcartes. 

8 evAoyov. 

9 cviuBodaa, 

10 § avtod. Bengel understands this to refer to the soldier. 

Il The text is, Tyv adnOy be’ avtov mepi Ta Tov Adyou paOnmata, 
Bengel takes this as an ellipsis, like thy é€avtod, Thy euny miav, and 
similar phrases, yvuwynv or od6v, or some such word, being supplied. 
Casaubon conjectures kai aAn@. for which Bengel would poe Te 
aAnoy. : 


' Casaubon reads éxmotjcortes. 


ORATION AND PANEGYRIC ADDRESSED TO ORIGEN. 





and brought us hither and settled us here, dis- 
posing and directing all things, until by any 
means he might bind us in a connection with 
this man who was to be the author of the greater 
part of our blessings. And he who came in such 
wise, that divine angel, gave over this charge* 
to. him, and did, if I may so speak, perchance 
take his rest here, not indeed under the pressure 
of labour or exhaustion of any kind (for the gen- 
eration of those divine ministers knows no weari- 
ness), but as having committed us to the hand 
of a man who would fully discharge the whole 
work of care and guardianship within his power. 


ARGUMENT VI.— THE ARTS BY WHICH ORIGEN 
STUDIES TO KEEP GREGORY AND HIS BROTHER 
ATHENODORUS WITH HIM, ALTHOUGH IT WAS 
ALMOST AGAINST THEIR WILL; AND THE LOVE 
BY WHICH BOTH ARE TAKEN CAPTIVE. OF 
PHILOSOPHY, THE FOUNDATION OF PIETY. WITH 
THE VIEW OF GIVING HIMSELF THEREFORE 
WHOLLY TO THAT STUDY, GREGORY IS WILLING 
TO GIVE UP FATHERLAND, PARENTS, THE PUR- 
SUIT OF LAW, AND’ EVERY OTHER DISCIPLINE. 
OF THE SOUL AS THE FREE PRINCIPLE. THE 
NOBLER PART DOES NOT DESIRE TO BE UNITED 
WITH THE INFERIOR, BUT THE INFERIOR WITH 
THE NOBLER. 


And from the very first day of his receiving 
us (which day was, in truth, the first day to me, 
and the most precious of all days, if I may so 
speak, since then for the first time the true Sun 
began to rise upon me), while we, like some 
wild creatures of the fields, or like fish, or some 
sort of birds that had fallen into the toils or nets, 
and were endeavouring to slip out again and 
escape, were bent on leaving him, and making 
off for Berytus? or our native country, he studied 
by all means to associate us closely with him, 
contriving all kinds of arguments, and putting 
every rope in motion (as the proverb goes), and 
bringing all his powers to bear on that object. 
With that intent he lauded the lovers of philos- 
- ophy with large laudations and many noble 
utterances, declaring that those only live a life 
truly worthy of reasonable creatures who aim at 
living an upright life, and who seek to know first 
of all themselves, what manner of persons’ they 
-are, and then the things that are truly good, 
which man ought to strive after, and then the 
things that are really evil, from which man ought 
to flee. And then he reprehended ignorance 
and all the ignorant: and there are many such, 
who, like brute cattle,3 are blind in mind, and 
have no understanding even of what they are, 
and are as far astray as though they were wholly 





I oixovoulay, { 

2 [I think Lardner’s inclination to credit Gregory with some 
claim to be an alumnus of Berytus, is very fairly sustained. ] 

> Opeppatwr, , s 





27 


void of reason, and neither know themselves 
what is good and what is evil, nor care at all to 
learn it from others, but toil feverishly in quest 
of wealth, and glory, and such honours as belong 
to the crowd, and bodily comforts, and go dis- 
traught about things like these, as if they were 
the real good. And as though such objects 
were worth much, yea, worth all else, they prize 
the things themselves, and the arts by which they 
can acquire them, and the different lines of life 
which give scope for their attainment, — the 
military profession, to wit, and the juridical, and 
the study of the laws. And with earnest and 
sagacious words he told us that these are the 
objects that enervate us, when we despise that 
reason which ought to be the true master within 
us. I cannot recount at present all the addresses 
of this kind which he delivered to us, with the 
view of persuading us to take up the pursuit of 
philosophy. Nor was it only for a single day 
that he thus dealt with us, but for many days, 
and, in fact, as often as we were in the habit of 
going to him at the outset ; and we were pierced 
by his argumentation as with an arrow from the 
very first occasion of our hearing him 5 (for he 
was possessed of a rare combination of a certain 
sweet grace and persuasiveness, along with a 
strange power of constraint), though we still 
wavered and debated the matter undecidedly 
with ourselves, holding so far by the pursuit of 
philosophy, without however being brought 
thoroughly over to it, while somehow or other 
we found ourselves quite unable to withdraw 
from it conclusively, and thus were always drawn 
towards him by the power of his reasonings, as 
by the force of some superior necessity. For 
he asserted further that there could be no gen- 
uine piety towards the Lord of all in the man 
who despised this gift of philosophy, —a gift 
which man alone of all the creatures of the earth 
has been deemed honourable and worthy enough 
to possess, and one which every man whatsoever, 
be he wise or be he ignorant, reasonably embraces, 
who has not utterly lost the power of thought by 
some mad distraction of mind. He asserted, 
then, as I have said, that it was not possible (to 
speak correctly) for any one to be truly pious 
who did not philosophize. And thus he con- 
tinued to do with us, until, by pouring in upon 
us many such argumentations, one after the 
other, he at last carried us fairly off somehow or 
other by a kind of divine power, like people 
with his reasonings, and established us (in the 
practice of philosophy), and set us down with- 
out the power of movement,-as it were, beside 





4 The text here is, ra0@’ amep nuas avécete, uadtoTa Aéywr Kar 
GAG TEXVLKAS, TOU KUpLwWTAaTOV, Hycl, TOY Ev NuLY Adyov, apmedr,- 
gavTas, 

5 The text gives éx mpwrns HAtkias, which Bengel takes to be an 
error for the absolute €« mpa7ns, to which nuepas would be supplied. 
Casaubon and Rhodomanus read omtAtags for nAtKias, ; 


28 


ORATION AND PANEGYRIC ADDRESSED TO ORIGEN. 





himself by his arts. Moreover, the stimulus of 
friendship was also brought to bear upon us, — 
a stimulus, indeed, not easily withstood, but keen 
and most effective, —the argument of a kind 
and affectionate disposition, which showed itself 
benignantly in his words when he spoke to us 
and associated with us. For he did not aim 
merely at getting round us by any kind of rea- 
soning; but his desire was, with a benignant, 
and affectionate, and most benevolent mind, to 
save us, and make us partakers in the blessings 
that flow from philosophy, and most especially 
also in those other gifts which the Deity has 
bestowed on him above most men, or, as we may 
perhaps say, above all men of our own time. I 
mean the power that teaches us piety, the word 
of salvation, that comes to many, and subdues to 
itself all whom it visits: for there is nothing that 
shall resist it, inasmuch as it is and shall be itself 
the king of all; although as yet it is hidden, and 
is not recognised, whether with ease or with dif- 
ficulty, by the common crowd, in such wise that, 
when interrogated respecting it, they should be 
able to speak intelligently about it. And thus, 
like some spark lighting upon our inmost soul, 
love was kindled and burst into flame within us, 
—a love at once to the Holy Word, the most 
lovely object of all, who attracts all irresistibly 
toward Himself by His unutterable beauty, and 
to this man, His friend and advocate. And 
being most mightily smitten by this love, I was 
persuaded to give up all those objects or pur- 
suits which seem to us befitting, and among 
others even my boasted jurisprudence, — yea, 
my very fatherland and friends, both those who 
were present with me then, and those from whom 
I had parted. And in my estimation there arose 
but one object dear and worth desire, —to wit, 
philosophy, and that master of philosophy, this 
inspired man. “And the soul of Jonathan was 
knit with David.” ! This word, indeed, I did 
not read till afterwards in the sacred Scriptures ; 
but I felt it before that time, not less clearly than 
it is written: for, in truth, it reached me then 
by the clearest of all revelations. For it was 
not simply Jonathan that was knit with David ; 
but those things were knit together which are 
the ruling powers in man — their souls, — those 
objects which, even though all the things which 
are apparent and ostensible in man are severed, 
cannot by any skill be forced to a severance 
when they themselves are unwilling. For the 
soul is free, and cannot be coerced by any means, 
not even though one should confine it and keep 
guard over it in some secret prison-house. For 
wherever the intelligence is, there it is also of its 
own nature and by the first reason. And if it 
seems to you to be in a kind of prison-house, it 





1 x Sam, xviii, 1. 





is represented as there to you by a sort of second 
reason. But for all that, it is by no means pre- 
cluded from subsisting anywhere according to its 
own determination ; nay, rather it is both able 
to be, and is reasonably believed to be, there 
alone and altogether, wheresoever and in con- 
nection with what things soever those actions 
which are proper only to it are in operation. 
Wherefore, what I experienced has been most 
clearly declared in this very short statement, 
that “the soul of Jonathan was knit with the 
soul of David ;”’ objects which, as I said, can- 
not by any means be forced to a separation 
against their will, and which of their own incli- 
nation certainly will not readily choose it. Nor 
is it, in my opinion, in the inferior subject, who 
is changeful and very prone to vary in purpose, 
and in whom singly there has been no capacity 
of union at first, that the power of loosing the 
sacred bonds of this affection rests, but rather in 
the nobler one, who is constant and not readily 
shaken, and through whom it has been possi- 
ble to tie these bonds and to fasten this sacred 
knot. Therefore it is not the soul of David that 
was knit by the divine word with the soul of 
Jonathan ; but, on the contrary, the soul of the 
latter, who was the inferior, is said to be thus 
affected and knit with the soul of David. For 
the nobler object would not choose to be knit 
with one inferior, inasmuch as it is sufficient for 
itself; but the inferior object, as standing in 
need of the help which the nobler can give, 

ought properly to be knit with the nobler, and 

fitted dependently to it: so that this latter, re- 

taining still its sufficiency in itself, might sustain 

no loss by its connection with the inferior ; and 

that that which is of itself without order? being 

now united and fitted harmoniously with the 

nobler, might, without any detriment done, be 

perfectly subdued to the nobler by the con- 

straints of such bonds. Wherefore, to apply the 

bonds is the part of the superior, and not of 

the inferior; but to be knit to the other is the 

part of the inferior, and this too in such a man- 

ner that it shall possess no power of loosing itself 

from these bonds. And by a similar constraint, 

then, did this David of ours once gird us to 

himself ; and he holds us now, and has held us 

ever since that time, so that, even though we 

desired it, we could not loose ourselves from his 

bonds. And hence it follows that, even though 

we were to depart, he would not release this soul 

of mine, which, as the Holy Scripture puts it, he 

holds knit so closely with himself. 


ARGUMENT VII. — THE WONDERFUL SKILL WITH 
WHICH ORIGEN PREPARES GREGORY AND ATHENO- 
DORUS FOR PHILOSOPHY. THE INTELLECT OF 





2 draxTor, 


ORATION AND PANEGYRIC ADDRESSED TO ORIGEN. 


29 





EACH IS EXERCISED FIRST IN LOGIC, AND THE 
MERE ATTENTION TO WORDS IS CONTEMNED. 


But after he had thus carried us captive at 
the very outset, and had shut us in, as it were, 
on all sides, and when what was best‘ had been 
accomplished by him, and when it seemed good 
to us to remain with him for a time, then he took 
us in hand, as a skilled husbandman may take 
in hand some field unwrought, and altogether 
unfertile, and sour, and burnt up, and hard as a 
rock, and rough, or, it may be, one not utterly 
barren or unproductive, but rather, perchance, 
by nature very productive, though then waste 
and neglected, and stiff and untractable with 
thorns and wild shrubs; or as a gardener may 
take in hand some plant which is wild indeed, 
and which yields no cultivated fruits, though it 
may not be absolutely worthless, and on finding 
it thus, may, by his skill in gardening, bring some 
cultivated shoot and graft it in, by making a 
fissure in the middle, and then bringing the two 
together, and binding the one to the other, until 
the sap in each shall flow in one stream,? and 
they shall both grow with the same nurture: for 
one may often see a tree of a mixed and worth- 
less3 species thus rendered productive in spite 
of its past barrenness, and made to rear the 
fruits of the good olive on wild roots; or one 
may see a wild plant saved from being altogether 
profitless by the skill of a careful gardener ; or, 
once more, one may see a plant which other- 
wise is one both of culture and of fruitfulness, but 
which, through the want of skilled attendance, 
has been left unpruned and unwatered and waste, 
and which is thus choked by the mass of su- 
perfluous shoots suffered to grow out of it at 
random,‘ yet brought to discharge its proper 
function in germination,’ and made to bear the 
fruit whose production was formerly hindered by 
the superfluous growth.® In suchwise, then, and 
with such a disposition did he receive us at 
first; and surveying us, as it were, with a hus- 
bandman’s skill, and gauging us thoroughly, and 
not confining his notice to those things only 
which are patent to the eye of all, and which are 
looked upon in open light, but penetrating into 
us more deeply, and probing what is most in- 
ward in us, he put us to the question, and made 
propositions to us, and listened to us in our re- 
plies ; and whenever he thereby detected any- 
thing in us not wholly fruitless and profitless and 
waste, he set about clearing the soil, and turning 
it up and irrigating it, and putting all things in 
movement, and brought his whole skill and care 





1 +0 mAaiov, . 

2 The text gives cup BAvoavra @s, for which Casaubon proposes 
suupucavta eis ev, or ws Ev, Bengel suggests svpBpvcavta ws ev, 

3 voor, 

4 The text gives éxei, for which Hoeschelius and Bengel read 
aixy, ; 

S rererodcGat Se ty BAdoTp. 

6 Um’ adAnjAwy, 





to bear on us, and wrought upon our mind. 
And thorns and thistles,7 and every kind of wild 
herb or plant which our mind (so unregulated 
and precipitate in its own action) yielded and 
produced in its uncultured luxuriance and native 
wildness, he cut out and thoroughly removed by 
the processes of refutation and prohibition ; some- 
times assailing us in the genuine Socratic fashion, 
and again upsetting us by his argumentation 
whenever he saw us getting restive under him, 
like so many unbroken steeds, and springing out 
of the course and galloping madly about at ran- 
dom, until with a strange kind of persuasiveness 
and constraint he reduced us to a state of quie- 
tude under him by his discourse, which acted 
like a bridle in our mouth. And that was at first 
an unpleasant position for us, and one not with- 
out pain, as he dealt with persons who were un- 
used to it, and still all untrained to submit to 
reason, when he plied us with his argumenta- 
tions; and yet he purged us by them. And 
when he had made us adaptable, and had pre- 
pared us successfully for the reception of the 
words of truth, then, further, as though we were 
now a soil well wrought and soft, and ready to 
impart growth to the seeds cast into it, he dealt 
liberally with us, and sowed the good seed in 
season, and attended to all the other cares of 
the good husbandry, each in its own proper sea- 
son. And whenever he perceived any element 
of infirmity or baseness in our mind (whether it 
was of that character by nature, or had become 
thus gross through the excessive nurture of the 
body), he pricked it with his discourses, and re- 
duced it by those delicate words and turns of 
reasoning which, although at first the very sim- 
plest, are gradually evolved one after the other, 
and skilfully wrought out, until they advance to 
a sort of complexity which can scarce be mas- 
tered or unfolded, and which cause us to start 
up, as it were, out of sleep, and teach us the art 
of holding always by what is immediately before 
one, without ever making any slip by reason 
either of length or of subtlety. And if there 
was in us anything of an injudicious and precipi- 
tate tendency, whether in the way of assenting 
to all that came across us, of whatever character 
the objects might be, and even though they 
proved false, or in the way of often withstanding 
other things, even though they were spoken 
truthfully,— that, too, he brought under disci- 
pline in us by those delicate reasonings already 
mentioned, and by others of like kind (for this 
branch of philosophy is of varied form), and 
accustomed us not to throw in our testimony at 
one time, and again to refuse it, just at random, 
and as chance impelled, but to give it only after 
careful examination not only into things mani- 





7 tpiBddovs, 


30 


ORATION AND PANEGYRIC ADDRESSED TO ORIGEN. 


a ae 


fest, but also into those that are secret.' For 
many things which are in high repute of them- 
selves, and honourable in appearance, have found 
entrance through fair words into our ears, as 
though they were true, while yet they were hol- 
low and false, and have borne off and taken 
possession of the suffrage of truth at our hand, 
and then, no long time afterwards, they have 
been discovered to be corrupt and unworthy of 
credit, and deceitful borrowers of the garb of 
truth ; and have thus too easily exposed us as 
men who are ridiculously deluded, and who 
bear their witness inconsiderately to things which 
ought by no means to have won it. And, on the 
contrary, other things which are really honour- 
able and the reverse of impositions, but which 
have not been expressed in plausible statements, 
and thus have the appearance of being paradox- 
ical and most incredible, and which have been 
rejected as false on their own showing, and held 
up undeservedly to ridicule, have afterwards, on 
careful investigation and examination, been dis- 
covered to be the truest of all things, and wholly 
incontestable, though for a time spurned and reck- 
oned false. Not simply, then, by dealing with 
things patent and prominent, which are some- 
times delusive and sophistical, but also by teach- 
ing us to search into things within us, and to put 
them all individually to the test, lest any of them 
should give back a hollow sound, and by instruct- 
ing us to make sure of these inward things first 
of all, he trained us to give our assent to out- 
ward things only then and thus, and to express 
our opinion on all these severally. In this way, 
that capacity of our mind which deals critically 
with words and reasonings, was educated in a ra- 
tional manner; not according to the judgments 
of illustrious rhetoricians — whatever Greek or 
foreign honour appertains to that title? — for 
theirs is a discipline of little value and no neces- 
sity: but in accordance with that which is most 
needful for all, whether Greek or outlandish, 
whether wise or illiterate, and, in fine, not to 
make a long statement by going over every pro- 
fession and pursuit separately, in accordance 
with that which is most indispensable for all 
men, whatever manner of life they have chosen, 
if it is indeed the care and interest of all who 
have to converse on any subject whatever with 
each other, to be protected against deception. 


ARGUMENT VIII.— THEN IN DUE SUCCESSION HE 
INSTRUCTS THEM IN PHYSICS, GEOMETRY, AND 
ASTRONOMY. 


Nor did he confine his efforts merely to that 
form of the mind which it is the lot of the dia- 





I The words aAAd xexpvppeéva are omitted by Heeschelius and 


Bengel. E ae ‘i s 
2 & re ‘EAAnvixoy 2 BapBapor €or TH pwr7. 





lectics to regulate ;3 but he also took in hand 
that humble capacity of mind, (which shows it- 
self) in our amazement at the magnitude, and the 
wondrousness, and the magnificent and absolutely 
wise construction of the world, and in our mar- 
velling in a reasonless way, and in our being 
overpowered with fear, and in our knowing not, 
like the irrational creatures, what conclusion to 
come to. That, too, he aroused and corrected 
by other studies in natural science, illustrating 
and distinguishing the various divisions of created 
objects, and with admirable clearness reducing 
them to their pristine elements, taking them all 


up perspicuously in his discourse, and going © 


over the nature of the whole, and of each sev- 
eral section, and discussing the multiform revo- 
lution and mutation of things in the world, until 
he carried us fully along with him under his clear 
teaching ; and by those reasonings which he had 
partly learned from others, and partly found out 
for himself, he filled our minds with a rational 
instead of an irrational wonder at the sacred 
economy of the universe, and irreproveable con- 
stitution of all things. ‘This is that sublime and 
heavenly study which is taught by natural phil- 
osophy —a science most attractive to all. And 
what need is there now to speak of the sacred 
mathematics, viz., geometry, so precious to all 
and above all controversy, and astronomy, whose 
course is on high? ‘These different studies he 
imprinted on our understandings, training us in 
them, or calling them into our mind, or doing 
with us something else which I know not how to 
designate rightly. And the one he presented 
lucidly as the immutable groundwork and secure 
foundation of all, namely geometry ; and by the 
other, namely astronomy, he lifted us up to the 
things that are highest above us, while he made 
heaven passable to us by the help of each of these 
sciences, as though they were ladders reaching 
the skies. 


ARGUMENT IX.— BUT HE IMBUES THEIR MINDS, 
ABOVE ALL, WITH ETHICAL SCIENCE; AND HE 
DOES NOT CONFINE HIMSELF TO DISCOURSING 
ON THE VIRTUES IN WORD, BUT HE RATHER 
CONFIRMS HIS TEACHING BY HIS ACTS. 


Moreover, as to those things which excel all 
in importance, and those for the sake of which, 
above all else, the whole‘ family of the philo- 
sophical labours, gathering them like good fruits 
produced by the varied growths of all the other 
studies, and of long practised philosophizing, — 
I mean the divine virtues that concern the moral 
nature, by which the impulses of the mind have 
their equable and stable subsistence, — through 
these, too, he aimed at making us truly proof 





3 The text is, kai 2 TOO dreEp eidos SuaAexTLKH KaTopOody Lorn 
elAnxe. 


4 wav To diddcopov, Hoeschelius and Bengel read ras, etc. 


ORATION AND PANEGYRIC ADDRESSED TO ORIGEN. 3i 





against grief and disquietude under the pressure 
of all ills, and at imparting to us a well-disci- 
plined and stedfast and religious spirit, so that we 
might be in all things veritably blessed. And this 
he toiled at effecting by pertinent discourses, of a 
wise and soothing tendency, and very often also 
by the most cogent addresses touching our moral 
dispositions, and our modes of life. Nor was it 
only by words, but also by deeds, that he regu- 
lated in some measure our inclinations, —to wit, 
by that very contemplation and observation of 
the impulses and affections of the mind, by the 
issue of which most especially the mind is wont 
to be reduced to a right estate from one of dis- 
cord, and to be restored to a condition of judg- 
ment and order out of one of confusion. So that, 
beholding itself as in a mirror (and I may say 
specifically, viewing, on the one hand, the very 
beginnings and roots of evil in it, and all that is 
reasonless within it, from which spring up all 
absurd affections and passions; and, on the 
other hand, all that is truly excellent and reason- 
able within it, under the sway of which it remains 
proof against injury and perturbation in itself’, 
and then scrutinizing carefully the things thus 
discovered to be in it), it might cast out all those 
which are the growth of the inferior part, and 
which waste our powers? through intemperance, 
or hinder and choke them through depression, 
—such things as pleasures and lusts, or pains 
and fears, and the whole array of ills that accom- 
pany these different species of evil. I say that 
thus it might cast them out and make away with 
them, by coping with them while yet in their be- 
ginnings and only just commencing their growth, 
and not leaving them to wax in strength evén by 
a short delay, but destroying and rooting them 
out at once; while, at the same time, it might 
foster all those things which are really good, and 
which spring from the nobler part, and might pre- 
serve them by nursing them in their beginnings, 
and watching carefully over them until they 
should reach their maturity. For it is thus (he 
used to say) that the heavenly virtues will ripen 
in the soul: to wit, prudence, which first of all 
is able to judge of those very motions in the 
mind at once from the things themselves, and 
by the knowledge which accrues to it of things 
outside of us, whatever such there may be, both 
good and evil; and temperance, the power that 
makes the right selection among these things in 
their beginnings; and righteousness, which as- 
signs what is just to each ; and that virtue which 
is the conserver of them all — fortitude. And 
therefore he did not accustom us to a mere pro- 
fession in words, as that prudence, for instance, is 
the knowledge? of good and evil, or of what ought 





I The text gives 0’ éavrijs, for which Bengel reads 颒 éavtijs. 
2 éxxéovTa nas, 
3 émaorHmn, science, 








to be done, and what ought not: for that would 
be indeed a vain and profitless study, if there was 
simply the doctrine without the deed ; and worth- 
less would that prudence be, which, without do- 
ing the things that ought to be done, and without 
turning men away from those that ought not to be 
done, should be able merely to furnish the knowl- 
edge of these things to those who possessed her, 
—though many such persons come under our 
observation. Nor, again, did he content himself 
with the mere assertion that temperance is sim- 
ply the knowledge of what ought to be chosen 
and what ought not ; though the other schools of 
philosophers do not teach even so much as that, 
and especially the more recent, who are so forci- 
ble and vigorous in words (so that I have often 
been astonished at them, when they sought to 
demonstrate that there is the same virtue in God 
and in men, and that upon earth, in particular, 
the wise man is equal* to God), and yet are 
incapable of delivering the truth as to prudence, 
so that one shall do the things which are dictated 
by prudence, or the truth as to temperance, so 
that one shall choose the things he has learned 
by it; and the same holds good also of their 
treatment of righteousness and fortitude. Not 
thus, however, in mere words only did this 
teacher go over the truths concerning the virtues 
with us; but he incited us much more to the 
practice of virtue, and stimulated us by the deeds 
he did more than by the doctrines he taught. ' 


ARGUMENT X.— HENCE THE MERE WORD-SAGES 
ARE CONFUTED, WHO SAY AND YET ACT NOT. 


Now I beg of the philosophers of this present 
time, both those whom I have known personally 
myself, and those of whom I have heard by re- 
port from others, and I beg also of all other 
men, that they take in good part the statements 
I have just made. And let no one suppose that 
I.have expressed myself thus, either through 
simple friendship toward that man, or through 
hatred toward the rest of the philosophers ; for 
if there is any one inclined to be an admirer of 
them for their discourses, and wishful to speak 
well of them, and pleased at hearing the most 
honourable mention made of them by others, I 
myself am the man. Nevertheless, those facts 
(to which I have referred) are of such a nature 
as to bring upon the very name of philosophy 
the last degree of ridicule almost from the great 
mass of men; and I might almost say that I 
would choose to be altogether unversed in it, 
rather than learn any of the things which these 
men profess, with whom I thought it good no 
longer to associate myself in this life, — though 
in that, it may be, I formed an incorrect judg- 
ment. But I say that no one should suppose 





4 7a mpata @e@ toov elvar Tov gopov avOpwror. 


32 


ORATION AND PANEGYRIC ADDRESSED TO ORIGEN. 





that I make these statements at the mere prompt- 
ing of a zealous regard for the praise of this 
man, or under the stimulus of any existing ani- 
mosity * towards other philosophers. But let all 
be assured that I say even less than his deeds 
merit, lest I should seem to be indulging in 
adulation ; and that I do not seek out studied 
words and phrases, and cunning means of lauda- 
tion —I who could never of my own will, even 
when I was a youth, and learning the popular 
style of address under a professor of the art of 
public speaking, bear to utter a word of praise, 
or pass any encomium on any one which was not 
genuine. Wherefore on the present occasion, 
too, I do not think it right, in proposing to 
myself the task simply of commending him, to 
magnify him at the cost of the reprobation of 
others. And, in good sooth, I should speak 
only to the man’s injury, if, with the view of 
having something grander to say of him, I should 
compare his blessed life with the failings of 
others. We are not, however, so senseless.3 
But I shall testify simply to what has come with- 
in my own experience, apart from all ill-judged 
comparisons and trickeries in words. 


ARGUMENT XI.—ORIGEN IS THE FIRST AND THE 
ONLY ONE THAT EXHORTS GREGORY TO ADD TO 
HIS ACQUIREMENTS THE STUDY OF PHILOSOPHY, 
AND OFFERS HIM IN A CERTAIN MANNER AN 
EXAMPLE IN HIMSELF. OF JUSTICE, PRUDENCE, 
TEMPERANCE, AND FORTITUDE. THE MAXIM, 
KNOW THYSELF. 


He was also the first and only man that urged 
me to study the philosophy of the Greeks, and 
persuaded me by his own moral example both 
to hear and to hold by the doctrine of morals, 
while as yet I had by no means been won over 
to that, so far as other philosophers were con- 
cerned (I again acknowledge it),—not rightly 
so, indeed, but unhappily, as I may say without 
exaggeration, for me. I did not, however, asso- 
ciate with many at first, but only with some few 
who professed to be teachers, though, in good 
sooth, they all established their philosophy only 
so far as words went. This man, however, was 
the first that induced me to philosophize by his 
words, as he pointed the exhortation by deeds 
before he gave it in words, and did not merely 
recite well-studied sentences; nay, he did not 
deem it right to speak on the subject at all, but 
with a sincere mind, and one bent on striving 
ardently after the practical accomplishment of 
the things expressed, and he endeavoured all the 
while to show himself in character like the man 





1 pirotiuig, for which $tAovecxia is read. 

2 The text is, } xax@v av €Aeyov, etc. The Greek 4 and the 
Latin auf are found sometimes thus with a force bordering on that 
of aliogut. 

3 adpaivouzery. The Paris editor would read adpaivw pév, 

4 adAa yap mace mexpt pHMaTeY TO drdogodety GTAGact’ 








whom he describes in his discourses as the per- 
son who shall lead a noble life, and he ever ex- 
hibited (in himself), I would say, the pattern of 
the wise man. But as our discourse at the out- 
set proposed to deal with the truth, and not with 
vain-glorious language, I shall not speak of him 
now as the exemplar of the wise man. And 
yet, if I chose to speak thus of him, I should 
not be far astray from the truth. Nevertheless, 
I pass that by at present. I shall not speak of 
him as a perfect pattern, but as one who vehe- 
mently desires to imitate the perfect pattern, 
and strives after it with zeal and earnestness, 
even beyond the capacity of men, if I may so 
express myself ; and who labours, moreover, also 
to make us, who are so different,” of like char- 
acter with himself, not mere masters and appre- 
henders of the bald doctrines concerning the 
impulses of the soul, but masters and appre- 
henders of these impulses themselves. For he 
pressed ® us on. both to deed and to doctrine, 
and carried us along by that same view and 
method,? not merely into a small section of each 
virtue, but rather into the whole, if mayhap we 
were able to take it in. And he constrained us 
also, if I may so speak, to practise righteousness 
on the ground of the personal action of the soul 
itself,*° which he persuaded us to study, drawing 
us off from the officious anxieties of life, and 

from the turbulence of the forum, and raising us 

to the nobler vocation of looking into ourselves, 

and dealing with the things that concern our- 

selves in truth, Now, that this is to practise 

righteousness, and that this is the true righteous- 

ness, some also of our ancient philosophers have 

asserted (expressing it as the personal action, I 

think), and have affirmed that this is more profit- 

able for blessedness, both to the men themselves 

and to those who are with them," if indeed it 

belongs to this virtue to recompense according 


5 The text is, aAA’ eet adAnbevav Huty, ov KouWelay emnyyetAaTo 
0 Adyos avwOev, The Latin rendering is, sed guta verttatem nobis, 
non pompam et ornatum promisit oratio in exordio. 

6 The text is, xatrou ye €imety éOcAwy eivat te aAnbés, Bengel 
takes the re as pleonastic, or as an error for the article, r’ aAnOés. The 
civat in €0¢Awv elvat he takes to be the use of the infinitive which 
occurs in such phrases as thy mpwrny elvat, znztio, éxwy elvar, liben- 
ter, To dé viv elvar, nunc vero, etc.; and, giving ¢0éAwy the sense 
of “éAAwyv, makes the whole = And yet I shall speak truth, 

7 The text is, kat nuas érépovs, The phrase may be, as it is 
given above, a delicate expression of difference, or it may perhaps 
be an elegant redundancy, like the French @ nous autres. Others 
read, kai nuas Kai éTépous, 

8 The reading in the text gives, ov Adywv éyxparets Kat ematy- 
Movas TOV TeEpi Oppaorv, Tov Se OpHwY a’T@Y* emi TA Epya Kat Adyous 
ayxwyv, etc. Others would arrange the whole passage differently, 
thus: mepi oppor, Tov Sé Opuwy avT@y emt Ta Epya Kai Tos Adyous 
ayxwv, Kat, etc. Hence Sirmondus renders it, a motibus ipsts ad 
opera etiam sermones, reading also aywy apparently. Rhodomanus 
gives, tmpulsionum ipsarum ad opera et verba ignavi et neglt- 
gentes, reading evidently apy@v. Bengel solves the difficulty by 
taking the first clause as equivalent to ov Acywy éyxpateis Kai emo- 
THMOVAS . , , AUT@Y TMV OPuwY eyKpaTels Kal EmtaTHpovas. We 
have adopted this as the most evident sense. Thus adyywy is re- 
tained unchanged, and is taken as a parallel to the following partici- 
ple ém.pépwv, and as bearing, therefore, a meaning something like 
that of avayxagwy, See Bengel’s note in Migne. 

9 Oewpia, 

10 $a rhv idtompayiav THs Wuxns, perhaps just ‘the private life.” 

II €avurois Te Kai Tois mpogiovacy. 





so orrt re nee 


to desert, and to assign to each his own. For 
what else could be supposed to be so proper to 
the soul? Or what could be so worthy of it, as 
to exercise a care over itself, not gazing out- 
wards, or busying itself with alien matters, or, to 
speak shortly, doing the worst injustice to itself, 
but turning its attention inwardly upon itself, 
rendering its own due to itself, and acting there- 
by righteously?! To practise righteousness after 
this fashion, therefore, he impressed upon us, if 
I may so speak, by a sort of force. And he 
educated us to prudence none the less, — teach- 
ing to be at home with ourselves, and to desire 
and endeavour to know ourselves, which indeed 
is the most excellent achievement of philosophy, 
the thing that is ascribed also to the most pro- 
phetic of spirits? as the highest argument of 
wisdom — the precept, Know thyse/f. And that 
this is the genuine function of prudence, and 
that such is the heavenly prudence, is affirmed 
well by the ancients; for in this there is one 
virtue common to God and to man; while the 
soul is exercised in beholding itself as in a mir- 
ror, and reflects the divine mind in itself, if it is 
worthy of such a relation, and traces out a cer- 
tain inexpressible method for the attaining of 
a kind of apotheosis. And in correspondence 
with this come also the virtues of temperance 
and fortitude: temperance, indeed, in conserv- 
ing this very prudence which must be in the soul 
that knows itself, if that is ever its lot (for this 
temperance, again, surely means just a sound 
prudence) :3 and fortitude, in keeping stedfastly 
by all the duties¢ which have been spoken of, 
without falling away from them, either voluntarily 
or under any force, and in keeping and holding 
by all that has been laid down. For he teaches 
that this virtue acts also as a kind of preserver, 
maintainer, and guardian. 


ARGUMENT XII.——- GREGORY DISALLOWS ANY ATTAIN- 
MENT OF THE VIRTUES ON HIS PART. PIETY IS 
BOTH THE BEGINNING AND THE END, AND THUS 
IT IS THE PARENT OF ALL THE VIRTUES. 


It is true, indeed, that in consequence of our 
dull and sluggish nature, he has not yet suc- 
ceeded in making us righteous, and prudent, 
and temperate, or manly, although he has laboured 
zealously on us. For we are neither in real pos- 
session of any virtue whatsoever, either human 
or divine, nor have we ever made any near ap- 
proach to it, but we are still far from it. And 
these are very great and lofty virtues, and none 
of them may be assumed by any common per- 
son,’ but only by one whom God inspires with 





I The text is, rd mpos éavrny elvat, Migne proposes either to 
read éavrovs, or to supply Thy Wux7v. 

2 6 8H Kai Satpovwr TO RavTiKwTaTw avaTideTal, 

3 gwdpocvvny, cwav Tiva ppovnery, an etymological play. 

4 émrndevoeoty, E or 

5 The text is, ovde r@ Tuxeiv, Migne suggests oddé ry Bets 
rvxeiv = nor is it legitimate for any one to attain them. 


ORATION AND PANEGYRIC ADDRESSED TO ORIGEN. 








33 
the power. We are also by no means so favour- 
ably constituted for them by nature, neither do 
we yet profess ourselves to be worthy of reaching 
them ; for through our listlessness and feebleness 
we have not done all these things which ought 
to be done by those who aspire after what is 
noblest, and aim at what is perfect. We are not 
yet therefore either righteous or temperate, or 
endowed with any of the other virtues. But this 
admirable man, this friend and advocate of the 
virtues, has long ago done for us perhaps all that 
it lay in his power to do for us, in making us 
lovers of virtue, who should love it with the most 
ardent affection. And by his own virtue he cre- 
ated in us a love at once for the beauty of right- 
eousness, the golden face of which in truth was 
shown to us by him; and for prudence, which 
is worthy of being sought by all; and for the 
true wisdom, which is most delectable ; and for 
temperance, the heavenly virtue which forms 
the sound constitution of the soul, and brings 
peace to all who possess it; and for manliness, 
that most admirable grace; and for patience, | 
that virtue peculiarly ours ;° and, above all, for 
piety, which men rightly designate when they 
call it the mother of the virtues. For this is the 
beginning and the end of all the virtues. And 
beginning with this one, we shall find all the 
other virtues grow upon us most readily: if, 
while for ourselves we earnestly aspire after this 
grace, which every man, be he only not abso- 
lutely impious, or a mere pleasure-seeker, ought 
to acquire for himself, in order to his being a 
friend of God and a maintainer? of His truth, and 
while we diligently pursue this virtue, we also 
give heed to the other virtues, in order that we 
may not approach our God in unworthiness and 
impurity, but with all virtue and wisdom as our 
best conductors and most sagacious priests. 
And the end of all I consider to be nothing but 
this: By the pure mind make thyself like ® to 
God, that thou mayest draw near to Him, and 
abide in Him. 





ARGUMENT XIII.— THE METHOD WHICH ORIGEN 
USED IN HIS THEOLOGICAL AND METAPHYSICAL 
INSTRUCTIONS. HE COMMENDS THE STUDY OF 
ALL WRITERS, THE ATHEISTIC ALONE EXCEPTED. 
THE MARVELLOUS POWER OF PERSUASION IN 
SPEECH. THE FACILITY OF THE MIND IN GIVING 
ITS ASSENT. 


And besides all his other patient and laborious 
efforts, how shall I in words give any account of 


© The text is, brouovys Humyv. Wossius and others omit the 
yue@v, The Stuttgart editor gives this note: ‘It does not appear 
that this should be connected by apposition with avépetas (manli- 
ness). But Gregory, after the four virtues which philosophers define 
as cardinal, adds two which are properly Christian, viz., patience, 
and that which is the hinge of all — rezy.” 

7 The word is mpoyyopov, It may be, as the Latin version puts 
it, famzliaris, one in fellowship with God. 

8 efouowwOnre mpoceAOery. Others read efouotwOerra mpomeAdberm 


34 


ORATION AND PANEGYRIC ADDRESSED TO ORIGEN. 





what he did for us, in instructing us in theology 
and the devout character? and how shall I enter 
into the real disposition of the man, and show 
with what judiciousness and careful preparation 
he would have us familiarized with all discourse 
about the Divinity, guarding sedulously against 
our being in any peril with respect to what is the 
most needful thing of all, namely, the knowledge 
of the Cause of all things? For he deemed it 
right for us to study philosophy in such wise, 
that we should read with utmost diligence all 
that has been written, both by the philosophers 
and by the poets of old, rejecting nothing,’ and 
repudiating nothing (for, indeed, we did not yet 
possess the power of critical discernment), ex- 
cept only the productions of the atheists, who, 
in their conceits, lapse from the general intelli- 
gence of man, and deny that there is either a 
God or a providence. From these he would 
have us abstain, because they are not worthy of 
being read, and because it might chance that 
the soul within us that is meant for piety might 
be defiled by listening to words that are contrary 
to the worship of God. For even those who 
frequent the temples of piety, as they think them 
to be, are careful not to touch anything that is 
profane? He held, therefore, that the books of 
such men did not merit to be taken at all into 
the consideration of men who have assumed the 
practice of piety. He thought, however, that 
we should obtain and make ourselves familiar 
with all other writings, neither preferring nor re- 
pudiating any one kind, whether it be philoso- 
phical discourse or not, whether Greek or foreign, 
but hearing what all of them have to convey. 
And it was with great wisdom and sagacity that 
he acted on this principle, lest any single saying 
given by the one class or the other should be 
heard and valued above others as alone true, 
even though it might not be true, and lest it 
might thus enter our mind and deceive us, and, 
in being lodged there by itself alone, might 
make us its own, so that we should no more 
have the power to withdraw from it, or wash our- 
selves clear of it, as one washes out a little wool 
that has got some colour ingrained in it. For 
a mighty thing and an energetic is the discourse 
of man, and subtle with its sophisms, and quick 
to find its way into the ears, and mould the 
mind, and impress us with what it conveys; and 
when once it has taken possession of us, it can 
win us over to love it as truth; and it holds its 
place within us even though it be false and de- 
ceitful, overmastering us like some enchanter, 
and retaining as its champion the very man it 
has deluded. And, on the other hand, the mind 





I undev éxmocovjevouvs. Casaubon marks this as a phrase taken 
from law, and equivalent to, szA77 alienum a nobis ducentes, 
2 The text is, }s otovrat. We render with Bengel. The Latin 








interpreter makes it = Even those who frequent the temples do not 
deem it cc.sistent with religion to touch anything at all profane. 


of man is withal a thing easily deceived by 
speech, and very facile in yielding its assent ; and, 
indeed, before it discriminates and inquires into 
matters in any proper way, it is easily won over, 
either through its own obtuseness and imbecility, 
or through the subtlety of the discourse, to give 
itself up, at random often, all weary of accurate 
examination, to crafty reasonings and judgments, 
which are erroneous themselves, and which lead 
into error those who receive them. And not 
only so; but if another mode of discourse aims 
at correcting it, it will neither give it admittance, 
nor suffer itself to be altered in opinion, because. 
it is held fast by any notion which has previously 
got possession of it, as though some inexorable 
tyrant were lording over it. 


ARGUMENT XIV.—WHENCE THE CONTENTIONS OF 
PHILOSOPHERS HAVE SPRUNG. AGAINST THOSE 
WHO CATCH AT EVERYTHING THAT MEETS THEM, 
AND GIVE IT CREDENCE, AND CLING TO IT. 
ORIGEN WAS IN THE HABIT OF CAREFULLY 
READING: AND EXPLAINING THE BOOKS OF THE 
HEATHEN TO HIS DISCIPLES. 


Is it not thus that contradictory and opposing 
tenets have been introduced, and all the conten- 
tions of philosophers, while one party withstands 
the opinions of another, and some hold by certain. 
positions, and others by others, and one school 
attaches itself to one set of dogmas, and another 
to another? And all, indeed, aim at philosophiz- 
ing, and profess to have been doing so ever since 
they were first roused to it, and declare that 
they desire it not less now when they are well 
versed in the discussions than when they began 
them: yea, rather they allege that they have 
even more love for philosophy now, after they 
have had, so to speak, a little taste of it, and 
have had the liberty of dwelling on its discus- 
sions, than when at first, and without any pre- 
vious experience of it, they were urged by a 
sort of impulse to philosophize. That is what 
they say ; and henceforth they give no heed to 
any words of those who hold opposite opinions. 
And accordingly, no one of the ancients has 
ever induced any one of the moderns, or those 
of the Peripatetic school, to turn. to his way of 
thinking, and adopt his method of philosophiz- 
ing ; and, on the other hand, none of the mod- 
erns has imposed his notions upon those of the 
ancient school. Nor, in short, has any one done 
so with any other.3 For it is not an easy thing 
to induce one to give up his own opinions, and’ 
accept those of others; although these might, 
perhaps, even be sentiments which, if he had 
been led to credit them before he began to phi- 
losophize, the man might at first have admired 





3 [The ultimate subjugation of Latin theology by Aristotelian phi- 
eopky is a deplorable instance of what is here hinted ai, and what 
Hippolytus has worked out. Compare Col. ii. 8.] 


‘ 


ae 


\ 


ORATION 


AND PANEGYRIC ADDRESSED TO ORIGEN. 


a0 





and accepted with all readiness: as, while the 
mind was not yet preoccupied, he might have 
directed his attention to that set of opinions, and 
given them his approval, and on their behalf op- 
posed himself to those which he holds at present. 
Such, at least, has been the kind of philosophiz- 
ing exhibited by our noble and most eloquent 
and critical Greeks: for whatever any one of 
these has lighted on at the outset, moved by 
some impulse or other, that alone he declares 
_ to be truth, and holds that all else which is 

. maintained by other philosophers is simply delu- 
sion and folly, though he himself does not more 
satisfactorily establish his own positions by argu- 
ment, than. do all the others severally defend 
their peculiar tenets; the man’s object being 
simply to be under no obligation to give up and 
alter his opinions, whether by constraint or by 
persuasion, while he has (if one may speak truth) 
nothing else but a kind of unreasoning impulse 
towards these dogmas on the side of philosophy, 
and possesses no other criterion of what he im- 
agines to be true, than (let it not seem an 
incredible assertion) undistinguishing chance.* 
And as each one thus becomes attached to those 
positions with which he has first fallen in, and is, 
as it were, held in chains by them, he is no 
longer capable of giving attention to others, if 
he happens to have anything of his own to offer 
on every subject with the demonstration of truth, 
and if he has the aid of argument to show how 
false the tenets of his adversaries are ; for, help- 
lessly and thoughtlessly and as if he looked for 
some happy contingency, he yields himself to 
the reasonings that first take possession of him.? 
And such reasonings mislead those who accept 
them, not only in other matters, but above all, 
in what is of greatest and most essential conse- 
quence — in the knowledge of God and in piety. 
And yet men become bound by them in such a 
manner that no one can very easily release them. 
For they are like men caught in a swamp stretch- 
ing over some wide impassable plain, which, 
when they have once fallen into it, allows them 
neither to retrace their steps nor to cross it and 
effect their safety, but keeps them down in its 
soil until they meet their end; or they may be 
compared to men in a deep, dense, and majestic 


forest, into which the wayfarer enters, with the | 


idea, perchance, of finding his road out of it 
again forthwith, and of taking his course once 





I The text is, od« GAAny Tuva (et Set 7’ GAnOes cimetv) EXwY 7H 
Thy mpos THs diAccodias emi Tade Ta Sdymata GAoyov Spur: Kat 
Kotgwv wy olerar adnOav (un mapddo£ov eimeiy f) ovK aAAQY H THY 
akpttov t¥xnv. Vossius would read, mpos Thy piAocodiay Kat émi 
rade Ta SOywara. Migne makes it=xxulla et erat alia sententia 
(s¢ verum est dicendum) nist cecus tlle stimulus quo ante philo- 
sophia studtum in ista actus erat plactta: neque aliud judictum 
corum que vera putaret (ne mirum sit dictu) nist fortune te- 
meritas. Bengel would read, mpd ris Prdogodias. aig 

2 The text is, éet Kat a&BonOyTos, cavTov xapioapevos Kai exde- 

Omevos eikh WaomTeEp Epua.ov, TOUS mpoxatadaBovaty avrov Adyots, 
engel proposes évdexomevov ... epuatov, as=lucrum inspera- 
tum, 





more on the open plain, but is baffled in his 
purpose by the extent and thickness of the 
wood. And turning in a variety of directions, 
and lighting on various continuous paths within 
it, he pursues many a course, thinking that by 
some of them he will surely find his way out: 
but they only lead him farther in, and in no way 
open up an exit for him, inasmuch as they are 
all only paths within the forest itself; until at 
last the traveller, utterly worn out and exhausted, 
seeing that all the ways he had tried had proved 
only forest still, and despairing of finding any 
more his dwelling-place on earth, makes up his 
mind to abide there, and establish his hearth, and 
lay out for his use such free space as he can pre- 
pare in the wood itself. Oragain, we might take 
the similitude of a labyrinth, which has but one 
apparent entrance, so that one suspects nothing 
artful from the outside, and goes within by the 
single door that shows itself; and then, after 
advancing to the farthest interior, and viewing 
the cunning spectacle, and examining the con- 
struction so skilfully contrived, and full of pas- 
sages, and laid out with unending paths leading 
inwards or outwards, he decides to go out again, 
but finds himself unable, and sees his exit com- 
pletely intercepted by that inner construction 
which appeared such a triumph of cleverness. 
But, after all, there is neither any labyrinth so 
inextricable and intricate, nor any forest so dense 
and devious, nor any plain or swamp so difficult 
for those to get out of, who have once got within 
it, as is discussion,* at least as one may meet with 
it in the case of certain of these philosophers.5 
Wherefore, to secure us against falling into the 
unhappy experience of most, he did not intro- 
duce us to any one exclusive school of philoso- 
phy; nor did he judge it proper for us to go 
away with any single class of philosophical opin- 
ions, but he introduced us to all, and determined 
that we should be ignorant of no kind of Grecian 
doctrine.© And he himself went on with us, 
preparing the way before us, and leading us by 
the hand, as on a journey, whenever anything 
tortuous and unsound and delusive came in our 
way. And he helped us like a skilled expert 
who has had long familiarity with such subjects, 
and is not strange or inexperienced in anything 





3 Kabapg—épxer, Sirmondus gives puro campo. Rhodomanus, 
reading aép., gives Suvoaére. Bengel takes épxos, septum, as deriv- 
atively = domus, fundus, regio septts munita, 

4 doyos. 

5 The text is, «t tus ein Kar avTav Tovdé TLvwY prdogddwr, 
Bengel suggests katavTav. 

6 [Beautiful testimony to the worth and character of Origen! 
After St. Bernard, who thought he was scriptural, but was blinded 
by the Decretals (no fault z 42%), Scripture and testimony (as de- 
fined to be the rule of faith by Tertullian and Vincent) ceased to gov- 
ern in the West; and by sydlogisms (see vol. y. p. 100) the Scholastic 
system was built up. This became the creed of a new church organi- 
zation created at Trent, a// the definitions of which are part of said 
creed. Thus the ‘‘ Roman-Catholic Church” (so called when cre- 
ated) is a new creation (of A.D. 1564), in doctrine ever zanovat- 
ing, which has the least claim to antiquity of any Church pretending 
to Apostolic origin. ] 


36 


ORATION AND PANEGYRIC ADDRESSED TO ORIGEN. 





of the kind, and who therefore may remain safe 
in his own altitude, while he stretches forth his 
hand to others, and effects their security too, as 
one drawing up the submerged. Thus did he 
deal with us, selecting and setting before us all 
that was useful and true in all the various phi- 
losophers, and putting aside all that was false. 
And this he did for us, both in other branches 
of man’s knowledge, and most especially in all 
that concerns piety. 


ARGUMENT XV.—THE CASE OF DIVINE MATTERS. 
ONLY GOD AND HIS PROPHETS ARE TO BE 
HEARD IN THESE. THE PROPHETS AND THEIR 
AUDITORS ARE ACTED ON BY THE SAME AFFLATUS. 
ORIGEN’S EXCELLENCE IN THE INTERPRETATION 
OF SCRIPTURE. 


With respect to these human teachers, indeed, 
he counselled us to attach ourselves to none of 
them, not even though they were attested as 
most wise by all men, but to devote ourselves to 
God alone, and to the prophets. And he him- 
self became the interpreter of the prophets' to 
us, and explained whatsoever was dark or enig- 
matical in them. For there are many things of 
that kind in the sacred words ; and whether it be 
that God is pleased to hold communication with 
men in such a way as that the divine word may 
not enter all naked and uncovered into an un- 
worthy soul, such as many are, or whether it be, 
that while every divine oracle is in its own nature 
most clear and perspicuous, it seems obscure 
and dark.to us, who have apostatized from God, 
and have lost the faculty of hearing through 
time and age, I cannot tell. But however the 
case may stand, if it be that there are some 
words really enigmatical, he explained all such, 
and set them in the light, as being himself a 
skilled and most discerning hearer of God; or 
if it be that none of them are really obscure in 
their own nature, they were also not unintelligible 
to him, who alone of all men of the present time 
with whom I have myself been acquainted, or 
of whom I have heard by the report of others, 
has so deeply studied the clear and luminous 
oracles of God, as to be able at once to receive 
their meaning into his own mind, and to convey 
it to others. For that Leader of all men, who 
inspires? God’s dear prophets, and suggests all 
their prophecies and their mystic and heavenly 
words, has honoured this man as He would a 
friend, and has constituted him an expositor of 
these same oracles; and things of which He 
only gave a hint by others, He made matters of 
full instruction by this man’s instrumentality ; 
and in things which He, who is worthy of all 
trust, either enjoined in regal fashion, or simply 





5 dropyrevor. 
© Umnxer 











enunciated, He imparted to this man the gift of 
investigating and unfolding and explaining them : 
so that, if there chanced to be any one.of obtuse 
and incredulous mind, or one again thirsting for 
instruction, he might learn from this man, and 
in some manner be constrained to understand 
and to decide for belief, and to follow God. 
These things, moreover, as I judge, he gives 
forth only and truly by participation in the Di- 
vine Spirit: for there is need of the same power 
for those who prophesy and for those who hear 
the prophets; and no one can rightly hear a 
prophet, unless the same Spirit who prophesies 
bestows on him the capacity of apprehending His 
words, And this principle is expressed indeed 
in the Holy Scriptures themselves, when it is said 
that only He who shutteth openeth, and no other 
one whatever ;3 and what is shut is opened when 
the word of inspiration explains mysteries. Now 
that greatest gift this man has received from God, 
and that noblest of all endowments he has had 
bestowed upon him from heaven, that he should 
be an interpreter of the oracles of God to men,‘ 
and that he might understand the words of God, 
even as if God spake them to him, and that he 
might recount them to men in such wise as that 
they may hear them with intelligences There- 
fore to us there was no forbidden subject of 
speech ;° for there was no matter of knowledge 
hidden or inaccessible to us, but we had it in 
our power to learn every kind of discourse, both 
foreign’? and Greek, both spiritual and political, 
both divine and human ; and we were permitted 
with all freedom to go round the whole circle of 
knowledge, and investigate it, and satisfy our- 
selves with all kinds of doctrines, and enjoy the 
sweets of intellect. And whether it was some 
ancient system of truth, or whether it was some- 
thing one might otherwise name that was before 
us, we had in him an apparatus and a power at 
once admirable and full of the most beautiful 
views. And to speak in brief, he was truly a 
paradise to us, after the similitude of the paradise 
of God, wherein we were not set indeed to till 
the soil beneath us, or to make ourselves gross 
with bodily nurture,’ but only to increase the 
acquisitions of mind with all gladness and enjoy- 
ment, — planting, so to speak, some fair growths 
ourselves, or having them planted in us by the 


| Author of all things. 


ARGUMENT XVI.— GREGORY LAMENTS HIS DEPART- 
URE UNDER A THREEFOLD COMPARISON ; LIKEN- 
ING If TO ADAM’S DEPARTURE OUT OF PARADISE, 


3 Isa. xxii. 22; Rev. iii. 7. [All these citations of the Scriptures 
should:be noted, but specially those which prove the general reception 
of the Apocalypse in the East. ] 

4 [A noble sentence. Eph. iii. 8, 9.] 

5 The text gives ws axovowotv, with Voss, and Bengel. The 
Paris editor gives axovovoty. 

appytov. 
7 Barbarian, 
® cwparorpode:» raxvvoudvovs. 


ORATION AND PANEGYRIC ADDRESSED TO ORIGEN. 


37 





TO THE PRODIGAL SON’S ABANDONMENT OF HIS 
FATHER’S HOUSE, AND TO THE DEPORTATION OF 
THE JEWS INTO BABYLON. 


Here, truly, is the paradise of comfort ; here 
are true gladness and pleasure, as we have en- 
joyed them during this period which is now at 
its end—no short space indeed in itself, and 
_ yet all too short if this is really to be its conclu- 
sion, when we depart and leave this place behind 
us. For I know not what has possessed me, or 
_ what offence has been committed by me, that I 
should now be going away — that I should now 
be put away. I know not what I should say, 
unless it be that I am like a second Adam and 
have begun to talk, outside of paradise. How 
excellent might my life be, were I but a listener 
to the addresses of my teacher, and silent my- 
self! Would that even now I could have learned 
to be mute and speechless, rather than to present 
this new spectacle of making the teacher the 
hearer! For what concern had I with such a 
harangue as this? and what obligation was there 
upon me to make such an address, when it be- 
came me not to depart, but to cleave fast to the 
place? But these things seem like the transgres- 
sions that sprung from the pristine deceit, and 
the penalties of these primeval offences still await 
me here. Do I not appear to myself to be dis- 
obedient ' in daring thus to overpass the words 
of God, when I ought to abide in them, and 
hold by them? And in that I withdraw, I flee 
from this blessed life, even as the primeval man 
fled from the face of God, and I return to the 
soil from which I was taken. Therefore shall I 
have to eat of the soil all the days of my life 
there, and I shall have to till the soil— the very 
soil which produces thorns and thistles for me, 
that is to say, pains and reproachful anxieties — 
set loose as I shall be from cares that are good 
and noble. And what I left behind me before, 
to that I now return —to the soil, as it were, 
from which I came, and to my common relation- 
ships here below, and to my father’s house — 
leaving the good soil, where of old I knew not 
that the good fatherland lay; leaving also the 
relations in whom at a later period I began to 
recognise the true kinsmen of my soul, and the 
house, too, of him who is in truth our father, in 
which the father abides, and is piously honoured 
and revered by the genuine sons, whose desire 
it also is to abide therein. But I, destitute alike 
of all piety and worthiness, am going forth from 
the number of these, and am turning back to 
what is behind, and am retracing my steps. It 
is recorded that a certain son, receiving from his 
father the portion of goods that fell to him pro- 
portionately with the other heir, his brother, de- 
parted, by his own determination, into a strange 





¥ Gwe@eiv, Bengel and Heeschelius rad ameAOetv, withdraw. 





country far distant from his father; and, living 
there in riot, he scattered his ancestral sub- 
stance, and utterly wasted it; and at last, under 
the pressure of want, he hired himself as a swine- 
herd ; and being driven to extremity by hunger, 
he longed to share the food given to the swine, 
but could not touch it. Thus did he pay the 
penalty of his dissolute life, when he had to ex- 
change his father’s table, which was a princely 
one, for something he had not looked forward 
to — the sustenance of swine and serfs. And we 
also seem to have some such fortune before us, 
now that we are departing, and that, too, with- 
out the full portion that falls to us. For though 
we have not received all that we ought, we are 
nevertheless going away, leaving behind us what 
is noble and dear with you and beside you, and 
taking in exchange only what is inferior. For 
all things melancholy will now meet us in suc- 
cession, — tumult and confusion instead of peace, 
and an unregulated life instead of one of tran- 
quillity and harmony, and a hard bondage, and 
the slavery of market-places, and lawsuits, and 
crowds, instead of this freedom; and neither 
pleasure nor any sort of leisure shall remain to 
us for the pursuit of nobler objects. Neither 
shall we have to speak of the words of inspira- 
tion, but we shall have to speak of the works of 
men, — a thing which has been deemed simply a 
bane by the prophet,? — and in our case, indeed, 
those of wicked men. And truly we shall have 
night in place of day, and darkness in place of 
the clear light, and grief instead of the festive 
assembly ; and in place of a fatherland, a hostile 
country will receive us, in which I shall have no 
liberty to sing my sacred song,3 for how could 
I sing it in a land strange to my soul, in which 
the sojourners have no permission to approach 
God? but only to weep and mourn, as I call 
to mind the different state of things here, if in- 
deed even that shall be in my power. We read + 
that enemies once assailed a great and sacred 
city, in which the worship of God was observed, 
and dragged away its inhabitants, both singers 
and prophets,5 into their own country, which 
was Babylon. And it is narrated that these cap- 
tives, when they were detained in the land, re- 
fused, even when asked by their conquerors, to 
sing the divine song, or to play in a profane 
country, and hung their harps on the willow-trees, 
and wept by the rivers of Babylon. Like one 
of these I verily seem to myself to be, as I am 
cast forth from this city, and from this sacred 


2 amdovds apa Tis elvat vevoutotat avdpt mpopytn. Migne refers 
us to Ps. xvii. 

3 Ps. cxxxvii. 

4 2 Kings xxiv., xxv. 

5 @soAdyous, used probably of the prophets here — namely of Eze- 
kiel, Daniel, and others carried into exile with the people. On this 
usage, see Suicer’s Thesaurus, under the word @e0Adyos, where from 
the pseudo-Areopagite Dionysius he cites the sentence, twv OcoAdywr 
els, 0 Zaxapias, and again, €répos Tay OeodAdywy ‘leextyA. 


38 


mi ee 


ORATION AND PANEGYRIC ADDRESSED TO ORIGEN. 





fatherland of mine, where both by day and by 
night the holy laws are declared, and hymns and 
songs and spiritual words are heard ; where also 
there is perpetual sunlight; where by day in 
waking vision ' we have access to the mysteries 
of God, and by night in dreams? we are still oc- 
cupied with what the soul has seen and handled 
in the day ; and where, in short, the inspiration 
of divine things prevails over all continually. 
From this city, I say, I am cast forth, and borne 
captive to a strange land, where I shall have no 
power to pipe:3 for, like these men of old, I 
shall have to hang my instrument on the willows, 
and the rivers shall be my place of sojourn, and 
I shall have to work in mud, and shall have no 
heart to sing hymns, even though I remember 
them ; yea, it may be that, through constant oc- 
cupation with other subjects, I shall forget even 
them, like one spoiled of memory itself. And 
would that, in going away, I only went away 
against my will, as a captive is wont to do; but 
I go away also of my own will, and not by con- 
straint of another ; and by my own act I am dis- 
possessed of this city, when it is in my option 
to remain in it. Perchance, too, in leaving this 
place, I may be going to prosecute no safe jour- 
ney, as it sometimes fares with one who quits 
some safe and peaceful city; and it is indeed 
but too likely that, in journeying, I may fall into 
the hands of robbers, and be taken prisoner, and 
be stripped and wounded with many strokes, and 
-be cast forth to lie half-dead somewhere. 


ARGUMENT XVII. — GREGORY CONSOLES HIMSELF. 


But why should I utter such lamentations ? 
There lives still the Saviour of all men, even of 
the half-dead and the despoiled, the Protector 
and Physician for all, the Word, that sleepless 
Keeper of all. We have also seeds of truth 
which thou hast made us know as our posses- 
sion, and all that we have received from thee, — 
those noble deposits of instruction, with which 
we take our course ; and though we weep, indeed, 
as those who go forth from home, we yet carry 
those seeds with us. It may be, then, that the 
Keeper who presides over us will bear us in 
safety through all that shall befall us; and it 
may be that we shall come yet again to thee, 








I The text is, kai pas TO HAtaxov Kat TO Sunverés, Nucpas Ue 
NUOV TPOTOMLAOVYTwY Tots BElos YOTHpPloLS Kal VUKTOS WY ev NMEPA 
elSé re Kal empagev H Wuxy Tais davtaciats Katexouevwy, Bengel 
proposes Uap for Uzep, so as to keep the antithesis between yuépas 
vmap and vuxros pavtagiais; and taking yuépas and vuxtds as 
temporal genitives, he renders the whole thus: cum znterdiu, per 
visa, divints aderamus sacramentis: et noctu earum rerum, 
guas viderat de die atgue egerat anima, imaginibus detinebamur. 

2 [“ Indreams I still renew the rites,” etc. — WILLIAM CROSWELL. | 

3 avAetv, The Jews had the harp, and so the word WdaAdAewy is 
used of them in the preceding. But here, in speaking of himself, 
Gregory adopts the term ovre avAciv, xe tibia guidemcanere. Ben- 
gel supposes that the verb is changed in order to convey the idea, 
that while the Jews only had to give up the use of instruments expres- 
sive of joyful feeling, Gregory feared he would himself be unable to 
play even on those of a mournful tone,— for in ancient times the 
pipe or flute was chiefly appropriated to strains of grief and sadness. 





bringing with us the fruits and handfuls yielded 
by these seeds, far from perfect truly, for how 
could they be so? but still such as a life spent 
in civil business + makes it possible for us to rear, 
though marred indeed by a kind of faculty that 
is either unapt to bear fruit altogether, or prone 
to bear bad fruit, but which, I trust, is one not 
destined to be further misused by us, if God 
grants us grace.> 


ARGUMENT XVIII. —- PERORATION, AND APOLOGY FOR 
THE ORATION. ; 


Wherefore let me now have done with this 
address, which I have had the boldness to deliver 
in a presence wherein boldness least became me. 
Yet this address is one which, I think, has aimed 
heartily at signifying our thanks to the best of 
our ability, — for though we have had nothing to 
say worthy of the subject, we could not be alto- 
gether silent, — and one, too, which has given 
expression to our regrets, as those are wont to 
do who go abroad in separation from friends. 
And whether this speech of mine may not have 
contained things puerile ov bordering on flattery, 
or things offending by excess of simplicity on 
the one hand, or of elaboration on the other, I 
know not. Of this, however, I am clearly con- 
scious, that at least there is in it nothing unreal, 
but all that is true and genuine, in sincerity of 
opinion, and in purity and integrity of judgment. 


ARGUMENT XIX.— APOSTROPHE TO ORIGEN, AND 
THEREWITH THE LEAVE-TAKING, AND THE URGENT 
UTTERANCE OF PRAYER. 


But, O dear soul, arise thou and offer prayer, 
and now dismiss us ; and as by thy holy instruc- 
tions thou hast been our rescuer when we enjoyed 
thy fellowship, so save us still by thy prayers in 
our separation. Commend us and set us con- 
stantly ®° before thee in prayer. Or rather com: 
mend us continually to that God who brought 
us to thee, giving thanks for all that has been 
granted us in the past, and imploring Him still 
to lead us by the hand in the future, and to stand 
ever by us, filling our mind with the understand- 
ing of His precepts, inspiring us with the godly 
fear of Himself, and vouchsafing us hencefor- 
ward His choicest guidance.?. For when we are 
gone from thee, we shall not have the same lib- 
erty for obeying Him as was ours when we were 





4 [He was still proposing for himself a life of worldly occupation: 
Here turn to Origen’s counsel, —a sort of reply to this Oration, — vol. 
iv. p. 393, and Cave’s Lzves, etc., vol. i. p. 400. } 

5 The text is, duepOappeévas méev TH Svvamer, 7 akdpTw 7H KaKo- 
Kdptw Tvl, py) Kat mpogdtahOapynoomeryp Sé map’ yuov,etc. Bengel 
reads p»év Tou for wév TH, and takes pH Kai as = utinam ne. 

6 rapadidov kat mapatibeco. 

7 éuBaddAovra nutyv Tov Oetov PoBoy avrov, mavdaywyoy apioTtor 
ésouevov, The Latin version makes the éoouevor refer to the éfov: 
divinumque nobts timorem suum, optimum pedagogum immit- 
oe = and inspiring with the godly fear of Himself as our choicest 
guide. 


i 


ELUCIDATION. | 39 








with thee.' Pray, therefore, that some encour- | we lose thy presence, and that He may send us a 

agement may be conveyed to us from Him when | good conductor, some angel to be our comrade 

eee tet the way. And entreat Him also to turn our 
lob yap év TH meta god EAcvOEpia Kat amedOdvTes UTaKOVaoMEY : . : 

av7Gé, Bengel paraphrases it thus: hac dibertate que tecum est course, for that is the one thing which above 


careho digressus; quare vereor ut Deo posthac paream, ni timore | all else will effectually comfort us, and bring us 
saltem munttus fuero. ee may probably have been only a cate- 


chumen at this period. This peroration favours the suspicion. ] back to thee again. 


ELUCIDATION. 


NEALE, in his valuable work,’ does full justice to Dionysius, whose life is szeinned with Grego- 
ry’s; but he seems to me most unaccountably to slight the truly great and commanding genius 
of Gregory. I take opportunity, then, to direct attention to Neale’s candid, and, on the whole, 
favourable view of Origen; but it grieves me whenever I see in critics a manifest inability to put 
themselves back into the times of which they write, as I think is the case, not infrequently, even 
with Dr. Neale. The figure of this grand ornament of the mighty patriarchate and school of 
Alexandria is colossal.2_ His genius is Titanic, and has left all Christendom profoundly his 
debtor to this day, by the variety of his work and the versatility of his speech and pen. Doubt- 
less the youthful Gregory’s panegyric does contain, as he himself suggests, much that is “ puerile 
or bordering on flattery ;”” but, as he protests with transparent truthfulness, “there is nothing in it 
unreal.” It shines with “ sincerity of thought and integrity of judgment.” And as such, what a 
portrait it presents us of the love and patient effort of this lifelong confessor! Let me commend 
this example to professors of theology generally. All can learn from it the power of sweetness 
and love, united with holiness of purpose, to stamp the minds and the characters of youth with the 


. divine “image and superscription.” 


But, as to the sharpness of modern censures upon Origen’s conspicuous faults, I must suggest 
three important considerations, which should be applied to all the Ante-Nicene doctors: (1) How 
could they who were working out the formulas of orthodoxy, be expected to use phrases with the 
skill and precision which became necessary only after the great Synodical period had embodied 
them in clear, dogmatic statements? (2) How could the active intellect of an Origen have 
failed to make great mistakes in such an immensity of labours and such a variety of works? (3) 
If, in our own day, we indulge speculative minds in large liberties so long as they never make 
shipwreck of the faith, how much more should we deem them excusable who were unable to con- 
sult libraries of well-digested thought, and to employ, as we do, the accumulated wealth of fifty 
generations of believers, whenever we are called to the solemn responsibility of impressing our 
convictions upon others? The conclusion of Dr. Neale’s review of Origen balances the praise 
and blame accorded to him by those nearest to his times ;3 but let us reflect upon the painful con- 
flicts of those times, and upon the pressure under which, to justify their own positions, they were 
often forced to object to any error glorified by even the apparent patronage of Origen. 





The Patriarchate of Alexandria, London, 1847. 
‘2 The ultimate influence of the school itself, Neale pronounces “ an enigma” (vol. i. p. 38). 3 Vol. i. p. 33. 


PART II.—DUBIOUS OR SPURIOUS WRITINGS. 


A SECTIONAL -CONFPESSION 


I. 


Most hostile and alien to the Apostolic Con- 
fession are those who speak of the Son as 
assumed to Himself by the Father out of noth- 
ing, and from an emanational origin ;? and those 
who hold the same sentiments with respect to 
the Holy Spirit ; those who say that the Son is 
constituted divine by gift and grace, and that 
the Holy Spirit is made holy ; those who regard 
the name of the Son as one common to servants, 
and assert that thus He is the first-born of the 
creature, as becoming, like the creature, existent 
out of non-existence, and as being first made, 
and who refuse to admit that He is the only- 
begotten Son, — the only One that the Father 
has, and that He has given Himself to be reck- 
oned in the number of mortals, and is thus 
reckoned first-born ; those who circumscribe the 
generation of the Son by the Father with a 
measured interval after the fashion of man, and 
refuse to acknowledge that the zon of the Be- 
getter and that of the Begotten are without 
beginning ; those who introduce three separate 
and diverse systems of divine worship,3 wheteas 
there is but one form of legitimate service which 
we have received of old from the law and the 
prophets, and which has been confirmed by the 
Lord and preached by the apostles. Nor less 
alienated from the true confession are those who 


1 Edited in Latin by Gerardus Vossius, O46. Greg. Thaum., 
Paris, 1662, in fol.; given in Greek from the Codex Vaticanus by 
Cardinal Mai, Scrzft. Vet., vii. p.170. Vossius has the following 
argument: This is a second Confession of Faith, and one widely 
different from the former, which this great Gregory of ours received 
by revelation. This seems, however, to be designated an €x@eats THs 
Kata épos miotews, either because it records and expounds the mat- 
ters of the faith only 2% fart, or because the Creed is explained in it 
ly F goat The Jesuit theologian Franc. Torrensis (the interpreter 
and scholiast of this éx@egus) has, however, rendered the phrase 
Kata pépos miotts, by the Latin fides non universa sed in parte. 
And here we have a fides non untversa sed in parte, according to 
him, —a creed not of all the dogmas of the Church, but only of some, 
in opposition to the heretics who deny them. [The better view. ] 

2 oi Tov Yiov é ovK dyTwy Kat amooTeAAojLEvnS apxns €ivac 
énixtnrov A€yovtes TH Ilatpi. [Note, Hxucontians = Anans. | 

3 axotwwvytous Kat féras cigayovtes Aatpetas, 


49 





OF - PATER? 


hold not the doctrine of the Trinity according 
to truth, as a relation consisting of three per- 
sons, but impiously conceive it as implying a 
triple being in a unity (Monad), formed in the 
way of synthesis,‘ and think that the Son is the 
wisdom in God, in the same manner as the human 
wisdom subsists in man whereby the man is wise, 
and represent the Word as being simply like the 
word which we utter or conceive, without any 
hypostasis whatever. 
Il. 


But the Church’s Confession, and the Creed 
that brings salvation to the world, is that which 
deals with the incarnation cf the Word, and 
bears that He gave Himself over to the flesh of 
man which He acquired of Mary, while yet He 
conserved His own identity, and sustained no 
divine transposition or mutation, but was brought 
into conjunction with the flesh after the simili- 
tude of man; so that the flesh was made one 
with the divinity, the divinity having assumed 
the capacity of receiving the flesh in the fulfill- 
ing of the mystery. And after the dissolution 
of death there remained to the holy flesh a per- 
petual impassibility and a changeless immor- 
tality, man’s original glory being taken up into it 
again by the power of the divinity, and being 
ministered then to all men by the appropriation 
of faith.s 

Ill. 


If, then, there are any here, too, who falsify 
the holy faith, either by attributing to the divinity 
as its own what belongs to the humanity — pro- 
gressions,° and passions, and a glory coming 
with accession? —or by separating from the 
divinity the progressive and passible body, as if 
subsisted of itself apart, — these persons also are 





4 éy wovads TO TpiTAOUY ageBOs KaTa TUVOECLY. 
5 é€v TH THS TiaTEws Oikewoet, 

© mpoxomas. 

7 Sogav thy éemcytvopndvny. 


A SECTIONAL CONFESSION OF FAITH. 


outside the confession of the Church and of 
salvation. No one, therefore, can know God 
unless he apprehends the Son; for the Son is 
the wisdom by whose instrumentality all things 
have been created; and these created objects 
declare this wisdom, and God is recognised in 
the wisdom. But the wisdom of God is not 
anything similar to the wisdom which man pos- 
sesses, but it is the perfect wisdom which pro- 
ceeds from the perfect God, and abides for 
ever, not like the thought of man, which passes 
from him in the word that is spoken and (straight- 
way) ceases to be. Wherefore it is not wisdom 
only, but also God; nor is it Word only, but 
also Son. And whether, then, one discerns God 
through creation, or is taught to know Him by 
the Holy Scriptures, it is impossible either to 
apprehend Him or to learn of Him apart from 
His wisdom. And he who calls upon God 
rightly, calls on Him through the Son; and he 
who approaches Him in a true fellowship, comes 
to Him through Christ. Moreover, the Son 
Himself cannot be approached apart from the 
Spirit. For the Spirit is both the life and the 
holy formation of all things;' and God send- 
ing forth this Spirit through the Son makes the 
creature ? like Himself. 


IV. 


One therefore is God the Father, one the 
Word, one the Spirit, the life, the sanctification 
of all. And neither is there another God as 
Father,3 nor is there another Son as Word of 
God, nor is there another Spirit as quickening 
and sanctifying. Further, although the saints 
are called both gods, and sons, and spirits, they 
are neither filled with the Spirit, nor are made 
like the Son and God. And if, then, any one 
makes this affirmation, that the Son is God, sim- 
ply as being Himself filled with divinity, and 
not as being generated of divinity, he has belied 
the Word, he has belied the Wisdom, he has 
lost the knowledge of God; he has fallen away 
into the worship of the creature, he has taken 
up the impiety of the Greeks, to that he has 
gone back; and he has become a follower of 
the unbelief of the Jews, who, supposing the 
Word of God to be but a human son, have re- 
fused to accept Him as God, and have declined 
to acknowledge Him as the Son of God. But 
it is impious to think of the Word of God as 
merely human, and to think of the works which 
are done by Him as abiding, while He abides 
not Himself. And if any one says that the 
Christ works all things only as commanded by 
the Word, he will both make the Word of God 





1 udpdwors THY SrAwY, 
2 Thy KTiow. } 
3 obra @ads érepos ws Tlarhp. 


41 


idle,* and will change the Lord’s order into ser- 
vitude. For the slave is one altogether under 
command, and the created is not competent to 
create ; for to suppose that what is itself created 
may in like manner create other things, would 
imply that it has ceased to be like the creature. 5 


Vv. 


Again, when one speaks of the Holy Spirit as 
an object made holy,° he will no longer be able 
to apprehend all things as being sanctified in 
(the) Spirit. For he who has sanctified one, 
sanctifies all things. That man, consequently, 
belies the fountain of sanctification, the Holy 
Spirit, who denudes Him of the power of sanc- 
tifying, and he will thus be precluded from num- 
bering Him with the Father and the Son; he 
makes nought, too, of the holy (ordinance of) 
baptism, and will no more be able to acknowl- 
edge the holy and august Trinity.?7 For either 
we must apprehend the perfect Trinity” in its 
natural and genuine glory, or we shall be 
under the necessity of speaking no more of a 
Trinity, but only of a Unity;* or else, not 
numbering? created objects with the Creator, 
nor the creatures with the Lord of all, we must 
also not number what is sanctified with what 
sanctifies ; even as no object that is made can 
be numbered with the Trinity, but in the name 
of the Holy Trinity baptism and invocation and 
worship are administered. For if there are three 
several glories, there must also be three several 
forms of cultus with those who impiously wor- 
ship the creature ; for if there is a distinction in 
the nature of the objects worshipped, there ought 
to be also with these men a distinction in the 
nature of the worship offered. What is recent '° 
surely is not to be worshipped along with what 
is eternal ; for the recent comprehends all that 
has had a beginning, while mighty and measure- 
less is He who is before the ages. He, there- 
fore, who supposes some beginning of times in 
the life of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, there- 
with also cuts off any possibility of numbering 
the Son and the Spirit with the Father. For as 
we acknowledge the glory to be one, so ought 
we also to acknowledge the substance in the 
Godhead to be one, and one also the eternity 
of the Trinity. 

VI. 


Moreover, the capital element of our salvation 
is the incarnation of the Word. We believe, 


4 apyov. 

5 ‘This seems the idea in the sentence, ov yap efiowobycerat re 
Kriguate avta kat’ ovdéva Tpdmoy, iv’ ws Um’ exeivov exTioTar, OUT! 
Kat avTo Ktion Ta GAAa, 

6 nytagpévov Troinna, 

? Trias, [See vol. ii. p. roz.] 

8 Monas, 

9 cvvapiOuerr 

10 +a mpoohare. 


42 


A SECTIONAL CONFESSION OF FAITH. 





therefore, that it was without any change in the | was God ;” 3 and there is a divinity present ac- 


Divinity that the incarnation of the Word took 
place with a view to the renewal of humanity. 
For there took place neither mutation nor trans- 
position, nor any circumscription in will, as re- 
gards the holy energy? of God; but while that 
remained in itself the same, it also effected the 
work of the incarnation with a view to the salva- 
tion of the world: and the Word of God, living 3 
on earth after man’s fashion, maintained likewise 
in all the divine presence, fulfilling all things, and 
being united+ properly and individually with 
flesh ; and while the sensibilities proper to the 
flesh were there, the divine energy maintained 
the impassibility proper to itself. Impious, there- 
fore, is the man who introduces the passibility 5 
into the energy. For the Lord of glory ap- 
peared in fashion as a man when He undertook 
the economy ° upon the earth; and Me fulfilled 
the law for men by His deeds, and by His suf- 
ferings He did away with man’s sufferings, and 
by His death He abolished death, and by his 
resurrection He brought life to light; and now 
we look for His appearing from heaven in glory 
for the life and judgment of all, when the resur- 
rection of the dead shall take place, to the end 
that recompense may be made to all according 
to their desert. 
VIL. 


But some treat the Holy Trinity” in an awful 
manner, when they confidently assert that there 
are not three persons, and introduce (the idea 
of) a person devoid of subsistence. Where- 
fore. we clear ourselves of Sabellius, who says 
that the Father and the Son are the same. For 
he holds that the Father is He who speaks, and 
that the Son is the Word that abides in the 
Father, and becomes manifest at the time of 
the creation,? and thereafter reverts to God on 
the fulfilling of all things. The same affirmation 
he makes also of the Spirit. We forswear this, 
because we believe that three persons — namely, 
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—are declared to 
possess the one Godhead: for the one divinity 
showing itself forth according to nature in the 
Trinity '° establishes the oneness of the nature ; 
and thus there is a (divinity that is the) property of 
the Father, according to the word, “There is one 
God the Father ;” ‘" and there is a divinity he- 
reditary ‘? in the Son, as it is written, “The Word 


I weptxAeropos ev vevmare. 

2 dvvapuur, 

3 wodtTewoapevos, 

4 ovyKexpapevos, 

S rd wados, 

6 Meaning here the whole work and business of the incarnation, 
and the redemption through the flesh. — MiGcNnE. 

7 Trias. 

8 avunoorarov, 

9 Snurovpyias, 

to Guoikas ev Tprade paprupoupdry. 

12 x Cor. viii. 6. 

12 warpgov. 





cording to nature in the Spirit — to wit, what 
subsists as the Spirit of God — according to 
Paul’s statement, “Ye are the temple of God, 
and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.” 4 


VIII. 


Now the person in each declares the inde- 
pendent being and subsistence.'5 But divinity is 
the property of the Father; and whenever the 
divinity of these three is spoken of as one, testi- 
mony is borne that the property ‘© of the Father 
belongs also to the Son and the Spirit: where- 
fore, if the divinity may be spoken of as one in 
three persons, the trinity is established, and the 
unity is not dissevered ; and the oneness which 
is naturally the Father’s is also acknowledged to 
be the Son’s and the Spirit’s. If one, however, 
speaks of one person as he may speak of one 
divinity, it cannot be that the two in the one are 
as one.'7 For Paul addresses the Father as one 
in respect of divinity, and speaks of the Son as 
one in respect of lordship: “There is one God 
the Father, of whom are all things, and we for 
Him ; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are 
all things, and we by Him.’’‘® Wherefore if 
there is one God, and one Lord, and at the 
same time one person as one divinity in one lord- 
ship,'? how can credit be given to (this distinc- 
tion in) the words “of whom” and “ by whom,” 
as has been said before? We speak, accordingly, 
not as if we separated the lordship from the 
divinity, nor as estranging the one from the other, 
but as unifying them in the way warranted by 
actual fact and truth; and we call the Son God 
with the property of the Father,?° as being His 
image and offspring; and we call the Father 
Lord, addressing Him by the name of the One 
Lord, as being His Origin and Begettor. 


IX. 


The same position we hold respecting the 
Spirit, who has that unity with the Son which 
the Son has with the Father. Wherefore let the 
hypostasis of the Father be discriminated by 
the appellation of God; but let not the Son be 
cut off from this appellation, for He is of God. 
Again, let the person of the Son also be discrimi- 
nated by the appellation of Lord; only let not 
God be dissociated from that, for He is Lord as 
being the Father of the Lord. And as it is 
proper to the Son to exercise lordship, for He 


13 John i. 1. 

4x Cor. iii. 6. 

1S ro elvar avTd Kal Upertavat Sydot, 

16 By the id.6rn7a Tov Matpds is meant here the divinity belong- 
ing to the Father. —MIGNg. 

17 ovx eoTw ds év Ta duo ev 7 évt, 

18 x Cor. viii. 6. 

19 xad’ 6 Oedtns Meas KUpLoTyTOS. 

20 r@ idtauate Tov Marpds. 


A SECTIONAL CONFESSION OF FAITH. 


43 





it is that made (all things) by Himself, and now 
rules the things that were made, while at the 
same time the Father has a prior possession of 
that property, inasmuch as He is the Father of 
Him who is Lord; so we speak of the Trinity 
as One God, and yet not as if we made the one 
by a synthesis of three: for the subsistence that 
‘is constituted by synthesis is something altogether 
partitive and imperfect.‘ But just as the desig- 
nation Father is the expression of originality 
and generation, so the designation Son is the 
expression of the image and offspring of the 
Father. Hence, if one were to ask how there 
is but One God, if there is also a God of God, 
we would reply that that is a term proper to the 
idea of original causation,? so far as the Father 
is the one First Cause.3 And if one were also 
to put the question, how there is but One Lord, 
if the Father also is Lord, we might answer that 
again by saying that He is so in so far as He is 
the Father cf the Lord; and this difficulty shall 
meet us no longer. 


X. 


And again, if the impious say, How will there 
not be three Gods and three Persons, on the 
supposition that they have one and the same 
divinity ? — we shall reply: Just because God is 
the Cause and Father of the Son; and this Son 
is the image and offspring of the Father, and not 
His brother; and the Spirit in like manner is 
the Spirit of God, as it is written, “God is a 
Spirit.”+ And in earlier times we have this dec- 
laration from the prophet David: “ By the word 
of the Lord were the heavens stablished, and all 
the power of them by the breath (spirit) of His 
mouth.’ And in the beginning of the book of 
the creation ° it is written thus: “ And the Spirit 
of God moved upon the face of the waters.”’7 
And Paul in his Epistle to the Romans says: 
“ But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, 
if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.’’® 
And again he says: “ But if the Spirit of Him 
that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, 
He that raised up Christ from the dead shall 
also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit 
that dwelleth in you.”9 And again: “As many 
as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the 
sons of God. For ye have not received the 
spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have re- 
ceived the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, 
Abba, Father.” '° And again: “I say the truth 
in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing 





A Mépos yap amav atedés To ovvOccews UptaTapuevoy, 
2 apxijs. 

: apx7. 
ohn iv. 24. 

; 'S. xxxili. 6. 

6 Koopomottas, 

Geni. 2, 

8 Rom. viii 9. 

9 Rom. viit. rz. 

10 Rom. viii 14, £8.’ 








me witness in the Holy Ghost.” "! And again: 
“ Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and 
peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, 
by the power of the Holy Ghost.” '? 


XI. 


And again, writing to those same Romans, he 
says: “But I have written the more boldly 
unto you in some sort, as putting you in mind, 
because of the grace that is given to me of God, 
that I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to 
the Gentiles, ministering the Gospel of God, 
that the offering up of the Gentiles might be 
acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost. 
I have therefore whereof I may glory through 
Jesus Christ in those things which pertain to 
God. For I dare not to speak of any of those 
things which Christ hath not wrought by me,"3 to 
make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed, 
through mighty signs and wonders, by the power 
of the Holy Spirit.”'4 And again: “ Now I 
beseech you, brethren, for our Lord Jesus Christ’s 
sake, and by the love of the Spirit.”*5 And 
these things, indeed, are written in the Epistle 
to the Romans.'® 

x: 


Again, in the Epistle to the Corinthians he 
says: “For my speech and my preaching was 
not in the enticing words of man’s wisdom, but 
in demonstration of the Spirit and of power; 
that your faith should not stand in the wisdom 
of men, but in the power. of God.’'7 And 
again he says: “As it is written, Eye hath not 
seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into 
the heart of man, the things which God hath 
prepared for them that love Him. But God 
hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for 
the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep 
things of God. For what man knoweth the 
things of a man, save the spirit of man which is 
in him? Even so the things of God knoweth 
no man, but the Spirit of God.” "8 And again 
he says: ‘“ But the natural man receiveth not the 
things of the Spirit of God.” 19 


XIII. 


Seest thou that all through Scripture the Spirit 
is preached, and yet nowhere named a creature ? 


Il Rom. ix. 1. 
12 Spa XV. 13. 

A reference to his canon, perhaps, recorded in 2 Cor. x. 13- 
aes ‘compare Rom. xv. 20. € canonists erect the discrimination 
between Orders and Misszon upon these texts and (Acts xiii. 2, 3, 
etc.) Gal. ii. 8,9. See vol. i p. 495, note 3] 

14 Rom. xv. 15-19. [Concerning muuch remarkable passage, see 
vol. v. p. 409, Elucidation I. 
: Rom. xv. 30. 

6 [It is evident that St. Paul founded the Church at Rome. St. 
Sale (see note 13, supra) could only have come to Rome to look after 
the Jewish disciples there. Elucidation, p. 47, 7n/ra.| 

17 x Cor. ii. 4, 5. 
18 x Cor. fi. g-1r. 
19 x Cor. ii. 14. 


44 


And what can the impious have to say if the 
Lord sends forth His disciples to baptize in the 
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of 
the Holy Spirit?: Without contradiction, that 
implies a communion and unity between them, 
according to which there are neither three divini- 
ties nor (three) lordships; but, while there 
remain truly and certainly the three persons, the 
real unity of the three must be acknowledged. 
And in this way proper credit will be given to 
the sending and the being sent? (in the God- 
head), according to which the Father hath sent 
forth the Son, and the Son in like manner sends 
forth the Spirit. For one of the persons surely 
could not (be said to) send Himself; and one 
could not speak of the Father as incarnate. 
For the articles of our faith will not concur with 
the vicious tenets of the heresies ; and it is right 
that our conceptions should follow the inspired 
and apostolic doctrines, and not that our impo- 
tent fancies should coerce the articles of our 
divine faith. 





XIV. 


But if they say, How can there be three Per- 
sons, and how but one Divinity?—we shall 
make this reply: That there are indeed three 
persons, inasmuch as there is one person of God 
the Father, and one of the Lord the Son, and 
one of the Holy Spirit ; and yet that there is but 
one divinity, inasmuch as the Son is the Image 
of God the Father, who is One, — that is, He is 
God of God; and in like manner the Spirit is 
called the Spirit of God, and that, too, of nature 
according to the very substance,3 and not accord- 
ing to simple participation of God. And there 
is one substance‘ in the Trinity, which does not 
subsist also in the case of objects that are made ; 
for there is not one substance in God and in the 
things that are made, because none of these is 
in substance God. Nor, indeed, is the Lord 
one of these according to substance, but there 
is one Lord the Son, and one Holy Spirit ; and 
we speak also of one Divinity, and one Lord- 
ship, and one Sanctity in the Trinity ; because 
the Father is the Cause5 of the Lord, having 
begotten Him eternally, and the Lord is the 
Prototype ® of the Spirit. For thus the Father 
is Lord, and the Son also is God; and of God 
it is said that “ God is a Spirit.” 7 


XV. 


We therefore acknowledge one true God, the 
one First Cause, and one Son, very God of very 


I Matt, xxviii. 19. 

2 The text is, oTw yap (Td amooTéAdov) kai TO amogTeAAGmevor, 
Oikelws av meTEVoLTO, KAO’ O, etc. 

3 huagikds Kat’ avThv THY ovciarv, 

4 ovcia, 

S apxy. 

6 mpwrdoruros. 


7 John iv. 24. 


A’ SECTIONAL CONFESSION, OF FAITH. 





nog OES ye 


i 





God, possessing of nature the Father’s divinity, 
—that is to say, being the same in substance 
with the Father ;® and one Holy Spirit, who by 
nature and in truth sanctifies all, and makes di- 
vine, as being of the substance of God.? Those 
who speak either of the Son or of the Holy 
Spirit as a creature we anathematize. All other 
things we hold to be objects made, and in sub- 
jection,’° created by God through the Son, (and) 

sanctified in the Holy Spirit. Further, we ac- 
knowledge that the Son of God was made a Son 
of man, having taken to Himself the flesh from 
the Virgin Mary, not in name, but in reality; 
and that He is both the perfect Son of God, and 
the (perfect) Son of man, — that the Person is. 
but one, and that there is one worship"! for the 

Word and the flesh that He assumed, And we 

anathematize those who constitute different wor- 

ships, one for the divine and another for the 
human, and who worship the man born of Mary 

as though He were another than the God of 

God. For we know that “in the beginning was 

the Word, and the Word was with God, and the 

Word was God.” ?? And we worship Him who 

was made man on account of our salvation, not 

indeed as made perfectly like in the like body, 

but as the Lord who has taken to Himself the 

form of the servant. We acknowledge the pas- 

sion of the Lord in the flesh, the resurrection 

in the power of His divinity, the ascension to 

heaven, and His glorious appearing when He 

comes for the judgment of the living and the 

dead, and for the eternal life of the saints. 


XVI. 


And since some have given us trouble by at- 
tempting to subvert our faith in our Lord Jesus 
Christ, and by affirming of Him that He was 
not God incarnated, but a man linked with God ; 
for this reason we present our confession on the 
subject of the afore-mentioned matters of faith, 
and reject the faithless dogmas opposed thereto. 
For God, having been incarnated in the flesh of 
man, retains also His proper energy pure, pos- 
sessing a mind unsubjected by the natural '* and 
fleshly affections, and holding the flesh and the 
fleshly motions divinely and sinlessly, and not 
only unmastered by the power of death, but 
even destroying death. And it is the true God 
unincarnate that has appeared incarnate, the per- 
fect One with the genuine and divine perfection ; 
and in Him there are not two persons. Nor do 


8 Note the phrase here, afterwards formulated, onoova.ov 7a 
Marpi. [This phrase, with abundant other tokens, makes it apparent 
that the work is not Gregory’s. It is further evident from section 
xviii. I should be glad to think otherwise. 

9 Kai Ocomotov Ex THS OVTLas TOU Meov UTapxov, 

10 SovAa, 

Il mpooxvvnow. 

12 John i. 1. 

13 loov év low yevouevov TH gaparé, 

14 Wouxixov, 


a 


A SECTIONAL CONFESSION OF FAITH. 


45 





we affirm that there are four to worship, viz.,| 
God and the Son of God, and man and the 
Holy Spirit. Wherefore we also anathematize 
those who show their impiety in this, and who 
thus give the #az a place in the divine doxology. 
For we hold that the Word of God was made 
man on account of our salvation, in order that 
we might receive the likeness of the heavenly, 
and be made divine’ after the likeness of Him 
who is the true Son of God by nature, and the 
Son of man according to the flesh, our Lord 





Jesus Christ. 
XVII. 


We believe therefore in one God, that is, in 
one First Cause, the God of the law and of the 
Gospel, the just and good; and in one Lord 
Jesus Christ, true God, that is, Image of the 
true God, Maker of all things seen and unseen, 
Son of God and only-begotten Offspring, and 
Eternal Word, living and self-subsistent and ac- 
tive,? always being with the Father; and in one 
Holy Spirit ; and in the glorious advent of the 
Son of God, who of the Virgin Mary took 
flesh, and endured sufferings and death in our 
stead, and came to resurrection on the third 
day, and was taken up to heaven; and in His 
glorious appearing yet to come ; and in one holy 
Church, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection 
of the flesh, and life eternal. 


XVIII. 


We acknowledge that the Son and the Spirit 
are consubstantial with the Father, and that the 
substance of the Trinity is one, — that is, that 
there is one divinity according to nature, the 
Father remaining unbegotten, and the Son being 
begotten of the Father in a true generation, and 
not in a formation by will,3 and the Spirit being 
sent forth eternally from the substance of the 
Father through the Son, with power to sanctify 
the whole creation. And we further acknowl- 
edge that the Word was made flesh, and was 
manifested in the flesh-movement* received of 
a virgin, and did not simply energize in a man. 
And those who have fellowship with men that re- 
ject the consubstantiality as a doctrine foreign to 
the Scriptures, and speak of any of the persons in 
the Trinity as created, and separate that person 
from the one natural divinity, we hold as aliens, 
and have fellowship with none such.5 There is 
one God the Father, and there is only one divin- 
ity. But the Son also is God, as being the true 
image of the one and only divinity, according to 
generation and the nature which He has from 


* Beorornbapev, 


2 évepyov, 
3 wornoes ex BovaAncews. oe 
4 xwnoe, [For the spiritual xuvjocs, vol. ili. note 6. p. 622.] 


5 [Evidently after the Nicene Council; the consubstantrality, as 
a phrase and test of orthodoxy, belonging to the Nicene period. ] 





the Father. There is one Lord the Son; but in 
like manner there is the Spirit, who bears over ® 
the Son’s lordship to the creature that is sancti- 
fied. The Son sojourned in the world, having of 
the Virgin received flesh, which He filled with 
the Holy Spirit for the sanctification of us all; 
and having given up the flesh to death, He 
destroyed death through the resurrection that 
had in view the resurrection of us all; and He 
ascended to heaven, exalting and glorifying men 
in Himself; and He comes the second time to 
bring us again eternal life. 


XIX. 


One is the Son, both before the incarnation 
and after the incarnation. The same (Son) is 
both man and God, both these together as 
though one ; and the God the Word is not one 
person, and the man Jesus another person, but 
the same who subsisted as Son before was made 
one with flesh by Mary, so constituting Himself 
a perfect, and holy, and sinless man, and using 
that economical position for the renewal of 
mankind and the salvation of all the world. 
God the Father, being Himself the perfect Per- 
son, has thus the perfect Word begotten of Him 
truly, not as a word that is spoken, nor yet again 
as a son by adoption, in the sense in which 
angels and men are called sons of God, but as a 
Son who is in nature God. And there is also 
the perfect Holy Spirit supplied” of God through 
the Son to the sons of adoption, living and life- 
giving, holy and imparting holiness to those 
who partake of Him,— not like an unsubstantial 
breath ® breathed into them by man, but as the 
living Breath proceeding from God. Wherefore 
the Trinity is to be adored, to be glorified, to be 
honoured, and to be reverenced; the Father 
being apprehended in the Son even as the Son 
is of Him, and the Son being glorified in the 
Father, inasmuch as He is of the Father, and 
being manifested in the Holy Spirit to the sanc- 
tified. 

xk? 


And that the holy Trinity is to be worshipped 
without either separation or alienation, is taught 
us by Paul, who says in his Second Epistle to 
the Corinthians: ‘‘The grace of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, and the love of God, and the com- 
munion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all.” 9 
And again, in that epistle he makes this expla- 
nation : “Now He which stablisheth us with you 
in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God, who 
hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the 
Spirit in our hearts.” '° And still more clearly 


© Staméumwv, 

7 Xopynyoumevov. 
8 rvonv. 

9 2 Cor. xiii. 13. 
10 2 Cor. i, 2x, 22. 


46 


A SECTIONAL CONFESSION OF FAITH. 





he writes thus in the same epistle: “When 
Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. 
Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the 
veil shall be taken away. Now the Lord is that 
Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, 
there is liberty. But we all with open face 
beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, 
are changed into the same image, from glory to 
glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” ! 


XXI. 


And again Paul says: “That mortality might 
be swallowed up of life. Now He that hath 
wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who 
also hath given unto us the earnest of the 
Spirit.”? And again he says: “ Approving our- 
selves as the ministers of God, in much patience, 
in afflictions, in necessities,”’3 and so forth. 
Then he adds these words: “ By kindness, by 
the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word 
of truth, by the power of God.” + Behold here 
again the saint has defined the holy Trinity, 
naming God, and the Word, and the Holy Ghost. 
And again he says: “ Know ye not that ye are 
the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God 
dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple 
of God, him shall God destroy.”5 And again : 
“But ye are washed, but ye are justified in the 
name of our Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our 
God.”® And again: “ What! knowye not that 
your bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost 
which is in you, which ye have of God?’’7 
“ And J think also that I have the Spirit of 
God.” 


XXII. 


And again, speaking also of the children of 
Israel as baptized in the cloud and in the sea, he 
says: ‘“ And they all drank of the same spiritual 
drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that 
followed them, and that Rock was Christ.’’ 9 
And again he says: “ Wherefore I give you to 
understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit 
of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man 
can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy 
Ghost. Now there are diversities of gifts, but 
the same Spirit. And there are differences of 
administrations, but the same Lord. And there 
are diversities of operations, but it is the same 
God which worketh all in all. But the mani- 
festation of the Spirit is given to every man to 
profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit 


2 Cor, ili. 15-18. 
2 Cor. v. 4, 5. 

2 Cor, vi. ry 

2 Cor. vi 

1 Cor. iii, te 17. 
I rad vi. 11. 

I 
1 
i 


Caernteowneaeunn 








the word of wisdom; to another the word of 
knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith 
by the same Spirit ; to another the gifts of heal- 
ing by the same Spirit; to another the working 
of miracles; to another prophecy; to another 
discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds 
of tongues; to another the interpretation of 
tongues: but all these worketh that one and the 
selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as 
He will, For as the body is one, and hath many 
members, and all the members of that one body, 
being many, are one body; so also is Christ. 
For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one 
body.” '° And again he says: “ For if he who 
comes preaches another Christ whom we have 
not preached, or ye receive another spirit that 
ye have received not, or another gospel which 
ye have not obtained, ye will nEnyy be kept 
back.” ™ 


XXIII. 


Seest thou that the Spirit is inseparable from 
the divinity? And no one with pious apprehen- 
sions could fancy that He is a creature. More- 
over, in the Epistle to the Hebrews he writes 


again thus : “How shall we escape, if we neglect 


so great salvation; which at the first began to 
be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto 
us by them that heard Him; God also bearing 
them witness, both with signs and wonders, and 
with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy 
Ghost?” 2, And again he says in the same epis- 
tle: “Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith, To- 
day, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your 
hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temp- 
tation in the wilderness; when your fathers 
tempted me, proved me, and saw my works 
forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that 
generation, and said, They do always err in their 
heart ; for'3 they have not known my ways: as I 
sware in my wrath, that they should not enter 
into my rest.’’"* And there, too, they ought to 
give ear to Paul, for he by no means separates 
the Holy Spirit from the divinity of the Father 
and the Son, but clearly sets forth the discourse 
of the Holy Ghost as one from the person of 
the Father, and thus as given expression to '5 by 
God, just as it has been represented in the be- 
fore-mentioned sayings. Wherefore the holy 
Trinity is believed to be one God, in accordance 
with these testimonies of Holy Scripture ; albeit 
all through the inspired Scriptures numberless 
announcements are supplied us, all confirmatory 
of the apostolic and ecclesiastical faith. 


10 x Cor. xii. 3-13. 
Ir Kahos ay ecxeae, 
12 Heb. ii. 3, 4. 

13 Scdte, 

14 Heb. iii. 7-11. 
3S eipnuévynve 


Referring perhaps to Gal. i. 8, 9. 


ELUCIDATION. 


A FRAGMENT OF THE SAME DECLARATION 
OF FAITH, ACCOMPANIED BY GLOSSES.! 


FROM GREGORY THAUMATURGUS, AS THEY SAY, IN 
HIS SECTIONAL CONFESSION OF FAITH. 


To maintain two natures? in the one Christ, 
makes a Tetrad of the Trinity, says he; for he 
expressed himself thus: “And it is the true God, 
the unincarnate, that was manifested in the flesh, 
perfect with the true and divine perfection, not 
with two natures ; nor do we speak of worship- 
ping four (persons), viz., God, and the Son of 
God, and man, and the Holy Spirit.” First, 
however, this passage is misapprehended, and is 
of very doubtful import. Nevertheless it bears 
that we should not speak of two persons in 
Christ, lest, by thus acknowledging Him as God, 
and as in the perfect divinity, and yet speaking 





47 


of two persons, we should make a Tetrad of the 
divine persons, counting that of God the Father 
as one, and that of the Son of God as one, and 
that of the man as one, and that of the Holy 
Spirit as one. But, again, it bears also against 
recognising two divine natures,3 and rather for 
acknowledging Him to be perfect God in one 
natural divine perfection, and not in two; for 
his object is to show that He became incarnate 
without change, and that He retains the divin- 
ity without duplication. Accordingly he says 
shortly : “And while the affections of the flesh 
spring, the energy’ retains the impassibility 
proper to it. He, therefore, who introduces the 
(idea of) passion into the energy is impious ; 
for it was the Lord of glory that appeared in 
human form, having taken to Himself the 
human economy.” 


t From the book against the Monophysites by Leontius of Jeru- 3 pices, 
salem, in Mai, Scrspt. Vet., vol. vii. p. 147. 4 adirAagtactws. 
2 dvoas. 5 dvvapcs. 


(The minister . . . to the Gentiles, p. 43.) 


Ir St. Peter had been at Rome, St. Paul would not have come there (2 Cor. x. 16). The two 
apostles had each his jurisdiction, and they kept to their own “line of things” respectively. How, 
then, came St. Peter to visit Rome? The answer is clear: unless he came involuntarily, as a 
prisoner, he came to look after the Church of the Circumctston,' which was “in his measure ;” 
and doubtless St. Paul urged him to this, the Hebrew Christians there being so large a proportion 
of the Church. St. Peter came “at the close of his life,’ doubtless attended by an apostolic 
companion, as St. Paul was, and Barnabas also (Acts xv. 39, 40). Linus probably laboured 
for St. Paul (in prison) among the Gentile Romans,? and Cletus for St. Peter among Jewish Chris- 
tians. St. Peter survived all his martyred associates, and left Clement in charge of the whole 
Church. This most probable theory squares with all known facts, and reconciles all difficulties. 
Clement, then, was first bishop of Rome (A.p. 65) ; and so says Tertullian, vol iii. p. 258, note 9. 

That compendious but superficial little work, Smith’s History of the First Ten Centurtes,3 
justly censures as “ misleading” the usage, which it yet keeps up, of calling the early bishops of 
Rome “ Popes.” 4 The same author utterly misunderstands Cyprian’s references to Rome as “a@ 
principal cathedra,” “a root and matrix,” etc.; importing into the indefinite Latin @ definite 
article. Cyprian applies a similar principle, after his master Tertullian (vol. iii. p. 260, this series), 
to all the Apostolic Sees, the ma¢rices of Christian churches. 

1 Origen says so, expressly. See Cave, Lives, i. p. 230. 2 2 Tim, iv. 21. 3 The Student's Eccl. Hist., London, 1878. 


4 It accepts the statement that the earliest application of this term, by way of eminence, to the Bishop of Rome, is found in Evnodius 
of Pavia, ct7ca A.D. 500. Robertson, vol. i. p. 560. 


ON THE 


FRAGMENT FROM 


Grecory THAUMATURGUS, Bishop of Neo-Cesa- 
teia in Pontus,? near successor of the apostles, 
in his discourse on the Trinity, speaks thus : — 

I see in all three essentials —substance, genus, 
name. We speak of man, servant, curator (cura- 
torem),—man, by reason of substance; ser- 
vant, by reason of genus or condition ; curator, 
by reason of denomination. We speak also of 
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: these, however, 
are not names which have only supervened at 
some after period, but they are subsistences. 
Again, the denomination of maz is not in actual 
fact a denomination, but a substance common to 
men, and is the denomination proper to all men. 
Moreover, names are such as these, — Adam, 
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob: these, I say, are names. 
But the Divine Persons are names indeed: and 
the names are still the persons ; and the persons 
then signify that which is and subsists, — which 
is the essence of God. The name also of the 
nature signifies subsistence ;3 as if we should 
speak of the man. All (the persons) are one 
nature, one essence, one will, and are called the 
Holy Trinity; and these also are names sub- 
sistent, one nature in three persons, and one 
genus. But the person of the Son is compos- 
ite in its oneness (wzifa est), being one made 
up of two, that is, of divinity and humanity 
together, which two constitute one. Yet the 
divinity does not consequently receive any in- 
crement, but the Trinity remains as it was. Nor 

does anything new befall the persons even or 
the names, but these are eternal and without 
time. No one, however, was sufficient to know 
these until the Son being made flesh manifested 
them, saying: “ Father, I have manifested Thy 
name to men; glorify Thou me also, that they 
may know me as Thy Son.”* And on the 
mount the Father spake, and said, “This is my 
beloved Son.”’5 And the same sent His Holy 


t Mai, Spice?. Rom., vol. iii. p. 696, from the Arabic Codex, ror. 
3 The Arabic Codex reads falsely, Cesareze Cappadociz. 
3 Or, the name signifies the subsistence of the nature — Vomen 
qhoyae nature significat subsistentiam. 
ohn xvii. 6, 
3 Matt. iii. 27. 
48 





7. ae wet hed 


TRINITY. 


THE DISCOURSE. 


Spirit at the Jordan. And thus it was declared 
to us that there is an Eternal Trinity in equal 
honour. Besides, the generation of the Son by 
the Father is incomprehensible and ineffable ; 
and because it is spiritual, its investigation be- 
comes impracticable: for a spiritual object can 
neither be understood nor traced by a corporeal 
object, for that is far removed from human 
nature. We men know indeed the generation 
proper to us, as also that of other objects; but 
a spiritual matter is above human condition, 
neither can it in any manner be understood by 
the minds of men. Spiritual substance can 
neither perish nor be dissolved ; ours, however, 
as is easy to understand, perishes and is dis- 
solved. How, indeed, could it be possible for 
man, who is limited on six sides — by east, west, 
south, north, deep, and sky — understand a mat- 
ter which is above the skies, which is beneath 
the deeps, which stretches beyond the north and 
south, and which is present in every place, and 
fills all vacuity? But if, indeed, we are able to 
scrutinize spiritual substance, its excellence truly 
would be undone. Let us consider what is done 
in our body ; and, furthermore, let us see whether 
it is in our power to ascertain in what manner 
thoughts are born of the heart, and words of the 
tongue, and the like. Now, if we can by no 
means apprehend things that are done in our- 
selves, how could it ever be that we should un- 
derstand the mystery of the uncreated Creator, 
which goes beyond every mind? Assuredly, if 
this mystery were one that could be penetrated 
by man, the inspired John would by no means 
have affirmed this: “ No man hath seen God at 
any time.” ® He, then, whom no man hath seen 
at any time,—whom can we reckon Him to 
resemble, so that thereby we should understand 
His generation? And we, indeed, without am- 
biguity apprehend that our soul dwells in us in 
union with the body; but still, who has ever 
seen his own soul? who has been able to dix 
cern its conjunction with his body? This one 


6 John i, 18, 


ia balla 


ELUCIDATION. 


49 





thing is all we know certainly, that there is a 
soul within us conjoined with the body. Thus, 
then, we reason and believe that the Word is 
begotten by the Father, albeit we neither possess 
nor know the clear rationale of the fact. The 
Word Himself is before every creature — eter- 
nal from the Eternal, like spring from spring, 
and light from light. The vocable Word, in- 
deed, belongs to those three genera of words 
which are named in Scripture, and which are 
not substantial, — namely, the word conceived, 
the word wtered and the word articulated 
The word conceived, certainly, is not substantial. 
The word wéfered, again, is that voice which the 
prophets hear from God, or the prophetic speech 
itself; and even this is not substantial. And, 
lastly, the word articulazed is the speech of man 
formed forth in air (aére efformatus), composed 
of terms, which also is not substantial.4 But 
the Word of God is substantial, endowed with 
an exalted and enduring nature, and is eternal 
with Himself, and is inseparable from Him, and 


3 ro Kar’ évvovav, 
3 mpopoptov, 





can never fall away, but shall remain in an ever- 
lasting union. This Word created heaven and 
earth, and in Him were all things made. He is 
the arm and the power of God, never to be 
separated from the Father, in virtue of an indi- 
visible nature, and, together with the Father, He 
is without beginning. This Word took our sub- 
stance of the Virgin Mary; and in so far as He 
is spiritual indeed, He is indivisibly equal with 
the Father ; but in so far as He is corporeal, He 
is in like manner inseparably equal with us. 
And, again, in so far as He is spiritual, He sup- 
plies in the same equality (eguipara?) the Holy 
Spirit, inseparably and without limit. Neither 
were there two natures, but only one nature of 
the Holy Trinity before the incarnation of the 
Word, the Son; and the nature of the Trinity 
remained one also after the incarnation of the 
Son. But if any one, moreover, believes that 
any increment has been given to the Trinity by 
reason of the assumption of humanity by the 
Word, he is an alien from us, and from the min- 
istry of the Catholic and Apostolic Church. This 
is the perfect, holy, Apostolic faith of the holy 


3 apOprKov, God. Praise to the Holy Trinity for evel 
4 
wi ah aceite oan os bic: Fathers in Eo uub deTrin., through the a ges o f the a ges. Amen. 


ELUCIDATION: 


Petavius, to whom the translator refers his readers, may be trusted in points where he has no 
theory of his own to sustain, but must always be accepted with caution. The Greek Fathers in 
this very series, from Justin ' onward, enable us to put the later terminology to the test of earlier 
exposition (see examples in the notes to the Praxeas of Tertullian, and consult Dr. Holmes’ 
valuable note embodied in my elucidations).2 We may go back to Theophilus for the distinction 
between the évdidOeros and the rpodopixds, the immanent and the uttered Word.3 Compare Ter- 
tullian, also, against Marcion.t Evidences, therefore, are abundant and archaic, indeed, to prove 
that the Ante-Nicene Fathers, with those of the Nicene and the Post-Nicene periods, were of one 
mind, and virtually of one voice. 


1 Vol. i. pp. 164, 166, 170, 178, 190-193, 263, 272; Irenzeus, /d7d., 468, 546, etc. 
2 Vol. iii. p. 628. Compare (same volume) notes 15, p. 602, and 1, p. 604. 
3 Vol. ii. p. 98, notes 1, 2; also p. 103, note 5. 4 Vol. iii. p. 299, note 19. 


TWELVE TOPICS 


ON VTE “PAERE: 


WHEREIN IS GIVEN ALSO THE FORMULA OF EXCOMMUNICATION, AND AN EXPLI 
CATION IS SUBJOINED TO EACH: 


TOPIC I. 


Ir any one says that the body of Christ is un- 
created, and refuses to acknowledge that He, 
being the uncreated Word (God) of God, took 
the flesh of created humanity and appeared incar- 
nate, even as it is written, let him be anathema. 


EXPLICATION. 


How could the body be said to be uncreated ? 
For the uncreated is the passionless, invulnerable, 
intangible. But Christ, on rising from the dead, 
showed His disciples the print of the nails and 
the wound made by the spear, and a body that 
could be handled, although He also had entered 
among them when the doors were shut, with the 
view of showing them at once the energy of 
the divinity and the reality of the body. 

Yet, while being God, He was recognised as 
man in a natural manner; and while subsisting 
truly as man, He was also manifested as God 
by His works.? 


TOPICEIL 


If any one affirms that the flesh of Christ is 
consubstantial with the divinity, and refuses to 
acknowledge that He, subsisting Himself in the 
form of God as God before all ages, emptied 
Himself and took the form of a servant, even as 
it is written, let him be anathema. 


EXPLICATION. 

How could the flesh, which is conditioned by 
time, be said to be consubstantial 3 with the time- 
less divinity? For that is designated consubstan- 
tial which is the same in nature and in eternal 
duration without variableness. 


TOPIC IIl. 


If any one affirms that Christ, just like one of 
the prophets, assumed the perfect man, and re- 


fuses to acknowledge that, being begotten in the 
flesh of the Virgin,t He became man and was 
born in Bethlehem, and was brought up in Naz- 
areth, and advanced in age, and on complet- 
ing the set number of years (appeared in public 
and) was baptized in the Jordan, and received 
this testimony from the Father, “This is my 
beloved Son,” 5 even as it is written, let him be 
anathema. 
EXPLICATION. 


How could it be said that Christ (the Lord) 
assumed the perfect man just like one of the 
prophets, when He, being the Lord Himself, be- 
came man by the incarnation effected through 
the Virgin? Wherefore it is written, that “the 
first man was of the earth, earthy.” © But whereas 
he that was formed of the earth returned to the 
earth, He that became the second man returned 
to heaven. And so we read of the “ first Adam 
and the last Adam.’’?7 And as it is admitted 
that the second came by the first according to 
the flesh, for which reason also Christ is called 
man and the Son of man; so is the witness given 
that the second is the Saviour of the first, for 
whose sake He came down from heaven. And 
as the Word came down from heaven, and was 
made man, and ascended again to heaven, He is 
on that account said to be the second Adam 
from heaven. 


TOPIC@IV. 


If any one affirms that Christ was born of the 
seed of man by the Virgin, in the same manner 
as all men are born, and refuses to acknowledge 
that He was made flesh by the Holy Spirit and 
the holy Virgin Mary, and became man of the 
seed of David, even as it is written, let him be 
anathema. 

EXPLICATION. 

How could one say that Christ was born of 

the seed of man by the Virgin, when the holy 





2 Works of Grester, vol. xv. p. 434, Ratisbon, 1741, in fol., from 
a manuscript codex. east 

2 This paragraph is wanting in a very ancient copy. 

3 OQmoovgios, 


5° 





4 Reading é« mapOévov for é« ma@dvtos. 
5 Matt. ili. 17. 

© x Cor, xv. 47. 

7 x Cor. xv. 45. 


IWELVE TOPICS “ON; THE FAITE. 


51 





Gospel and the angel, in proclaiming the good 
tidings, testify of Mary the Virgin that she said, 
“ How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?’’! 
Wherefore he says, “The Holy Ghost shall come 


upon thee, and the power of the highest shall| 


overshadow thee : therefore also that holy thing 
which shall be born of thee shall be called the 
Son of the Highest.’’?_ And to Joseph he says, 
“Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for 
that which is conceived in her is of the Holy 
Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and 
they shall call His name Jesus: for He shall 
save His people from their sins.’’ 3 


TOPIC V. 


If any one affirms that the Son of God who 
is before the ages is one, and He who has ap- 
peared in these last times is another, and refuses 
to acknowledge that He who is before the ages 
is the same with Him who appeared in these 
last times, even as it is written, let him be 
anathema. 


EXPLICATION. 


How could it be said that the Son of God 
who is before the ages, and He who has ap- 
peared in these last times, are different, when 
the Lord Himself says, “Before Abraham was, 
Iam;’’4 and, “I came forth from God, and I 
come, and again I go to my Father?”’5 


TOPIC VI. 


If any one affirms that He who suffered is 
one, and that He who suffered not is another, 
and refuses to acknowledge that the Word, who 
is Himself the impassible and unchangeable 
God, suffered_in the flesh which He had assumed 
really, yet without mutation, even as it is written, 
let him be anathema. 


EXPLICATION. 


How could it be said that He who suffered is 
one, and He who suffered not another, when 
the Lord Himself says, “The Son of man must 
suffer many things, and be killed, and be raised 
again the third day from the dead ;”° and again, 
““When ye see the Son of man sitting on the 
right hand of the Father ;”7 and again, ‘“‘ When 
the Son of man cometh in the glory of His 
Father?” 8 





t Luke i. 34. 

2 Luke i. a 

3 Matt. i. 20, 21. 

4 John viii. 58. 

5 John xiii. and xvi. 

© Matt. xvi, 21, 

7 Matt, xxvi. 64; Mark xiv. 62. 
8 Matt. xvi. 27. 














TOPIC VII. 


If any one affirms that Christ is saved, and 
refuses to acknowledge that He is the Saviour 
of the world, and the Light of the world, even 
as it is written,? let him be anathema. 


EXPLICATION, 


How could one say that Christ is saved, when 
the Lord Himself says, “‘I am the life ;” *° and, 
“Tam come that they might have life ;” '" and, 
“He that believeth on me shall not see death, 
but he shall behold the life eternal ?”’ 7 


TOPIC VILE 


If any one affirms that Christ is perfect man 
and also God the Word in the way of separation,"3 
and refuses to acknowledge the one Lord Jesus 
Christ, even as it is written, let him be anathema. 


EXPLICATION, 


How could one say that Christ is perfect man 
and also God the Word in the way of separa- 
tion, when the Lord Himself says, “ Why seek 
ye to kill me, a man that hath told you the 
truth, which I have heard of God?” "4 For God 
the Word did not give a man for us, but He 
gave Himself for us, having been made man 
for our sake. Wherefore He says: “ Destroy 
this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. 
But He spake of the temple of His body.” '5 


TOPIC IX. 


If any one says that Christ suffers change or 
alteration, and refuses to acknowledge that He 
is unchangeable in the Spirit, though corrupti- 
ble *° in the flesh,'? let him be anathema. 


EXPLICATION. 


How could one say that Christ suffers change 
or alteration, when the Lord Himself says, “I 
am, and I change not ;”’'8 and again, “ His soul 
shall not be left in Hades, neither shall His flesh 
see corruption ?’’ 19 


TOPIC X. 


If any one affirms that Christ assumed the 
man only in part, and refuses to acknowledge 
that He was made in all things like us, apart 
from sin, let him be anathema. 





9 Isa. ix.; Matt. iv.; John i., iii., viii., ix., xii. 
10 John xi. 25, xiv. 6. 
It John x. ro. 
12 John viii. 51. 
13 Scacpetws, 
14 John viii. 40. 
1S Or, and incorruptible. 
16 John ii. 20, 21. ; 
17 [Christ’s flesh being incorruptible, transubstantiation cannot be 
true: the holy food is digested in its material part. 
18 Mal. ili. 6. 
19 Ps, xvi. 10; Acts i. 32. 


52 TWELVE TOPICS 


TNO TON a 


ON THE FAITH. 





EXPLICATION. 


_ How could one say that Christ assumed the 
man only in part, when the Lord Himself says, 
“T lay down my life, that I might take it again, 
for the sheep ;””! and, “ My flesh is meat indeed, 
and my blood is drink indeed ;”? and, “ He 
that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, 
hath eternal life ?” 3 


TOPIC XI. 


‘If any one affirms that the body of Christ is 
void of soul and understanding,‘ and refuses to 
acknowledge that He is perfect man, one and 
the same in all things (with us), let him be 
anathema. 

EXPLICATION. 


How could one say that the body of the 
Lord (Christ) is void of soul and understand- 
ing? For perturbation, and grief, and distress, 
are not the properties either of a flesh void of 
soul, or of a soul void of understanding; nor 
are they the sign of the immutable Divinity, nor 
the index of a mere phantasm, nor do they 
mark the defect of human weakness; but the 
Word exhibited in Himself the exercise of the 
affections and susceptibilities proper to us, hav- 
ing endued Himself with our passibility, even as 
it is written, that “‘He hath borne our griefs, 
and carried our sorrows.” 5 For perturbation, 
and grief, and distress, are disorders of soul; 
and toil, and sleep, and the body’s liability to 
wounding, are infirmities of the flesh. 





TOPIC XII. 


If any one says that Christ was manifested in 
the world only in semblance, and refuses to 
acknowledge that He came actually in the flesh, 
let him be anathema. 


EXPLICATION. 


How could one say that Christ was manifested 
only in semblance in the world, born as He was 
in Bethlehem, and made to submit to the cir- 
cumcising of the flesh, and lifted up by Simeon, 
and brought up on to His twelfth year (at 
home), and made subject to His parents, and 
baptized in Jordan, and nailed to the cross, and 
raised again from the dead? 

Wherefore, when it is said that He was 
“troubled in spirit,’’® that “He was sorrowful 
in soul,”7 that “ He was wounded in body,’ ® 
He places before us designations of suscepti- 
bilities proper to our constitution, in order to 





3 John x. 17. 

2 John vi. 55. 

3 John vi. 56. 

4 aluyov Kat avéntoy, 

5 Isa. Tit. 4 

6 John xi. 33, xii, 27, xill. a2. 
7 Matt. xxvi. 38. 

$ Isa. lili. 5. 


show that He was made man in the world, and 
had His conversation with men,? yet without 
sin. For He was born in Bethlehem according 
to the flesh, ina manner meet for Deity, the 
angels of heaven recognising Him as their Lord, 
and hymning as their God Him who was then 
wrapped in swaddling-clothes in a manger, and 
exclaiming, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and 
on earth peace, good-will among men.” '° He 
was brought up in Nazareth; but in divine fash- 
ion He sat among the doctors, and astonished 
them by a wisdom beyond His years, in respect 
of the capacities of His bodily life, as is recorded 
in the Gospel narrative. He was baptized in 
Jordan, not as receiving any sanctification for 
Himself, but as gifting a participation in sanc- 
tification to others. He was tempted in the 
wilderness, not as giving way, however, to temp- 
tation, but as putting our temptations before Him- 
self on the challenge of the tempter, in order 
to show the powerlessness of the tempter. 

Wherefore He says, “ Be of good cheer, I have 
overcome the world.” '' And this He said, not 
as holding before us any contest proper only 
to a God, but as showing our own flesh in its 
capacity to overcome suffering, and death, and 
corruption, in order that, as sin entered into the 
world by flesh, and death came to reign by sin 
over all men, the sin in the flesh might also be 
condemned through the selfsame flesh in the 
likeness thereof ;'? and that that overseer of sin, 
the tempter, might be overcome, and death be 
cast down from its sovereignty, and the corrup- 
tion in the burying of the body be done away, 
and the first-fruits of the resurrection be shown, 
and the principle of righteousness begin its 
course in the world through faith, and the king- 
dom of heaven be preached to men, and fellow- 
ship be established between God and men. 

In behalf of this grace let us glorify the Father, 
who has given His only begotten Son for the life 
of the world. Let us glorify the Holy Spirit that 
worketh in us, and quickeneth us, and furnisheth 
the gifts meet for the fellowship of God ; and let 
us not intermeddle with the word of the Gospel 
by lifeless disputations, scattering about endless 
questionings and logomachies, and making a hard 
thing of the gentle and simple word of faith; 
but rather let us work the work of faith, let us 
love peace, let us exhibit concord, let us preserve 
unity, let us cultivate love, with which God is 
well pleased. 

As it is not for us to know the times or the 
seasons which the Father hath put in His own 
power,"3 but only to believe that there will come 
an end to time, and that there will be a manifes- 


9 Baruch iii. 38. 

10 Luke ii, 14. 

Ir Jenn xvi. 33. 

12 Rom. v. 12, Vili. 3. 
13 Acts i. 7. 


ELUCIDATION. 


Do 





tation of a future world, and a revelation of judg- 
ment, and an advent of the Son of God, and a 
recompense of works, and an inheritance in the 
kingdom of heaven, so it is not for us to know 
how the Son of God became man; for this is a 
great mystery, as it is written, “ Who shall declare 
His generation? for His life is taken from the 
earth.”* But it is for us to believe that the Son 
of God became man, according to the Scriptures ; 
and that He was seen on the earth, and had His 
conversation with men, according to the Scrip- 





1 Isa. lili. 8. 





tures, in their likeness, yet without sin ; and that 
He died for us, and rose again from the dead, 
as it is written; and that He was taken up to 
heaven, and sat down at the right hand of the 
Father, whence He shall come to judge the 
quick and the dead, as it is written ; lest, while 
we war against each other with words, any should 
be led to blaspheme the word of faith, and that 
should come to pass which is written, “ By reason 
of you is my name? continually blasphemed 
among the nations.” 3 





2 Or, the name of God. 
3 Isa. lii. 5. 


ELUCIDATION, 


TueEsE “twelve anathemas,” as they are called, do evidently refute the Nestorians and later 


heretics. 


Evidently, therefore, we must assign this document to another author. 


And, as frequent 


references are made to such tests, I subjoin a list of GEcumenical or Catholic Councils, properly 


so called, as follows : — 


1. JERUSALEM, 


2. Nica, ee 
3. CONSTANTINOPLE (I.), é 
4. EPHESUS, ct 
5. CHALCEDON, 3 
6. CONSTANTINOPLE (II.), eS 


7. CONSTANTINOPLE (III.), “ 


These are all the undisputed councils. 


free council, and was rejected by a free council of the West, convened at Frankfort a.D. 794. 


against Fudaism,' 


A:D.. 80; 
Arianism (1)? ADs 32k. 
Semt-Arianism (2), A.D. 381. 
Nestorianism (3), A.D. 431. 
LEutychianism (4), AD. 451. 
Monophysitism (5), A.D. 553. 
Monothehtism (6),3 a.D. 680.4 


The Seventh Council, so called (A.D. 537), was not a 


Its 


acceptance by the Roman pontiffs, subsequently, should have no logical force with the Easterns, 
who do not recognise their supremacy even over the councils of the West; and no free council 
has ever been held under pontifical authority. The above list, therefore, is a complete list of all 
the councils of the undivided Church as defined by Catholic canons. There has been no possi- 
bility of a Cathofic council since the division of East and West. The Council of Frankfort is the 
pivot of subsequent history, and its fundamental importance has not been sufficiently insisted 


upon. 


I As widely different from the other councils as the Apostles from their successors, and part of its decisions were local and temporary. 
For all that, it was the greatest of councils, and truly Genxera/, 

2 These numbers indicate the ordinary reckoning of writers, and is correct ecclesiastically. The Council of Jerusalem, however, is 
the base of Christian orthodoxy, and decided the great principles by which the ‘* General Councils” were professedly ruled. 

3 Theological students are often puzzled to recall the councils in order, and not less to recall the rejected heresies. 
mnemonics useful, thus: (1) INCE and (CCC) three hundred ; (2) JAS. NEMM. Dulce est desipere, etc. 

4 A.D. 325 to 680 is the Synodical Period. Gregory I. (Rome) placed the #rst four councils next to the four Gospels. 


I have found twe 


area i L" 


ON ® THE SUBJECT 4OP Poin Sena 


You have instructed us, most excellent Tatian,” 
to forward for your use a discourse upon the 
soul, laying it out in effective demonstrations. 
And this you have asked us to do without mak- 
ing use of the testimonies of Scripture, —a 
method which is opened to us, and which, to 
those who seek the pious mind, proves a manner 
of setting forth doctrine more convincing than 
any reasoning of man.3 You have said, how- 
ever, that you desire this, not with a view to 
your own full assurance, taught as you already 
have been to hold by the Holy Scriptures and 
traditions, and to avoid being shaken in your 
convictions by any subtleties of man’s disputa- 
tions, but with a view to the confuting of men 
who have different sentiments, and who do not 
admit that such credit is to be given to the 
Scriptures, and who endeavour, by a kind of 
cleverness of speech, to gain over those who are 
unversed in such discussions. Wherefore we 
were led to comply readily with this commission 
of yours, not shrinking from the task on account 
of inexperience in this method of disputation, 
but taking encouragement from the knowledge 
of your good-will toward us. For your kind and 
friendly disposition towards us will make you un- 
derstand how to put forward publicly whatever 
you may approve of as rightly expressed by us, 
and to pass by and conceal whatever statement 
of ours you may judge to come short of what is 
proper. Knowing this, therefore, I have betaken 
myself with all confidence to the exposition. 
And in my discourse I shall use a certain order 
and consecution, such as those who are very ex- 
pert in these matters employ towards those who 
desire to investigate any subject intelligently. 

First of all, then, I shall propose to inquire by 
what criterion the soul can, according to its na- 
ture, be apprehended ; then by what means it 
can be proved to exist ; thereafter, whether it is 
a substance or an accident; * then consequently 
on these points, whether it is a body or is incor- 





1 A Topical Discourse by our holy father Gregory, surnamed 
Thaumaturgus, bishop of Neo-Czsareia in Pontus, addressed to 
Tatian. 

2 [A person not known. ] : 

3 [True to the universal testimony of the primitive Fathers as to 


Holy Scripture. ] ie 
4 [Aristotle, PAystca. Elucidation I.] 
54 








poreal ; then, whether it is simple or compound ; 
next, whether it is mortal or immortal; and 
finally, whether it is rational or irrational. 

For these are the questions which are wont, 
above all, to be discussed, in any inquiry about 
the soul, as most important, and as best calcu- 
lated to mark out its distinctive nature. And 
as demonstrations for the establishing of these 
matters of investigation, we shall employ those 
common modes of consideration 5 by which the 
credibility of matters under hand is naturally 
attested. But for the purpose of brevity and 
utility, we shall at present make use only of 
those modes of argumentation which are most 
cogently demonstrative on the subject of our in- 
quiry, in order that clear and intelligible ° notions 
may impart to us some readiness for meeting the 
gainsayers. With this, therefore, we shall com- 
mence our discussion. 


I. WHEREIN IS THE CRITERION FOR THE APPRE- 
HENSION OF THE SOUL. 


All things that exist are either known by sense 7 
or apprehended by thought.2 And what falls 
under sense has its adequate demonstration in 
sense itself; for at once, with the application, it 
creates in us the impression 9 of what underlies 
it. But what is apprehended by thought is known 
not by itself, but by its operations.'° ‘The soul, 
consequently, being unknown by itself, shall be 
known properly by its effects. 


Il. WHETHER THE SOUL EXISTS. 


Our body, when it is put in action, is put in 
action either from without or from within. And 
that it is not put in action from without, is mani- 
fest from the circumstance that it is put in action 
neither by impulsion *! nor by traction,’ like soul- 
less things. And again, if it is put in action from 
within, it is not put in action according to nature, 
like fire. For fire never loses its action as long 





5 évvoiats, 

6 evrapadexta. 
7 aicOnoe. 

8 vonoe. 

9 havraciar, 
10 é€vepyewmv. 

Il ®Oovmevor, 
12 €Axdmevov, 


ON THE SUBJECT 





-_ 


- as there is fire; whereas the body, when it has 
become dead, is a body void of action. Hence, 
if it is put in action neither from without, like 
soulless things, nor according to nature, after the 
fashion of fire, it is evident that it is put in action 
by the soul, which also furnishes life to it. If, 
then, the soul is shown to furnish the life to our 
body, the soul will also be known for itself by its 
- operations. 


Ill. WHETHER THE SOUL IS A SUBSTANCE. 


That the soul is a substance,’ is proved in the 
following manner. In the first place, because 
the definition given to the term substance suits 
it very well. And that definition is to the effect, 
that substance is that which, being ever identical, 
and ever one in point of numeration with itself, 
is yet capable of taking on contraries in succes- 
sion? And that this soul, without passing the 
limit of its own proper nature, takes on contra- 
ries in succession, is, I fancy, clear to everybody. 
For righteousness and unrighteousness, courage 
and cowardice, temperance and intemperance, 
are seen in it successively ; and these are con- 
traries. If, then, it is the property of a substance 
to be capable of taking on contraries in succes- 
sion, and if the soul is shown to sustain the defi- 
nition in these terms, it follows that the soul is 
a substance. And in the second place, because 
if the body is a substance, the soul must also be 
a substance. For it cannot be, that what only 
has life imparted should be a substance, and that 
what imparts the life should be no substance: 
unless one should assert that the non-existent is 
the cause of the existent; or unless, again, one 
were insane enough to allege that the dependent 
object is itself the cause of that very thing in 
which it has its being, and without which it could 
not subsist. 


IV. WHETHER THE SOUL IS INCORPOREAL. 


That the soul is in our body, has been shown 
above. We ought now, therefore, to ascertain 
in what manner it is in the body. Now, if it is 
in juxtaposition with it, as one pebble with 
another, it follows that the soul will be a body, 
and also that the whole body will not be ani- 
mated with soul,4 inasmuch as with a certain 
part it will only be in juxtaposition. But if, 
again, it is mingled or fused with the body, the 
soul will become multiplex, and not simple, and 
will thus be despoiled of the rationale proper to 
a soul. For what is multiplex is also divisible 





t ovata, 

2 ray évavTiwy mapapepos elvar Sextixdv. mapauépos, here ap- 
parently — in turn, though usually = out of turn. Se , 

3 The text has an apparent inversion: 76 €v @ Fiv bmapguy éxov 
kai ob avev elvat uh duvdpevov, aitrov exeivou elvat Tov ev @ €or, 
There is also a variety of reading: xai o avev rod elvar wn duvape- 
vor, 

4 gupouxov. 

5 modvmepys. 








OF THE SOUL. 55 


and dissoluble ; and what is dissoluble, on the 
other hand, is compound ;° and what is com- 
pound is separable in a threefold manner. More- 
over, body attached to body makes weight ;7 but 
the soul, subsisting in the body, does not make 
weight, but rather imparts life. The soul, there- 
fore, cannot be a body, but is incorporeal. 

Again, if the soul is a body, it is put in action 
either from without or from within. But it is 
not put in action from without ; for it is moved 
neither by impulsion nor by traction, like soul- 
less things. Nor is it put in action from within, 
like objects animated with soul; for it is absurd 
to talk of a soul of the soul: it cannot, therefore, 
be a body, but it is incorporeal. 

And besides, if the soul is a body, it has sensi- 
ble qualities, and is maintained by nurture. But 
it is not thus nurtured. For if it is nurtured, it 
is not nurtured corporeally, like the body, but 
incorporeally ; for it is nurtured by reason. It 
has not, therefore, sensible qualities: for neither 
is righteousness, nor courage, nor any one of 
these things, something that is seen; yet these 
are the qualities of the soul. It cannot, there- 
fore, be a body, but is incorporeal. 

Still further, as all corporeal substance is di- 
vided into animate and inanimate, let those who 
hold that the soul is a body tell us whether we 
are to call it animate or inanimate. 

Finally, if every body has colour, and quantity, 
and figure, and if there is not one of these quali- 
ties perceptible in the soul, it follows that the 
soul is not a body.’ 





V. WHETHER THE SOUL IS SIMPLE OR COMPOUND. 


We prove, then, that the soul is simple, best 
of all, by those arguments by which its incor- 
poreality has been demonstrated. For if it is 
not a body, while every body is compound, and 
what is composite is made up of parts, and is 
consequently multiplex, the soul, on the other 
hand, being incorporeal, is simple; since thus 
it is both uncompounded and indivisible into 
parts. 


VI. WHETHER OUR SOUL IS IMMORTAL. 


It follows, in my opinion, as a necessary conse- 
quence, that what is simple is immortal. And 
as to how that follows, hear my explanation: 
Nothing that exists is its own corrupter,? else it 
could never have had any thorough consistency, 
even from the beginning. For things that are 
subject to corruption are corrupted by contra- 
ries: wherefore everything that is corrupted is 
subject to dissolution; and what is subject to 





6 guvOeTov, 

7 oyKov, 

8 [These are Aristotle’s accidents, of which, see Thomas Aqui 
nas and the schoolmen fassznz.1 

9 dbdaprixov, 


56 


ON THE SUBJECT OF THEASOUL,. 


wee AP 


ae a ee 





dissolution is compound ; and what is compound 
is of many parts ; and what is made up of parts 
manifestly is made up of diverse parts ; and the 
diverse is not the identical: consequently the 
soul, being simple, and not being made up of 
diverse parts, but being uncompound and indis- 
soluble, must be, in virtue of that, incorruptible 
and immortal. 

Besides, everything that is put in action by 
something else, and does not possess the princi- 
ple of life in itself, but gets it from that which 
puts it in action, endures just so long as it is 
held by the power that operates in it; and 
whenever the operative power ceases, that also 
comes to a stand which has its capacity of action 
from it. But the soul, being self-acting, has no 
cessation of its being. For it follows, that what 
is self-acting is ever-acting; and what is ever- 
acting is unceasing; and what is unceasing is 
without end ; and what is without end is incor- 
ruptible ; and what is incorruptible is immortal. 
Consequently, if the soul is self-acting, as has 
been shown above, it follows that it is incorrupti- 
ble and immortal, in accordance with the mode 
of reasoning already expressed. 

And further, everything that is not corrupted 
by the evil proper to itself, is incorruptible ; and 
the evil is opposed to the good, and is conse- 
quently its corrupter. For the evil of the body 
is nothing else than suffering, and disease, and 
death ; just as, on the other hand, its excellency 
is beauty, life, health, and vigour. If, there- 
fore, the soul is not corrupted by the evil proper 
to itself, and the evil of the soul is cowardice, 
intemperance, envy, and the like, and all these 
things do not despoil it of its powers of life and 
action, it follows that it is immortal. 


VII. WHETHER OUR SOUL IS RATIONAL. 


That our soul is rational, one might demon- 
strate by many arguments. And first of all from 
the fact that it has discovered the arts that are 
for the service of our life. Forno one could 
say that these arts were introduced casually 
and accidentally, as no one could prove them 
to be idle, and of no utility for our life. If, 
then, these arts contribute to what is profitable 
for our life, and if the profitable is commendable, 
and if the commendable is constituted by rea- 





son, and if these things are the discovery of the 
soul, it follows that our soul is rational. 

Again, that our soul is rational, is also proved 
by the fact that our senses are not sufficient for 
the apprehension of things. For wé are not 
competent for the knowledge of things by the 
simple application of the faculty of sensation. 
But as we do not choose to rest in these without 
inquiry,’ that proves that the senses, apart from 
reason, are felt to be incapable of discriminating 
between things which are identical in form and 
similar in colour, though quite distinct in their 
natures. If, therefore, the senses, apart from 
reason, give us a false conception of things, we 
have to consider whether things that are can be 
apprehended in reality or not. And if they can 
be apprehended, then the power which enables 
us to get at them is one different from, and supe- 
rior to, the senses. And if they are not appre- 
hended, it will not be possible for us at all to 
apprehend things which are different in their 
appearance from the reality. But that objects 
are apprehensible by us, is clear from the fact 
that we employ each in a way adaptable to 
utility, and again turn them to what we please. 
Consequently, if it has been shown that things 
which are can be apprehended by us, and if the. 
senses, apart from reason, are an erroneous test 
of objects, it follows that the intellect? is what 
distinguishes all things in reason, and discerns 
things as they are in their actuality. But the 
intellect is just the rational portion of the soul, 
and consequently the soul is rational. 

Finally, because we do nothing without hav- 
ing first marked it out for ourselves; and as 
that is nothing else than just the high preroga- 
tive3 of the soul, — for its knowlege of things 
does not come to it from without, but it rather 
sets out these things, as it were, with the adorn- 
ment of its own thoughts, and thus first pictures 
forth the object in itself, and only thereafter car- 
ries it out to actual fact, — and because the high 
prerogative of the soul is nothing else than the 
doing of all things with reason, in which respect 
it also differs from the senses, the soul has there- 
by been demonstrated to be rational. 





I ere pnde oTHvar wept avta OedAomev, 


2 yous. 
3 agiwua, [Elucidation II.] 











ELUCIDATIONS. BT 





E LOU CLDAGLONS; 


I. 


(Substance or accident, p. 54.) 


Tuts essay is “rather the work of a philosopher than a bishop,” says Dupin. He assigns it to 
an age when “ Aristotle degan to be in some reputation,” —a most important concession as to the 
estimate of this philosopher among the early faithful. We need not wonder that such admissions, 
honourable to his candour and to his orthodoxy, brought on him the hatred and persecutions of the 
Jesuits. Even Bossuet thought he went too far, and wrote against him. But, the whole system of 
Roman dogma being grounded in Aristotle’s shysics as well as in his metaphysics, Dupin was 
not orthodox in the eyes of the society that framed Aristotle into a creed, and made it the 
creed of the “ Roman-Catholic Church.” Note, e.g., “transubstantiation,” which is not true if 
Aristotle’s theory of accidents, etc., is false." It assumes an exploded science. 


II. 
(Prerogative of the soul, p. 56.) 


If this “ Discourse” be worthy of study, it may be profitably contrasted, step by step, with 
Tertullian’s treatises on kindred subjects. That the early Christians should reason concerning the 
Soul, the Mind, the immortal Spirit, was natural in itself. But it was also forced upon them by 
the “ philosophers” and the heretics, with whom they daily came into conflict. This is apparent 
from the Ant-Marcion3 of the great Carthaginian. The annotations upon that treatise, and 
those On the Soul’s Testimony and On the Soul, may suffice as pointing out the best sources+ of 
information on speculative points and their bearings on theology. Compare, however, Athenago- 
ras5 and the great Clement of Alexandria.® 





1 See Bacon’s apophthegm, No. 275, p. 172, Works, London, 1730. 
2 Vol. iii. pp. 175-235, this series. 

3 Vol. iii. pp. 463, 474; also pp. 532, 537, 557, 570, and 587. 

4 Compare, also, Bishop Kaye's Tertudiian, p. 199, etc. 

5 E.g., vol. ii, p. 157, etc. 

6 Vel. ii. pp. 440, 584 (Fragment), and what he says of free-will. 


FOUR HOMILIES:. 


THE FIRST HOMILY. 
ON THE ANNUNCIATION TO THE HOLY VIRGIN MARY.? 


To-pay are strains of praise sung joyfully by 
the choir of angels, and the light of the advent 
of Christ shines brightly upon the faithful. To- 
day is the glad spring-time to us, and Christ the 
Sun of righteousness has beamed with clear light 
around us, and has illumined the minds of the 
faithful. To-day is Adam made anew,3 and 
moves in the choir of angels, having winged his 
way to heaven. To-day is the whole circle of 
the earth filled with joy, since the sojourn of the 
Holy Spirit has been realized to men. To-day 
the grace of God and the hope of the unseen 
shine through all wonders transcending imagina- 
tion, and make the mystery that was kept hid 
from eternity plainly discernible to us. To-day 
are woven the chaplets of never-fading virtue. 
To-day, God, willing to crown the sacred heads 
of those whose pleasure is to hearken to Him, 
and who delight in His festivals, invites the lovers 
of unswerving faith as His called and His heirs ; 
and the heavenly kingdom is urgent to summon 
those who mind celestial things to join. the di- 
vine service of the incorporeal choirs. To-day 
is fulfilled the word of David, “ Let the heavens 
rejoice, and let the earth be glad. The fields 
shall be joyful, and all the trees of the wood be- 
fore the Lord, because He cometh.’’4 David 
thus made mention of the trees ;5 and the Lord’s 
forerunner also spoke of them as trees® “that 
should bring forth fruits meet for repentance,” 7 





1 [This very homily has been cited to prove the antiquity of the 
festival of the Annunciation, observed, in the West, March 25. But 
even Pellicia objects that this is a spurious work. The feast of the 
Nativity was introduced into the East by Chrysostom after the rec- 
ords at Rome had been inspected, and the time of the taxing at 
Bethlehem had been found. See his Sermon (A.D. 386), beautifully 
translated by Dr. Jarvis in his /ntroduction, etc., p. 541. Compare 
Tertullian, vol. iii. p. 164, and Justin, vol. i. p. 174, this series. Now, 
as the selection of the 25th of March is clearly based on this, we ma 
say no more of that day. Possibly some Sunday was associated with 
the Annunciation, The four Sundays preceding Christmas are all 
observed by the Nestorians in commemoration of the Annunciation. ] 

2 The secondary title is: The First Discourse of our holy father 
Gregory, surnamed Thaumaturgus, bishop of Neo-Czsareia in ontus, 
on the Annunciation to the most holy Virgin Mary, mother of God. 
Works of Gregory Thaumaturgus by Ger. Voss, p. 9. 

3 avaxexaimorat; others avaxéxAytat, recovered. 

4 Ps, xcvi. 11-13. 

S$ £vAa, 

6 bévdpa, 

7 Matt. iti. 8. 

58 





or rather for the coming of the Lord. But our 
Lord Jesus Christ promises perpetual gladness 
to all those who believe on Him. For He says, 
“‘T will see you, and ye shall rejoice ; and your 
joy no man taketh from you.”® To-day is the 
illustrious and ineffable mystery of Christians, 
who have willingly? set their hope like a seal 
upon Christ, plainly declared to us. To-day did 
Gabriel, who stands by God, come to the pure 
virgin, bearing to her the glad annunciation, 
“ Hail, thou that art highly favoured !’° And she 
cast in her mind what manner of salutation this 
might be. And the angel immediately proceeded 
to say, The Lord is with thee: fear not, Mary; 
for thou hast found favour with God. Behold," 
thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth 
a son, and shalt call'? His name Jesus. He shall 
be great, and shall be called the Son of the High- 
est ; and the Lord God shall give unto Him the 
throne of His father David, and He shall reign 
over the house of Jacob for ever: and of His 
kingdom there shall be no end. Then said 
Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing 
I know not a man?’”’*3_ Shall I still remain a 
virgin? is the honour of virginity not then lost 
by me? And while she was yet in perplexity as 
to these things, the angel placed shortly before 
her the summary of his whole message, and said 
to the pure virgin, “‘ The Holy Ghost shall come 
upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall 
overshadow thee ; therefore also that holy thing 
which shall be born of thee shall be called the 

Son of God.” For what it is, that also shall it 

be called by all means. Meekly, then, did grace 

make election of the pure Mary alone out of all 

generations. For she proved herself prudent 

truly in all things ; neither has any woman been 

born like her in all generations. She was not 

like the primeval virgin Eve, who, keeping holi- 

day ‘4 alone in paradise, with thoughtless mind, 

unguardedly hearkened to the word of the ser- 

pent, the author of all evil, and thus became 





8 John xvi. 22. 

9 Others, oatws, piously. 

to Luke i. 28. 

Il Or, 5x6, wherefore. 

12 Or, xadeécovat, they shall cal}. 
13 Luke i. 29, etc. 

14 y6pevaoa. 








FOUR HOMILIES. 


— -- — 


depraved in the thoughts of her mind;' and 
through her that deceiver, discharging his poison 
and infusing death with it, brought it into the 
whole world ; and in virtue of this has arisen all 
the trouble of the saints. But in the holy Virgin 
alone is the fall of that (first mother) repaired. 
Yet was not this holy one competent to receive 
the gift until she had first learned who it was 
that sent it, and what the gift was, and who 
it was that conveyed it. While the holy one 
pondered these things in perplexity with her- 
self, she says to the angel, “ Whence hast thou 
brought to us the blessing in such wise? Out 
of what treasure-stores is the pearl of the word 
despatched to us? Whence has the gift acquired 
its purpose? toward us? From heaven art thou 
come, yet thou walkest upon earth! Thou dost 
exhibit the form of man, and (yet) thou art 
glorious with dazzling light.”"3 | These things the 
holy one considered with herself, and the arch- 
angel solved the difficulty expressed in such rea- 
sonings by saying to her: “The Holy Ghost 
shall come upon thee, and the power of the 
‘Highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also 
that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall 
be called the Son of God. And fear not, Mary ; 
for I am not come to overpower thee with fear, 
but to repel the subject of fear. Fear not, Mary, 
for thou hast found favour with God. Question 
not grace by the standard of nature. For grace 
does not endure to pass under the laws of nature. 
Thou knowest, O Mary, things kept hid from the 
patriarchs and prophets. Thou hast learned, O 
virgin, things which were kept concealed till now 
from the angels. Thou hast heard, O purest one, 
things of which even the choir of inspired men ‘+ 
was never deemed worthy. Moses, and David, 
and Isaiah, and Daniel, and all the prophets, 
prophesied of Him; but the manner they knew 
not. Yet thou alone, O purest virgin, art now 
made the recipient of things of which all these 
were kept in ignorance, and thou dost learns 
the origin of them. For where the Holy Spirit 
is, there are all things readily ordered. Where 
divine grace is present, all things are found pos- 
sible with God. The Holy Ghost shall come 
upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall 
overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing 
which shall be born of thee shall be called the 
Son of God.” And if He is the Son of God, 
then is He also God, of one form with the 
Father, and co-eternal ; in Him the Father pos- 
sesses all manifestation ;° He is His image in the 
person, and through His reflection the (Father’s) 
glory shines forth. And as from the ever-flowing 





1 Or, to THs Kapdias dpovypare, in the thoughts of her heart. 
2 vrodectv; others vrocxectr, the promise. 

3 nai Aaurada pwtos amagTpantets. 

4 Beoddpwr. 

5 Or, vrodéxov cai pavave, and receive thou and learn. 

© pavépworr, 





59 


fountain the streams proceed, so also from this 
ever-flowing and ever-living fountain does the 
light of the world proceed, the perennial and 
the true, namely Christ our God. For it is 
of this that the prophets have preached: “The 
streams of the river make glad the city of God.” 7 
And not one city only, but all cities ; for even as 
it makes glad one city, so does it also the whole 
world. Appropriately, therefore, did the angel ® 
say to Mary the holy virgin first of all, ‘ Hail, 
thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with 
thee ;”’ inasmuch as with her was laid up the full 
treasure of grace. For of all generations she 
alone has risen as a virgin pure in body and in 
spirit; and she alone bears Him who bears all 
things on His word. Nor is it only the beauty 
of this holy one in body that calls forth our 
admiration, but also the innate virtue of her soul. 
Wherefore also the angel® addressed her first 
with the salutation, “ Hail, thou that art highly 
favoured,? the Lord is with thee, and no spouse 
of earth ;’’ He Himself is with thee who is the 
Lord of sanctification, the Father of purity, 
the Author of incorruption, and the Bestower 
of liberty, the Curator of salvation, and the 
Steward and Provider of the true peace, who 
out of the virgin earth made man, and out of 
man’s side formed Eve in addition. Even this 
Lord is with thee, and on the other hand also 
is of thee. Come, therefore, beloved brethren, 
and let us take up the angelic strain, and to the 
utmost of our ability return the due meed of 
praise, saying, “ Hail,'° thou that art highly 
favoured, the Lord is with thee!” For it is 
thine truly to rejoice, seeing that the grace of 
God, as he knows, has chosen to dwell with 
thee — the Lord of glory dwelling with the hand- 
maiden ; ‘“ He that is fairer than the children of 
men’?! with the fair vixgin ; He who sanctifies 
all things with the undefiled. God is with thee, 
and with thee also is the perfect man in whom 
dwells the whole fulness of the Godhead. Hail, 
thou that art highly favoured, the fountain of the 
light that lightens all who believe upon Him! 
Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the rising of 
the rational Sun,’ and the undefiled flower of 
life! Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the 
mead "3 of sweet savour! Hail, thou that art 
highly favoured, the ever-blooming vine, that 
makes glad the souls of those who honour thee? 
Hail, thou that art highly favoured !—the soil 
that, all untilled, bears bounteous fruit: for thou 
hast brought forth in accordance with the law of 
nature indeed, as it goes with us, and by the set 





7 Ps. xlvi. 4. 

8 Or, archangel. 

9 Or, gifted with grace. 
10 Or, rejoice. 
1D Ps, xly. 2. 
12 toy vontod HAlov H avatoAy; others, nAtov THs dixatoovyns, 

the rising of the Sun of righteousness, 

13 Actuwv, 


7 


60 


U8 fy AS ol ee 


FOUR HOMILIES. 





time of practice,’ and yet in a way beyond na- 
ture, or rather above nature, by reason that God 
the Word from above took His abode in thee, 
and formed the new Adam in thy holy womb, 
and inasmuch as the Holy Ghost gave the power 
of conception to the holy virgin ; and the reality 
of His body was assumed from her body. And 
just as the pearl? comes of the two natures, 
namely lightning and water, the occult signs of 
the sea; so also our Lord Jesus Christ proceeds, 
without fusion and without mutation, from the 
pure, and chaste, and undefiled, and holy Virgin 
Mary ; perfect in divinity and perfect in human- 
ity, in all things equal to the Father, and in all 
things consubstantial with us, apart from sin. 
Most of the holy fathers, and patriarchs, and 
prophets desired to see Him, and to be eye-wit- 
nesses of Him, but did not attaint hereto. And 
some of them by visions beheld Him in type, 
and darkly; others, again, were privileged to 
hear the divine voice through the medium of 
the cloud, and were favoured with sights of holy 
angels; but to Mary the pure virgin alone did 
the archangel Gabriel manifest himself lumi- 
nously, bringing her the glad address, “ Hail, 
thou that art highly favoured!’ And thus she 
received the word, and in the due time of the 
fulfilment according to the body’s course she 
brought forth the priceless pearl. Come, then, 


ye too, dearly beloved, and let us chant the | 


melody which has been taught us by the inspired 
harp of David, and say, “Arise, O Lord, into 
Thy rest ; Thou, and the ark of Thy sanctuary.” 3 
For the holy Virgin is in truth an ark, wrought 
with gold both within and without, that has 
received the whole treasury of the sanctuary. 
“Arise, O Lord, into Thy rest.” Arise, O Lord, 
out of the bosom of the Father, in order that 
Thou mayest raise up the fallen race of the first- 
formed man. Setting these things forth,4 David 
in prophecy said to the rod that was to spring 
from himself, and to sprout into the flower of 
that beauteous fruit, “ Hearken, O daughter, and 
see, and incline thine ear, and forget thine own 
people and thy father’s house; so shall the 
King greatly desire thy beauty: for He is the 
Lord thy God, and thou shalt worship Him.’’s 
Hearken, O daughter, to the things which were 
prophesied beforetime of thee, in order that 
thou mayest also behold the things themselves 
with the eyes of understanding. Hearken to 
me while I announce things beforehand to thee, 
and hearken to the archangel who declares ex- 
pressly to thee the perfect mysteries. Come 
then, dearly beloved, and let us fall back on the 





1 aaxjoews; better kvjaews, conception. 
2 There is a similar passage in Ephreem’s discourse, De Marga- 
vita Pretiosa, vol. iii. 
ayiaopmatos, Ps, cxxxii. 8. 
4 mperBevwr, 


5 Qr, and they shall worship Him. Ps, xlv. 10, rr. 





memory of what has gone before us ; and let us 
glorify, and celebrate, and laud, and bless that 
rod that has sprung so marvellously from Jesse. 
For Luke, in the inspired Gospel narratives, de- 
livers a testimony not to Joseph only, but also to 
Mary the mother of God, and gives this account 
with reference to the very family and house of 
David: “ For Joseph went up,” says he, “ from 
Galilee, unto a city of Judea which is called 
Bethlehem, to be taxed with Mary his espoused 
wife, being great with child, because they were 
of the house and family of David. And so it 
was, that while they were there, the days were 
accomplished that she should be delivered ; and 
she brought forth her son, the first-born of the’ 
whole creation,®° and wrapped him in swaddling- 
clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there 
was no room for them in the inn.’7 She 
wrapped in swaddling-clothes Him who is cov- 
ered with light as with a garment. She wrapped 
in swaddling-clothes Him who made every crea- 
ture. She laid in a manger Him who sits above 
the cherubim,? and is praised by myriads of 
angels. In the manger set apart for dumb 
brutes did the Word of God repose, in order 
that He might impart to men, who are really 
irrational by free choice, the perceptions of true 
reason. In the board from which cattle eat was 
laid the heavenly Bread,’° in order that He might 
provide participation in spiritual sustenance for 
men who live like the beasts of the earth. Nor 
was there even room for Him in the inn. He 
found no place, who by His word established 
heaven and earth; “for though He was rich, for 
our sakes He became poor,” *! and chose ex- 
treme humiliation on behalf of the salvation of 
our nature, in His inherent goodness toward us. 
He who fulfilled the whole administration of 
unutterable mysteries of the economy '3 in heaven 
in the bosom of the Father, and in the cave in 
the arms of the mother, reposed in the manger. 
Angelic choirs encircled Him, singing of glory 
in heaven and of peace uponearth. In heaven 
He was seated at the night hand of the Father ; 
and in the manger He rested, as it were, upon 
the cherubim. Even there was in truth His 
cherubic throne ; there was His royal seat. Holy 
of the holy, and alone glorious upon the earth, 
and holier than the holy, was that wherein Christ 
our God rested. To Him be glory, honour, and 
power, together with the Father undefiled, and 
the altogether holy and quickening Spirit, now 
and ever, and unto the ages of the ages. Amen. 





6 mpwrdtoKov maans THs KTigews, [Or, the herr, etc.] 

7 Luke ii. 4-7. 

8 Ps, civ. 2. 

ONES hex ox 

10 Or, the Bread of life. 

11 2 Cor, viii. 9. 

12 Or, righteousness, 

13 Or, the whole administration of the economy in an unutterable 


mystery. 


FOUR HOMILIES. 


61 





THE SECOND HOMILY. 
ON THE ANNUNCIATION TO THE HOLY VIRGIN MARY." 


DISCOURSE SECOND. 


It is our duty to present to God, like sacri- 
fices, all the festivals and hymnal celebrations ; 
and first of all, the annunciation to the holy 
mother of God, to wit, the salutation made to 
her by the angel, S Hail, thou that art highly 
favoured!” For first of all wisdom? and saving 
doctrine in the New Testament was this saluta- 
tion, “ Hail, thou that art highly favoured!” 
conveyed to us from the Father of lights. 
this address, “highly favoured,” 3 embraced the 
whole nature of men. “Hail, thou that art 
highly favoured ”3 in the holy conception and in 
the glorious pregnancy, “I bring you good tid- 
ings of great joy, which shall be to all people.’’+ 
And again the Lord, who came for the purpose 
of accomplishing a saving passion, said, “I will 
see you, and ye shall rejoice; and your joy no 
man taketh from you.’’5 And after His resur- 
rection again, by the hand of the holy women, 
He gave us first of all the salutation “ Hail!’’° 
And again, the apostle made the announce- 
ment in similar terms, saying, ‘‘ Rejoice ever- 
more: pray without ceasing: in everything give 
thanks.” 7 See, then, dearly beloved, how the 
Lord has conferred upon us everywhere, and in- 
divisibly, the joy that is beyond conception, and 
perennial. For since the holy Virgin, in the life 
of the flesh, was in possession of the incorrupti- 
ble citizenship, and walked as such in all manner 
of virtues, and lived a life more excellent than 
man’s common standard; therefore the Word 
that cometh from God the Father thought it 
meet to assume the flesh, and endue the perfect 
man from her, in order that in the same flesh in 
which sin entered into the world, and death by 
sin, sin might be condemned in the flesh, and 
that the tempter of sin might be overcome in 
the burying ® of the holy body, and that there- 
with also the beginning of the resurrection might 
be exhibited, and life eternal instituted in the 
world, and fellowship established for men with 
God the Father. And what shall we state, or 
what shall we pass by here? or who shall ex- 
plain what is incomprehensible in the mystery? 
But for the present let us fall back upon our 
subject. Gabriel was sent to the holy virgin ; 
the incorporeal was despatched to her who in 
the body pursued the incorruptible conversation, 


1 “The Encomium of the same holy Father Gregory, bishop of 
Neo-Czsareia in Pontus, surnamed Thaumaturgus, on the Annun- 
ciation to the all-holy Mary, mother of God, and ever-virgin.” 

2 Or, before all wisdom. 

3 Or, gifted with grace. 

4 Luke ii, 10, 

S John xvi, 22. 

© Matt. xxviii. 9. 

7 x Thess, v, 16-18, 

8 ev 7H taj; others, é€v 77 apy = in the touch or union of the 
holy body. 


And 





of affinity and equality with the angels. 





and lived in purity and in virtues. And when 
he came to her, he first addressed her with the 
salutation, ‘“ Hail, thou that art highly favoured ! 
the Lord is with thee.” Hail, thou that art 
highly favoured ! for thou doest what is worthy 
of joy indeed, since thou hast put on the vesture 
of purity, and art girt with the cincture of pru- 
dence. Hail, thou that art highly favoured! 
for to thy lot it has fallen to be the vehicle 
of celestial joy. Hail, thou that art highly 
favoured ! for through thee joy is decreed for 
the whole creation, and the human race re- 
ceives again by thee its pristine dignity. Hail, 
thou that art highly favoured! for in thy arms 
the Creator of all things shall be carried. And 
she was perplexed by this word; for she was 
inexperienced in all the addresses of men, and 
welcomed quiet, as the mother of prudence and 
purity; (yet) being a pure, and immaculate, 
and stainless image 9 herself, she shrank not in 
terror from the angelic apparition, like most of 
the prophets, as indeed true virginity has a kind 
For 
the holy Virgin guarded carefully the torch of 
virginity, and gave diligent heed that it should 
not be extinguished or defiled. And as one who 
is clad in a brilliant robe deems it a matter of 
great moment that no impurity or filth be suf- 
fered to touch it anywhere, so did the holy 
Mary consider with herself, and said: Does this 
act of attention imply any deep design or seduc- 
tive purpose? Shall this word “ Hail” prove 
the cause of trouble to me, as of od the fair 
promise of being made like God, which was 
given her by the serpent-devil, proved to our 
first mother Eve? MHas the devil, who is the 
author of all evil, become transformed again 
into an angel of light ; and_ bearing a grudge 
against my espoused husband for his admirable 
temperance, and having assailed him with some 
fair-seeming address, and finding himself power- 
less to overcome a mind so firm, and to deceive 
the man, has he turned his attack upon me, as 
one endowed with a more susceptible mind ; 
and is this word “ Hail” (Grace be with thee) 
spoken as the sign of gracelessness hereafter? 
Is this benediction and salutation uttered in 
irony? Is there not some poison concealed in 
the honey? Is it not the address of one who 
brings good tidings, while the end of the same 
is to make me the designer’s prey? And how is it 
that he can thus salute one whom he knows not? 
These things she pondered in perplexity with 
herself, and expressed in words. Then again 
the archangel addressed her with the announce- 
ment of a joy which all may believe in, and 
which shall not be taken away, and said to her, 
“Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favour 





9 ayadua, 


62 


™ tt AN Nick i 


FOUR HOMILIES. 





with God.” Shortly hast thou the proof of what 
has been said. For I not only give you to un- 
derstand that there is nothing to fear, but I show 
you the very key to the absence of all cause for 
fear. For through me all the heavenly powers 
hail thee, the holy virgin: yea rather, He Him- 
self, who is Lord of all the heavenly powers and 
of all creation, has selected thee as the holy 
one and the wholly fair; and through thy holy, 
and chaste, and pure, and undefiled womb the 
enlightening Pearl comes forth for the salvation 
of all the world: since of all the race of man 
thou art by birth the holy one, and the more 
honourable, and the purer, and the more pious 
than any other; and thou hast a mind whiter 
than the snow, and a body made purer than any 
gold, however fine, and a womb such as the 
object which Ezekiel saw, and which he has 
described in these terms: “ And the likeness of 
the living creatures upon the head was as the 
firmament, and as the appearance of the terrible 
crystal, and the likeness of the throne above 
them was as the appearance of a sapphire-stone : 
and above the throne it was as the likeness of 
a man, and as the appearance of amber; and 
within it there was, as it were, the likeness of 
fire round about.”* Clearly, then, did the 
prophet behold in type Him who was born of 
the holy virgin, whom thou, O holy virgin, 
wouldest have had no strength to bear, hadst thou 
not beamed forth for that time? with all that is 
glorious and virtuous. And with what words of 
laudation, then, shall we describe her virgin-dig- 
nity? With what indications and proclamations 
of praise shall we celebrate her stainless figure ? 
With what spiritual song or word shall we honour 
her who is most glorious among the angels? She 
is planted in the house of God like a fruitful 
olive that the Holy Spirit overshadowed ; and by 
her means are we called sons and heirs of the 
kingdom of Christ. She is the ever-blooming 
paradise of incorruptibility, wherein is planted 
the tree that giveth life, and that furnisheth to 
all the fruits of immortality. She is the boast 
and glory of virgins, and the exultation of 
mothers. She is the sure support of the believ- 
ing, and the succourer3 of the pious. She is 
the vesture of light, and the domicile of virtue.4 
She is the ever-flowing fountain, wherein the 
water of life sprang and produced the Lord’s 
incarnate manifestation. She is the monument 
of righteousness ; and all who become lovers of 
her, and set their affections on virgin-like ingenu- 
ousness and purity, shall enjoy the grace of angels. 
All who keep themselves from wine and intoxica- 
tion, and from the wanton enjoyments of strong 


3 Ezek. i. 22, 26, 27. 

2 Or, by His throne. 

3 Or example, xatop@wua, 
4 Or, truth, 











drink, shall be made glad with the products of 
the life-bearing plant. All who have preserved 
the lamp of virginity unextinguished shall be — 
privileged to receive the amaranthine crown of 
immortality. All who have possessed themselves 
of the stainless robe of temperance shall be re- 
ceived into the mystical bride-chamber of right- 
eousness. All who have come nearer the angelic 
degree than others shall also enter into the more 
real enjoyment of their Lord’s beatitude. All 
who have possessed the illuminating oil of un- 
derstanding, and the pure incense of conscience, 
shall inherit the promise of spiritual favour and 
the spiritual adoption. All who worthily observe 
the festival of the Annunciation of the Virgin 
Mary, the mother of God, acquire as their meet 
recompense the fuller interest in the message, 
“ Hail, thou that art highly favoured!” It is our 
duty, therefore, to keep this feast, seeing that it 
has filled the whole world with joy and gladness. 
And let us keep it with psalms, and hymns, and 
spiritual songs. Of old did Israel also keep 
their festival, but then it was with unleavened 
bread and bitter herbs, of which the prophet 
says: “I will turn their feasts into afflictions 
and lamentation, and their joy into shame.” 5 
But our afflictions our Lord has assured us He 
will turn into joy by the fruits of penitence.® 
And again, the first covenant maintained the 
righteous requirements’ of a divine service, as 
in the case of our forefather Abraham ; but these 
stood in the inflictions of pain in the flesh by 
circumcision, until the time of the fulfilment. 
“The law was given to them through Moses” 
for their discipline ; “ but grace and truth ”’ have 
been given to us by Jesus Christ. The beginning 
of all these blessings to us appeared in the an- 
nunciation to Mary, the highly-favoured, in the 
economy of the Saviour which is worthy of afl 
praise, and in His divine and supramundane in- 
struction. ‘Thence rise the rays of the light of 

understanding upon us. Thence spring for us 
the fruits of wisdom and immortality, sending 
forth the clear pure streams of piety. Thence 

come to us the brilliant splendours of the treas- 

ures of divine knowledge. “ For this is life 

eternal, that we may know the true God, and 

Jesus Christ whom He hath sent.”9 And again, 

“Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye 

have eternal life.’'® For on this account the 

treasure of the knowledge of God is revealed to 

them who search the divine oracles. That treas- 

ure of the inspired Scriptures the Paraclete has 

unfolded to us this day. And let the tongue of 

prophecy and the doctrine of apostles be the 


ee 





$ Amos viii. ro. 

© Cf. Jer. xxxi. 

7 Or, justifying observances, dixacwpara, 
3 Cf. John 1. 

9 John xvii. 2. 

10 Or, ye will find eternal life. John v. 39. 


ee 





treasure of wisdom to us; for without the law 
and the prophets, or the evangelists and the 
apostles, it is not possible to have the certain 
hope of salvation. For by the tongue of the 
holy prophets and apostles our Lord speaks, 
and God takes pleasure in the words of the 
saints ; not that He requires the spoken address, 
but that He delights in the good disposition ; 
not that He receives any profit from men, but 
that He finds a restful satisfaction in the rightly- 
affected soul of the righteous. For it is not 
that Christ is magnified by what we say; but 
as we receive benefits from Him, we proclaim 
with grateful mind His beneficence to us; not 
that we can attain to what is worthy therein, 
but that we give the meet return to the best of 
our ability. And when the Gospels or the Epis- 
tles, therefore, are read, let not your attention 
centre on the book or on the reader, but on the 
God who speaks to you from heaven. For the 
book is but that which is seen, while Christ is 
the divine subject spoken of. It brings us then 
the glad tidings of that economy of the Saviour 
which is worthy of all praise, to wit, that, though 
He was God, He became man through kindness 
toward man, and did not lay aside, indeed, the 
dignity which was His from all eternity, but as- 
sumed the economy that should work salvation. 
It brings us the glad tidings of that economy 
of the Saviour worthy of all praise, to wit, that 
He sojourned with us as a physician for the sick, 
who did not heal them with potions, but restored 
them by the inclination of His philanthropy. It 
brings us the glad tidings of this economy of 
the Saviour altogether to be praised, to wit, that 
to them who had wandered astray the way of 
salvation was shown, and that to the despairing 
the grace of salvation was made known, which 
blesses all in different modes; searching after 
the erring, enlightening the blinded, giving life 
to the dead, setting free the slaves, redeeming 
the captives, and becoming all things to all of 
us in order to be the true way of salvation to us: 
and all this He does, not by reason of our good- 
will toward Him, but in virtue of a benignity 
that is proper to our Benefactor Himself. For 
the Saviour did all, not in order that He might 
acquire virtue Himself, but that He might put 
us in possession of eternal life. He made man, 
indeed, after the image of God, and appointed 
him to live in a paradise of pleasure. But the 
man being deceived by the devil, and having 
become a transgressor of the divine command- 
ment, was made subject to the doom of death. 
Whence, also, those born of him were involved 
in their father’s liability in virtue of their suc- 
cession, and had the reckoning of condemnation 
required of them. “For death reigned from 
Adam to Moses.”? But the Lord, in His be- 


* Rom. v. 14. 


FOUR HOMILIES. 








63 





nignity toward man, when He saw the creature 
He Himself had formed now held by the power 
of death, did not turn away finally from him 
whom He had made in His own image, but 
visited him in each generation, and forsook him 
not ; and manifesting Himself first of all among 
the patriarchs, and then proclaiming Himself in 
the law, and presenting the likeness of Himself? 
in the prophets, He presignified the economy of 
salvation. When, moreover, the fulness of the 
times came for His glorious appearing, He sent 
beforehand the archangel Gabriel to bear the 
glad tidings to the Virgin Mary. And he came 
down from the ineffable powers above to the 
holy Virgin, and addressed her first of all with 
the salutation, “ Hail, thou that art highly fa- 
voured.” And when this word, “ Hail, thou that 
art highly favoured,” reached her, in the very 
moment of her hearing it, the Holy Spirit en- 
tered into the undefiled temple of the Virgin, 
and her mind and her members were sanctified 
together. And nature stood opposite, and 
natural intercourse at a distance, beholding with 
amazement the Lord of nature, in a manner 
contrary to nature, or rather above nature, doing 
a miraculous work in the body; and by the very 
weapons by which the devil strove against us, 
Christ also saved us, taking to Himself our pas- 
sible body in order that He might impart the 
greater grace? to the being who was defi- 
cient in it. And “where sin abounded, grace 
did much more abound.” And appropriately. 
was grace sent to the holy Virgin. For this 
word also is contained in the oracle of the 
evangelic history: “And in the sixth month the 
angel Gabriel was sent to a virgin espoused to a 
man whose name was Joseph, of the house and 
lineage of David; and the virgin’s name was 
Mary ;” 4 and so forth. And this was the. first 
month to the holy Virgin. Even as Scripture 
says in the book of the law: “This month shall 
be unto you the beginning of months: it shall 
be the first month among the months of the 
year to you.”5 “Keep ye the feast of the holy 
passover to the Lord in all your generations.” 
It was also the sixth month to Zacharias. And 
rightly, then, did the holy Virgin prove to be of 
the family of David, and she had her home in 
Bethlehem, and was betrothed rightfully to Jo- 
seph, in accordance with the laws of relationship. 
And her espoused husband was her guardian, 
and possessor also of the untarnished incorrup- 
tion which was hers. And the name given to 
the holy Virgin was one that became her ex- 
ceedingly. For she was called Mary, and that, 
by interpretation, means ¢/umination. And 
what shines more brightly that the light of 





2 Ouotovmevos, 
3 Or, joy. 

4 Luke i. 26,27. [Jfarah= bitterness, Exod. xv. 23.} 

$ Ex, xii, 2, [|The name Mary is misinterpreted, infra.) 


64 





virginity? For this reason also the virtues are 
called virgins by those who strive rightly to get 
at their true nature. But if it is so great a 
blessing to have a virgin heart, how great a 
boon will it be to have the flesh that cherishes 
virginity along with the soul! Thus the holy 
Virgin, while still in the flesh, maintained the 
incorruptible life, and received in faith the 
things which were announced by the archangel. 
And thereafter she journeyed diligently to her 
relation Elisabeth in the hill-country. “And 
she entered into the house of Zacharias, and 
saluted Elisabeth,” ‘ in imitation of the angel. 
“And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth 
heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leapt 
with joy in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled 
with the Holy Ghost.”‘ Thus the voice of 
Mary wrought with power, and filled Elisabeth 
with the Holy Ghost. And by her tongue, as 
from an ever-flowing fountain, she sent forth a 
stream of gracious gifts in the way of prophecy 
to her relation ; and while the feet of her child 
were bound in the womb,? she prepared to 
dance and leap. And that was the sign of a 
marvellous jubilation. For wherever she was 
who was highly favoured, there she filled all 
things with joy. “And Elisabeth spake out 
with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou 
among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy 
womb. And whence is this to me, that the 
mother of my Lord should come to me? Blessed 
art thou among women.”3 For thou hast be- 
come to women the beginning of the new crea- 
tion.4 Thou hast given to us boldness of access 
into paradise, and thou hast put to flight our 
ancient woe. For after thee the race of woman 
shall no more be made the subject of reproach. 
No more do the successors of Eve fear the 
ancient curse, or the pangs of childbirth. For 
Christ, the Redeemer of our race, the Saviour 
of all nature, the spiritual Adam who has healed 
the hurt of the creature of earth, cométh forth 
from thy holy womb. ‘“‘ Blessed art thou among 
women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.” 
For He who bears all blessings for us is mani- 
fested as thy fruit. This we read in the clear 
words of her who was barren; but yet more 
clearly did the holy Virgin herself express this 
again when she presented to God the song re- 
plete with thanksgiving, and acceptance, and 
divine knowledge ; announcing ancient things 
together with what was new ; proclaiming along 
with things which were of old, things also which 
belong to the consummation of the ages; and 
summing up in a short discourse the mysteries 
of Christ. “And Mary said, My soul doth mag- 





3 Luke i. qr. 

2 Or, and with the bound feet of her child in the womb. 
3 Luke i. 42, 43. 

4 Or, sasursection. 








ve Yeo 
if 


FOUR HOMILIES. 





nify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in 


God my Saviour,” and so forth. “He hath 
holpen His servant Israel in remembrance of 
His mercy, and of the covenant which He estab- 
lished with Abraham and with his seed for ever.”’ 5 
Thou seest how the holy Virgin has surpassed 
even the perfection of the patriarchs, and how 
she confirms the covenant which was made with 
Abraham by God, when He said, “This is the 
covenant which I shall establish between me and 
thee.”® Wherefore He has come and confirmed 
the covenant with Abraham, having received 
mystically in Himself the sign of circumcision, 
and having proved Himself the fulfilment of 
the law and the prophets. This song of proph- 
ecy, therefore, did the holy mother of God 
render to God, saying, “ My soul doth magnify 
the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God 
my Saviour: for He that is mighty hath done to 
me great things, and holy is His name.” For 
having made me the mother of God, He has 
also preserved me a virgin; and by my womb 
the fulness of all generations is headed up to- 
gether for sanctification. For He hath blessed 
every age, both men and women, both young 
men and youths, and old men. “He hath made 
strength with His arm,” 7 on our behalf, against 
death and against the devil, having torn the 
handwriting of our sins. “He hath scattered 
the proud in the imagination of their hearts ;” 
yea, He hath scattered the devil himself, and all 
the demons that serve under him. For he was 
overweeningly haughty in his heart, seeing that 
he dared to say, “ I will set my throne above the 
clouds, and I will be like the Most High.’ ® 
And now, how He scattered him the prophet has 
indicated in what follows, where he says, “ Yet 
now thou shalt be brought down to hell,” 9 and 
all thy hosts with thee. For He has overthrown 
everywhere his altars and the worship of vain 
gods, and He has prepared for Himself a pecul- 
iar people out of the heathen nations. ‘“ He 
hath put down the mighty from their seats, and 
exalted them of low degree.”’ In these terms is 


intimated in brief the extrusion of the Jews and ~ 


the admission of the Gentiles. For the elders 
of the Jews and the scribes in the law, and 
those who were richly privileged with other pre- 
rogatives, because they used their riches ill and 
their power lawlessly, were cast down by Him 
from every seat, whether of prophecy or of 
priesthood, whether of legislature or of doctrine, 
and were stripped of all their ancestral wealth, 
and of their sacrifices and multitudinous festi- 
vals, and of all the honourable privileges of the 


5 Luke i. 46, etc. 

© Gen, xvii. 11; Rom. iv. 11. 
7 Luke i. 51. 

8 Isa, xiv. 14. 

9 Isa. xiv. 15. 


ali e ! 


- 


FOUR HOMILIES. 


65, 





kingdom. Spoiled of all these boons, as naked 
fugitives they were cast out into captivity. And 
in their stead the humble were exalted, namely, 
the Gentile peoples who hungered after right- 
eousness. For, discovering their own lowliness, 
and the hunger that pressed upon them for the 
knowledge of God, they pleaded for the divine 
word, though it were but for crumbs of the same, 
like the woman of Canaan ;' and for this reason 
they were filled with the riches of the divine 
mysteries. For the Christ who was born of the 
Virgin, and who is our God, has given over the 
whole inheritance of divine blessings to the Gen- 
tiles. ‘He hath holpen His servant Israel.” ? 
Not any Israel in general, indeed, but His ser- 
vant, who in very deed maintains the true no- 
bility of Israel. And on this account also did 
the mother of God call Him servant (Son) and 
heir. For when He had found the same labour- 
ing painfully in the letter and the law, He called 
him by grace. It is such an Israel, therefore, 
that He called and hath holpen in remembrance 
of His mercy. “As He spake to our fathers, 
to Abraham and to his seed for ever.” In these 
few words is comprehended the whole mystery 
of the economy. For, with the purpose of 
saving the race of men, and fulfilling the cove- 
nant that was made with our fathers, Christ has 
once “bowed the heavens and come down.’’3 
And thus He shows Himself to us as we are 
capable of receiving Him, in order that we might 
have power to see Him, and handle Him, and 
hear Him when He speaketh. And on this 
account did God the Word deem it meet to take 
to Himself the flesh and the perfect humanity by 
a woman, the holy Virgin; and He was born a 
man, in order that He might discharge our debt, 
and fulfil even in Himself+ the ordinances of 
the covenant made with Abraham, in its nite of 
circumcision, and all the other legal appoint- 
ments connected with it. And after she had 
spoken these words the holy Virgin went to 
Nazareth ; and from that a decree of Ceesar led 
her to come again to Bethlehem; and so, as 
proceeding herself from the royal house, she 
was brought to the royal house of David along 
with Joseph her espoused husband. And there 
ensued there the mystery which transcends all 
wonders, —the Virgin brought forth and bore 
in her hand Him who bears the whole creation 
by His word. “And there was no room for 
them in the inn.”5 He found no room who 
founded the whole earth by His word. She 
nourished with her milk Him who imparts sus- 
tenance and life to everything that hath breath. 
She wrapped Him in swaddling-clothes who 





‘1, Matt. xv. 27. 
2 Lukei. 54. 
3 Ps, xviii. 9. 
4 péxpes eavTow 
Eckel. x 





binds the whole creation fast with His word. 
She laid Him in a manger who rides seated upon 
the cherubim.® A light from heaven shone round 
about Him who lighteneth the whole creation. 
The hosts of heaven attended Him with their 
doxologies who is glorified in heaven from before 
all ages. A star with its torch guided them who 
had come from the distant parts of earth toward 
Him who is the true Orient. From the East 
came those who brought gifts to Him who for 
our sakes became poor. And the holy mother 
of God kept these words,.and pondered them in 
her heart, like one who was the receptacle of all 
the mysteries. Thy praise, O most holy Virgin, 
surpasses all laudation, by reason of the God 
who received the flesh and was born man of 
thee. To thee every creature, of things in 
heaven, and things on earth, and things under 
the earth, offers the meet offering of honour. 
For thou hast been indeed set forth as the true 
cherubic throne. Thou shinest as the very 
brightness of light in the high places of the 
kingdoms of intelligence ;* where the Father, 
who is without beginning, and whose power thou 
hadst overshadowing thee, is glorified; where 
also the Son is worshipped, whom thou didst 
bear according to the flesh ; and where the Holy 
Spirit is praised, who effected in thy womb the’ 
generation of the mighty King. Through thee, 
O thou that art highly favoured, is the holy 
and consubstantial Trinity known in the world. 
Together with thyself, deem us also worthy to 
be made partakers of thy perfect grace in Jesus 
Christ our Lord: with whom, and with the Holy 
Spirit, be glory to the Father, now and ever, and 
unto the ages of the ages. Amen.’ 


THE THIRD HOMILY. 
ON THE ANNUNCIATION TO THE HOLY VIRGIN MARY.3 


Again have we the glad tidings of joy, again 
the announcements of liberty, again the restora- 
tion, again the return, again the promise of glad- 
ness, again the release from slavery. An angel 
talks with the Virgin, in order that the serpent 
may no more have converse with the woman. In 
the sixth month, it is said, the angel Gabriel was 
sent from God to a virgin espoused to a man.'° 
Gabriel was sent to declare the world-wide sal- 
vation ; Gabriel was sent to bear to Adam the 
signature of his restoration ; Gabriel was sent to 
a virgin, in order to transform the dishonour of 
the female sex into honour ; Gabriel was sent to 


GPRS, Ixexiers, 

7 éy Tois akpois TOY vonT@y Bacirc@v, 
the high places of the kingdoms of the south. i 

8 The close is otherwise given thus: To whom be the glory and 
the power unto the ages of the ages. Amen. 

9 ‘‘ The Third Discourse by the same sainted Gregory, Bishop of 
Neo-Czsareia, surnamed Thaumaturgus, on the Annunciation to the 
all-holy Virgin Mary, mother of God.” 

10 Luke 1, 26, 27. 


Others read vorov = in 


66 


FOUR HOMILIES. 





prepare the worthy chamber for the pure spouse ; 
Gabriel was sent to wed the creature with the 
Creator ; Gabriel was sent to the animate palace 
of the King of the angels ; Gabriel was sent to a 
virgin espoused to Joseph, but preserved for 
Jesus the Son of God. ‘The incorporeal servant 
was sent to the virgin undefiled. One free from 
sin was sent to one that admitted no corruption. 
The light was sent that should announce the 
Sun of righteousness. The dawn was sent that 
should precede the light of the day. Gabriel 
was sent to proclaim Him who is in the bosom 
ef the Father, and who yet was to be in the 
arms of the mother. Gabriel was sent to declare 
Him who is upon the throne, and yet also in the 
cavern. The subaltern was sent to utter aloud 
the mystery of the great King; the mystery, I 
mean, which is discerned by faith, and which 
cannot be searched out by officious curiosity ; 
the mystery which is to be adored, not weighed ; 
the mystery which is to be taken as a thing 
divine, and not measured. “In the sixth month 
Gabriel was sent to a virgin.” What is meant 
by this sixth month? What? It is the sixth 
month from the time when Elisabeth received 
the glad tidings, from the time that she con- 
ceived John. And how is this made plain? 
The archangel himself gives us the interpreta- 
tion, when he says to the virgin: “ Behold, thy 
relation Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son 
in her old age: and this is now the sixth month 
with her, who was called barren.” In the sixth 
month —that is evidently, therefore, the sixth 
month of the conception of John. For it was 
meet that the subaltern should go before; it 
was meet that the attendant should precede ; 
it was meet that the herald of the Lord’s coming 
should prepare the way for Him. In the sixth 
month the angel Gabriel was sent to a virgin 
espoused to a man; espoused, not united ; es- 
poused, yet kept intact. And for what purpose 
was she espoused? In order that the spoiler 
might not learn the mystery prematurely. For 
that the King was to come by a virgin, was 
a fact known to the wicked one. For he too 
heard these words of Isaiah: “ Behold, a virgin 
shall conceive, and bear a son.”2 And on every 
occasion, consequently, he kept watch upon the 
virgin’s words, in order that, whenever this mys- 
tery should be fulfilled, he might prepare her 
dishonour. Wherefore the Lord came by an 
espoused virgin, in order to elude the notice of 
the wicked one ; for one who was espoused was 
pledged in fine to be her husband’s. “In the 
sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent to a vir- 
gin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph.” 
Hear what the prophet says about this man and 
the virgin: “This book that is sealed shall be 





3 Luke i. 36. 
® Isa vil. 14. 








delivered to a man that is learned.”3 What is 
meant by this sealed book, but just the virgin un- 
defiled? From whom is this to be given? From 
the priests evidently. And to whom? To the 
artisan Joseph. As, then, the priests espoused 
Mary to Joseph as to a prudent husband, 
and committed her to his care in expectation 
of the time of marriage, and as it behoved him 
then on obtaining her to keep the virgin un- 
touched, this was announced by the prophet 
long before, when he said: “ This book that is 
sealed shall be delivered to a man that is 
learned.” And that man will say, I cannot read 
it. But why canst thou not read it, O Joseph? 
I cannot read it, he says, because the book is 
sealed. For whom, then, is it preserved? It is 
preserved as a place of sojourn for the Maker 
of the universe. But let us return to our im- 
mediate subject. In the sixth month Gabriel 
was sent to a virgin— he who received, indeed, 
such injunctions as these: “Come hither now, 
archangel, and become the minister of a dread 
mystery which has been kept hid, and be thou 
the agent in the miracle. I am moved by my 
compassions to descend to earth in order to 
recover the lost Adam. Sin hath made him 
decay who was made in my image, and hath 
corrupted the work of my hands, and hath 
obscured the beauty which I formed. The wolf 
devours my nursling, the home of paradise is 
desolate, the tree of life is guarded by the flam- 
ing sword, the location of enjoyments is closed. 
My pity is evoked for the object of this enmity, 
and I desire to seize the enemy. Yet I wish to 
keep this mystery, which I confide to thee alone, 
still hid from all the powers of heaven. Go 
thou, therefore, to the Virgin Mary. Pass thou 
on to that animate city whereof the prophet spake 
in these words: ‘Glorious things were spoken 
of thee, O city of God.’+ Proceed, then, to my 
rational paradise; proceed to the gate of the 
east; proceed to the place of sojourn that is 
worthy of my word; proceed to that second 
heaven on earth; proceed to the light cloud, 
and announce to it the shower of my coming ; 
proceed to the sanctuary prepared for me; pro- 
ceed to the hall of the incarnation ; proceed to 
the pure chamber of my generation after the 
flesh. Speak in the ears of my rational ark, so 
as to prepare for me the accesses of hearing. 
But neither disturb nor vex the soul of the vir- 
gin. Manifest thyself in a manner befitting that 
sanctuary, and hail her first with the voice of 
gladness. And address Mary with the saluta- 
tion, ‘ Hail, thou that art highly favoured,’ that I 
may show compassion for Eve in her deprava- 
tion.” The archangel heard these things, and 
considered them within himself, as was reason- 


3 Isa. xxix. 11, 


4 Ps. Ixxxvii. 3, 


FOUR HOMILIES. 


67 





able, and said: “Strange is this matter; pass- 
_ ing comprehension is this thing that is spoken. 
He who is the object of dread to the cheru- 
bim, He who cannot be looked upon by the 
seraphim, He who is incomprehensible to all 
the heavenly * powers, does He give the assur- 
ance of His connection with a maiden? does 
He announce His own personal coming? yea 
- more, does He hold out an access by hear- 
ing? and is He who condemned Eve, urgent to 
put such honour upon her daughter? For He 
says: ‘So as to prepare for me the accesses of 
hearing.’ But can the womb contain Him who 
cannot be contained in space? Truly this is a 
dread mystery.”. While the angel is indulging 
such reflections, the Lord says to Him: “ Why 
art thou troubled and perplexed, O Gabriel? 
Hast thou not already been sent by me to Zach- 
arias the priest? Hast thou not conveyed to 
him the glad tidings of the nativity of John? 
Didst thou not inflict upon the incredulous 
priest the penalty of speechlessness? Didst 
thou not punish the aged man with dumbness? 
Didst thou not make thy declaration, and I con- 
firmed it? And has sot the actual fact followed 
upon thy announcement of good? Did not the 
barren woman conceive? Did not the womb 
obey the word? Did not the malady of sterility 
depart? Did not the inert disposition of nature 
take to flight? Is not she now one that shows 
fruitfulness, who before was never pregnant? 
Can anything be impossible with me, the Cre- 
ator of all? Wherefore, then, art thou tossed 
with doubt?’”’ What is the angel’s answer to 
this? “O Lord,” he says, “to remedy the 
defects of nature, to do away with the blast of 
evils, to recall the dead members to the power 
of life, to enjoin on nature the potency of gen- 
eration, to remove barrenness in the case of 
members that have passed the common limit, 
to change the old and withered stalk into the 
appearance of verdant vigour, to set forth the 
fruitless soil suddenly as the producer of sheaves 
of corn, —to do all this is a work which, as it is 
ever the case, demands Thy power. And Sarah 
is a witness thereto, and along with her3 also 
Rebecca, and again Anna, who all, though bound 
by the dread ill of barrenness, were afterwards 
gifted by Thee with deliverance from that malady. 
But that a virgin should bring forth, without 
knowledge of a man, is something that goes 
beyond all the laws of nature; and dost Thou 
yet announce Thy coming tothe maiden? The 
bounds of heaven and earth do not contain 
Thee, and how shall the womb of a virgin con- 
tain Thee?” And the Lord says: “ How did 





I Or, angelic. 
2 Wrepopios péAcoty, 
3 Or, and after her. 














the tent of Abraham contain me?”* And the 
angel says: “As there were there the deeps of 
hospitality, O Lord, Thou didst show Thyself 
there to Abraham at the door of the tent, and. 
didst pass quickly by it, as He who filleth all 
things. But how can Mary sustain the fire of 
the divinity? Thy throne blazes with the illu- 
mination of its splendour, and can the virgin 
receive Thee without being consumed?”’ Then 
the Lord says: “Yea surely, if the fire in the 
wilderness injured the bush, my coming will 
indeed also injure Mary; but if that fire which 
served as the adumbration of the advent of 
the fire of divinity from heaven fertilized the 
bush, and did not burn it, what wilt thou say 
of the Truth that descends not in a flame of fire, 
but in the form of rain?’”’5 Thereupon the angel 
set himself to carry out the commission given 
him, and repaired to the Virgin, and addressed 
her with a loud voice, saying: “ Hail, thou that 
are highly favoured! the Lord is with thee. No 
longer shalt the devil be against thee ; for where 
of old that adversary inflicted the wound, there 
now first of all does the Physician apply the 
salve of deliverance. Where death came forth, 
there has life now prepared its entrance. By a 
woman came the flood of our ills, and by a 
woman also our blessings have their spring. 
Hail, thou that are highly favoured! Be not 
thou ashamed, as if thou wert the cause of our 
condemnation. For thou art made the mother 
of Him who is at once Judge and Redeemer. 
Hail, thou stainless mother of the Bridegroom ® 
of a world bereft! Hail, thou that hast sunk in 
thy womb the death (that came) of the mother 
(Eve)! Hail, thou animate temple of God! 
Hail, thou equal? home of heaven and earth 
alike! Hail, thou amplest receptacle of the 
illimitable nature !’’ But as these things are so, 
through her has come for the sick the Physician ; 
for them that sit in darkness, the Sun of right- 
eousness ; for all that are tossed and tempest- 
beaten, the Anchor and the Port undisturbed by 
storm. For the servants in irreconcilable en- 
mity has been born the Lord; and One has 
sojourned with us to be the bond of peace and 
the Redeemer of those led captive, and to be 
the peace for those involved in hostility. For 
He is our peace ;® and of that peace may it be 
granted that all we may receive the enjoyment, 
by the grace and kindness of our Lord Jesus 
Christ; to whom be the glory, honour, and 
power, now and ever, and unto all the ages of 
the ages. Amen. 


4 Gen. xviii. 

5 Ps. Ixxii. 6. [A sub-allusion, in bad taste, to Semele.] 

6 vuudoroxe. The Latin version gives it as = sfonsa, stmul et 
mater. |Apostrophe not worship. ] 

7 tadppomov, 

8 Eph. ii, 14. 


68 





FOUR HOMILIES. 


THE FOURTH HOMILY. 
ON THE HOLY THEOPHANY, OR ON CHRIST’S BAPTISM.‘ 


O ye who are the friends of Christ, and the 
friends of the stranger, and the friends of the 
brethren, receive in kindness my speech to-day, 
and open your ears like the doors of hearing, and 
admit within them my discourse, and accept 
from me this saving proclamation of the baptism ? 
of Christ, which took place in the river Jordan, 
in order that your loving desires may be quick- 
ened after the Lord, who has done so much for 
us in the way of condescension. For even 
though the festival of the Epiphany of the 
Saviour is past, the grace of the same yet abides 
with us through all. Let us therefore enjoy it 
with insatiable minds; for insatiate desire is a 
good thing in the case of what pertains to salva- 
tion — yea, it is a good thing. Come therefore, 
all of us, from Galilee to Judea, and let us go 
forth with Christ ; for blessed is he who journeys 
in such company on the way of life. Come, and 
with the feet of thought let us make for the Jor- 
dan, and see John the Baptist as he baptizes One 
who needs no baptism, and yet submits to the 
rite in order that He may bestow freely upon us 
the grace of baptism. Come, let us view the 
image of our regeneration, as it is emblematically 
presented in these waters. ‘Then cometh Jesus 
from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized 
of him.”3 O how vast is the humility of the 
Lord! O how vast His condescension! The 
King of the heavens hastened to John, His own 
forerunner, without setting in motion the camps + 
of His angels, without despatching beforehand 
the incorporeal powers as His precursors ; but 
presenting Himself in utmost simplicity, in sol- 
dier-like form,’ He comes up to His own sub- 
altern. And He approached him as one of 
the multitude, and humbled Himself among the 
captives though He was the Redeemer, and 
ranged Himself with those under judgment 
though He was the Judge, and joined Himself 
with the lost sheep though He was the Good 
Shepherd who on account of the straying sheep 
came down from heaven, and yet did not for- 
sake His heavens, and was mingled with the 
tares though He was that heavenly grain that 
springs unsown. And when the Baptist John 
then saw Him, recognising Him whom before in 
his mother’s womb he had recognised and wor- 
shipped, and discerning clearly that this was He 
on whose account, in a manner surpassing the 
natural time, he had leaped in the womb of his 
mother, in violation of the limits of nature, he 


1 * A Discourse By our sainted Father Gregory, Bishop of Neo- 
Cesareia, surnamed Thaumaturgus, on the Holy Theophany, or, as 
the title is also given, on the Holy Lights.” 

2 xatadvcews, 

3 Matt. iii. 13. 

4 Or, armies, 4 

6 Or subaltern, ¢v 77) oTpaTswTixy popdp. 








drew his right hand within his double cloak, and 
bowing his head like a servant full of love to his 
master, addressed Him in these words: I have 
need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou — 
to me?® What is this Thou doest, my Lord? 
Why dost Thou reverse the order of things? 
Why seekest Thou along with the servants, at the 
hand of Thy servant, the things that are proper 
to servants? Why dost Thou desire to receive 
what Thou requirest not? Why dost Thou bur- 
den me, Thy servitor, with Thy mighty conde- 
scension? I have need to be baptized of Thee, 
but Thou hast no need to be baptized of me. 
The less is blessed by the greater, and the greater 
is not blessed and sanctified by the less. The 
light is kindled by the sun, and the sun is not 
made to shine by the rush-lamp. The clay is 
wrought by the potter, and the potter is not 
moulded by the clay.. The creature is made 
anew by the Creator, and the Creator is not re- 
stored by the creature. The infirm is healed by 
the physician, and the physician is not cured by 
the infirm. The poor man receives contribu- 
tions from the rich, and the rich borrow not from 
the poor. I have need to be baptized of Thee, 
and comest Thou to me? Can I be ignorant 
who Thou art, and from what source Thou hast 
Thy light, and whence Thou art come? Or, 
because Thou hast been born even as I have 
been,’ am I, then, to deny the greatness of Thy 
divinity? Or, because Thou hast condescended 
so far to me as to have approached my body, 
and dost bear me wholly in Thyself in order to 
effect the salvation of the whole man, am I, on 
account of that body of Thine which is seen, to 
overlook that divinity of Thine which is only 
apprehended? Or, because on behalf of my 
salvation Thou hast taken to Thyself the offering 
of my first-fruits, am I to ignore the fact that 
Thou “coverest Thyself with light as with a 
garment?”’® Or, because Thou wearest the flesh 
that is related to me, and dost show Thyself to 
men as they are able to see Thee, am I to forget 
the brightness of Thy glorious divinity? Or, be- 
cause I see my own form in Thee, am I to reason 
against Thy divine substance, which is invisible 
and incomprehensible? I know Thee, O Lord ; 
I know Thee clearly. I know Thee, since I have 
been taught by Thee ; for no one can recognise 
Thee, unless He enjoys Thine illumination. I 
know Thee, O Lord, clearly; for I saw Thee 
spiritually before I beheld this light. When 
Thou wert altogether in the incorporeal bosom 
of the heavenly Father, Thou wert also altogether 
in the womb of Thy handmaid and mother ; and 
I, though held in the womb of Elisabeth by 
nature as in a prison, and bound with the indis- 





6 Matt. iii. 14. 
7 Or, because for my sake Thou hast been born as I have been, 
8 Ps. civ. 2. 


FOUR HOMILIES. 


69 





_ soluble bonds of the children unborn, leaped and 
celebrated Thy birth with anticipative rejoicings. 
Shall I then, who gave intimation of Thy sojourn 
on earth before Thy birth, fail to apprehend Thy 
coming after Thy birth? Shall I, who in the 
womb was a teacher of Thy coming, be now a 

child in understanding in view of perfect knowl- 

edge? But I cannot but worship Thee, who art 
adored by the whole creation ; I cannot but pro- 
claim Thee, of whom heaven gave the indication 

_ by the star, and for whom earth offered a kind 

reception by the wise men, while the choirs of 

angels also praised Thee in joy over Thy con- 
descension to us, and the shepherds who kept 
watch by night hymned Thee as the Chief Shep- 
herd of the rational sheep. I cannot keep si- 
lence while Thou art present, for I am a voice ; 
yea, I am the voice, as it is said, of one crying 
in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the 
Lord." I have need to be baptized of Thee, and 
comest Thou to me? I was born, and thereby 
removed the barrenness of the mother that bore 
me; and while still a babe I became the healer 
of my father’s speechlessness, having received 
of Thee from my childhood the gift of the mirac- 
ulous. But Thou, being born of the Virgin 
Mary, as Thou didst will, and as Thou alone 
dost know, didst not do away with her virginity ; 
but Thou didst keep it, and didst simply gift her 
with the name of mother: and neither did her 
virginity preclude Thy birth, nor did Thy birth 
injure her virginity. But these two things, so 
utterly opposite — bearing and virginity — har- 
monized with one intent ; for such a thing abides 
possible with Thee, the Framer of nature. I am 
but a man, and am a partaker of the divine 
grace ; but Thou art God, and also man to the 
same effect: for Thou art by nature man’s friend. 

I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest 

Thou to me? Thou who wast in the beginning, 

and wast with God, and wast God ;? Thou who 

art the brightness of the Father’s glory ;3 Thou 
who art the perfect image of the perfect Father ;+ 

Thou who art the true light that lighteneth every 

man that cometh into the world;5 Thou who 

wast in the world, and didst come where Thou 
wast ; Thou who wast made flesh, and yet wast 
not changed into the flesh; Thou who didst 
dwell among us, and didst manifest Thyself to 

Thy servants in the form of a servant; Thou 

who didst bridge earth and heaven together by 

Thy holy name,—comest Thou to me? One 

so great to such a one as I am? The King to 

the forerunner? The Lord to the servant? But 
though Thou wast not ashamed to be born in the 
lowly measures of humanity, yet I have no ability 
1 Matt. iii. 
Bis os 


4 Or, of ths perfect Light; to wit, the Father. 
5 John i, 9. , 


3; Mark i. 3; Luke iii. 4; John i. 23. 





to pass the measures of nature. I know how 
great is the measure of difference between earth 
and the Creator. I know how great is the dis- 
tinction between the clay and the potter. I 
know how vast is the superiority possessed by 
Thee, who art the Sun of righteousness, over me 
who am but the torch of Thy grace. Even 
though Thou art compassed with the pure cloud 
of the body, I can still recognise Thy lordship. 
I acknowledge my own servitude, I proclaim 
Thy glorious greatness, I recognise Thy perfect 
lordship, I recognise my own perfect insignifi- 
cance, I am not worthy to unloose the latchets 
of Thy shoes ;° and how shall I dare to touch 
Thy stainless head? How can I stretch out the 
right hand upon Thee, who didst stretch out 
the heavens like a curtain,’ and didst set the earth 
above the waters?® How shall I spread those 
menial hands of mine upon Thy head? How 
shall I wash Thee, who art undefiled and sinless? 
How shall I enlighten the light? What manner 
of prayer shall I offer up over Thee, who dost 
receive the prayers even of those who are igno- 
rant of Thee? 

When I baptize others, I baptize into Thy 
name, in order that they may believe on Thee, 
who comest with glory ; but when I baptize Thee, 
of whom shall I make mention? and into whose 
name shall I baptize Thee? Into that of the 
Father? But Thou hast the Father altogether in 
Thyself, and Thou art altogether in the Father. 
Or into that of the Son? But beside Thee there 
is no other Son of God by nature. Or into that 
of the Holy Spirit? But He is ever together 
with Thee, as being of one substance, and of 
one will, and of one judgment, and of one power, 
and of one honour with Thee ; and He receives, 
along with Thee, the same adoration from all. 
Wherefore, O Lord, baptize Thou me, if Thou 
pleasest ; baptize me, the Baptist. Regenerate 
one whom Thou didst cause to be generated. ~ 
Extend Thy dread right hand, which Thou hast 
prepared for Thyself, and crown my head by 
Thy touch, in order that I may run the course 
before Thy kingdom, crowned like a forerunner, 
and diligently announce the good tidings to the 
sinners, addressing them with this earnest call: 
“ Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the 
sin of the world !”9 O river Jordan, accompany 
me in the joyous choir, and leap with me, and 
stir thy waters rhythmically, as in the movements 
of the dance; for thy Maker stands by thee 
in the body. Once of old didst thou see Israel 
pass through thee, and thou didst divide thy 
floods, and didst wait in expectation of the pas- 
sage of the people ; but now divide thyself more 


6 Luke iii. 16; John i. 27. 
7 Ps, civ. 2. 

8 Ps. cxxxvi. 6. 

9 John i. 29. 


70 


\ 


FOUR HOMILIES. 





decidedly, and flow more easily, and embrace 
the stainless limbs of Him who at that ancient 
time did convey the Jews' through thee. Ye 
mountains and hills, ye valleys and torrents, ye 
seas and rivers, bless the Lord, who has come 
upon the river Jordan ; for through these streams 
He transmits sanctification to all streams. And 
Jesus answered and said to him: Suffer it to be 
so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfil all 
righteousness. Suffer it to be so now; grant 
the favour of silence, O Baptist, to the season 
of my economy. Learn to will whatever is my 
will, Learn to minister to me in those things 
on which I am bent, and do not pry curiously 
into all that I wish to do. Suffer it to be so 
now: do not yet proclaim my divinity; do not 
yet herald my kingdom with thy lips, in order 
that the tyrant may not learn the fact and give 
up the counsel he has formed with respect to 
me. Permit the devil to come upon me, and 
enter the conflict with me as though I were 
but a common man, and receive thus his mortal 
wound. Permit me. to fulfil the object for 
which I have come to earth. It is a mystery 
that is being gone through this day in the 
Jordan. My mysteries are for myself and my 
own. There is a mystery here, not for the ful- 
filling of my own need, but for the designing 
of a remedy for those who have been wounded. 
There is a mystery, which gives in these waters 
the representation of the heavenly streams of 
the regeneration of men. Suffer it to be so now: 
when thou seest me doing what seemeth to me 
good among the works of my hands, in a man- 
ner befitting divinity, then attune thy praises to 
the acts accomplished. When thou seest me 
cleansing the lepers, then proclaim me as the 
framer of nature. When thou seest me make 
the lame ready runners, then with quickened pace 
do thou also prepare thy tongue to praise me. 
When thou seest me cast out demons, then hail 
my kingdom with adoration. When thou seest 
me raise the dead from their graves by my word, 
then, in concert with those thus raised, glorify 
me as the Prince of Life. When thou seest me 
on the Father’s right hand, then acknowledge 
me to be divine, as the equal of the Father and 
the Holy Spirit, on the throne, and in eternity, 
and in honour. Suffer it to be so now; for thus 
it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. I am 
the Lawgiver, and the Son of the Lawgiver ; and 
it becometh me first to pass through all that is 
established, and then to set forth everywhere the 
intimations of my free gift. It becometh me to 
fulfil the law, and then to bestow grace. It be- 
cometh me to adduce the shadow, and then the 
reality. It becometh me to finish the old cove- 
nant, and then to dictate the new, and to write 





! Or, the Hebrews. 
® Matt. iii. 13. 





it on the hearts of men, and to subscribe it with 
my blood,’ and to seal it with my Spirit. It 
becometh me to ascend the cross, and to be 
pierced with its nails, and to suffer after the 
manner of that nature which is capable of suf- 
fering, and to heal sufferings by my suffering, 
and by the tree to cure the wound that was 
inflicted upon men by the medium of a tree. 
It becometh me to descend even into. the very 
depths of the grave, on behalf of the dead 
who are detained there. It becometh me, by 
my three days’ dissolution in the flesh, to de- 
stroy the power of the ancient enemy, death. It 
becometh me to kindle the torch of my body for 
those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of 
death. It becometh me to ascend in the flesh 
to that place where I am in my divinity. It be- 
cometh me to introduce to the Father the Adam 
reigning in me. It becometh me to accomplish 
these things, for on account of these things I 
have taken my position with the works of my 
hands. It becometh me to be baptized with this 
baptism for the present, and afterwards to be- 
stow the baptism of the consubstantial Trinity 
upon all men. Lend me, therefore, O Baptist, 
thy right hand for the present economy, even as 
Mary lent her womb for my birth. Immerse me 
in the streams of Jordan, even as she who bore 
me wrapped me in children’s swaddling-clothes. 
Grant me thy baptism even as the Virgin granted 
me her milk. Lay hold of this head of mine, 
which the seraphim revere. With thy right hand 
lay hold of this head, that is related to thyself in 
kinship. Lay hold of this head, which nature 
has made to be touched. Lay hold of this head, 
which for this very purpose has been formed by 
myself and my Father. Lay hold of this head 
of mine, which, if one does lay hold of it in piety, 
will save him from ever suffering shipwreck. 
Baptize me, who am destined to baptize those 
who believe on me with water, and with the 
Spirit, and with fire: with water, capable of 
washing away the defilement of sins; with the 
Spirit, capable of making the earthly spiritual ; 
with fire, naturally fitted to consume the thorns 
of transgressions. _On hearing these words, the 
Baptist directed his mind to the object of the 
salvation,* and comprehended the mystery which 
he had received, and discharged the divine 
command ; for he was at once pious and ready 
to obey. And stretching forth slowly his right 
hand, which seemed both to tremble and to 
rejoice, he baptized the Lord. Then the Jews 
who were present, with those in the vicinity and 
those from a distance, reasoned together, and 
spake thus with themselves and with each other: 
Was it, then, without cause that we imagined 
John to be superior to Jesus? Was it without 








3 Or, with my name. 
4 Or, to the Saviour’s object. 


ELUCIDATION. 


7A 





cause that we considered the former to be 
greater than the latter? Does not this very 
baptism attest the Baptist’s pre-eminence? Is 
not he who baptizeth presented as the supe- 
rior, and he who is baptized as the inferior? 
But while they, in their ignorance of the mys- 
tery of the economy, babbled in such wise with 
each other, He who alone is Lord, and by 
nature the Father of the Only-begotten, He 
who alone knoweth perfectly Him whom He 
alone in passionless fashion begat, to correct 
the erroneous imaginations of the Jews, opened 
the gates of the heavens, and sent down the 
_ Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, lighting upon 
the head of Jesus, pointing out thereby the 
new Noah, yea the maker of Noah, and the good 
pilot of the nature which is in shipwreck. And 
He Himself calls with clear voice out of heaven, 
and says: “This is my beloved Son,” ‘— the 
Jesus there, namely, and not the John; the one 
baptized, and not the one baptizing; He who 
was begotten of me before all periods of time, 
and not he who was begotten of Zacharias ; He 
who was born of Mary after the flesh, and not he 
who was brought forth by Elisabeth beyond all 
expectation ; He who was the fruit of the vir- 
ginity yet preserved intact, and not he who was 
the shoot from a sterility removed ; He who has 
had His conversation with you, and not he who 
was brought up in the wilderness. This is my 
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: my 
Son, of the same substance with myself, and not 


1 Matt. iii. 17, xvii. 5; Mark i. rr; Luke ix. 35. 





of a different ; of one substance with me accord- 
ing to what is unseen, and of one substance with 
you according to what is seen, yet without sin. 
This is He who along with me made man. This 
is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. 
This Son of mine and this son of Mary are not 
two distinct persons; but this is my beloved 
Son, — this one who is both seen with the eye 
and apprehended with the mind. This is my 
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased ; hear 
Him. If He shall say, I and my Father are one,? 
hear Him. If He shall say, He that hath seen 
me hath seen the Father,3 hear Him. If He 
shall say, He that hath sent me is greater than 
I,4 adapt the voice to the economy. If He shall 
say, Whom do men say that I the Son of man 
am ?5 answer ye Him thus: Thou art the Christ, 
the Son of the living God.° By these words, as 
they were sent from the Father out of heaven in 
thunder-form, the race of men was enlightened : 
they apprehended the difference between the 
Creator and the creature, between the King and 
the soldier (subject), between the Worker and 
the work ; and being strengthened in faith, they 
drew near through the baptism of John to Christ, 
our true God, who baptizeth with the Spirit and 
with fire. To Him be glory, and to the Father, 
and to the most holy and quickening Spirit, now 
and ever, and unto the ages of the ages. Amen. 


2 John x. 30. 
3 John xiv. 9. 
4 John xiv. 28, 
5 Matt. xvi. 13. 
© Matt. xvi. 16, 


EEUCIDAT ION. 


I can do no better than follow Dupin as to the authorship of these Homilies. He thinks the 
style of Proclus (of Constantinople) may be detected in them, though the fourth is beyond him 
for eloquence, and has even been thought worthy of St. Chrysostom. It was produced after Nicza, 
and probably after Ephesus, its somewhat exaggerated praises of the Ocordxos being unusual at an 
earlier period. ‘The titles of these Homilies are the work of much later editors ; and interpola: 
tions probably occur frequently, by the same hands, 


ON 


Grant thy blessing, Lord. 

It was my desire to be silent, and not to make 

a public? display of the rustic rudeness of my 
tongue. For silence is a matter of great conse- 
quence when one’s speech is mean.3 And to 
refrain from utterance is indeed an admirable 
thing, where there is lack of training ; and verily 
he is the highest philosopher who knows how to 
‘cover his ignorance by abstinence from public 
address. Knowing, therefore, the feebleness of 
tongue proper to me, I should have preferred 
such acourse. Nevertheless the spectacle of the 
onlookers impels me to speak. Since, then, this 
solemnity is a glorious one among our festivals, 
and the spectators form a crowded gathering, 
and our assembly is one of elevated fervour in 
the faith, I shall face the task of commencing an 
address with confidence.+ And this I may at- 
tempt all the more boldly, since the Father 5 
requests me, and the Church is with me, and the 
sainted martyrs with this object strengthen what 
is weak in me. For these have inspired aged 
men to accomplish with much love a long course, 
and constrained them to support their failing 
steps by the staff of the word ;° and they have 
stimulated women to finish their course like the 
young men, and have brought to this, too, those 
of tender years, yea, even creeping children. In 
this wise have the martyrs shown their power, 
leaping with joy in the presence of death, laugh- 
ing at the sword, making sport of the wrath of 
princes, grasping at death as the producer of 
deathlessness, making victory their own by their 
fall, through the body taking their leap to heaven, 
suffering their members to be scattered abroad 
in order that they might hold? their souls, and, 
bursting the bars of life, that they might open the 
gates* of heaven. And if any one believes not 





1 A discourse of Gregory Thaumaturgus published by Joannes 
Aloysius Mingarelli, Bologna, 1770. 

2 The codex gives dnuoorevouvgar, for which we read dnuocteverv, 

3 The codex gives ateArjs, for which evreAyjs is read by the editor. 

4 Reading @appovvtws for Pappovvros. 

5 This is supposed by the Latin annotator to refer to the bishop, 
and perhaps to Pheedimus of Amasea, as in those times no one was 
at liberty to make an address in the church when the bishop was 
present, except by his request or with his permission. 

6 Or, the Word. 

7 shiygwor, 

8 Or, keys. 


12 





ALL cD eS EN DS2 


that death is abolished, that Hades is trodden 


‘under foot, that the chains thereof are broken, 


that the tyrant is bound, let him look on the 
martyrs disporting themselves? in the presence 
of death, and taking up the jubilant strain of 
the victory of Christ. O the marvel! Since the 
hour when Christ despoiled Hades, men have 
danced in triumph over death. ‘O death, where 
is thy sting! O grave, where is thy victory ?’’%° 
Hades and the devil have been despoiled, and 
stripped of their ancient armour, and cast out 
of their peculiar power. And even as Goliath 
had his head cut off with his own sword, so also 
is the devil, who has been the father of death, 
put to rout through death; and he finds that 
the selfsame thing which he was wont to use 
as the ready weapon of his deceit, has become 
the mighty instrument of his own destruction. 
Yea, if we may so speak, casting his hook at the 
Godhead, and seizing the wonted enjoyment of 
the baited pleasure, he is himself manifestly 
caught while he deems himself the captor, and 
discovers that in place of the man he has 
touched the God. By reason thereof do the 
martyrs leap upon the head of the dragon, and 
despise every species of torment. For since 
the second Adam has brought up the first Adam 
out of the deeps of Hades, as Jonah was deliv- 
ered out of the whale, and has set forth him 
who was deceived as a citizen of heaven to the 
shame of the deceiver, the gates of Hades have 
been shut, and the gates of heaven have been 
opened, so as to offer an unimpeded entrance 
to those who rise thither in faith. In olden 
time Jacob beheld a ladder erected reaching to 
heaven, and the angels of God ascending and 
descending upon it. But now, having been 
made man for man’s sake, He who is the Friend 
of man has crushed with the foot of His divin- 
ity him who is the enemy of man, and has borne 
up the man with the hand of His Christhood,?! 
and has made the trackless ether to be trodden 
by the feet of man. Then the angels were 





9 kuBiorartes, 

10 x Cor. xv. 55. 

Il Xpiotornros, for which, however, xpynorétntos, bentgnity, is 
suggested. [Sometimes are intended ambiguity. ] 





| 
| 


ELUCIDATION. 


_ ascending and descending ; but now the Angel 
of the great counsel neither ascendeth nor de- 
scendeth: for whence or where shall He change 
His position, who is present everywhere, and 
filleth all things, and holds in His hand the ends 
of the world? Once, indeed, He descended, 
and once He ascended, — not, however, through 

-any change' of nature, but only in the conde- 

_ scension? of His philanthropic Christhood ;3 and 
He is seated as the Word with the Father, and 

_as the Word He dwells in the womb, and as the 
Word He is found everywhere, and is never sep- 
arated from the God of the universe. Afore- 
time did the devil deride the nature of man 
with great laughter, and he has had his joy over 
the times of our calamity as his festal-days. 
But the laughter is only a three days’ pleasure, 
while the wailing is eternal ; and his great laugh- 

ter has prepared for him a greater wailing and 


2 peraBacer, 
2 cvyxaraBace, 


3 Or, benignity. 


73 


ceaseless tears, and inconsolable weeping, and a 
sword in his heart. This sword did our Leader 
forge against the enemy with fire in the virgin. 
furnace, in such wise and after such fashion as 
He willed, and gave it its point by the energy 
of His invincible divinity, and dipped it in the 
water of an undefiled baptism, and sharpened it 
by sufferings without passion in them, and made 
it bright by the mystical resurrection ; and here- 
with by Himself He put to death the vengeful 
adversary, together with his whole host. What 
manner of word, therefore, will express our joy 
or his misery? For he who was once an arch- 
angel is now a devil; he who once lived in 
heaven is now seen crawling like a serpent upon 
earth ; he who once was jubilant with the cher- 
ubim, is now shut up in pain in the guard-house 
of swine ; and him, too, in fine, shall we put to 
rout if we mind those things which are contrary 
to his choice, by the grace and kindness of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and the 
power unto the ages of the ages. Amen. 





ELUCIDATION. 


Tue feast of Al Saints is very ancient in the Oriental churches, and is assigned to the 
Octave of Pentecost, the Anglican Trinity Sunday. See Neale, Zastern Church, vol. ii. pp. 734, 
753. In the West it was instituted when Boniface III. (who accepted from the Emperor 
Phocas the title of “‘ Universal Bishop,”’ a.p. 607) turned the Pantheon into a church, and with 
a sort of practical epigram called it the church of “ All the Saints.” It was a local festival until 
the ninth century, when the Emperor Louis the Pious introduced it into France and Germany. 
Thence it came to England. It falls on the 1st of November. 

The gates of the church at Rome are the same which once opened for the worship of “ all 
the gods.” They are of massive bronze, and are among the most interesting of the antiquities of 
the city. 

The modern gates of St. Peter’s, at Rome, are offensive copies of heathen mythology ; and 
among the subjects there represented, is the shameful tale of Leda, —a symbol of the taste of 
Leo X. 


ON 


i 


THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW.' 


(CHAPTER VI. 22, 23.) 


“ The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be 
single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine 
eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If 
therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is 
that darkness !” 


Tue single eye is the love unfeigned ; for when 
the body is enlightened by it, it sets forth through 
the medium of the outer members only things 
which are perfectly correspondent with the inner 
thoughts. But the evil eye is the pretended love, 
which is also called hypocrisy, by which the 
whole body of the man is made darkness. We 
have to consider that deeds meet only for dark- 
ness may be within the man, while through the 
outer members he may produce words that seem 





1 A fragment. (Gallandi, Vet. Patr. Biblioth., xiv. p. 119; from 
a Catenaon Matthew, Cod. ms. 168, Mitarelli.) 


74 





to be of the light :2 for there are those who are 
in reality wolves, though they may be covered 
with sheep’s clothing. Such are they who wash 
only the outside of the cup and platter, and do 
not understand that, unless the inside of these 
things is cleansed, the outside itself cannot be 
made pure. Wherefore, in manifest confutation 
of such persons, the Saviour says: “If the light 
that is in thee be darkness, how great is that 
darkness!” That is to say, if the love which 
seems to thee to be light is really a work meet for 
darkness, by reason of some hypocrisy concealed 
in thee, what must be thy patent transgressions ! 





2 The text is apparently corrupt here: agia ev oKxotovs mpay- 
fata évvoovmevoy eawhev: dra 5é Twv EEwOey mepwy pwrds elvat 
Soxodvta mpopepoy pjuata, Migne suggests évvoovmer tov and mpo~ 
dépovra. 








RANSLATED BY THE REV. S. D. F. SALMOND, M.A} 





ale. : 


INTRODUCTORY NOTICE 


20) 


DIONYSIUS, BISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA. 


[a.D. 200-265.] The great Origen had twin children in Gregory and Dionysius.. Their lives 
ran in parallel lines, and are said to have ended on the same day ; and nobly did they sustain the 
dignity and orthodoxy of the pre-eminent school which was soon to see its bright peculiar star in 
Athanasius. Dionysius is supposed to have been a native of Alexandria, of heathen parentage, 
and of a family possessed of wealth and honourable rank. Early in life he seems to have been 
brought under the influence of certain presbyters ; and a voice seemed to speak to him in a vision ' 
encouraging him to “ prove all things, and hold fast that which is good.”’ We find him at the feet 
of Origen a diligent pupil, and afterwards, as a presbyter, succeeding Heraclas (A.D. 232) as the 
head of the school, sitting in Origen’s seat. For about fifteen years he further illuminated this 
illustrious chair; and then, in ripe years, about a.pD. 246, he succeeded Heraclas again as bishop 
of Alexandria, at that time, beyond all comparison, the greatest and the most powerful See of 
Christendom. 

For a year or two he fed his flock in peace ; but then troubles broke in upon his people, even 
under the kindly reign of Philip. Things grew worse, till under Decius te eighth persecution 
was let loose throughout the empire. Like Cyprian, Dionysius retired for a season, upon like 
considerations, but not until he had been arrested and providentially delivered from death in a 
singular manner. On returning to his work, he found the Church greatly disturbed by the questions 
concerning the lapsed, with which Cyprian’s history has made us acquainted, In the letter to 
Fabius will be found details of the earlier persecution, and in that against Germanus are interesting 
facts of his own experience. The Epistle to the Alexandrians contains very full particulars of the 
pestilence which succeeded these calamities; and it is especially noteworthy as contrasting the 
humanity and benevolence of Christians with the cruel and cowardly indifference of the pagans 
towards the dying and the dead. Seditions and tumults followed, on which we have our author’s 
reflections in the Epistle to Hierax, with not a few animated touches of description concerning the 
condition of Alexandria after such desolations. In the affair of Cyprian with Stephen he stood 
by the great Carthaginian doctor, and maintained the positions expressed in the {etter of Firmilian.? 
Wars, pestilences, and the irruptions of barbarians, make up the history. of the residue of the 
period, through which Dionysius was found a “ burning and a shining light” to the Church ; his 
great influence extending throughout the East, and to the West also. I may leave the residue of 
his story to the introductory remarks of the translator, and to his valuable annotations, to which 
it will not be necessary for me to add many of my own. But I must find room to express my 
admiration for his character, which was never found wanting amid many terrible trials of character 
and of faith itself. His pen was never idle; his learning and knowledge of the Scriptures are 
apparent, even in the fragments that have come down to us; his fidelity to the traditions received 
from Origen and Heraclas are not less conspicuous ; and in all his dealings with his brethren of 
the East and West there reigns over his conduct that pure spirit of the Gospel which proves that 





‘4 Epistle to Philemon, tn/ra. 2 Vol. v. p. 390, this series. 


cE A 


78 INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 





the virgin-age of the Church was not yet of the past. A beautiful moderation and breadth of 
sympathy distinguish his episcopal utterances; and, great as was his diocese, he seems equally 
devoid of prelatic pride and of that wicked ambition which too soon after the martyr-ages proved 
the bane of the Church’s existence. The following is the 


TRANSLATOR’S INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 


For our knowledge of the career of this illustrious disciple of Origen we are indebted chiefly 
to Eusebius, in the sixth and seventh books of his Historia Ecclesiastica, and in the fourteenth 
book of his Preparatio Evangelica.t. He appears to have been the son of pagan parents ; but after 
studying the doctrines of various of the schools of philosophy, and coming under the influence 
of Origen, to whom he had attached himself as a pupil, he was led to embrace the Christian 
faith. This step was taken at an early period, and, as he informs us, only after free examination 
and careful inquiry into the great systems of heathen belief. He was made a presbyter in Alex- 
andria after this decision; and on the elevation of Heraclas to the bishopric of that city, Diony- 
sius succeeded him in the presidency of the catechetical school there about a.p. 232. After 
holding that position for some fifteen years Heraclas died, and Dionysius was again chosen to be 
his successor ; and ascending the episcopal throne of Alexandria about A.D. 247 or 248, he 
retained that See till his death in the year 265. The period of his activity as bishop was a time 
of great suffering and continuous anxiety; and between the terrors of persecution on the one 
hand, and the cares of controversy on the other, he found little repose in his office. During 
the Decian persecution he was arrested and hurried off by the soldiers to a small town named 
Taposiris, lying between Alexandria and Canopus. But he was rescued from the peril of that 
seizure in a remarkably providential manner, by a sudden rising of the people of the rural district 
through which he was carried. Again, however, he was called to suffer, and that more severely, 
when the persecution under Valerian broke out in the year 257. On making open confession of 
his faith on this occasion he was banished, at a time when he was seriously ill, to Cephro, a 
wild and barren district in Libya; and not until he had spent two or three years in exile there 
was he enabled to return to Alexandria, in virtue of the edict of Gallienus. At various times he 
had to cope, too, with the miseries of pestilence and famine and civil conflicts in the seat of his 
bishopric. In the many ecclesiastical difficulties of his age he was also led to take a prominent 
part. When the keen contest was waged on the subject of the rebaptism of recovered heretics 
about the year 256, the matter in dispute was referred by both parties to his judgment, and 
he composed several valuable writings on the question. Then he was induced to enter the lists 
with the Sabellians, and in the course of a lengthened controversy did much good service against 
their tenets. The uncompromising energy of his opposition to that sect carried him, however, 
beyond the bounds of prudence, so that he himself gave expression to opinions not easily recon- 
cilable with the common orthodox doctrine. For these he was called to account by Dionysius 
bishop of Rome ;? and when a synod had been summoned to consider the case, he promptly and 

humbly acknowledged the error into which his precipitate zeal had drawn him. Once more, he 
was urged to give his help in the difficulty with Paul of Samosata. But as the burden of years 
and infirmities made it impossible for him to attend the synod convened at Antioch in 265 to 
deal with that troublesome heresiarch, he sent his opinion on the subject of discussion in a letter 
to the council, and died soon after, towards the close of the same year. The responsible duties 





1 There are also passages, of larger or smaller extent, bearing upon his life and his literary activity, in Jerome (De writs tllustr., 
ch. 69: and Prefatio ad Lib., xviii., Comment. tn Esaiam), Athanasius (De Sententia Dionystt, and De Synodt Nicene Decretis), 
Basil (De Spiritu Sancto, ch. 29; Epist. ad Amphiloch., and Epist. ad Maximum). Among modern authorities, we may refer 
specially to the Dissertation on his life and writings by S. de Magistris, in the folio edition issued under his care in Greek and Latin at Rome 
in 1796; to the account given by Basnage in the Histotre de 1'Eglise, tome i. livre ii. ch. v. p. 68; to the complete collection of his extant 
works in Gallandi’s Bibrotheca Patrum, iii. p. 481, etc.; as well as to the accounts in Cave’s Hst¢. Lit., i. p. 95, and elsewhere. 

2 [Not, however, as an inferior, but as one bishop in those days remonstrated with another, and as he himself remonstrated with 
Stephen. See infra.] 





INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 79 





_ of his bishopric had been discharged with singular faithfulness and patience throughout the 
seventeen eventful years during which he occupied the office. Among the ancients he was 
held in the highest esteem both for personal worth and for literary usefulness ; and it is related 
that there was a church dedicated to him in Alexandria. One feature that appears very promi-_ 
nently in his character, is the spirit of independent investigation which possessed him. It was 
only after candid examination of the current philosophies that he was induced to become a 
Christian ; and after his adoption of the faith, he kept himself abreast of all the controversies 
of the time, and perused with an impartial mind the works of the great heretics. He acted on 
this principle through his whole course as a teacher, pronouncing against such writings only when 
he had made himself familiar with their contents, and saw how to refute them. And we are 
told in Eusebius,’ that when a certain presbyter once remonstrated with him on this subject, and 
warned him of the injury he might do to his own soul by habituating himself to the perusal of 
these heterodox productions, Dionysius was confirmed in his purpose by a vision and a voice 
which were sent him, as he thought, from heaven to relieve him of all such fear, and to encourage 
him to read and prove all that might come into his hand, because that method had been from the 
very first the cause of faith to him. The moderation of his character, again, is not less worthy 
of notice. In the case of the Novatian schism, while he was from the first decidedly opposed 
to the principles of the party, he strove by patient and affectionate argumentation to persuade 
the leader to submit. So, too, in the disputes on baptism we find him urgently entreating the 
Roman bishop Stephen not to press matters to extremity with the Eastern Church, nor destroy 
the peace she had only lately begun to enjoy. Again, in the chiliastic difficulties excited by 
Nepos, and kept up by Coracion, we see him assembling all the parochial clergy who held these 
opinions, and inviting all the laymen of the diocese also to attend the conference, and discussing 
the question for three whole days with all these ministers, considering their arguments, and meet- 
ing all their objections patiently by Scripture testimony, until he persuades Coracion himself to 
retract, and receives the thanks of the pastors, and restores unity of faith in his bishopric. 
On these occasions his mildness, and benignity, and moderation stand out in bold relief; and on 
others we trace similar evidences of his broad sympathies and his large and liberal spirit. He 
was possessed also of a remarkably fertile pen; and the number of his theological writings, both 
formal treatises and more familiar epistles, was very considerable. All these, however, have 
perished, with the exception of what Eusebius and other early authors already referred to have 
preserved. The most important of these compositions are the following: 1. 4 Zreatise on the 
Promises, in two books, which was written against Nepos, and of which Eusebius has introduced 
two pretty large extracts into the third and seventh books of his History. 2. A Book on Nature, 
addressed to Timotheus, in opposition to the Epicureans, of which we have some sections in the 
Prepar. Evangel. of Eusebius. 3. A Work against the Sabelians, addressed to Dionysius bishop 
of Rome, in four books or letters, in which he deals with his own unguarded statements in the 
controversy with Sabellius, and of which certain portions have come down to us in Athanasius 
and Basil. In addition to these, we possess a number of his epistles in whole or part, and a 
few exegetical fragments. There is a Scholium in the Codex Amerbachianus which may be 
given here : — It should be known that this sainted Dionysius became a hearer of Origen in the 
fourth year of the reign of Philip, who succeeded Gordian in the empire. On the death of 
Heraclas, the thirteenth bishop of the church of Alexandria, he was put in possession of the 
headship of that church; and after a period of seventeen years, embracing the last three years 
of the reign of Philip, and the one year of that of Decius, and the one year of Gallus and 
Volusianus the son of Decius, and twelve years of the reigns of Valerian and his son Gallus 
(Gallienus), he departed to the Lord. And Basilides was bishop of the parishes in the Pentapo- 
lis of Libya, as Eusebius informs us in the sixth and seventh books of his Eeclestastical History. 





1 Hist. Eccles., viii. 7. 





THE WORKS OF DIONYSIUS. 
EXTANT FRAGMENTS. 





PART I.—CONTAINING VARIOUS SECTIONS OF THE WORKS. 


.—FROM THE TWO BOOKS ON THE PROMISES.! 


1. Bur as they produce a certain composition 
by Nepos,? on which they insist very strongly, as 
if it demonstrated incontestably that there will 
be a (temporal) reign of Christ upon the earth, 
I have to say, that in many other respects I ac- 
cept the opinion of Nepos, and love him at once 
for his faith, and his laboriousness, and his pa- 
tient study in the Scriptures, as also for his great 
efforts in psalmody,3 by which even now many 
of the brethren are delighted. I hold the man, 
too, in deep respect still more, inasmuch as‘ he 
has gone to his rest before us. Nevertheless the 


1 Inopposition to Noétus, a bishop in Egypt. Eusebius, H7s?. 
Eecl., vii.24 and 25. Eusebius introduces this extract in the following 
terms: ‘‘ There are also two books of his on the subject of the prom- 
ises. The occasion of writing these was furnished him by a certain 
Nepos, a bishop in Egypt, who taught that the promises which were 
given to holy men in the sacred Scriptures were to be understood 
according to the Jewish sense of the same; and affirmed that there 
would be some kind of a millennial period, plenished with corporeal de- 
lights, upon this earth, And as he thought that he could establish this 
opinion of his by the Revelation of John, he had composed a book on 
this question, entitled Refutation of the Allegorists. This, therefore, 
is sharply attacked by Dionysius in his books on the Promises. And 
in chev of these books he states his own opinion on the subject; 
while in the second he gives us a discussion on the Revelation of 
John, in the introduction to which he makes mention of Nepos.” [Of 
this Noétus, see the PAzlosophumena, vol. v., this series. ] 

2 As itis clear from this passage that this work by Dionysius was 
written against Nepos, it is strange that, in his preface to the eigh- 
teenth book of his Commentaries on Isaiah, Jerome should affirm it 
to have been composed against Irenzeus of Lyons. _ Irenzeus was cer- 
tainly of the number of those who held millennial views, and who had 
been persuaded to embrace such by Papias, as Jerome himself tells us 
in the Cata/ogus, and as Eusebius explains towards the close of the 
third book of his .Yis‘ory. But that this book by Dionysius was 
written not against Irenaus, but against Nepos, is evident, not only 
from this passage in Eusebius, but also from Jerome himself, in his 
work On Ecclestustical Writers, where he speaks of Dionysius. — 
VALES, oe are (this series, zfra) the comments of Victorinus 
of Petau for a Western view of the millennial subject. ] 

3 tis moAARS Waduwdias, Christophorsonus interprets this of 
psalms and hymns composed by Nepos, It was certainly the practice 
among the ancient Christians to compose psalms and hymns in honour 
of Christ. Eusebius bears witness to this in the end of the fifth book 
of his Hzstory. Mention is made of these psalms in the Epistle of 
the Council of Antioch against Paul of Samosata, and in the penulti- 
mate canon of the Council of Laodicea, where there is a clear pro- 
hibition of the use of WaApot idtwrtxoi in the church, i.e., of psalms 
composed by private individuals. For this custom had obtained great 
prevalence, so that many persons composed psalms in honour of Christ, 
and got them sung in the church. It is psalms of this kind, conse- 
ene , that the Bother of the Council of Laodicea forbid to be sung 

prediter in the church, designating them (dtwrekor, i.e., composed 
by unskilled men, and not dictated by the Holy Spirit. Thus is the 
matter explained by Agobardus in his book De rztu canend? psalmos 
én Ecclesta.—Vavxs. [See vol. v., quotation from Pliny. | 

4 ravTp MaAAov f) mpoaveravcaro: it may mean, perhaps, for the 
way in anich he has gone to his rest before us. 








truth is to be prized and reverenced above all 
things else. And while it is indeed proper to 
praise and approve ungrudgingly anything that 
is said aright, it is no less proper to examine and 
correct anything which may appear to have been 
written unsoundly. If he had been present then 
himself, and had been stating his opinions orally, 
it would have been sufficient to discuss the ques- 
tion together without the use of writing, and to. 
endeavour to convince the opponents, and carry 
them along by interrogation and reply. But the 
work is published, and is, as it seems to some, of 
avery persuasive character; and there are un- 
questionably some teachers, who hold that the 
law and the prophets are of no importance, and 
who decline to follow the Gospels, and who de- 
preciate the epistles of the apostles, and who 
have also made large promises 5 regarding the 
doctrine of this composition, as though it were 
some great and hidden mystery, and who, at the 
same time, do not allow that our simpler breth- 
ren have any sublime and elevated conceptions 
either of our Lord’s appearing in His glory and 
His true divinity, or of our own resurrection from 
the dead, and of our being gathered together to 
Him, and assimilated to Him, but, on the con- 
trary, endeavour to lead them to hope® for 
things which are trivial and corruptible, and only 
such as what we find at present in the kingdom 
of God. And since this is the case, it becomes 
necessary for us to discuss this subject with our 
brother Nepos just as if he were present. 

2. After certain other matters, he adds the fol- 
lowing statement: — Being then in the Arsino- 
itic7 prefecture — where, as you are aware, this 





5 xaterrayyeh\omevwr, i.e,, din ante promittunt quam tradunt, 
The metaphor is taken from the mysteries of the Greeks, who were 
wont to promise great and marvellous discoveries to the initiated, and 
then kept them on the rack by daily expectation, in order to confirm 
their judgment and reverence by such suspense in the conveyance of 
knowledge, as Tertullian says in his book Agazust the Valentinians. 
—Vatgs. [Vol iii. p. 503.] 

© Reading ¢AriGery avamecOovtwy for cAmigsneva mevOdvtwy, with 
the Codex Mazarin, 

7 év wév ody tT "Apoevocitn, In the three codices here, as well 
as in Nicephorus and Ptolemy, we find this scription, although it is 
evident that the word should be written “Apotvoeirp, as the district 
took its name from Queen Arsinoe. — VALES. 


&a 


82 WORKS OF DIONYSIUS. 


Miah ot 


_EXTANT FRAGMENTS. 





doctrine was current long ago, and caused such 
division, that schisms and apostasies took place 
in whole churches —I called together the pres- 
byters and the teachers among the brethren in 
the villages, and those of the brethren also who 
wished to attend were present. I exhorted 
them to make an investigation into that dogma 
in public. Accordingly, when they had brought 
this book before us, as though it were a kind of 
weapon or impregnable battlement, I sat with 
them for three days in succession, from morning 
till evening, and attempted to set them right on 
the subjects propounded in the composition. 
Then, too, I was greatly gratified by observing 
the constancy of the brethren, and their love of 
the truth, and their docility and intelligence, as 
we proceeded, in an orderly method, and in a 
spirit of moderation, to deal with questions, and 
difficulties, and concessions. For we took care 
not to press, in every way and with jealous ur- 
gency, opinions which had once been adopted, 
even although they might appear to be correct.! 
Neither did we evade objections alleged by 
others ; but we endeavoured as far as possible to 
keep by the subject in hand, and to establish the 
positions pertinent to it. Nor, again, were we 
ashamed to change our opinions, if reason con- 
vinced us, and to acknowledge the fact; but 
rather with a good conscience, and in all sincer- 
ity, and with open hearts? before God, we ac- 
cepted all that could be established by the dem- 
onstrations and teachings of the Holy Scriptures. 
And at last the author and introducer of this 
doctrine, whose name was Coracion, in the hear- 
ing of all the brethren present, made acknowl- 
edgment of his position, and engaged to us that 
he would no longer hold by his opinion, nor dis- 
cuss it, nor mention it, nor teach it, as he had 
been completely convinced by the arguments of 
those opposed to it. The rest of the brethren, 
also, who were present, were delighted with the 
conference, and with the conciliatory spirit and 
the harmony exhibited by all. 

3. Then, a little further on, he speaks of the 
Revelation of Fohn as follows: —Now some 
before our time have set aside this book, and 
repudiated it entirely, criticising it chapter by 
chapter, and endeavouring to show it to be with- 
out either sense or reason. They have alleged 
also that its title is false; for they deny that 


I «i kai daivowro, There is another reading, et cai pn pai- 
voto, although they might not appear to be correct. Chris- 
tophorsonus renders it: ne illis quz fuerant ante ab ipsis decreta, si 
quidquam in eis veritati repugnare videretur, mordicus adhzrerent 
precavebant. 

2 nrAwmévats Tats Kapdiats, Cnristophorsonus renders it, Aurzs 
erga Deum acsimplicibus animis; Musculus gives, cordibus ad 
Deum expansis; and Rufinus, patefactis cordibus. [The picture 


here given of a primitive synod searching the Scriptures under such | 


a presidency. and exhibiting such tokens of brotherly love, mutual 
subordination (1 Pet. y. 5), and a prevailing love of the truth, is to 
me one of the most fascinating of patristic sketches. 
but reflect upon the contrast presented in every respect by the late 
Council of the Vatican.] 


One cannot | 


enn is the author. Nay, further, they hold 
that it can be no sort of revelation, because it is 
covered with so gross and dense a veil of igno- 
rance. ‘They affirm, therefore, that none of the 
apostles, nor indeed any of the saints, nor any 
person belonging to the Church, could be its 
author ; but that Cerinthus,3 and the heretical 
sect founded by him, and named after him the 
Cerinthian sect, being desirous of attaching the 
authority of a great name to the fiction pro- 
pounded by him, prefixed that title to the book. 
For the doctrine inculcated by Cerinthus is this : 
that there will be an earthly reign of Christ ; 
and as he was himself a man devoted to the 
pleasures of the body, and altogether carnal 
in his dispositions, he fancied+ that that king- 
dom would consist in those kinds of gratifi- 
cations on which his own heart was set, —to 
wit, in the delights of the belly, and what comes 
beneath the belly, that is to say, in eating and 
drinking, and marrying, and in other things 
under the guise of which he thought he could 
indulge his appetites with a better grace,5 such 
as festivals, and sacrifices, and the slaying of 
victims. But I, for my part, could not venture 
to set this book aside, for there are many breth- 
ren who value it highly. Yet, having formed an 
idea of it as a composition exceeding my capa- 
city of understanding, I regard it as containing 
a kind of hidden and wonderful intelligence on 
the several subjects which come under it. For 
though I cannot comprehend it, I still suspect 
'that there is some deeper sense underlying the 
words. And I do not measure and judge its 
expressions by the standard of my own reason, 
but, making more allowance for faith, I have 
simply regarded them as too lofty for my com- 
prehension ; and I do not forthwith reject what 
I do not understand, but I am only the more 
filled with wonder at it, in that I have not been 
able to discern its import.® 

4. After this, he examines the whole book of 
the Revelation; and having proved that tt can- 
not possibly be understood according to the bald, 
literal sense, he proceeds thus:—When the 
prophet now has completed, so to speak, the 
whole prophecy, he pronounces those blessed 
who should observe it, and names himself, too, 
in the number of the same: “ For blessed,” says 





3 This passage is given substantially by Eusebius also in book 
iii. c. 28, 

4 The text gives ovetporodecv, for which overporoAe: or wretpo- 
mOAet is to be read. 

5 Su’ dv evpyudtepoy Tada wnby mopreicBar, The old reading 
was evOuy6repov, but the present reading i is given in the Mss., Cod. 
Maz., and Med., as also in Eusebius, iii, 28, and in Nicephorus, iii. 14. 
So Rufinus renders it: ef uf aliquid sacratius dicere videretur, 
legales atebat festivitates rursum celebrundas., {These gross views 
of millennial perfection entailed upon suvsequent ages a reactionary 
neglect of the study of the Second Advent A Papal aphorism, pre- 
| served by Roscoe, embodies all this: ‘‘Sub umbilico nulla religio.” 

! It was fully exemplified, even under Leo X.] 

6 [The humility which moderates and subdues our author's pride 
of intellect in this passage is, to me, most instructive as to the limits 
prescribed to argument in what Coleridge calls ‘‘ the faith of reason.”’] 








WORKS OF DIONYSIUS. —EXTANT FRAGMENTS. 


83 





he, “is he that keepeta the words of the proph- 
ecy of this book; and I John who saw and 
heard these things.’‘ That this person was 
called John, therefore, and that this was the 
writing of a John, Ido not deny. And I admit 
further, that it was also the work of some holy 
and inspired man. But I could not so easily 
admit that this was the apostle, the son of Zebe- 
dee, the brother of James, and the same person 
with him who wrote the Gospel which bears the 
title according to Fohn, and the catholic epistle. 
But from the character of both, and the forms of 
expression, and the whole disposition and exe- 
cution? of the book, I draw the conclusion that 
the authorship is not his. For the evangelist 
nowhere else subjoins his name, and he never 
proclaims himself either in the Gospel or in the 
epistle. 

And a little further on he adds :—John, 
moreover, nowhere gives us the name, whether 
as of himself directly (in the first person), or as 
of another (in the third person). But the writer 
of the Revelation puts himself forward at once 
in the very beginning, for he says: “‘The Reve- 
lation of Jesus Christ, which He gave to him to 
show to His servants quickly ; and He sent and 
signified it by His angel to His servant John, 
who bare record of the Word of God, and of 
his testimony, and of all things that he saw.’’3 
And then he writes also an epistle, in which he 
says: “John to the seven churches which are 
in Asia, grace be unto you, and peace.” The 
evangelist, on the other hand, has not prefixed 
his name even to the catholic epistle ; but with- 
out any circumlocution, he has commenced at 
once with the mystery of the divine revelation 
itself in these terms: ‘That which was from the 
beginning, which we have heard, which we have 
seen with our eyes.”4 And on the ground of 
such a revelation as that the Lord pronounced 
Peter blessed, when He said: ‘Blessed art thou, 
Simon Bar-jona; for flesh and blood hath not 
revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in 
heaven.’’?5 And again in the second epistle, 
which is ascribed to John, the apostle, and in 
the third, though they are indeed brief, John is 
not set before us by name; but we find simply 
the anonymous writing, “The elder.” This other 
author, on the contrary, did not even deem it 
sufficient to name himself once, and then to 
proceed with his narrative ; but he takes up his 
name again, and says: “I John, who also am 
your brother and companion in tribulation, and 
in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, 





T Rev. xxit. 7, 8. 

2 Siekaywyhs Acyoueyys, Musculus renders it ¢ractatum libri; 
Christophorsonus gives dzscursum, and Valesius takes it as equiv- 
alent to oixovoptay, as dueéayayecy is the same as Storkety, 

3 Rey. i. 1, 2. F 

4 Johni. x. 

5 Matt. xvi. 17. 








was in the isle that is called Patmos for the 
Word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus 
Christ.” ® And likewise toward the end he 
speaks thus: “Blessed is he that keepeth the 
sayings of the prophecy of this book; and I 
John who saw these things and heard them.” + 
That it is a John, then, that writes these things 
we must believe, for he himself tells us. 

5. What John this is, however, is uncertain. 
For he has not said, as he often does in the Gos- 
pel, that he is the disciple beloved by the Lord, 
or the one that leaned on His bosom, or the 
brother of James, or one that was privileged to 
see and hear the Lord. And surely he would 
have given us some of these indications if it had 
been his purpose to make himself clearly known. 
But of all this he offers us nothing ; and he only 
calls himself our brother and companion, and 
the witness of Jesus, and one blessed with the 
seeing and hearing of these revelations. I am 
also of opinion that there were many persons of 
the same name with John the apostle, who by 
their love for him, and their admiration and 
emulation of him, and their desire to be loved 
by the Lord as he was loved, were induced to 
embrace also the same designation, just as we 
find many of the children of the faithful called by 
the names of Paul and Peter.? There is, besides, 
another John mentioned in the Acts of the Apos- 
tles, with the surname Mark, whom Barnabas and 
Paul attached to themselves as companion, and of 
whom again it is said: ‘And they had also John 
to their minister.”"®> But whether this is the one 
who wrote the Revelation, I could not say. For 
it is not written that he came with them into 
Asia. But the writer says: “ Now when Paui 
and his company loosed from Paphos, they came 
to Perga in Pamphylia: and John, departing 
from them, returned to Jerusalem.”9 I think, 
therefore, that it was some other one of those 
who were in Asia. For it is said that there were 
two monuments in Ephesus, and that each of 
these bears the name of John. 

6. And from the ideas, and the expressions, 
and the collocation of the same, it may be very 
reasonably conjectured that this one is distinct 





© Rey. i. 9. 

7 It is worth while to note this passage of Dionysius on the ancient 
practice of the Christians, in giving their children the names of Peter 
and Paul, which they did both in order to express the honour and 
affection in which they held these saints, and to secure that their 
children might be dear and acceptable to God, just as those saints 
were. Hence it is that Chrysostom in his first volume, in his oration 
on St. Meletius, says that the people of Antioch had such love and 
esteem for Meletius, that the parents called their children by his 
name, in order that they might have their homes adorned by his pres- 
ence. And the same Chrysostom, in his twenty-first homily on Gene- 
sis, exhorts his hearers not to call their children carelessly by the 
names of their grandfathers, or great-grandfathers, or men of fame: 
but rather by the names of saintly men, who have been shining pat- 
terns of virtue, in order that the children might be fired with the de- 
sire of virtue by their example. — Vatus, [A chapter in the history 
of civilization might here be given on the origin of Christian names 
and on the motives which should influence Christians in the bestowal 
of names. The subject is treated, after Plato, by De Maistre. | 

8 Acts xiii. 5. 

9 Acts xiii. 13. 


84. 


PO ony ae ee te 
& sei 
% 


WORKS OF DIONYSIUS, EXTANT FRAGMENTS. 





from that.« For the Gospel and the Epistle 
agree with each other, and both commence in 
the same way. For the one opens thus, “In the 
beginning was the Word ;” while the other opens 
thus, “That which was from the beginning.” 
The one says: ‘And the Word was made flesh, 
and dwelt among us; and we beheld His glory, 
the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father.” ? 
The other says the same things, with a slight 
alteration: “That which we have heard, which 
we have seen with our eyes, which we have 
looked upon, and our hands have handled, of 
the Word of life: and the life was manifested.” 3 
For these things are introduced by way of prel- 
ude, and in opposition, as he has shown in the 
subsequent parts, to those who deny that the 
Lord is come in the flesh. For which reason he 
has also been careful to add these words: “ And 
that which we have seen we testify, and show unto 
you that eternal life which was with the Father, 
and was manifested unto us: that which we have 
seen and heard declare we unto you.”* Thus 
he keeps to himself, and does not diverge incon- 
sistently from his subjects, but goes through them 
all under the same heads and in the same phrase- 
ologies, some of which we shall briefly mention. 
Thus the attentive reader will find the phrases, 
“the life,” “the light,” occurring often in both ; 
and also such expressions as fleeing from dark- 
ness, holding the truth, grace, joy, the flesh and 
the blood of the Lord, the judgment, the remission 
of sins, the love of God toward us, the commana- 
ment of love on our side toward each other; as 
also, that we ought to keep all the commandments, 
the conviction of the world, of the devil, of Ant- 
christ, the promise of the Holy Spirit, the adop- 
tion of God, the faith required of us in all things, 
the Father and the Son, named as such every- 
where. And altogether, through their whole 
course, it will be evident that the Gospel and 
the Epistle are distinguished by one and the 
same character of writing. But the Revelation 
is totally different, and altogether distinct from 
this; and I might almost’ say that it does not 
even come near it, or border upon it. Neither 
does it contain a syllable in common with these 
other books. Nay more, the Epistle — for I say 
nothing of the Gospel— does not make any men- 





1 This is the second argument by which Dionysius reasoned that 
the Revelation and the Gospel of John are not by one author. For 
the first argument which he used in proof of this is drawn from the 
character and usage of the two writers; and this argument Dionysius 
has prosecuted up to this point. Now, however, he adduces a second 
argument, drawn from the words and ideas of the two writers, and 
from the collocation of the expressions. For, with Cicero, I thus in- 
terpret the word ovvtagiv, See the very elegant book of Dionysius 
Hal. entitled Hepi cuvragews ovoxatwy — On the Collocation of 
Names; although in this passage ovvtaéis appears to comprehend 
the disposition of sentences as well as words. Further, from this 
passage we can see what experience Dionysius had in criticism; for 
it is the critic’s part to examine the writings of the ancients, and dis- 
tinguish what is genuine and authentic from what is spurious and 
counterfeit. — VALES. 

2 John i. 14. 

3 1 Johni. x, 2. 

4 x Johni. 2, 3. 








tion or evince any notion of the Revelation ; and 
the Revelation, in like manner, gives no note of 
the Epistle. Whereas Paul gives some indica- 
tion of his revelations in his epistles; which 
revelations, however, he has not recorded in 
writing by themselves, 

7. And furthermore, on the ground of differ- 
ence in diction, it is possible to prove a distinc- 
tion between the Gospel and the Epistle on the 
one hand, and the Revelation on the other. For 
the former are written not only without actual 
error as regards the Greek language, but also 
with the greatest elegance, both in their expres- 
sions and in their reasonings, and in the whole 
structure of their style. They are very far indeed 
from betraying any barbarism or solecism, or any 
sort of vulgarism, in their diction. For, as might 
be presumed, the writer possessed the gift of 
both kinds of discourse,5 the Lord having be- 
stowed both these capacities upon him, viz., that 
of knowledge and that of expression. ‘That the 
author of the latter, however, saw a revelation, 
and received knowledge and prophecy, I do not 
deny. Only I perceive that his dialect and lan- 
guage are not of the exact Greek type, and that 
he employs barbarous idioms, and in some places 
also solecisms. These, however, we are under 
no necessity of seeking out at present. And i 
would not have any one suppose that I have said 
these things in the spirit of ridicule ; for I have 
done so only with the purpose of setting right 
this matter of the dissimilarity subsisting between 
these writings.° 


IIl.— FROM THE BOOKS ON NATURE, 


I. IN OPPOSITION TO THOSE OF THE SCHOOL OF 
EPICURUS WHO DENY THE EXISTENCE OF A PROVI- 
DENCE, AND REFER THE CONSTITUTION OF THE 
UNIVERSE TO ATOMIC BODIES. 


Is the universe one coherent whole, as it seems 
to be in our own judgment, as well as in that 
of the wisest of the Greek philosophers, such as 
Plato and Pythagoras, and the Stoics and Hera- 
clitus? or is it a duality, as some may possibly 





3 The old reading was, tov Adyovr, THY yvwouv, Valesius ex- 
punges the thy yvwouv, as disturbing the sense, and as absent in 
various codices, Instead also of the reading, Tov Te THs Topias, Tov TE 
THs yvwoews, the same editor adopts toy te THs yuwoews, Tov TE THS 
pagews, which is the reading of various manuscripts, and is accepted 
in the translation. Valesius understands that by the €xatepov Aoyov 
Dionysius means the Aoyos évdua@eTos and the Aoyos mpodpopiKos, 
that is, the subjective discourse, or reason in the mind, and the objec- 
tive discourse, or utterance of the same. 

6 [The jealousy with which, while the canon of New Testament 
Scripture was forming, every claim was sifted, is well illustrated in 
this remarkable essay. Observe its critical skill and the fidelity 
with which he exposes the objections based on the style and classi- 
cality of the Evangelist. The Alexandrian school was one of bold 
and original investigation, always subject in spirit, however, to th « 
great canon of Prescription. } 

7 Against the Epicureans. In Eusebius, Prefar. Evangel., book 
xiv. ch, 23-27. Eusebius introduces this extract in terms to the fol- 
lowing effect: It may be well now to subjoin some few arguments out 
of the many which are employed in his disputation against the Epicu- 
reans by the bishop Dionysius, a man who professed a Christian phi- 
losophy, as they are found in the work which he composed on Nature. 
But peruse thou the writer’s statements in his own terms. 





ae 


WORKS OF DIONYSIUS.—EXTANT FRAGMENTS. 


85 





have conjectured? or is it indeed something 
manifold and infinite, as has been the opinion 
of certain others who, with a variety of mad 
speculations and fanciful usages of terms, have 
sought to aivide and resolve the essential matter ! 
of the universe, and lay down the position that 
it is infinite and unoriginated, and without the 
sway of Providence?? For there are those who, 
giving the name of atoms to certain imperishable 
and most minute bodies which are supposed to 
be infinite in number, and positing also the ex- 
istence of a certain vacant space of an unlimited 
vastness, allege that these atoms, as they are 
borne along casually in the void, and clash all 
fortuitously against each other in an unregulated 
whirl, and become commingled one with an- 
other in a multitude of forms, enter into combi- 
nation with each other, and thus gradually form 
this world and all objects in it; yea, more, that 
they construct infinite worlds. This was the 
opinion of Epicurus and Democritus ; only they 
differed in one point, in so far as the former sup- 
posed these atoms to be all most minute and 
consequently imperceptible, while Democritus 
held that there were also some among them of 
a very large size. But they both hold that such 
atoms do exist, and that they are so called on 
account of their indissoluble consistency. There 
are some, again, who give the name of atoms 
to certain bodies which are indivisible into parts, 
while they are themselves parts of the universe, 
out of which in their undivided state all things 
are made up, and into which they are dissolved 
again. And the allegation is, that Diodorus was 
the person who gave them their names as bodies 
indivisible into parts.3 But it is also said that 
Heraclides attached another name to them, and 
called them “weights; + and from him the 
physician Asclepiades also derived that name.’ 


Il. A REFUTATION OF THIS DOGMA ON THE GROUND 
OF FAMILIAR HUMAN ANALOGIES. 


How shall we bear with these men who assert 
that all those wise, and consequently also noble, 
constructions (in the universe) are only the works 
of common chance? those objects, I mean, of 
which each taken by itself as it is made, and the 
whole system collectively, were seen to be good 
by Him by whose command they came into ex- 
istence. For, as it is said, “God saw everything 
that He had made, and, behold, it was very 
good.”® But truly these men do not reflect on’ 





1 ovatay. 

2 ampovonroy, 

3 THY amepwr, 

4 oyxous, 

5 éxAnpovounge To ovowa. Eusebius subjoins this remark: TaUT 
city, é&ns avacKevacer To Sdypua 51a ToAAwY, atap dé dua ToOUTwWY, = 
having said thus much, he (Dionysius) proceeds to demolish this doc- 
trine Ae: go - dagtehiod and among others by what follows. — GALL. 

en. i. 

7 The text ee GAN’ ovde amd TOY ULKp@Y TOV CUVAIwY Kat Tapa 
nodas vouderouvTwr, etc. We adopt Viger’s suggestion, and read 
yovderovvTat, : 








the analogies even of small familiar things which 
might come under their observation at any time, 
and from which they might learn that no object 
of any utility, and fitted to be serviceable, is 
made without design or by mere chance, but is 
wrought by skill of hand, and is contrived so as 
to meet its proper use. And when the object 
falls out of service and becomes useless, then it 
also begins to break up indeterminately, and 
to decompose and dissipate its materials in every 
casual and unregulated way, just as the wisdom 
by which it was skilfully constructed at first no 
longer controls and maintains it. Fora cloak, 
for example, cannot be made without the weaver, 
as if the warp could be set aright and the woof 
could be entwined with it by their own sponta- 
neous action; while, on the other hand, if it is 
once worn out, its tattered rags are flung aside. 
Again, when a house or a city is built, it does 
not take on its stones, as if some of them placed 
themselves spontaneously upon the foundations, 
and others lifted themselves up on the several 
layers, but the builder carefully disposes the skil- 
fully prepared stones in their proper positions ; 
while if the structure happens once to give way, 
the stones are separated and cast down and 
scattered about. And so, too, when a ship is 
built, the keel does not lay itself, neither does 
the mast erect itself in the centre, nor do all the 
other timbers take up their positions casually and 
by their own motion. Nor, again, do the so- 
called hundred beams in the wain fit themselves 
spontaneously to the vacant spaces they severally 
light on. But the carpenter in both cases puts 
the materials together in the right way and at 
the right time. And if the ship goes to sea 
and is wrecked, or if the wain drives along on 
land and is shattered, their timbers are broken 
up and cast abroad anywhere, — those of the 
former by the waves, and those of the latter by 
the violence of the impetus. In like manner, 
then, we might with all propriety say also to 
these men, that those atoms of theirs, which re- 
main idle and unmanipulated and useless, are 
introduced vainly. Let them, accordingly, seek 
for themselves to see into what is beyond the 
reach of sight, and conceive what is beyond the 
range of conception ;? unlike him who in these 
terms confesses to God that things like these had 
been shown him only by God Himself: ‘ Mine 





8 The text is, éxatépas cvvexoptce Kaiptov, for which Viger pro- 
poses els Tov éxarepas, etc. 

9 The text gives, Opatwoay yap Tas adeatous Exetvot, Kal Tas 
GVONTOUS VOELTWOaY, OVX Gpmolws Exelvw, etc. The passage seems 
corrupt. Some supply ducecs as the subject. intended in the adeatous 
and avoytovs; but that leaves the connection still obscure. Viger 
would read, with one MS., a@érovs instead of a@aerovs, and makes 
this then the sense: that those Epicureans are bidden study more 
closely these unregulated and stolid (avontovs) atoms, not looking at 
them with a merely cursory and careless glance, as David acknowl- 
edges was the case with him in the thoughts of his own imperfect na- 
ture, in order that they may the more readily understand how out of 
such confusion as that in which they are involved nothing orderly 
and finished could possibly have originated. [P. 86, note 2, zn/r~ 


86 


WORKS OF DIONYSIUS.—EXTANT FRAGMENTS. 





eyes did see Thy work, being till then imper- 
fect.” * But when they assert now that all those 
things of grace and beauty, which they declare to 
be textures finely wrought out of atoms, are fab- 
ricated spontaneously by these bodies without 
either wisdom or perception in them, who can 
endure to hear? them talk in such terms of 
those unregulated3 atoms, than which even the 
spider, that plies its proper craft of itself, is 
gifted with more sagacity ? 


Il, A REFUTATION ON THE GROUND OF THE CON- 


STITUTION OF THE UNIVERSE. 


Or who can bear to hear it maintained, that 
this mighty habitation, which is constituted of 
heaven and earth, and which is called “Cosmos ” 
on account of the magnitude and the plenitude 
of the wisdom which has been brought to bear 
upon it, has been established in all its order and 
beauty by those atoms which hold their course 
devoid of order and beauty, and that that same 
state of disorder has grown into this true Cosmos, 
Order? Or who can believe that those reg- 
ular movements and courses are the products 
of a certain unregulated impetus? Or who can 
allow that the perfect concord subsisting among 
the celestial bodies derives its harmony from 
instruments destitute both of concord and har- 
mony? Or, again, if there is but one and the 
same substance‘ in all things, and if there is the 
same incorruptible natures in all,—the only 
elements of difference being, as they aver, size 
and figure, —how comes it that there are some 
bodies divine and perfect,° and eternal,” as they 
would phrase it, or lasting,* as some one may pre- 
fer to express 1t; and among these some that 
are visible and others that are invisible, ——the 
visible including such as sun, and moon, and 
stars, and earth, and water ; and the invisible in- 
cluding gods, and demons, and spirits? For 
the existence of such they cannot possibly deny 
however desirous to do so. And again, there 
are other objects that are long-lived, both ani- 
mals and plants. As to animals, there are, for 
example, among birds, as they say, the eagle, the 





1 Ps. cxxxix. 16, The text gives, Td axarépyacrov cov idwoav 
ot opOaAwot pov, This strange reading, instead of the usual ro 
axatépyaorov pov eldov (or idov) oi 60aAmor gov, is found also in 
the Alexandrine exemplar of the Septuagint, which gives, ro axatép- 
yaoTov gov eidogay oi ofOadpuoi wou, and in the Psalter of S. Ger- 
manus in Calmet, which has, imperfectum tuum viderunt ocult 
met, Wiger renders it thus: guod ex tuts operthus imperfectum 
adhuc et impolittum videbatur, oculi tandem met perviderunt; 
i.e., Thy works, which till now seemed imperfect and unfinished, my 
eyes have at length discerned clearly; to wit, because being now 
penetrated by greater light from Thee, they have ceased to be dim- 
sighted. See Viger’s note in Migne. 

2 [The reproduction of all this outworn nonsense in our age 
claims for itself the credit of progresszve science. It has had its day, 
and its destiny is to be speedily wiped out by the next school of 
thinkers. Meanwhile let the believer’s answer be found in Isa. 
XXXvii. 22, 23-] 

3 appvOuous, 

4 ovaias. 

5S dicews. 

© axnpara, 

7 aiwvea, 

8 paxpaiwva, 





raven, and the phoenix; and among creatures 
living on land, there are the stag, and the ele- 
phant, and the dragon; and among aquatic 
creatures there are the whales, and such like 
monsters of the deep. And as to trees, there 
are the palm, and the oak, and the persea ;9 and 
among trees, too, there are some that are ever- 
greens, of which kind fourteen have been reck- 
oned up by some one ; and there are others that 
only bloom for a certain season, and then shed 
their leaves. And there are other objects, again 
— which indeed constitute the vast mass of all 
which either grow or are begotten — that have 
an early death and a brief life. And among 
these is man himself, as a certain holy scripture 
says of him: “ Man that is born of woman is of 
few days.” ?° Well, but I suppose they will reply 
that the varying conjunctions of the atoms ac- 
count fully for differences '! so great in the mat- 
ter of duration. For it is maintained that there 
are some things that are compressed together by 
them, and firmly interlaced, so that they become 
closely compacted bodies, and consequently ex- 
ceedingly hard to break up; while there are 
others in which more or less the conjunction of 
the atoms is of a looser and weaker nature, so 
that either quickly or after some time they sepa- 
rate themselves from their orderly constitution. 
And, again, there are some bodies made up of 
atoms of a definite kind and a certain common 
figure, while there are others made up of diverse 
atoms diversely disposed. But who, then, is the 
sagacious discriminator,’ that brings certain 
atoms into collocation, and separates others ; and 
marshals some in such wise as to form the sun, 
and others in such a way as to originate the 
moon, and adapts all in natural fitness, and in 
accordance with the proper constitution of each 
star? For surely neither would those solar 
atoms, with their peculiar size and kind, and 
with their special mode of collocation, ever have 
reduced themselves so as to effect the produc- 
tion of a moon; nor, on the other hand, would 
the conjunctions of these lunar atoms ever have 
developed into asun. And as certainly neither 
would Arcturus, resplendent as he is, ever boast 
his having the atoms possessed by Lucifer, nor 
would the Pleiades glory in being constituted of 
those of Orion. For well has Paul expressed 
the distinction when he says: “ There is one 
glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, 
and another glory of the stars: for one star dif- 
fereth from another star in glory.” ‘3 And if the 
coalition effected among them has been an unin- 
telligent one, as is the case with soulless ‘+ objects, 





9 mepaéa, a sacred tree of Egypt and Persia, the fruit of which 
grew from the stem, 

10 Job xiv. 1. 

Il The text gives dtapOopas, for which Viger suggests dvadapas. 

12 didoxpivwv, 

13 x Cor, xv. 41. 

14 awuxwv, 


WORKS OF DIONYSIUS.—EXTANT FRAGMENTS. 





87 





then they must needs have had some sagacious 
artificer ; and if their union has been one with- 
out the determination of will, and only of ne- 
cessity, as is the case with irrational objects, then 
some skilful leader‘ must have brought them 
together and taken them under his charge. And 
if they have linked themselves together sponta- 
neously, for a spontaneous work, then some ad- 
mirable architect must have apportioned their 
work for them, and assumed the superintendence 
among them ; or there must have been one to do 
with them as the general does who loves order 
and discipline, and who does not leave his army 
in an irregular condition, or suffer all things to 
go on confusedly, but marshals the cavalry in 
their proper succession, and disposes the heavy- 
armed infantry in their due array, and the javelin- 
men by themselves, and the archers separately, 
and the slingers in like manner, and sets each 
force in its appropriate position, in order that 
all those equipped in the same way may engage 
together. But if these teachers think that this 
illustration is but a joke, because I institute a 
comparison between very large bodies and very 
small, we may pass to the very smallest. 

Then we have what follows : — But if neither 
the word, nor the choice, nor the order of a ruler 
is laid upon them, and if by their own act they 
keep themselves right in the vast commotion of 
the stream in which they move, and convey 
themselves safely through the mighty uproar of 
the collisions, and if like atoms meet and group 
themselves with like, not as being brought to- 
gether by God, according to the poet’s fancy, 
but rather as naturally recognising the affinities 
subsisting between each other, then truly we have 
here a most marvellous democracy of atoms, 
wherein frends welcome and embrace friends, 
and all are eager to sojourn together in one 
domicile ; while some by their own determina- 
tion have rounded themselves off into that mighty 
luminary the sun, so as to make day ; and others 
have formed themselves into many pyramids of 
blazing stars, it may be, so as to crown also the 
whole heavens ; and others have reduced them- 
selves into the circular figure, so as to impart a 
certain solidity to the ether, and arch it over, 
and constitute it a vast graduated ascent of 
luminaries, with this object also, that the various 
conventions of the commoner atoms may select 
settlements for themselves, and portion out the 
sky among them for their habitations and stations. 

Then, after certain other matters, the discourse 
proceeds thus : — But inconsiderate men do not 
see even things that are apparent, and certainly 
they are far from being cognisant of things that 
are unapparent. For they do not seem even to 
have any notion of those regulated risings and 





¥ ayedapyns. 








settings of the heavenly bodies, — those of the 
sun, with all their wondrous glory, no less than 
those of the others ; nor do they appear to make 
due application of the aids furnished through 
these to men, such as the day that rises clear for 
man’s work, and the night that overshadows 
earth for man’s rest: “For man,” it is said, 
“goeth forth unto his work, and to his labour, 
until the evening.” ? Neither do they consider 
that other revolution, by which the sun makes 
out for us determinate times, and convenient 
seasons, and regular successions, directed by 
those atoms of which it consists. But even 
though men like these—and miserable men 
they are, however they may believe themselves 
to be righteous — may choose not to admit it, 
there is a mighty Lord that made the sun, and 
gave it the impetus for its course by His words. 
O ye blind ones, do these atoms of yours bring 
you the winter season and the rains, in order 
that the earth may yield food for you, and for 
all creatures living on it? Do they introduce 
summer-time, too, in order that ye may gather 
their fruits from the trees for your enjoyment? 
And why, then, do ye not worship these atoms, 
and offer sacrifices to them as the guardians of 
earth’s fruits?+ Thankless surely are ye, in not 
setting solemnly apart for them even the most 
scanty first-fruits of that abundant bounty which 
ye receive from them. 

After a short break he proceeds thus : — More- 
over, those stars which form a community so 
multitudinous and various, which these erratic 
and ever self-dispersing atoms have constituted, 
have marked off by a kind of covenant the 
tracts for their several possessions, portioning 
these out like colonies and governments, but 
without the presidency of any founder or house- 
master ; and with pledged fealty and in peace 
they respect the laws of vicinity with their neigh- 
bours, and abstain from passing beyond the 
boundaries which they received at the outset, 
just as if they enjoyed the legislative administra- 
tion of true princes in the atoms. Nevertheless 
these atoms exercise no rule. For how could 
these, that are themselves nothing, do that? 
But listen to the divine oracles: ‘“‘The works of 
the Lord are in judgment; from the beginning, 
and from His making of them, He disposed the 
parts thereof. He garnished His works for ever, 
and their principles 5 unto their generations.” © 

Again, after a little, he proceeds thus : —Ot 
what phalanx ever traversed the plain in such 
perfect order, no trooper outmarching the others, 
or falling out of rank, or obstructing the course, 





2 Ps, civ. 23. 

3 {Our author touches with sagacity this cruz of theory: whence 
comes force, the origin and the perpetuation of z#petus ? Christian- 
ity has thus anticipated the defects of ‘‘ modern science,” ] 

4 rais emikaprots. 

5 apxas. 

6 Kcclus. xvi. 26, 27. 


88 


ye yy et 


WORKS OF DIONYSIUS. —EXTANT FRAGMENTS. 





or suffering himself to be distanced by his com- 
rades in the array, as is the case with that steady 
advance in regular file, as it were, and with close- 
set shields, which is presented by this serried 
and unbroken and undisturbed and unobstructed 
progress of the hosts of the stars? Albeit by 
side inclinations and flank movements certain of 
their revolutions become less clear. Yet, how- 
ever that may be, they assuredly always. keep 
their appointed periods, and again bear onward 
determinately to the positions from which they 
have severally risen, as if they made that their 
deliberate study. Wherefore let these notable 
anatomizers of atoms,’ these dividers of the indi- 
visible, these compounders of the uncompound- 
able, these adepts in the apprehension of the 
infinite, tell us whence comes this circular march 
and course of the heavenly bodies, in which it 
is not any single combination of atoms that 
merely chances all unexpectedly to swing itself 
round in this way ;? but it is one vast circular 
choir that moves thus, ever equally and concord- 
antly, and whirls in these orbits. And whence 
comes it that this mighty multitude of fellow- 
travellers, all unmarshalled by any captain, all 
ungifted with any determination of will, and all 
unendowed with any knowledge of each other, 
have nevertheless held their course in perfect 
harmony? Surely, well has the prophet ranked 
this matter among things which are impossible 
and undemonstrable, — namely, that two stran- 
gers should walk together. For he says, “ Shall 
two come to the same lodging unless they know 
each other?’ 3 


IV. A REFUTATION OF THE SAME ON THE GROUNDS 
OF THE HUMAN CONSTITUTION. 


Further, these men understand neither them- 
selves nor what is proper to themselves. For 
if any of the leaders in this impious doctrine 
only considered what manner of person he is 
himself, and whence he comes, he would surely 
be led to a wise decision, like one who has ob- 
tained understanding of himself, and would say, 
not to these atoms, but to his Father and Maker, 
“Thy hands have made me and fashioned me.” 4 
And he would take up, too, this wonderful ac- 
count of his formation as it has been given by 
one of old: “ Hast Thou not poured me out as 
milk, and curdled me as cheese? ‘Thou hast 
clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced 
me with bones and sinews. Thou hast granted 
me life and favour, and Thy visitation hath pre- 
served my spirit.”5 For of what quantity and 





1 Tov GTOMWY TOMLELS. 

2 ovtw ohevdoviabertos. 

3 This sentence, which is quoted as from the Scriptures, is found 
nowhere there, at least verbatim et ad ditteram. [Amos iii. 3.] 

4 Ps. cxix, 73. 

5 Job x. 10-12. ip tbe milky element (sferma) marvellously 
swinscin into flesh, and the embrozdery of the human anatomy, are 
here admirably brought out, Compare Ps. cxxxix. 12-16; also p. 86, 
note 1, supra.] 





of what origin were the atoms which the father 
of Epicurus gave forth from himself when he 
begat Epicurus? And how, when they were re- 
ceived within his mother’s womb, did they coa- 
lesce, and take form and figure? and how were 
they put in motion and made to increase? And 
how did that little seed of generation draw to- 
gether the many atoms that were to constitute 
Epicurus, and change some of them into skin and 
flesh for a covering, and make bone of others for 
erectness and strength, and form sinews of others 
for compact contexture? And how did it frame 
and adapt the many other members and parts — 
heart and bowels, and organs of sense, some 
within and some without — by which the body 
is made a thing of life? For of all these things 
there is not one either idle or useless: not even 
the meanest of them — the hair, or the nails, or 
such like —is so; but all have their service to 
do, and all their contribution to make, some of 
them to the soundness of bodily constitution, 
and others of them to beauty of appearance. 
For Providence cares not only for the useful, 
but also for the seasonable and beautiful. Thus 
the hair is a kind of protection and covering for 
the whole head, and the beard is a seemly orna- 
ment for the philosopher. It was Providence, 
then, that formed the constitution of the whole 
body of man, in all its necessary parts, and im- 

posed on all its members their due connection 
with each other, and measured out for them 
their liberal supplies from the universal resources. 

And the most prominent of these show clearly, 

even to the uninstructed, by the proof of personal 

experience, the value and service attaching to 

them: the head, for example, in the position of 

supremacy, and the senses set like a guard about 

the brain, as the ruler in the citadel; and the 

advancing eyes, and the reporting ears ; and the 

taste which, as it were, is the tribute-gatherer ; 7 

and the smell, which tracks and searches out its 

objects ; and the touch, which manipulates all 

put under it. 

Hence we shall only run over in a summary 
way, at present, some few of the works of an 
all-wise Providence ; and after a little we shall, 
if God grant it, go over them more minutely, 
when we direct our discourse toward one who 
has the repute of greater learning. So, then, we 
have the ministry of the hands, by which all 
kinds of works are wrought, and all skilful pro- 
fessions practised, and which have all their vari- 
ous faculties furnished them, with a view to the 
discharge of one common function; and we 
have the shoulders, with their capacity for bear- 
ing burdens; and the fingers, with their power 


Col- 
Also, 


6 [Eccles. iii. 11. Note the force of the word Cosmos, 
eridge’s Azds to Reféection, p. 251, ed. New York, 1840. 
Colenees s fancy about the 10 xaddv guast xadovv.]} 

7 €bwdn womep hopodoyotca, 


WORKS OF DIONYSIUS.—EXTANT FRAGMENTS. 


89 





of grasping; and the elbows, with their faculty 
of bending, by which they can turn inwardly 
upon the body, or take an outward inclination, 
so as to be able either to draw objects toward 
the body, or to thrust them away from it. We 
have also the service of the feet, by which the 
whole terrestrial creation is made to come under 
our power, the earth itself is traversed thereby, 
the sea is made navigable, the rivers are crossed, 
and intercourse is established for all with all 
_ things. The belly, too, is the storehouse of 
meats, with all its parts arranged in their proper 
collocations, so that it apportions for itself the 
right measure of aliment, and ejects what is over 
and above that. And so is it with all the other 
things by which manifestly the due administra- 
tion of the constitution of man is wisely secured." 
Of all these, the intelligent and the unintelligent 
alike enjoy the same use ; but they have not the 
same comprehension of them.” For there are 
some who refer this whole economy to a power 
which they conceive to be a true divinity,3 and 
which they apprehend as at once the highest 
intelligence in all things, and the best benefactor 
to themselves, believing that this economy is all 
the work of a wisdom and a might which are 
superior to every other, and in themselves truly 
divine. And there are others who aimlessly at- 
tribute this whole structure of most marvellous 
beauty to chance and fortuitous coincidence. 
And in addition to these, there are also certain 
physicians, who, having made a more effective 
examination into all these things, and having in- 
vestigated with utmost accuracy the disposition 
of the inward parts in especial, have been struck 
with astonishment at the results of their inquiry, 
and have been led to deify nature itself. The 
notions of these men we shall review afterwards, 
as far as we may be able, though we may only 
touch the surface of the subject.4 Meantime, 
to deal with this matter generally and summarily, 
let me ask who constructed this whole tabernacle 
of ours, so lofty, erect, graceful, sensitive, mo- 
bile, active, and apt for all things? Was it, as 
they say, the irrational multitude of atoms? 
Nay, these, by their conjunctions, could not 





I The text is, cat ra dAAa 8° Sowy éeudavios 7 dtoienars THS 
avOpwreiov meunxarvntat dcavouns. Viger proposes Stanovns for 
Scavonijs, and renders the whole thus: “‘ ac catera quorum vi hu- 
manz firmitatis et conservationis ratio continetur.” 

2 The text is, dv opoiws trois adpooww éxovres ot sopol Thy 
Kpiowv, ovK icxovar THY yy@otvy, We adopt Viger’s suggestion, and 
read xpnocy for xpiow, - : 

3 We read, with Viger, Sed7yTa for abeotnta. The text gives ot 
ev yap cis Hv ay oinBaoww a@ectyta, etc., which might possibly 
mean something like this: There are some who refer the whole econ- 
omy to a power which these (others) may deem to be no divinity, 
tp which is) the highest intelligence in all things, and the best bene- 

ctor, etc. Or the sense might be = There are some who refer this 
most intelligent and beneficent economy to a power which they deem 
to be no divinity, though they believe the same economy to be the 
work of a wisdom, etc. p 

4 The text is, nuets d¢ borepov ws ay ofot eveoueba, Kav 
éniweans, avaSewpicouey, Viger renders it thus: os eam postea, 
jejune fortassis et eziliter, ut pro facultate nostra, prosequemur.” He 
Proposes, however, to read emi moAAois (Sc. pymacs or Adyots) for 
ésimoAns, ¢ 


TE 
“ 











mould even an image of clay, neither could they 
hew and polish a statue of stone; nor could 
they cast and finish an idol of silver or gold; 
but arts and handicrafts calculated for such 
operations have been discovered by men who 
fabricate these objects.5 And if, even in these, 
representations and models cannot be made 
without the aid of wisdom, how can the genuine 
and original patterns of these copies have come 
into existence spontaneously? And whence have 
come the soul, and the intelligence, and the rea- 
son, which are born with the philosopher? Has 
he gathered these from those atoms which are 
destitute alike of soul, and intelligence, and 
reason? and has each of these atoms inspired 
him with some appropriate conception and no- 
tion? And are we to suppose that the wisdom 
of man was made up by these atoms, as the 
myth of Hesiod tells us that Pandora was fash- 
ioned by the gods? Then shall the Greeks have 
to give up speaking of the various species of 
poetry, and music, and astronomy, and geom- 
etry, and all the other arts and sciences, as the 
inventions and instructions of the gods, and shall 
have to allow that these atoms are the only 
muses with skill and wisdom for all subjects. 
For this theogony, constructed of atoms by Epi- 
curus, is indeed something extraneous to the 
infinite worlds of order,® and finds its refuge 
in the infinite disorder.? 


Vv. THAT TO WORK IS NOT A MATTER OF PAIN AND 
WEARINESS TO GOD. 


Now to work, and administer, and do good, 
and exercise care, and such like actions, may 
perhaps be hard tasks for the idle, and silly, and 
weak, and wicked ; in whose number truly Epi- 
curus reckons himself, when he propounds such 
notions about the gods. But to the earnest, and 
powerful, and intelligent, and prudent, such as 
philosophers ought to be — and how much more 
so, therefore, the gods !—these things are not 
only not disagreeable and irksome, but ever the 
most delightful, and by far the most welcome of 
all. To persons of this character, negligence 
and procrastination in the doing of what is good 
are a reproach, as the poet admonishes them in 
these words of counsel : — 


“ Delay not aught till the morrow.” ® 


And then he adds this further sentence of threat- 
ening : — 


“The lazy procrastinator is ever wrestling with mis- 
eries.” 9 


5 The text is, xetpovpyia: Tovtwy Ur’ avOpumwy evpnyTat gwper 
toupy@y. Viger proposes gwpatoupyot, “ handicrafts for the com 
struction of such bodies have been discovered by men.” 

6 xégpwr. [See note 6, p. 88, supra.] 

7 axogpiayv, 

8 Hesiod’s Works and Days, v. 408. 

9 Lbsd., v. 411. 


go 


And the prophet teaches us the same lesson in a 
more solemn fashion, and declares that deeds 
done, according to the standard of virtue . are 
truly worthy of God,' and that the man who gives 
no heed to these is accursed: “ For cursed be 
he that doeth the works of the Lord carelessly.” ? 
Moreover, those who are unversed in any art, 
and unable to. prosecute it perfectly, feel it to be 
wearisome when they make their first attempts 
in it, just by reason of the novelty 3 of their ex- 
perience, and their want of practice in the works. 
But those, on the other hand, who have made 
some advance, and much more those who are 
perfectly trained in the art, accomplish easily 
and successfully the objects of their labours, and 
have great pleasure in the work, and would 
choose rather thus, in the discharge of the pur- 
suits to which they are accustomed, to finish and 
carry perfectly out what their efforts aim at, than 
to be made masters of all those things which are 
reckoned advantageous among men. Yea, De- 
mocritus himself, as it is reported, averred that 
he would prefer the discovery of one true cause 
to being put in possession of the kingdom of 
Persia. . And that was the declaration of a man 
who, had only .a’vain and groundless conception 
of the causes of things,4 inasmuch as he started 
with an unfounded principle, and an erroneous 
hypothesis, and did not discern the real root and 
the common /aw of necessity in the constitution 
of natural things, and held as the greatest wis- 
dom the apprehension of things that come about 
simply in an unintelligent and random way, and 
set up chance 5 as the mistress and queen of 
things universal, and even things divine, and en- 
deavoured to demonstrate that all things happen 
by the determination of the same, although at 
the same time he kept it outside the sphere of 
the life of men, and convicted those of sense- 
lessness who worshipped it. At any rate, at the 
yery beginning of his Precepts ® he speaks thus: 
“ Men have made an image’ of chance, as a 
cover ® for their own lack of knowledge. For 
intellect and chance are in their very nature an- 
tagonistic to each other. And men have main- 
tained that this greatest adversary to intelligence 
is its sovereign. Yea, rather, they completely 
subvert and do away with the one, while they 
establish the other in its place. For they do 
not celebrate intelligence as the fortunate,'° but 





l Oeompery. 

2 aped@s, Jer. xlviii. 10. 

3 The text gives, dua ro tis meipas adnbes. 
emendation, anOes, | 

+ 4 [Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas.” But see AHip- 
polytus (vol. v.), and compare Clement, vol. ii, pp. 565-567, this 
series. } 

S TUxnVe 

_ 6 fmobnnar, 

7 aidwdov, 

8 wpodhaciy, ‘ 

9 pice yap yuuun TUXH MaxeTat, Viger refers to the parallel in 
Tullius, vo Marcello, sec. 7: ‘‘ Nunquam temeritas cum sapientia 
commiscetur, nec ad consilium casus admittitur.” : 

40 suTuX7. 


We adopt Viger’s 





they laud chance"! as the most intelligent.” 
Moreover, those who attend to things condu- 
cing to the good of life, take special pleasure 
in what serves the interests of those of the same 
race with themselves, and seek the recompense 
of praise and glory in return for labours under- 
taken in behalf of the general good; while 
some exert themselves as purveyors of ways and 
means,"3 others as magistrates, others as physi- 
cians, others as statesmen ; and even philosophers 
pride themselves greatly in their efforts after the 
education of men, Will, then, Epicurus or De- 
mocritus be bold enough to assert that in the 
exertion of philosophizing they only cause dis- 
tress to themselves? Nay, rather they will 
reckon this a pleasure of mind second to none. 
For even though they maintain the opinion that 
the good is pleasure, they will be ashamed to 
deny that philosophizing is the greater pleasure 
to them.'4 But as to the gods, of whom the 
poets among them sing that they are the “ be- 
stowers of good gifts,” #5 these philosophers scof- 
fingly celebrate them in strains like these: “The 
gods are neither the bestowers nor the sharers 
in any good thing.” And in what manner, for- 
sooth, can they demonstrate that there are gods 
at all, when they neither perceive their presence, 
nor discern them as the doers of aught, wherein, 
indeed, they resemble those who, in their admi- 
ration and wonder at the sun and the moon and 
the stars, have held these to have been named 
gods,'® from their running '? such courses: when, 
further, they do not attribute to them any func- 
tion or power of operation,'* so as to hold them 
gods '9 from their consttuting,?° that is, from their 
making objects,?! for thereby in all truth the one 
maker and operator of all things must be God: 
and when, in fine, they do not set forth any ad- 
ministration, or judgment, or beneficence of 
theirs in relation to men, so that we might be 
bound either by fear or by reverence to worship 
them? Has Epicurus then been able, forsooth, 
to see beyond this world, and to overpass the 
precincts of heaven? or has he gone forth by 
some secret gates known to himself alone, and 
thus obtained sight of the gods in the void??? 
and, deeming them blessed in their full felicity, 
and then becoming himself a passionate aspirant 
after such pleasure, and an ardent scholar in that 
life which they pursue in the void, does he now 


11 Fortune, tvx7v. 

12 éudpovertatny. 

13 rpépovtes 

14 The text gives, 75v dv avrois «lvac To pidogopery. Viger sug- 
gests nd.ov for nbu ov, 

1S Swrihpas cawy 

16 Qeovs. 

17 $:a To Oéerv. 

18 Syucovpylav avtois ) KaTagKevyy, 

19 OeoTointwotv, 

20 éx Tov Oeivat, 

21 ronoae. ios Sy 

22 The text gives, obs é€v TH kev Kateide Oeovs. 
tous for ous. 


See Homer, Odyssey, viii. 325 and 335. 


Viger proposes 


ek (is ea 


* WORKS OF DIONYSIUS. —EXTANT FRAGMENTS. 


WORKS OF DIONYSIUS.—EXTANT FRAGMENTS. 


a 


call upon all to participate in this felicity, and 
urge them thus to make themselves like the 
gods, preparing’ as their true symposium of 
blessedness neither heaven nor Olympus, as the 
poets feign, but the sheer void, and setting be- 
tore them the ambrosia of atoms,” and pledging 
them in3 nectar made of the same? However, 
in matters which have no relation to us, he intro- 
duces into his books a myriad oaths and solemn 
asseverations, swearing constantly both nega- 
tively and affirmatively by Jove, and making 
those whom he meets, and with whom he dis- 
cusses his doctrines, swear also by the gods, not 
certainly that he fears them himself, or has any 
dread of perjury, but that he pronounces all this 
to be vain, and false, and idle, and unintelligible, 





and uses it simply as a kind of accompaniment 
to his words, just as he might also clear his throat, 
or spit, or twist his face, or move his hand. So 
completely senseless and empty a pretence was 
this whole matter of the naming of the gods, in 
his estimation. But this is also a very patent 
fact, that, being in fear of the Athenians after 
(the warning of) the death of Socrates, and 
being desirous of preventing his being taken for 
what he really was—an atheist— the subtle 
charlatan invented for them certain empty shad- 
ows of unsubstantial gods. But never surely did 





he look up to heaven with eyes of true intelli- 
gence, so as to hear the clear voice from above, 
which another attentive spectator did hear, and 
of which he testified when he said, “‘ The heav- 
ens declare the glory of God, and the firmament 
showeth His handiwork.”4 And never surely 
did he look down upon the world’s surface with 
due reflection ; for then would he have learned 
that “the earth is full of the goodness of the 
Lord,” 5 and that “ the earth is the Lord’s, and 
the fulness thereof ;’’° and that, as we also read, 
** After this the Lord looked upon the earth, and 
filled it with His blessings. With all manner of 
living things hath He covered the face thereof.”’7 
And if these men are not hopelessly blinded, 
let them but survey the vast wealth and variety 
of living creatures, land animals, and winged 
creatures, and aquatic ; and let them understand 
then that the declaration made by the Lord on 
the occasion of His judgment of all things® is 
true: “And all things, in accordance with His 





command, appeared good.” 9 


1 ovyxpotar, 

2 For arouwy Viger suggests atzav, “ of vapours,” 

3 Or, giving them to drink, 

4 Ps xix. 1 

S Ps, xxxiii. 5, 

© Ps. xxiv, 1 

7 Ecclus, xvi. 29, 30. 

3 The text is, mi TH mavrwy xploe, Viger suggests «rice, “at 
the creation of all things.” 

9 The quotation runs thus: xai mavta Kata thy abtod mpdatagiv 
nmépnve nada, Eusebius adds the remark here: “ These passages 
have been culled by me out of a very large number composed against 
Epicurus by Dionysius, a bishop of our own time.” . [Among the 
"nany excellent works which have appeared against the “‘ hopelessly 


QI. 


IIl.— FROM THE BOOKS AGAINST SABELLIUS," 
ON THE NOTION THAT MATTER IS UNGENERATED."* 


These certainly are not to be deemed pious 
who hold that matter 1s ungenerated, while they 
allow, indeed, that it is brought under the hand 
of God so far as its arrangement and regulation 
are concerned ; for they do admit that, being 
naturally passive '? and pliable, it yields readily to 
the alterations impressed upon it by God. It is 
for them, however, to show us plainly how it can 
possibly be that the like and the unlike should 
be predicated as subsisting together in God and 
matter. For it becomes necessary thus to think 
of one as a superior to either, and that is a thought 
which cannot legitimately be entertained with re-. 
gard to God. For if there is this defect of gen- 
eration which is said to be the thing like in both, 
and if there is this point of difference which is 
conceived of besides in the two, whence has this 
arisen in them? If, indeed, God is the ungen- 
erated, and if this defect of generation is, as we 
may say, His very essence, then matter cannot 
be ungenerated ; for God and matter are not one 
and the same. But if each subsists properly and 
independently — namely, God and matter — and 
if the defect of generation also belongs to both, 
then it is evident that there is something differ- 
ent from each, and older and higher than both. 
But the difference of their contrasted constitu- 
tions is completely subversive of the idea that 
these can subsist on an equality together, and 
more, that this one of the two— namely, matter: 
—can subsist of itself. For then they will have 
to furnish an explanation of the fact that, though 
both are supposed to be ungenerated, God is 
nevertheless impassible, immutable, imperturba- 
ble, energetic ; while matter is the opposite, im- 
pressible, mutable, variable, alterable. And now, 
how can these properties harmoniously co-exist 
and unite? Is it that God has adapted Himself 
to the nature of the matter, and thus has skilfully 
wrought it? But it would be absurd to suppose 
that God works in gold, as men are wont to do, 
or hews or polishes stone, or puts His hand to 
any of the other arts by which different kinds 
of matter are made capable of receiving form 
and figure. But if, on the other hand, He has 
fashioned matter according to His own will, and 
after the dictates of His own wisdom, impressing 
upon it the rich and manifold forms produced 
by His own operation, then is this account of 
ours one both good and true, and still further 





blinded ” Epicureans of this age, let me note Darwinism tested by 
Language, by E. Bateman, M.D... London, Rivingtons, 1877.] 

10 In Eusebius, Prepar. Evangel., book vii. ch. 19. : 

it Eusebius introduces this extract thus: “ And I shall adduce the, 
words of those who have most thoroughly examined the dogma before 
us, and first of all Dionysius indeed, who, in the first book of his 
Exercitations against Sabellius, writes in these terms on the sub- 
ject in hand,” [Note the Jrsmary position of our author.in the, 
refutation of Sabellianism, and see (vol. y.) the story of Callistus.] 

12 nadntyny. eae ‘ 


92 


WORKS OF DIONYSIUS.—EXTANT FRAGMENTS. 





one that establishes the position that the ungen- 
erated God is the hypostasis (the life and foun- 
dation) of all things in the universe. For with 


this fact of the defect of generation it conjoins | 


the proper mode of His being. Much, indeed, 
might be said in confutation of these teachers, 
but that is not what is before us at present. 
And if they are put alongside the most impious 
polytheists,‘ these will seem the more pious in 
their speech. 


IV,— EPISTLE TO DIONYSIUS BISHOP OF ROME.? 
FROM THE FIRST BOOK. 


1. There certainly was not a time when God 
was not the Father.3 

2. Neither, indeed, as though He had not 
brought forth these things, did God afterwards 
beget the Son, but because the Son has existence 
not fiom Himself, but from the Father. 

And after a few words he says of the Son 

Himself : — 

3. Being the brightness of the eternal Light, 
He Himself also is absolutely eternal, For since 
light is always in existence, it is manifest that 
its brightness also exists, because light is per- 
ceived to exist from the fact that it shines, and 
it is impossible that light should not shine. And 
let us once more come to illustrations. If the 
sun exists, there is also day; if nothing of this 
be manifest, it is impossible that the sun should 
be there. If then the sun were eternal, the day 
would never end ; but now, for such is not really 
the state of the case, the day begins with the be- 
ginning of the sun, and ends with its ending. 
But God is the eternal Light, which has neither 
had a beginning, nor shall ever fail. Therefore 
the eternal brightness shines forth before Him, 
and co-exists with Him, in that, existing without 
a beginning, and always begotten, He always 
shines before Him; and He is that Wisdom 
which says, “I was that wherein He delighted, 
and I was daily His delight before His face at 
all times.’ 4 

And a little after he thus pursues his discourse 

from the same point :— 

4. Smace, therefore, the Father is eternal, the 
Son also is eternal, Light of Light. For where 
there is the begetter, there is also the offspring. 
And if there is no offspring, how and of what 
can He be the begetter? But both are, and 
always are. Since, then, God is the Light, Christ 
is the Brightness. And since He is a Spirit — 
for says He, “ God is a Spirit” 5’ — fittingly again 





I ro0¢ ToVs abewrataus ToAvbéous. 

2 Fragments of a second epistle of Dionysius, Bishop of Alexan- 
dria, or of the treatise which was inscribed the ‘‘ Elenchus et Apolo- 
gia.” [A former epistle was written when Dionysius (of Rome) was 
a presbyter ] 

3 And in what follows (says Athanasius) he professes that Christ 
&s always, as being the Word, and the Wisdom, and the Power. 

4 Prov. viii. 30. 

5 Jehn iv. 24. 


is Christ called Breath; for “He,’® saith He. 
“is the breath of God’s power.’’7 

And again he says : — i 

5. Moreover, the Son alone, always co-existing 
with the Father, and filled with Him who ¢s, Him- 
self also zs, since He is of the Father. 


FROM THE SAME FIRST BOOK. 


6. But when I spoke of things created, and 
certain works to be considered, I hastily put for- 
ward illustrations of such things, as it were little 
appropriate, when I said neither is the plant the 
same as the husbandman, nor the boat the same 
as the boatbuilder.? But then I lingered rather 
upon things suitable and more adapted to the 
nature of the thing, and I unfolded in many 
words, by various carefully considered arguments, 
what things were more true ; which things, more- 
over, I have set forth to you in another letter. 
And in these things I have also proved the false- 
hood of the charge which they bring against me 
—to wit, that I do not maintain that Christ is 
consubstantial with God. For although I say 
that I have never either found or read this word 
in the sacred Scriptures, yet other reasonings, 
which I immediately subjoined, are in no wise 
discrepant from this view, because I brought for- 
ward as an illustration human offspring, which 
assuredly is of the same kind as the begetter ; 
and I said that parents are absolutely distin- 
guished from their children by the fact alone that 
they themselves are not their children, or that it 
would assuredly be a matter of necessity that 
there would neither be parents nor children. 
But, as I said before, I have not the letter in my 
possession,.on account of the present condition 
of affairs; otherwise I would have sent you the 
very words that I then wrote, yea, and a copy 
of the whole letter, and I will send it if at any 
time I shall have the opportunity. I remember, 
further, that I added many similitudes from 
things kindred to one another. For I said that 
the plant, whether it grows up from seed or from 
a root, is different from that whence it sprouted, 
although it is absolutely of the same nature ; and 
similarly, that a river flowing from a spring takes 
another form and name: for that neither is the 
spring called the river, nor the river the spring, 
but that these are two things, and that the spring 
indeed is, as it were, the father, while the river 
is the water from the spring. But they feign that 
they do not see these things and the like to them 
which are written, as if they were blind; but 
they endeavour to assail me from a distance with 
expressions too carelessly used, as if they were 
stones, not observing tnat on things of which 


6 Sczl. Wisdom. 

7 Wisd. vii, 25. 

8 From Athan., Ep. de decret. Nic. Syn., 4.18. [See remarks on 
inevitab/e bc pram of language and figurative illustrations at 
this formative period, vol. iv. p. 223.J 


way 


Ve 


WORKS OF DIONYSIUS.—EXTANT FRAGMENTS. 


93 





they are ignorant, and which require interpre- 
tation to be understood, illustrations that are not 
only remote, but even contrary, will often throw 
light. : 

FROM THE SAME FIRST BOOK. 

7. It was said above that God is the spring of 
all good things, but the Son was called the river 
flowing from Him ; because the word is an ema- 
nation of the mind, and — to speak after human 
fashion — is emitted from the heart by the mouth, 
But the mind which springs forth by the tongue 
is different from the word which exists in the 
heart, For this latter, after it has emitted the 
former, remains and is what it was before ; but 
the mind sent forth flies away, and is carried 
everywhere around, and thus each is in each 
although one is from the other, and they are one 
although they are two. And it is thus that the 
Father and the Son are said to be one, and to 
be in one another. 


FROM THE SECOND BOOK. 


8. The individual names uttered by me can 
neither be separated from one another, nor 
parted. I spoke of the Father, and before I 
made mention of the Son I already signified 
Him in the Father. I added the Son; and the 
Father, even although I had not previously named 
Him, had already been absolutely comprehended 
in the Son. I added the Holy Spirit; but, at 
the same time, I conveyed under the name 
whence and by whom He proceeded. But they 
are ignorant that neither the Father, in that He 
is Father, can be separated from the Son, for 
that name is the evident ground of coherence 
and conjunction ; nor can the Son be separated 
from the Father, for this word Father indicates 
association defween them. And there is, more- 
over, evident a Spirit who can neither be dis- 
joined from Him who sends, nor from Him who 
brings Him. How, then, should I who use such 
names think that these are absolutely divided 
and separated the one from the other? 

After a few words he adds : — 

g. Thus, indeed, we expand the indivisible 
Unity into a Trinity ; and again we contract the 
Trinity, which cannot be diminished, into a 
Unity. 

FROM THE SAME SECOND BOOK. 

10. But if any quibbler, from the fact that I 
said that God is the Maker and Creator of all 
things, thinks that I said that He is also Creator 
of Christ, let him observe that I first called Him 
Father, in which word the Son also is at the 
same time expressed.? For after I called the 
Father the Creator, I added, Neither is He 
the Father of those things whereof He is Crea- 





! Ex Athan., Eg. de decret. Nic. Syn., 4. 37- 
3 [bid., 4. 9% ) 





tor, if He who begot is properly understood to 
be a Father (for we will consider the latitude of 
this word Father in what follows). Nor is a 
maker a father, if it is only a framer who is 
called a maker. For among the Greeks, they 
who are wise are said to be makers of their 
books. The apostle also says, “a doer (scid.- 
maker) of the law.’’3 Moreover, of matters 
of the heart, of which kind are virtue and vice, 
men are called doers (sc#/. makers) ; after which 
manner God said, “I expected that it should 
make judgment, but it made iniquity.’ 4 

11. That neither must this saying be thus 
blamed ;5 for he says that he used the name of 
Maker on account of the flesh which the Word 
had assumed, and which certainly was made. 
But if any one should suspect that that had been 
said of the Word, even this also was to be heard 
without contentiousness. For as I do not think 
that the Word was a thing made, so I do not say 
that God was its Maker, but its Father. Yet 
still, if at any time, discoursing of the Son, I 
may have casually said that God was His Maker, 
even this mode of speaking would not be without 
defence. For the wise men among the Greeks 
call themselves the makers of their books, al- 
though the same are fathers of their books. 
Moreover, divine Scripture calls us makers of 
those motions which proceed from the heart, 
when it calls us doers of the law of judgment 
and of justice. 


FROM THE SAME SECOND BOOK, 


12. Jn the beginning was the Word® But 
that was not the. Word which produced the 
Word.” For “ the Word was with God.”® The 
Lord is Wisdom ; it was not therefore Wisdom 
that produced Wisdom ; for “I was that,” says 
He, “ wherein He delighted.” ® Christ is truth ;. 
but “blessed,” says He, “is the God of truth.” 


FROM THE THIRD BOOK. 


13. Life is begotten of life in the same way 
as the river has flowed forth from the spring, and 
the brilliant light is ignited from the inextin- 
guishable light.9 


FROM THE FOURTH BOOK. 


14. Even as our mind emits from itself a 
word,” —as says the prophet, “ My heart hath 
uttered forth a good word,” '°— and each of the 
two is distinct the one from the other, and main- 
taining a peculiar place, and one that is distin- 


3 Rom. ii. 13; Jas. iv. 12, The Greek word moinrys meaning 
aus sont or doer, causes the ambiguity here and below. 

4 Isa, v. 7. 

$ Athanasius adds (u? supra, 4. 21), that Dionysius gave various . 
replies to those that blamed him for saying that God is the Maker of 
Christ, whereby he cleared himself. 

6 Johni. 1. [For pnua, see vol. ii, p. 15, this series.] 
; oe r Athan., Ef, de decret. Nic, Syn., 4.25. [P. 94, notes 1,3 
infra. 

8 Prov. viii. 30. 

9 Ex Athan., Ef. de decret. Nic. Sym., 4. 38, 

to Ps, xlv. 1. 


de 


94 WORKS OF DIONYSIUS.—EXTANT FRAGMENTS. 





guished from the other ; since the former indeed 
abides and is stirred in the heart, while the latter 
has its place in the tongue and in the mouth. 
And yet they are not apart from one another, 
nor deprived of one another; neither is the 
mind without the word, nor is the word without 
the mind; but the mind makes the word and 
appears in the word, and the word exhibits the 
mind wherein it was made. And the mind in- 
deed is, as it were, the word immanent, while 
the word is the mind breaking forth. The mind 
passes into the word, and the word transmits the 
mind to the surrounding hearers; and thus the 
mind by means of the word takes its place in 
the souls of the hearers, entering in at the same 
time as the word. And indeed the mind is, as 
it were, the father of the word, existing in itself ; 
but the word is as the son of the mind, and 
cannot be made before it nor without it, but 
exists with it, whence it has taken its seed and 
origin. In the same manner, also, the Almighty 
Father and Universal Mind has before all things 
the Son, the Word, and the discourse,? as the 
interpreter and messenger of Himself. 


ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE TREATISE. 
15. If, from the fact that there are three hypos- 


tases, they say that they are divided, there are. 


three whether they like it or no, or else let them 
get rid of the divine Trinity altogether. 


AND AGAIN : 


For on this account after the Unity there is 
also the most divine Trinity.* 


THE CONCLUSION OF THE ENTIRE TREATISE, 


16. In accordance with all these things, the 
form, moreover, and rule being received from the 
elders who have lived before us, we also, with a 
voice in accordance with them, will both acquit 
ourselves of thanks to you, and of the letter 
which we are now writing. And to God the 
Father, and His Son our Lord Jesus Christ, with 
the Holy Spirit, be glory and dominion for ever 
and ever. Amen.5 


V.—THE EPISTLE TO BISHOP BASILIDES.® 
CANON I. 


Dionysius to Basilides, my beloved son, and 
my brother, a fellow-minister with me in holy 





I Emanant. [P. 49 supra, and vol. iii. p, 299, this series. ] 
2 Sermonem. [So Tertullian, Sermo, vol. iii. p. 299, note 19.] 

3 Ex Basilio, 724. de Spir. Sancto, chap. 29. 

4 Ibid. cap. penult., p. 61. 

5 Of the work itself Athanasius thus speaks: Finally, Dionysius 
complains that his accusers do not quote his opinions in ther integrity, 
but mutilated, and that they do not speak out of a good conscience, 
but for evil inclination; and he says that they are like those who 
cavilled at the epistles of the blessed apostle. Certainly he meets 
the individual words of his accusers, and gives a solution to all their 
arguments; and as in those earlier writings of his he confuted Sabel- 
lius most evidently, so in these later ones he entirely declares his own 
pious faith. [Conf. Hermas, vol. iii. p. 15, note 7, with note 2, supra.) 

6 Containing explanations which were given as answers to ques- 
tions proposed by that bishop on various topics, and which have been 
received as canons, [The Scholium, p. 79, is transposed from here. ] 








things, and an obedient servant of God, in the — 


Lord greeting. 
You have sent to me, most faithful and accom- 


plished son, in order to inquire what is the proper ~ 


hour for bringing the fast to a close” on the day 
of Pentecost.* For you say that there are some 
of the brethren who hold that that should be 


done at cockcrow, and others who hold that it. 


should be at nightfall.9 For the brethren in 
Rome, as they say, wait for the cock ; whereas, 
regarding those here, you told us that they would 
have it earlier.%° And it is your anxious desire, 
accordingly, to have the hour presented accu- 
rately, and determined with perfect exactness,'? 
which indeed is a matter of difficulty and un- 
certainty. However, it will be acknowledged 
cordially by all, that from the date of the resur- 
rection of our Lord, those who up to that time 
have been humbling their souls with fastings, 
ought at once to begin their festal joy and glad- 
ness. But in what you have written to me you 
have made out very clearly, and with an intelli- 
gent understanding of the Holy Scriptures, that 
no very exact account seems to be offered in them 
of the hour at which He rose. For the evangel- 
ists have given different descriptions of the parties 
who came to the sepulchre one after another, 
and all have declared that they found the Lord 
risen already. It was “in the end of the Sab- 
bath,” as Matthew has said ; '3 it was “ early, when 
it was yet dark,” as John writes ; "4 it was “very 
early in the morning,” as Luke puts it; and it 
was “very early in the morning, at the rising of 
the sun,” as Mark tells us. Thus no one has 
shown us clearly the exact time when He rose. 
It is admitted, however, that those who came to 
the sepulchre in the end of the Sabbath, as it 
began to dawn toward the first day of the week,'"5 
found Him no longer lying in it. And let us not 
suppose that the evangelists disagree or contra- 
dict each other. But even although there may 





7 amovnortGecOar Set, Gentianus Hervetus renders this by je7z- 
nandus stt dtes Pasche,; and thus he translates the word by 
jejunare, ‘to fast,” wherever it occurs, whereas it rather means 
always, jeyuniur solvere, ‘‘to have done fasting.” In this sense 
the word is used in the Afostolzc Constitutions repeatedly: see book 
v. chap. 12, 18, etc. It occurs in the same sense in the 89th Canon 
of the Concilium Trullanum. The usage must evidently be the same 
here: so that it does not mean, What is the proper hour for fasting 
on the day of Pentecost? but, What is the hour at which the ante- 
paschal fast ought to be terminated — whether on the evening preced- 
ing the paschal festival itself, or at cockcrowing, or at another time? 
— Gat, See also the very full article in Suicer, s.v. 

8 I give the beginning of this epistle of Dionysius of Alexandria 
also as it is found in not a few manuscripts, viz., emeatetAas mor... 
TH TOU magxa TeprAvaet, — the common reading being, thy Tov macyxa 
ynucpav, And the mepcAvats tov maaxa denotes the close of the 
paschal fast, as Eusebius (H7zst. Eccles., v. 23) uses the phrase ras 
T@Y agitimy emAvoets,— the verbs mepiAvev, amoAverv, emAvety, 
katadvew, being often used in this sense, —COTELERIUS on the 
Apostolic Constitutions, v. 15. 

9 ab’ éamépas, 

to [Note this, and the Nicene decision which made the Alexandrian 
bishop the authority concerning the paschal] annually, vol. ii, Elucida- 
tion IT. p. 343.] 

Il ravy memeTpymerny, 

12 kata Katpous evnAdAaymévous. 

13 Matt. xxviii. 1, 

14 John xx. 1. 

15 ty émipwoxovon mig LaBBaTwv. 


WORKS OF DIONYSIUS. —EXTANT FRAGMENTS; 


95 


seem to be some small difficulty as to the subject | already risen long before. And Mark follows 


of our inquiry, if they all agree that the light of 
the world, our Lord, rose on that one night, while 
they differ with respect to the hour, we may well 
seek with wise and faithful mind to harmonize 
their statements. The narrative by Matthew, 
then, runs thus: “In the end of the Sabbath, 
as it began to dawn toward the first day of the 
_ week,’ came Mary Magdalene, and the other 
_ Mary, to see the sepulchre. And, behold, there 
was a great earthquake: for the angel of the 
Lord descended from heaven, and came and 
rolled back the stone, and sat upon it. And his 
countenance was like lightning, and his raiment 
white as snow: and for fear of him the keepers 
did shake, and became as dead men. And the 
angel answered and said unto the women, Fear 
not ye: for I knowthat ye seek Jesus, which was 
crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as 
He said.”? Now this phrase “in the end” will 
be thought by some to signify, according to the 
common use; of the word, the evening of the 
Sabbath ; while others, with a better perception 
of the fact, will say that it does not indicate that, 
but @ late hour in the night, as the phrase “in 
the end”’ 5 denotes slowness and length of time. 
Also because he speaks of mzgh¢, and not of even- 
ing, he has added. the words, “as it began to 
dawn toward the first day of the week.” And 
the parties here did not come yet, as the others 
say, “ bearing spices,” but “to see the sepul- 
chre ;”” and they discovered the occurrence of 
the earthquake, and the angel sitting upon the 
stone, and heard from him the. declaration, “ He 
is not here, He is risen.” And to the same effect 
is the testimony of John. “The first day of the 
week,” says he, “‘came Mary Magdalene early, 
when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and 
seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.” ° 
Only, according to this “ when it was yet dark,” 
she had come in advance.? And Luke says: 
“They rested the Sabbath-day, according to the 
commandment. Now, upon the first day of the 
week, very early in the morning, they came unto 
the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had 
prepared ; and they found the stone rolled away 
from the sepulchre.”*® This phrase “very early 
in the morning’? probably indicates the early 
dawn '° of the first day of the week ; and thus, 
when the Sabbath itself was wholly past, and also 
the whole night succeeding it, and when another 
day had begun, they came, bringing spices and 
myrrh, and then it became apparent that He had 





1 ry emgwoxovcy eis ulav ZaBBatwy, 
2 Matt. xxviii. 1-6, 
3 KowvoTyTa, 
4 vinta Babeciay. 
5 owed, late, 
© John xx, x. 
_7 mapa rodTo .., . mpoeAnAvOat, 
, 3 Luke xxiii, 56, xxiv. 1, 2. 
v9 opOpoy Rabéos, =. ‘ ne ein, 
10 rpovmopaivonevny atv ewOiyny éupaviger, 








this, and says: “They had bought sweet spices, 
in order that they might come and anoint Him. 
And very early (in the morning), the first day 
of the week, they come unto the sepulchre at 
the rising of the sun.” ™ For this evangelist also 
has used the term “very early,” which is just 
the same as the “very early in the morning’ 
employed by the former; and he has added; 
“at the rising of the sun.” Thus they set out, 
and took their way first when it was “very early 
in the morning,” or (as Mark says) when it was 
“very early ;” but on the road, and by their stay 
at the sepulchre, they spent the time till it was’ 
sunrise. And then the young man clad in white 
said to them, “ He is risen, He is not here.” 
As the case stands thus, we make the following 
statement and explanation to those who seek.an’ 
exact account of the specific hour, or half-hour, 
or quarter of an hour, at which it is proper to 
begin their rejoicing over our Lord’s rising from 
the dead. Those who are too hasty, and give 
up even before midnight,’? we reprehend as re-_ 
miss and intemperate, and as almost breaking 
off from their course in their precipitation,'s for it 
is a wise man’s word, “That is not little in life 
which is within a little.’ And those who hold 
out and continue for a very long time, and perse- 
vere even on to the fourth watch, which is also 
the time at which our Saviour manifested Him-. 
self walking upon the sea to those who were then 
on the deep, we receive as noble and laborious 
disciples. On those, again, who pause and re- 
fresh themselves in the course as they are moved 
or as they are able, let us not press very hard : '* 
for all do not carry out the six days of fasting '5 
either equally or alike ; but some pass even all 
the days as a fast, remaining without food through 
the whole ; while others take but two, and others 
three, and others four, and others not even one. 
And to those who have laboured painfully through 
these protracted fasts, and have thereafter become 
exhausted and well-nigh undone, pardon ought 
to be extended if they aré somewhat precipitate 
in taking food. But if there are any who not 
only decline such protracted fasting, but refuse’ 
at the first to fast at all, and rather indulge them- 
selves luxuriously during the first four days, and 
then when they reach the last two days —viz., 
the preparation and the Sabbath — fast with due: 
rigour during these, and these alone; and’ think 
that they do something grand and brilliant if 
they hold out till the morning, I cannot think 
that they have gone through the time on -equal 





Il Mark xvi. 1, 2. ; 

12 mpd vuxtos eyyus Hon merovons avrévtas, 

13 ws map’ oAtyov mpoxatadvovtas Tov Spopov, F 

14 (x Tim. iv. 8. Mark the moderation of our author in contrast 
with superstition, But in our days the. peril is one of an opposite 
kind. Contrast St. Paul, 2 Cor. xi. 27.] 

18 That is, as Balsamon explains, the six days of the week of our 
Lord’s passion, 


96 WORKS OF DIONYSIUS. 
terms with those who have been practising the 
same during several days before. This is the 
counsel which, in accordance with my apprehen- 
sion of the question, I have offered you ir. writ- 
ing on these matters.’ 






CANON If. 


The question touching women in the time of 
their separation, whether it is proper for them 
when in such a condition to enter the house of 
God, I consider a superfluous inquiry. For I do 
not think that, if they are believing and pious 
women, they will themselves be rash enough in 
such a condition either to approach the hol 
table or to touch the body and blood of the 
Lord. Certainly the woman who had the issue 
of blood of twelve years’ standing did not touch 
the Lord Himself, but only the hem of His gar- 
ment, with a view to her cure? For to pray, 
however a person may be situated, and to re- 
member the Lord, in whatever condition a per- 
son may be, and to offer up petitions for the 
obtaining of help, are exercises altogether blame- 
less. But the individual who is not perfectly 
pure both in soul and in body, shall be inter- 
dicted from approaching the holy of holies. 


CANON III. 


Moreover, those who are competent, and who 
are advanced in years, ought to be judges of 
themselves in these matters. For that it is proper 
to abstain from each other by consent, in order 
that they may be free for a season to give them- 

1 To these canons are appended the comments of Balsamon and 


Zonaras, which it is not necessary to give here, 
3 Matt, ix. 30; Luke viii. 43. 


—EXTANT FRAGMENTS. 





selves to prayer, and then come together again, 
they have heard from Paul in his epistle.3 


CANON IV. 


As to those who are overtaken by an involun- 
tary flux in the night-time, let such follow the 
testimony of their own conscience, and consider 
themselves as to whether they are doubtfully. 
minded‘ in this matter or not. And he that 
doubteth in the matter of meats, the apostle tells 
us, “is damned if he eat.’’5 In these things, 
therefore, let every one who approaches God be 
of a good conscience, and of a proper confidence, 


Y|so far as his own judgment is concerned. And, 


indeed, it is in order to show your regard for us 
(for you are not ignorant, beloved,) that you 
have proposed these questions to us, making us. 
of one mind, as indeed we are, and of one spirit 
with yourself. And I, for my part, have thus set 
forth my opinions in public, not as a teacher, 
but only as it becomes us with all simplicity to 
confer with each other. And when you have 
examined this opinion of mine, my most inteili- 
gent son, you will write back to me your notion 
of these matters, and let me know whatever may 
seem to you to be just and preferable, and whether 
you approve of my judgment in these things.° 
That it may fare well with you, my beloved son, 
as you minister to the Lord in peace, is my 
prayer. 


3 Referring to the relations of marriage, dealt with in x Cor. vii. 

etc. 
cs 4 Staxpivoyrat, 

S$ Rom. xiv. 23. [Gr. xaraxéxptrat = is condemned = self-con- 
demned. Wordsworth cites Cicero, De Officiis, i. 30. 

6 [The entire absence of despotic authority in these episcopal 
teachings is to be noted. 2 Cor. i. 24.] 


PART II.—CONTAINING EPISTLES, OR FRAGMENTS OF EPISTLES, 


EPISTLE I.—TO DOMITIUS AND DIDYMUS.! 


1. But it would be a superfluous task for me 
to mention by name our (martyr) friends, who 
are numerous and at the same time unknown to 
you. Only understand that they include men 
and women, both young men and old, both maid- 
ens and aged matrons, both soldiers and private 
citizens, — every class and every age, of whom 
some have suffered by stripes and fire, and some 
by the sword, and have won the victory and 
received their crowns. In the case of others, 
however, even a very long lifetime has not proved 
sufficient to secure their appearance as men ac- 
ceptable to the Lord ; as indeed in my own case 
too, that sufficient time has not shown itself up 





3 Kuseblus, Hist. Acciee., vil. 11. 


to the present. Wherefore He has preserved 
me for another convenient season, of which He 
knows Himself, as He says: “In an acceptable 
time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation 
have I helped thee.” ? 

2. Since, however, you have been inquiring 3 
about what has befallen us, and wish to be in- 
formed as to how we have fared, you have got a 
full report of our fortunes ; how when we — that 
is to say, Gaius, and myself, and Faustus, and 
Peter, and Paul—were led off as prisoners by 
the centurion and the magistrates, and the sol- 


2 Isa. xlix. 8. : 

3 Reading éewecdy wvvOavecGe, for which some codices give «wet 
xvvOaverOar, 

4 gtparnyayv, Christophorsonus would read orparnyov, in the 
sense of commander, But the word is used here of the duumusrs, 
as magistrates of Alexandria. And that the word otparnyos was used 


€ 


oa Ue. 


aca 





s 
* 
i 
e 
’ 





ve 


—. 


diers and other attendants accompanying them, 
there came upon us certain parties from Mare- 
otis, who dragged us with them against our 
will, and though we were disinclined to follow 
them, and carried us away by force ;‘ and how 
Gaius and Peter and myself have been separated 
from our other brethren, and shut up alone in a 
desert and sterile place in Libya, at a distance 
of three days’ journey from Pareetonium. 

3. And a Uittle further on, he proceeds thus: 
— And they concealed themselves in the city, 
and secretly visited the brethren. I refer to the 
presbyters Maximus, Dioscorus, Demetrius, and 
Lucius. For Faustinus and Aquila, who are 
persons of greater prominence in the world, are 
wandering about in Egypt. I specify also the 
deacons who survived those who died in the sick- 
Ness,? viz., Faustus, Eusebius, and Chzremon. 
And of Eusebius I speak as one whom the Lord 
strengthened from the beginning, and qualified 
for the task of discharging energetically the ser- 
vices due to the confessors who are in prison, 
and of executing the perilous office of dressing 
out and burying’ the bodies of those perfected 
and blessed martyrs. For even up to the pres- 
ent day the governor does not cease to put to 
death, in a cruel manner, as I have already said, 
some of those who are brought before him ; 
while he wears others out by torture, and wastes 
others away with imprisonment and bonds, com- 
manding also that no one shall approach them, 





in this c7wz? acceptation, as well as in the common zz/ztary applica- 
tion, we see by many examples in Athanasius, Ammianus Marcellinus, 
and others. us, as Valesius remarks, the soldiers (stpatwtav) 
here will be the band with the centurion, and the attendants (vmnpe- 
leg will be the civil followers of the magistrates. F 

This happened in the first persecution under Decius, when 
Dionysius was carried off by the decision of the prefect Sabinus to 
Taposiris, as he informs us in his epistle to Germanus. Certainl 
any one who compares that epistle of Dionysius to Germanus wit 
this one to Domitius, will have no doubt that he speaks of one and 
the same event in both. Hence Eusebius is in error in thinking that 
in this epistle of Dionysius to Domitius we have a narrative of the 
events relating to the persecution of Valerian, —a position which may 
easily be refuted from Dionysius himself. For in the persecution under 
Valerian, Dionysius was not carried off into exile under military cus- 
tody, nor were there any men from Mareotis, who came and drove off 
the soldiers, and bore bik away unwillingly, and set him at liberty 
again; nor had Dionysius on that occasion the presbyters Gaius and 
Faustus, and Peter and Paul, with him. All these things happened 
to Dionysius in that persecution which began a little before Decius 
obtained the empire, as he testifies himself in his epistle to Germanus. 
But in the persecution under Valerian, Dionysius was accompanied 
in exile by the presbyter Maximus, and the deacons Faustus, and 
Eusebius, and Chzremon, and a certain Roman cleric, as he tells us 
in the epistle to Germanus, — VALESIUS. i 

2 éy ty vow, Rufinus reads vyow, and renders it, “ But of the 
deacons, some died in the island after the pains of confession.” But 
Dionysius refers to the pestilence which traversed the whole Roman 
world in the times of Gallus and Volusianus, as Eusebius in his 
Chronicon and others record. See Aurelius Victor. Dionysius 
makes mention of this sickness again in the paschal epistle to the 
Alexandrians, where he also speaks of the deacons who were cut off 
by that plague. — VALEs. ; . 

3 weptotoAas éxteAeiv, Christophorsonus renders it: “to pre- 
pare the linen cloths in which the bodies of the blessed martyrs who 
departed this life might be wrapped.” In this Valesius thinks he errs 
3 apa at the modern method of burial, whereas among the ancient 

ristians the custom was somewhat different, the bodies being dressed 
out in full attire, and that often at great cost, as Eusebius shows us in 
the case of Astyrius, in the Hzst. Eccles., vii. 16. Yet Athanasius, 
in his Life of Antonius, has this sentence: ‘‘ The Egyptians are 
accustomed to attend piously to the funerals of the bodies of the dead, 
and especially those of the holy martyrs, and to wrap them in linen 
cloths: they are not wont, however, to consign them to the earth, but 
to place them on couches, and keep them in private apartments.” 


WORKS OF DIONYSIUS.—EXTANT FRAGMENTS. 











97 





and making strict scrutiny lest any one should 
be seen to do so. And nevertheless God im- 
parts relief to the oppressed by the tender kind- 
ness and earnestness of the brethren. 


EPISTLE IIl.—TO NOVATUS4 


Dionysius to Novatus 5 his brother, greeting. 

If you were carried on against your will, as 
you say, you will show that such has been the 
case by your voluntary retirement. For it would 
have been but dutiful to have suffered any kind 
of ill, so as to avoid rending the Church of God. 
And a martyrdom borne for the sake of pre- 
venting a division of the Church, would not have 
been more inglorious than one endured for re- 
fusing to worship idols ;®° nay, in my opinion at 
least, the former would have been a nobler thing 
than the latter. For in the one case a person 
gives such a testimony simply for his own indi- 
vidual soul, whereas in the other case he is a 
witness for the whole Church. And now, if you 
can persuade or constrain the brethren to come 
to be of one mind again, your uprightness will 
be superior to your error ; and the latter will not 
be charged against you, while the former will be 
commended in you. But if you cannot prevail 
so far with your recusant brethren, see to it that 
you save your own soul. My wish is, that in the 
Lord you may fare well as you study peace. 


EPISTLE III.—TO FABIUS?’ BISHOP OF ANTIOCH. 


1. The persecution with us did not commence 
with the imperial edict, but preceded it by a 
whole year. And a certain prophet and poet, 
an enemy to this city,’ whatever else he was, had 
previously roused and exasperated against us the 
masses of the heathen, inflaming them anew with 
the fires of their native superstition. Excited 
by him, and finding full liberty for the perpetra- 
tion of wickedness, they reckoned this the only 


4 Eusebius, Hzst. Eccles., vi. 45. 

5 Jerome, in his Catalogus, where he adduces the beginning of 
this epistle, gives Novatianus for Novatus. So in the Chrontcon of 
Georgius Syncellus we have Avovvavos Navartave. Rufinus’ account 
appears to be that there were two such epistles, — one to Novatus, and 
another to Novatianus. The confounding of these two forms seems, 
however, to have been frequent among the Greeks. [See Lardner, 
Credtb., sub voce Novat. Wordsworth thinks the Greeks shortened 
the name, on the grounds which Horace notes ad vocem “ Equotuti- 
cum.” Satzres, f v. 87.] 

6 We read, with Gallandi, xat hy ovn adogutépa tis évexev Tov 
uy Wwdodrarpedoat (szc) y.vomevns, H Evexev TOV WH oxXigat pap- 
tupia. This is substantially the reading of three Venetian codices, as 
also of Sophronius on Jerome’s De vir. wllustr.. ch. 69, and Georgius 
Syncellus in the Chronogr., p.,374, and Nicephorus Callist., H7st. 
Eccles., vi. 4. Pearson, in the Annales Cyprian., Num. x. p. 31, 
proposes 6icat for cxioat. Rufinus renders it: ‘‘et erat non infe- 
rior gloria sustinere martyrium ne scindatur ecclesia quam est illa ne 
idolis immoletur.”” 

7 Eusebius, Hzst. Eccles., vi. 41, 42, 44. Certain codices read 
Fabianus for Fabius, and that form is adopted also by Rufinus. 
Eusebius introduces this epistle thus: ‘‘ The same author, in an 
epistle written to Fabius bishop of Antioch, gives the following ac 
count of the conflicts of those who suffered martyrdom at Alexandria.” 

8 kat d@dcas 0 kaxwy, etc. Pearson, Annales Cyprian. ad 
ann., 249, § 1, renders it rather thus: ‘et prevertens malorum huic 
urbi vates et auctor, quisquis ille fuit, commovit,” etc. 


aide ames! | 


ys Te hte OE Le, a 7% 


98 WORKS OF DIONYSIUS. —EXTANT FRAGMENTS. 





piety and service to their demons,’ namely, our 
slaughter. 

2. First, then, they seized an old man of the 
name of Metras, and commanded him to utter 
words of impiety; and as he refused, they beat 
his body with clubs, and lacerated his face and 
eyes with sharp reeds, and then dragged him off 
to the suburbs and stoned him there. Next they 
carried off a woman named Quinta, who was a 
believer, to an idol temple, and compelled her 
to worship the idol; and when she turned away 
from it, and showed how she detested it, they 
bound her feet and dragged her through the 
whole city along the rough stone-paved streets, 
knocking her at the same time against the mill- 
stones, and scourging her, until they brought her 
to the same place, and stoned her also there. 


Then with one impulse they all rushed upon the | 


houses of the God-fearing, and whatever pious 
persons any of them knew individually as neigh- 
bours, after these they hurried and bore them 
with them, and robbed and plundered them, set- 
ting aside the more valuable portions of their 
property for themselves, and scattering about the 
commoner articles, and such as were made of 
wood, and burning them on the roads, so that 
they made these parts present the spectacle of 
a city taken by the enemy. The brethren, how- 
ever, simply gave way and withdrew, and, like 
those to whom Paul bears witness,? they took the 
spoiling of their goods with joy. And I know 
not that any of them— except possibly some 
solitary individual who may have chanced to fall 
into their hands — thus far has denied the Lord. 

3. But they also seized that most admirable 
virgin Apollonia, then in advanced life, and 
knocked out all her teeth,3 and cut her jaws; 
and then kindling a fire before the city, they 
threatened to burn her alive unless she would 
repeat along with them their expressions of im- 
piety.4 And although she seemed to deprecate 5 
her fate for a little, on being let go, she leaped 
eagerly into the fire and was consumed. They 
also laid hold of a certain Serapion in his own 
house ;® and after torturing him with severe 
cruelties, and breaking all his limbs, they dashed 
him headlong from an upper storey to the ground. 
And there was no road, no thoroughfare, no lane 





1 evo éBesav thy Opnokeiay Satpovwr, Valesius thinks the last 
three words in the text ( = service to their demons) an interpolation 
by some scholiast. [Note @pnoxeiav = cultus, Jas. i. 27.] 

2 Heb. x. 30. 

3 [To this day St. Apollonia is invoked all over Europe; and 
votive offerings are to be seen hung up at her shrines, in the form of 
teeth, by those afflicted with toothache. ] 

4 ra Tis ageBetas Knpvynata, What these precisely were, it is not 
easy to say. Dionysius speaks of them also as dve¢yua pyuwara in 
this epistle, and as aGeot wvai in that to Germanus. Gallandi thinks 
the reference is to the practice, of which we read also in the Acts of 
Polycarp, ch, 9, where the proconsul addresses the martyr with the 
order: Aowdpyoov Tov Xptordy— Revile Christ. And that the test 
usually put to reputed Christians fh the early persecutors was this 
cursing of Christ, we learn from Pliny, book x. epist. 97. [Vol. i. 

. 41. 
x x" r, shrink from 
© épéortsov, for isch Nicephorus reads badly, "E¢éoror, 





even, where we could walk, whether by night or 
by day; for at all times and in every place they 
all kept crying out, that if any one should refuse 
to repeat their blasphemous expressions, he must 
be at once dragged off and burnt. These in- 
flictions were carried rigorously on for a consid- 
erable time” in this manner. But when the 
insurrection and the civil war in due time over- 
took these wretched people,® that diverted their 
savage cruelty from us, and turned it against 
themselves. And we enjoyed a little breathing 
time, as long as leisure failed them for exercising 
their fury against us.9 

4. But speedily was the change from that 
more kindly reign '° announced to us ; and great 
was the terror of threatening that was now made 
to reach us. Already, indeed, the edict had 
arrived ; and it was of such a tenor as almost 
perfectly to correspond with what was intimated’ 
to us beforetime by our Lord, setting before us 
the most dreadful horrors, so as, if that were 
possible, to cause the very elect to stumble." 
All verily were greatly alarmed, and of the more 
notable there were some, and these a large num- 
ber, who speedily accommodated themselves to 
the decree in fear ;'? others, who were engaged 
in the public service, were drawn into compli. 
ance by the very necessities of their officia) 
duties ;13 others were dragged on to it by their 
friends, and on being called by name approached 


7 émumodv, 

8 a@Atovs, But Pearson suggests a@Aovs, = 
and civil war took the place of these persecutions.” 
better with the common usage of dcadexopat, 

9 ao oAtav Tov mpos NMaS Supov bre aie The Latin version 
gives, “dum illorum cessaret furor.’ W. Lowth renders, ‘‘ dum non 
vacaret ipsis furorem suum in nos exercere,’ 

lo This refers to the death of the Emperor Philip, who showed a 
very righteous and kindly disposition toward the Christians, Ac- 
cordingly the matters here recounted by Dionysius took place in the 
last year of the Emperor Philip, This is also indicated by Dionysius 
in the beginning of this epistle, where he says that the persecution 
began at Alexandria a whole year before the edict of the Emperor 
Decius. But Christophorsonus, not observing this, interprets the 
uetapodny THs BagtAcias as signifying a change in the emperor's 
mind toward the Christians, in which error he 1s followed by Baro- 
nius, ch, 102, — VALES. 

It In this sentence the Codex Regius reads; To mpoppybev vmo Tov 
Kuplov nav mapaBpaxu 70 posepwraror, etc., = ‘the one intimated 
beforetime by our Lord, very nearly the most terrible one.” In 
Georgius Syncellus it is given as 7 mapa Bpaxv, But the reading in 
the text, arodpaivoy, ‘ setting forth,” is found in the Codices Maz., 
Med., Fuk. , and Savilii; and it seems the best, the idea being that 
this edict of’ Decius was so terrible as in a certain measure to repre- 
sent the most fearful of all times, viz., those of Antichrist. — VALEs. 

12 amqnvTwy ded.ores, 

13 oi 5€ Snmocrevovtes U0 THY Tpagewy HyovTO, This is rendered 
by Christophorsonus, “‘ alii ex privatis zedibus in publicum raptati ad 
delubra ducuntur a magistratibus.” But Sy“oguevortes is the same 
as Ta Snudo1a mpazTovtes, i.e., decurions and magistrates. For when 
the edict of Decius was conveyed to them, commanding all to sacri- 
fice to the immortal gods, these officials had to convene themselves in 
the court-house as usual, and stand and listen while the decree was 
there publicly recited. Thus they were in a position officially which 
led them to be the first to sacrifice. The word mpaters occurs often 
in the sense of the acts and administration of magistrates: thus, in 
Eusebius, viii. 11; in Aristides, in the funeral oration on Alexander, 
Ta & ets mpage TE Kal moAtevas, etc. There are similar passages 
also in Plutarch’s MoAttixa mapayyéAmara, and in Severianus’s sixth 
oration on the Hexameron. So Chrysostom, in his eighty-third 
homily on Matthew, calls the decurions rods 7a moAuTiKa mpattovtas, 
The word Snpoavevovres, however, may also be explained of those 
employed in the departments of law or finance; so that the clause - 
might be rendered, with Valesius: “alii, qui in publico versabantur, « 
rebus ipsis et reliquorum excep; sc sacrificandum il al 
See the note in Migne. é 


‘when insurrection 
This would agree 





EI Ee Eee: 











WORKS OF DIONYSIUS. — EXTANT FRAGMENTS. 


99 





the impure and unholy sacrifices ; others yielded 
pale and trembling, as if they were not to offer 
sacrifice, but to be themselves the sacrifices and 
victims for the idols, so that they were jeered 
by the large multitude surrounding the scene, 
and made it plain to all that they were too cow- 
ardly either to face death or to offer the sacri- 
fices. But there were others who hurried up to 
the altars with greater alacrity, stoutly asserting ' 
that they had never been Christians at all before ; 
of whom our Lord’s prophetic declaration holds 
most true, that it will be hard for such to be 
saved. Of the rest, some followed one or other 
of these parties already mentioned; and some 
fled, and some were seized. And of these, some 
went as far nz keeping their faith as bonds and 
imprisonment ; and certain persons among them 
endured imprisonment even for several days, and 
then after all abjured the faith before coming 
into the court of justice; while others, after 
holding out against the torture for a time, sank 
before the prospect of further sufferings.” 

5. But there were also others, stedfast and 
blessed pillars of the Lord, who, receiving strength 
from Himself, and obtaining power and vigour 
worthy of and commensurate with the force of the 
faith that was in themselves, have proved admi- 
rable witnesses for His kingdom. And of these 
the first was Julianus, a man suffering from gout, 
and able neither to stand nor to walk, who was 
arranged along with two other men who carried 
him. Of these two persons, the one immediately 
denied Christ; but the other, a person named 
Cronion, and surnamed Eunus, and together with 
him the aged Julianus himself, confessed the 
Lord, and were carried on camels through the 
whole city, which is, as you know, a very large 
one, and were scourged in that elevated position, 
and finally were consumed in a tremendous fire, 
while the whole populace surrounded them. And 
a certain soldier who stood by them when they 
were led away to execution, and who opposed 
the wanton insolence of the people, was pursued 
by the outcries they raised against him ; and this 
most courageous soldier of God, Besas by name, 
was arranged; and after bearing himself most 
nobly in that mighty conflict on behalf of piety, 
he was beheaded. And another individual, who 
was by birth a Libyan, and who at once in name 
and in real blessedness was also a true Macar,3 
although much was tried by the judge to per- 
suade him to make a denial, did not yield, and 
was consequently burned alive. And these were 
succeeded by Epimachus and Alexander, who, 
after a long time‘ spent in chains, and after suf- 





1 ioxvpigomevor here for duicxupi¢duevor, — VALES. : 
2 mpos To ééns amecmov, It may also mean, “ renounced the faith 
in the prospect of what was before them.” 
.3 A blessed one. Alluding to Matt. v. ro, 12. , es 
4 wera modvy. But Codices Med., Maz., Fuk., and Savilii, as 
well as Georgius Syncellus, read wer’ ob moduy, “‘ after a short time.” 








fering countless agonies and inflictions of the 
scraper5 and the scourge, were also burnt to 
ashes in an immense fire. 

6. And along with these there were four women. 
Among them was Ammonarium, a pious virgin, 
who was tortured for a very long time by the 
judge in a most relentless manner, because she 
declared plainly from the first that she would 
utter none of the things which he commanded 
her to repeat ; and after she had made good her 
profession she was led off to execution. The 
others were the most venerable and aged Mer- 
curia, and Dionysia, who had been the mother of 
many children, and yet did not love her offspring 
better than her Lord.© These, when the goy- 
ernor was ashamed t6 subject them any further 
to profitless torments, and thus to see himself 
beaten by women, died by the sword, without 
more experience of tortures. For truly their 
champion Ammonarium had received tortures 
for them all. 

7. Heron also, and Ater,7 and Isidorus,’ who 
were Egyptians, and along with them Dioscorus, 
a boy of about fifteen years of age, were deliv- 
ered up. And though at first he, che judge, tried 
to deceive the youth with fair speeches, thinking 
he could easily seduce him, and then attempted 
also to compel him by force of tortures, fancying 
he might be made to yield without much diffi- 
culty in that way, Dioscorus neither submitted to 
his persuasions nor gave way to histerrors. And 
the rest, after their bodies had been lacerated 
in a most savage manner, and their stedfastness 
had nevertheless been maintained, he consigned 
also to the flames. But Dioscorus he dismissed, 
wondering at the distinguished appearance he 
had made in public, and at the extreme wisdom 
of the answers he gave to his interrogations, and 
declaring that, on account of his age, he granted 
him further time for repentance. And this most 
godly Dioscorus is with us at present, tarrying 
for a greater conflict and a more lengthened 
contest. A certain person of the name of Neme- 
sion, too, who was also an Egyptian, was falsely 
accused of being a companion of robbers; and 
after he had cleared himself of this charge before 
the centurion, and proved it to be a most un- 
natural calumny, he was informed against as a 
Christian, and had to come as a prisoner before 
the governor. And that most unrighteous magis- 
trate inflicted on him a punishment twice as 

5 évoripas. 

6 Here Valesius adds from Rufinus the words cai ’Auuwvapiov 
é€repa, “and a second Ammonarium,” as there are four women mene 
mer Georgius Syncellus and Nicephorus it is givenas Aster. Rufi- 
nus makes the name Arsinus. And in the old Roman martyrology, 
taken largely from Rufinus, we find the form Arsenius. — VALEs. 

8 In his Bzbliotheca, cod, cxix., Photius states that Isidorus was 
full brother to Pierius, the celebrated head of the Alexandrian school, 
and his colleague in martyrdom. He also intimates, however, that 
although some have reported that Pierius ended his career by martyr- 


dom, others say that he spent the closing period of his life in Rome 
after the persecution abated, — RuINART. 


100 





severe as that to which the robbers were sub- 
jected, making him suffer both tortures and 
scourgings, and then consigning him to the fire 
between the robbers. Thus the blessed martyr 
was honoured after the pattern of Christ. 

8. There was also a body of soldiers," including 
Ammon, and Zeno, and Ptolemy, and Ingenuus, 
and along with them an old man, Theophilus, 
who had taken up their position in a mass in 
front of the tribunal ; and when a certain person 
was standing his trial as a Christian, and was 
already inclining to make a denial, these stood 
round about and ground their teeth, and made 
signs with their faces, and stretched out their 
hands, and made all manner of gestures with 
their bodies. And while the attention of all was 
directed to them, before any could lay hold of 
them, they ran quickly up to the bench of judg- 
ment? and declared themselves to be Christians, 
and made such an impression that the governor 
and his associates were filled with fear; and 
those who were under trial seemed to be most 
courageous in the prospect of what they were to 
suffer, while the judges themselves trembled. 
These, then, went with a high spirit from the 
tribunals, and exulted in their testimony, God 
Himself causing them to triumph gloriously.3 

g. Moreover, others in large numbers were 
torn asunder by the heathen throughout the cities 
and villages. Of one of these I shall give some 
account, as an example. Ischyrion served one 
of the rulers in the capacity of steward for stated 
wages. His employer ordered this man to offer 
sacrifice ; and on his refusal to do so, he abused 
him. When he persisted in his non-compliance, 
his master treated him with contumely; and 
when he still held out, he took a huge stick and 
thrust it through his bowels and heart, and slew 
him. Why should I mention the multitudes of 
those who had to wander about in desert places 
and upon the mountains, and who were cut off 
by hunger, and thirst, and cold, and sickness, 
and robbers, and wild beasts? The survivors of 
such are the witnesses of their election and their 
victory. One circumstance, however, I shall 
subjoin as an illustration of these things. There 
was a certain very aged person of the name 
of Chezremon,. bishop of the place called the 
city of the Nile.t He fled along with his partner 


t ouvtaypa otpatiwtixéy, Rufinus and Christophorsonus make 
it turmam militum. Valesius prefers manipulum or contuber- 
ntum., These may have been the apparitors or officers of the Jre- 
pects Augustalzs. Valesius thinks rather that they were legionaries, 

rom the legion which had to guard the city of Alexandria, and which 

was under the authority of the prefectus Augustalis. For at that 
time “ prafectus Augustalis had charge of military affairs as well 
as civil. 

2 Ba@pov, Valesius supposes that what is intended is the seat on 
which the accused sat when under interrogation by the judge, 

OptapBevovros avrovs. Rufinus makes it, ‘‘ God thus triumph- 
ing in them;” from which it would seem that he had read 4’ avrovs. 
But OptauBevery is probably put here for @prauBevery morety, as 
BactAeveww is also used by Gregory Nazianzenus. 

4 That is, Nilopolis or Niloupolis. Eusebius, bishop of the same 
seat, subscribed the Council of Ephesus. — READING, 








WORKS OF DIONYSIUS. — EXTANT FRAGMENTS. 





to the Arabian mountain,5 and never returned. 
The brethren, too, were unable to discover any- 
thing of them, although they made frequent 
search; and they never could find either the 
men themselves, or their bodies. Many were 
also carried off as slaves by the barbarous Sara- 
cens® to that same Arabian mount. Some of 
these were ransomed with difficulty, and only by 
paying a great sum of money; others of them 
have not been ransomed to this day. And these 
facts I have related, brother, not without a pur- 
pose, but in order that you may know how many 
and how terrible are the ills that have befallen 
us ; which troubles also will be best understood 
by those who have had most experience of them. 
10. Those sainted martyrs, accordingly, who 
were once with us, and who now are seated with 
Christ,?7 and are sharers in His kingdom, and 
partakers with Him in His judgment,’ and who 
act as His judicial assessors,? received there cer- 
tain of the brethren who had fallen away, and 
who had become chargeable with sacrificing to 
the idols. “And as they saw that the conversion 
and repentance of such might be acceptable to 
Him who desires not at all the death of the sin- 
ner,'° but rather his repentance, they proved their 
sincerity, and received them, and brought them 
together again, and assembled with them, and 
had fellowship with them in their prayers and at 
their festivals.1! What advice then, brethren, do 
you give us as regards these? What should we 
do? Are we to stand forth and act with the 
decision and judgment which those (martyrs) 
formed, and to observe the same graciousness 
with them, and to deal so kindly with those 
toward whom they showed such compassion? or 
are we to treat their decision as an unrighteous 
one,’? and to constitute ourselves judges of their 


5 7d ‘ApaBiov dpos. There is a Mons Arabicus mentioned by 
Herodotus (ii. 8), which Ptolemy and others call Mons Troicus. — 
VALES. 

6 This passage is notable from the fact that it makes mention of 
the Saracens. For of the writers whose works have come down to us 
there is none more ancient than Dionysius of Alexandria that has 
named the Saracens. Ammianus Marcellinus, however, writes in his 
fourteenth book that he has made mention of the Saracens in the Acts 
of Marcus. Spartianus also mentions the Saracens in his Viger, 
and says that the Roman soldiers were beaten by them. — VALEs. 
{The barbarous Saracens:” what a xomznis umbra projected by 
“ coming events,” in this blissfully ignorant reference of our author! 
Compare Robertson, Researches, on the conquest of Jerusalem. ] 

7 As to the martyrs’ immediate departure to the Lord, and their 
abode with Him, see Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh, 
ch, xliii., and Ox the Soul, v.55. [Vol. iii. p. 576; 76., p. 231.] 

8 That the martyrs were to be Christ’s assessors, judging the 
world with Him, was a common opinion among the fathers. — So, after 
Dionysius, Eulogius, bishop of Alexandria, in his fifth book, Agasnst 
the Novatians, Photius, in his Brb/rotheca, following Chrysostom, 
objects to this, and explains Paul’s words in 1 Cor, vi, 2 as having 
the same intention as Christ’s words touching the men of Nineveh 
and the queen of the south who should rise up in the judgment and 
condemn that generation. 

9 auvdtkagovtes, See a noble passage in Bossuet, Préface sur 
2’ Apocal., § 28. 

10 Ezek, xxxiii. 11. 

11 Dionysius is dealing here not with public communion, such as 
was the bishop’s prerogative to confer anew on the penitent, but with 
private fellowship among Christian people. — VALEs. 

12 adtxoy wornowpeOa is the reading of Codices Maz., Med., Fuk., 
and Savil., and also of Georgius Syncellus. Others read adexroy 
wownooueOa, “ we shall treat it as inadmissible,” 











CN yD. I 


ao, MRA 


= 
7 





opinion on such subjects, and to throw clemency 
into tears, and to overturn the established order?! 

11. But I shall give a more particular account 
of one case here which occurred among us: 2 
There was with us a certain Serapion, an aged 
believer. He had spent his long life blamelessly, 
but had fallen in the time of trial (the persecu- 
tion). Often did this man pray (for absolution), 
and no one gave heed to him ;3 for he had sac- 
rificed to the idols. Falling sick, he continued 
three successive days dumb and senseless. Re- 
covering a little on the fourth day, he called to 
him his grandchild, and said, “ My son, how 
long do you detain me? Hasten, I entreat you, 
and absolve me quickly. Summon one of the 
presbyters to me.” And when he had said this, 
he became speechless again. The boy ran for 
the presbyter; but it was night, and the man 
was sick, and was consequently unable to come. 
But as an injunction had been issued by me,‘ 
that persons at the point of death, if they re- 
quested it then, and especially if they had ear- 
nestly sought it before, should be absolved,’ in 
order that they might depart this life in cheer- 
ful hope, he gave the boy a small portion of the 
Eucharist,° telling him to steep it in water,” and 
drop it into the old man’s mouth. The boy re- 
turned bearing the portion; and as he came 
near, and before he had yet entered, Serapion 
again recovered, and said, “ You have come, my 
child, and the presbyter was unable to come; 





1 The words xai tov Ocov mapofVvopev, “ and provoke God,” 
are sometimes added here; but they are wanting in Codices Maz., 
Med., Fuk., Savil., and in Georgius Syncellus. ‘ 

2 Eusebius introduces this in words to the following effect: ‘‘ Writ- 
ing to this same Fabius, who seemed to incline somewhat to this 
schism, Dionysius of Alexandria, after setting forth in his letter many 
other matters which bore on repentance, and after describing the con- 
flicts of the martyrs who had recently suffered in Alexandria, relates 
among other things one specially wonderful fact, which I have deemed 
Proper for insertion in this history, and which is as follows.” 

3 That is, none either of the clergy or of the people were moved 
by his prayers to consider him a proper subject for absolution; for the 
people’s suffrages were also necessary for the reception into the Church 
of any who had lapsed, and been on that account cut off from it. 
And sometimes the bishop himself asked the people to allow absolu- 
tion to be given to the suppliant, as we see in Cyprian’s Epistle 53, 
to Cornelius [vol. v. p. 336, this series], and in Tertullian, Ox Mod- 
esty, ch. xiii, [vol. iv. p. 86, this series]. Oftener, however, the 
people themselves made intercession with the bishop for the admis- 
sion of penitents; of which we have a notable instance in the Epistle 
of Cornelius to Fabius of Antioch about that bishop who had ordained 
Novatianus. See also Cyprian, Epistle 59 [vol. v. p. 355]. — VALES. 

4 In the African Synod, which met about the time that Dionysius 
wrote, it was decreed that absolution should be granted to lapsed per- 
sons who were near their end, provided that they had sought it ear- 
nestly before their illness. See Cyprian in the Epistle to Antonianus 
[vol. v. p. 327, this series]. — VALEs. ; j 

S$ adieo@at, There is a longer reading in Codices Fuk. and 
Savil., viz.: trav Oeiwy Sdpwv THs petaddoews agcovcGat Kai olTws 
adieaOat, ‘be deemed worthy of the imparting of the divine gifts, 
and thus be absolved.” 

6 Valesius thinks that this custom pr n 
cites a synodical letter of Ratherius, bishop of Verona (which has 
also been ascribed to Udalricus by Gretserus, who has published it 
along with his Life of Gregory VI/.), in which the practice is ex- 
pressly forbidden in these terms: ‘‘ And let no one presume to 
give the communion to a laic or a woman, for the purpose of convey- 
ing it to an infirm person.” { 

7 amoBpéfar. Rufinus renders it by znfundere. References to 
this custom are found in Adamanus, in the second book of the Mzra- 
cles of St. Columba, ch. 6; in Bede, Life of S¢. Cuthbert, ch. 31, 
and in the poem on the life of the same; in Theodorus Campidunen- 
sis, Life of St. Magnus, ch. 22; in Paulus Bernriedensis, Life of 
Gregory VII, p. 113. 


revailed for a long time, and 


WORKS OF DIONYSIUS. — EXTANT FRAGMENTS. 
ee ee ane Bee neat: 











IOI 


but do quickly what you were instructed to do, 
and so let me depart.” The boy steeped the 
morsel in water, and at once dropped it into the 
(old man’s) mouth ; and after he had swallowed 
alittle of it, he forthwith gave up the ghost. 
Was he not then manifestly preserved? and did 
he not continue in life just until he could be 
absolved, and until through the wiping away 
of his sins he could be acknowledged 8 for the 
many good acts he had done? 


EPISTLE IV.—TO CORNELIUS THE ROMAN 
BISHOP.9 


In addition to all these, he writes likewise to 
Cornelius at Rome, after receiving his Epistle 
against Novatus. And in that letter he also 
shows that he had been invited by Helenus, 
bishop in Tarsus of Cilicia, and by the others 
who were with him — namely, Firmilian, bishop 
in Cappadocia, and Theoctistus-in Palestine — 
to meet them at the Council of Antioch, where 
certain persons were attempting to establish the 
schism of Novatus. In addition to this, he 
writes that it was reported to him that Fabius 
was dead, and that Demetrianus was appointed 
his successor in the bishopric of the church at 
Antioch. He writes also respecting the bishop 
in Jerusalem, expressing himself in these very 
words: “And the blessed Alexander, having 
been cast into prison, went to his rest in bless- 
edness.” 


EPISTLE V., WHICH IS THE FIRST ON THE SUB 
JECT OF BAPTISM ADDRESSED TO STEPHEN, 
BISHOP OF ROME.!° 


Understand, however, my brother," that all the 
churches located in the east, and also in remoter 
districts, that were formerly in a state of division, 
are now made one again ;*3 and all those at the 
head of the churches everywhere are of one mind, 
and rejoice exceedingly at the peace which has 
been restored beyond all expectation. I may 





Langus, Wolfius, and Musculus render it com- 
Christophorsonus makes it 7% numerum confes- 
sorum referrt, “reckoned in the number of confessors;” which 
may be allowed, if it is understood to be a reckoning dy CArist. For 
Dionysius alludes to those words of Christ in the Gospel: ‘‘ Whoso- 
ever shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my 
Father.’”’ — VALEs. 

9 Eusebius, 7st. Eccles., vi. 46. 

10 In the second chapter of the seventh book of his Eccles¢astical 
History, Eusebius says: ‘‘ To this Stephen, Eusebius wrote the first 
of his epistles on the matter of baptism.” And he calls this Mie frst, 
because Dionysius also wrote other four epistles to Xystus and Diony- 
sius, two of the successors of Stephen, and to Philemon, on the same 
subject of the baptizing of heretics, —GALLANDI. 

11 Eusebius introduces the letter thus: ‘‘ When he had addressed 
many reasonings on this subject to him (Stephen) by letter, Diony- 
sius at last showed him that, as the persecution had abated, the 
churches in all parts opposed to the innovations of Novatus were at 
peace among themselves.” [See vol. v. p. 275. 

12 kat €Tt mpogwtépw. These words are omitted in Codices Fulk, 
and Savil., as also by Christophorsonus; but are given in Codices 
Reg., Maz., and Med., and by Syncellus and Nicephorus. 

13 Baronius infers from this epistle that at this date, about 259 A.D., 
the Oriental bishops had given up their “error,” and fallen in with 
Stephen’s opinion, that heretics did not require to be rebaptized, — an 
inference, however, which Valesius deems false. [Undoubtedly so. ] 


8 opodoynOjvar. 
Jitert, ‘ confess.” 


102 


Bt ei)" 


WORKS OF DIONYSIUS. — EXTANT FRAGMENTS. 





mention Demetrianus in Antioch; Theoctistus 
in Cesareia ; Mazabanes in Atlia,’ the successor 
of the deceased Alexander ;? Marinus in Tyre ; 
Heliodorus in Laodicea, the successor of the 
deceased Thelymidres ; Helenus in Tarsus, and 
with him all the churches of Cilicia; and Fir- 
milian and all Cappadocia. For I have named 
only the more illustrious of the bishops, so as 
neither to make my epistle too long, nor to ren- 
der my discourse too heavy for you. All the 
districts of Syria, however, and of Arabia, to the 
brethren in which you from time to time have 
been forwarding supplies3 and at present have 
sent letters, and Mesopotamia too, and Pontus, 
and Syria, and, to speak in brief, all parties, are 
everywhere rejoicing at the unanimity and broth- 
erly love now established, and are glorifying God 
for the same. 


THE SAME, OTHERWISE RENDERED.* 


But know, my brother, that all the churches 
throughout the East, and those that are placed 
beyond, which formerly were separated, are now 
at length returned to unity; and all the presi- 
dents5 of the churches everywhere think one and 
the same thing, and rejoice with incredible joy 
on account of the unlooked-for return of peace: 
to wit, Demetrianus in Antioch ; Theoctistus in 
Ceesarea; Mazabenes in Atlia, after the death 
of Alexander; Marinus in Tyre; Heliodorus in 
Laodicea, after the death of Thelymidres ; Hele- 
nus in Tarsus, and all the churches of Cilicia; 
Firmilianus, with all Cappadocia. And I have 
named only the more illustrious bishops, lest by 
chance my letter should be made too prolix, and 
my address too wearisome. The whole of the 
Syrias, indeed, and Arabia, to which you now 
and then send help, and to which you have now 
written letters; Mesopotamia also, and Pontus, 
and Bithynia ; and, to comprise all in one word, 
all the lands everywhere, are rejoicing, praising 
God on account of this concord and brotherly 
charity. 





1 The name assigned by the pagans to Jerusalem was Alia, It 
was so called even in Constantine’s time, as we see in the 7adx/a 
Peutingerorum and the /tinerarzum Antoninz, written after Con- 
stantine’s reign. In the seventh canon of the Nicene Council we also 
find the name Alia. [Given by Hadrian a.p. 135. ] 

2 The words xouunPevtos ‘AAcEavdpov are given in the text in 
connection with the clause Mapivos év T¥pw. They must be trans- 
posed, however, as in the translation; for Mazabanes had succeeded 
Alexander the bishop of A£lia, as Dionysius informs us in his Epistle 
to Cornelius. So Rufinus puts it also in his Latin version. — VALES. 

3 Alluding to the generous practice of the church at Rome in old 
times in relieving the wants of the other churches, and in sending 
money and clothes to the brethren who were in captivity, and to those 
who toiled in the mines. To this effect we have the statement of 
Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, in his Epistle to Soter, which Eusebius 
cites in his fourth book. In the same passage, Eusebius also remarks 
that this commendable custom had been continued in the Roman 
church up to his own time;-and with that object collections were 
made there, of which Leo Magnus writes in his Ser#ones. — VALES. 
{ Note this to the eternal honour of this See in its early purity. ] 

4 [In vol. v., to illustrate the history of Cyprian, reference is made 
to this letter; and in the Clark edition another rendering is there given 
(a preferable one, I think) of this same letter, which I have thought 
better to reserve for this place. It belongs here, and I have there 
noted its appearance in this volume. ] 

5 [xpoeata@tes, See Euseb., Hzst. Eccles., book viii. capp. 2, 3, 
and 4; also vol. v., this series, as above mentioned. | 











EPISTLE VI.—TO SIXTUS, BISHOP.§ 


1. Previously, indeed, (Stephen) had written 
letters about Helanus and Firmilianus, and about 
all who were established throughout Cilicia and 
Cappadocia, and all the neighbouring provinces, 
giving them to understand that for that same 
reason he would depart from their communion, 
because they rebaptized heretics. And consider 
the seriousness of the matter. For, indeed, in 
the most considerable councils of the bishops, 
as I hear, it has been decreed that they who 
come from heresy should first be trained in Cath- 
olic doctrine, and then should be cleansed by 
baptism from the filth of the old and impure 
leaven. Asking and calling him to witness on 
all these matters, I sent letters. 

And a little after Dionysius proceeds : — 

2. And, moreover, to our beloved co-presby- 
ters Dionysius and Philemon, who before agreed 
with Stephen, and had written to me about the 
same matters, I wrote previously in few words, 
but now I have written again more at length. 

In the same letter, says Eusebius,” he informs 
Xystus® of the Sabellian heretics, that they 
were gaining ground at that time, in these 
words : — 

3. For since of the doctrine, which lately has 
been set on foot at Ptolemais, a city of Pentap- 
olis, impious and full of blasphemy against Al- 
mighty God and the Father of our Lord Jesus 
Christ ; full of unbelief and perfidy towards His 
only begotten Son and the first-born of every 
creature, the Word made man, and which takes 
away the perception of the Holy Spirit, —on 
either side both letters were brought to me, and 
brethren had come to discuss it, setting forth 
more plainly as much as by God’s gift I was 
able, —I wrote certain letters, copies of which 
I have sent to thee. 


EPISTLE VII.—TO PHILEMON, A PRESBYTER.? 


I indeed gave attention to reading the books 
and carefully studying the traditions of heretics, 
to the extent indeed of corrupting my soul with 
their execrable opinions; yet receiving from 
them this advantage, that I could refute them in 
my own mind, and detested them more heartily 
than ever. And when a certain brother of the 
order of presbyters sought to deter me, and 
feared lest I should be involved in the same 
wicked filthiness, because he said that my mind 
would be contaminated, and indeed with truth, 
as I myself perceived, I was strengthened by a 
vision that was sent me from God. And a word 





6 Dionysius mentions letters that had been written by him as well 
to the Presbyters Dionysius and Philemon as to Stephen, on the bap- 
tism of heretics and on the Sabellian heresy. ; 

7 Lib. vii. ch. 6. 

8 [i.e., Sixtus IT.] 


9 Of Sixtus, bishop of Rome. [A.D. 257]. 


Se ate) cea ie a ae 


Se 





‘ 


b 


WORKS OF DIONYSIUS. —EXTANT FRAGMENTS. 


eet 


spoken to me, expressly commanded me, say- 
ing, Read everything which shall come into thy 
hands, for thou art fit to do so, who correctest 
and provest each one; and from them to thee 
first of all has appeared the cause and the occa- 
sion of believing. I received this vision as be- 
ing what was in accordance with the apostolic 
ord, which thus urges all who are endowed with 
éreater virtue, “Be ye skilful money-changers.” * 

Then, says Eusebius, he subjoins some things 

parenthetically about all heresies : — 

This rule and form I have received from our 
blessed Father Heraclus: For thou, who came 
from heresies, even if they had fallen away from 
the Church, much rather if they had not fallen 
away, but when they were seen to frequent the 
assemblies of the faithful, were charged with go- 
ing to hear the teachers of perverse doctrine, and 
ejected from the Church, he did not admit after 
many prayers, before they had openly and pub- 
licly narrated whatever things they had heard 
from their adversaries. Then he received them 
at length to the assemblies of the faithful, by no 
means asking of them to receive baptism anew. 
Because they had already previously received 
the Holy Spirit from that very baptism. 

Once more, this question being thoroughly 

ventilated, he adds : — 

I learned this besides, that this custom is not 
now first of all imported among the Africans? 
alone ; but moreover, long before, in the times of 
former bishops, among most populous churches, 
and that when synods of the brethren of Iconium 
and Synades were held, it also pleased as many 
as possible, I should be unwilling, by overturning 
their judgments, to throw them into strifes and 
contentions. For it is written, ‘ Thou shalt not 
remove thy neighbour’s landmark, which thy fa- 
thers have placed.’ 3 


EPISTLE VIII.—TO DIONYSIUS. 


For we rightly repulse Novatian, who has rent 
the Church, and has drawn away some of the 
brethren to impiety and blasphemies ; who has 
brought into the world a most impious doctrine 
concerning God, and calumniates our most mer- 
ciful Lord Jesus Christ as if He were unmerciful ; 
and besides all these things, holds the sacred 
laver as of no effect, and rejects it, and over- 
turns faith and confession, which are put before 





1 x Thess. v, 2t. [Euseb., vi. 7, The apostle is supposed to re- 
fer to one of the reputed sayings of our Lord, yiveo@e doxcmor Tpa- 
meGira: = examinatores, i,e., of coins, rejecting the base, and laying 
up in store the precious. Compare Jer. xv. cot ? 

a find that it is necessary to say that the ‘‘ Africans” of Egypt 
and Carthage were no more negroes than we ‘“‘ Americans” are red- 
men, The Carthaginians were Canaanites, and the Alexandrians 
Greeks. I have seen Cyprian’s portrait representing him as'a Moor. J 

3 Deut. xix. 14. i 
4 At that time presbyter of Xystus, and afterwards his successor. 


‘He teaches that Novatian is deservedly to be opposed on account of 


his schism, on account ‘of his impious doctrine, on account of the 
repetition of baptism to those who came to him. 








103 





baptism, and utterly drives away the Holy Spirit 
from them, even if any hope subsists either that 
He would abide in them, or that He should re- 
turn to them. 


EPISTLE IX.— TO SIXTUS IL-5 


For truly, brother, I have need of advice, and 
I crave your judgment, lest perchance I should 
be mistaken upon the matters which in such 
wise happen to me. One of the brethren who 
come together to the church, who for some time 
has been esteemed as a believer, and who before 
my ordination, and, if I am not deceived, before 
even the episcopate of Heraclas himself, had 
been a partaker of the assembly of the faithful, 
when he had been concerned in the baptism of 
those who were lately baptized, and had heard 
the interrogatories and their answers, came to 
me in tears, and bewailing his lot. And throw- 
ing himself at my feet, he began to confess and 
to protest that this baptism by which he had 
been initiated among heretics was not of this 
kind, nor had it anything whatever in common 
with this of ours, because that it was full of 
blasphemy and impiety. And he said that his 
soul was pierced with a very bitter sense of sor- 
row, and that he did not dare even to lift up his 
eyes to God, because he had been initiated by 
those wicked words and things. Wherefore he 
besought that, by this purest laver, he might 
be endowed with adoption and grace. And I, 
indeed, have not dared to do this; but I have 
said that the long course of communion had 
been sufficient for this. For I should not dare 
to renew afresh, after all, one who had heard the 
giving of thanks, and who had answered with 
others Amen; who had stood at the holy table, 
and had stretched forth his hands® to receive 
the blessed food, and had received it, and for a 
very long time had been a partaker of the body 
and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hence- 
forth I bade him be of good courage, and ap- 
proach to the sacred edements with a firm faith 
and a good conscience, and become a partaker 
of them. But he makes no end of his wailing, 
and shrinks from approaching to the table; and 
scarcely, when entreated, can he bear to be pres- 
ent at the prayers. 


EPISTLE X.—AGAINST BISHOP GERMANUS,” 


1. Now I speak also before God, and He 
knoweth that I lie not: it was not by my own 
choice,’ neither was it without divine instruction, 





5 Of a man who sought to be introduced to the Church by baptism, 
although he said that he had received baptism, with other words and 
maiters among the heretics. 

Vol. v. ° See a reference to Cyril’s Catechetical Lectures.) 

7 Eusebius, Hzst. Eccles., vi. 40, vii. 11. 

8 ovdeuiay em’ éuavtov BadAcunevos. In Codex Fuk. and in the 
Chronicon of Syncellus itis ém’ ¢uavtd. In Codices Maz. and Med. 
it is éw’ €uavtov. Herodotus employs the phrase in the genitive form 
— BaddAdpevos eh’ EavTov TémpNXE, 1.€., sezpsume in consilium adht- 
bens, sua sponte et proprio motu fecit. 


104 


WORKS OF DIONYSIUS. —EXTANT FRAGMENTS. 





that I took to flight. But at an earlier period,’ 
indeed, when the edict for the persecution under 
Decius was determined upon, Sabinus at that 
very hour sent a certain Frumentarius? to make 
search forme. And I remained in the house for 
four days, expecting the arrival of this Frumen- 
tarius. But he went about examining all other 
places, the roads, the rivers, the fields, where he 
suspected that I should either conceal myself or 
travel. And he was smitten with a kind of blind- 
ness, and never lighted on the house; for he 
never supposed that I should tarry at home when 
under pursuit. Then, barely after the lapse of 
four days, God giving me instruction to remove, 
and opening the way for me in a manner beyond 
all expectation, my domestics 3 and I, and a con- 
siderable number of the brethren, effected an 
exit together. And that this was brought about 
by the providence of God, was made plain by 
what followed : in which also we have been per- 
haps of some service to certain parties. 

2. Then, after a certain break, he narrates the 
events which befell him after his flight, subjoining 
the following statement: — Now about sunset I 
was seized, along with those who were with me, 
by the soldiers, and was carried off to Taposiris. 
But by the providence of God, it happened that 
Timotheus was not present with me then, nor 
indeed had he been apprehended at all. Reach- 
ing the place later, he found the house deserted, 
and officials keeping guard over it, and ourselves 
borne into slavery. 

3. And after some other matters, he proceeds 
thus : — And what was the method of this mar- 
vellous disposition of Providence in his case? 
For the real facts shall be related. When Timo- 
theus was fleeing in great perturbation, he was 
met* by a man from the country.5 This person 
asked the reason for his haste, and he told him 
the truth plainly. Then the man (he was on his 
way at the time to take part in certain marriage 
festivities ; for it is their custom to spend the 
whole night in such gatherings), on hearing the 
fact, held on his course to the scene of the re- 





1 G\AG Kat mpotepov, Christophorsonus and others join the mpdre- 
pov with the diyyod, making it mean, ‘before the persecution.” 
This is contrary to pure Greek idiom, and is also inconsistent with 
what follows; for by the avtis wpas is meant the very hour at which 
the edict was decreed, Stwyuds here having much the sense of “ edict 
for the persecution.” — VALEs. 

2 There was a body of men called /rumentarit milites, employed 
under the emperors as secret spies, and sent through the provinces to 
look after accused persons, and collect floating rumours. They were 
abolished at length by Constantine, as Aurelius Victor writes. They 
were subordinate to the judges or governors of the provinces. ‘Thus 
this Frumentarius mentioned here by Dionysius was deputed in obe- 
dience to Sabinus, the Jrefectus Augustalis. — VALEs. 

3 ot maiédes, Musculus and Christophorsonus make it “ chil- 
dren.” Valesius prefers ‘‘ domestics.” 

4 amnvTero Ts Tw xwptT@v, In Codices Maz., Med., Fuk., and 
Savil., amyyra is written; in Georgius Syncellus it is dryvtaro, 

5 xwpitay is rendered zxdzgenarum by Chrystophorsonus, and 
incolarum, “inhabitants,” by the interpreter of Syncellus; but it 
means rather ‘‘ rustics.”. Thus in the Greek Councils the tov xwpav 
mpeaButepo, presbyterz pagorum, are named, Instead of ywprtav, 
Codices Maz., Med., and Fuk. read xwpix@v; for thus the Alexan- 
drians named the country people, as we see in the tractate of Sophro- 
nius against Djoscorus, and the Chronicon of Theophanes, p. 139. 





joicings, and went in and narrated the circum- 
stances to those who were seated at the feast ; 
and with a single impulse, as if it had been at a 
given watchword, they all started up, and came 
on all in a rush, and with the utmost speed. 
Hurrying up to us, they raised a shout; and as 
the soldiers who were guarding us took at once 
to flight, they came upon us, stretched as we 
were upon the bare couches.° For my part, as 
God knows, I took them at first to be robbers 
who had come to plunder and pillage us; and 
remaining on the bedstead on which I was lying 
naked, save only that I had on my linen under- 
clothing, I offered them the rest of my dress as 
it lay beside me. But they bade me get up and 
take my departure as quickly as I could. Then 
I understood the purpose of their coming, and 
cried, entreated, and implored them to go away 
and leave us alone; and I begged that, if they 
wished to do us any good, they might anticipate 
those who led me captive, and strike off my head. 

And while I was uttering such vociferations, as 

those who were my comrades and partners in all 

these things know, they began to lift me up by 

force. And I threw myself down on my back 

upon the ground; but they seized me by the 

hands and feet, and dragged me away, and bore 

me forth. And those who were witnesses of all 

these things followed me, —namely, Caius, Faus- 

tus, Peter, and Paul. These men also took me 

up, and hurried me off? out of the little town, 

and set me on an ass without saddle, and in that 

fashion carried me away. 

4. I fear that I run the risk of being charged 
with great folly and senselessness, placed as I am 
under the necessity of giving a narrative of the 
wonderful dispensation of God’s providence in 
our case. Since, however, as one says, it is good 
to keep close the secret of a king, but it is hon- 
ourable to reveal the works of God,*I shall come 
to close quarters with the violence of Germanus. 
I came to A‘milianus not alone; for there ac- 
companied me also my co-presbyter Maximus, 
and the deacons Faustus and Eusebius and 
Cheremon ; and one of the brethren who had 
come from Rome went also with us. A‘milianus, 
then, did not lead off by saying to me, “ Hold 
no assemblies.” ‘That was indeed a thing super- 
fluous for him to do, and the last thing which 
one would do who meant to go back to what 
was first and of prime importance : 9 for his con- 
cern was not about our gathering others together 
in assembly, but about our not being Christians 
ourselves. From this, therefore, he commanded 





6 agtpwrey oxinmodwr. 

7 popadnv e&ynyayov, The dopadny may mean, as Valesius puts 
it, 27 sella, “on a stool or litter.” 

8 Tobit xii. 7. 

9 To TeAevTaLov emt Td TPwTOY avaTpéexorTt, i.e., to begin by inter- 
dicting him from holding Christian assemblies, while the great ques- 
tion was whether he was a Christian at all, would have been to place 
first what was last in order and consequence, 





f 
& 





me to desist, thinking, doubtless, that if I my- 
self should recant, the others would also follow 
me in that. But I answered him neither unrea- 
sonably nor in many words, “ We must obey God 
rather than men.” * Moreover, I testified openly 
that I worshipped the only true God and none 
other, and that I could neither alter that position 
nor ever cease to be a Christian. Thereupon 


he ordered us to go away to a village near the. 


desert, called Cephro. Oe: 

5. Hear also the words which were uttered by 
both of us as'they have been put on record,? 
When Dionysius, and Faustus, and Maximus, 
and Marcellus, and Chzremon had been placed 
at the bar, Aimilianus, as prefect, said: “I have 
reasoned with you verily in free speech,3 on the 
clemency of our soveréigns, as they have suffered 
you to experience it; for they have given you 
power .to save yourselves, if. you are disposed 
to turn to what is accordant with nature, and to 
worship the gods who also maintain them in their 
kingdom, and to forget those things which are 
repugnant to nature. What say ye then to these 
things? for I by no means expect that: you will 
be ungrateful to them for their clemency, since 
indeed what they aim at is to bring you over 
to better courses.” Dionysius made reply thus : 
“All men do not worship all the gods, but differ- 
ent men worship different objects that they sup- 
pose to be true gods. Now we worship the one 
God, who is the Creator of all things, and the 
very Deity who has committed the sovereignty 
to the hands of their most sacred majesties Vale- 
rian and Gallienus. Him we both reverence and 
worship ; and to Him we pray continually on be- 
half of the sovereignty of these princes, that it 
may abide unshaken.”’ ®milianus, as prefect, 
said to them: “ But who hinders you from wor- 
shipping this god too, if indeed he is a god, along 
with those who are gods by nature? for you have 
been commanded to worship the gods, and those 
gods whom all know as such.” Dionysius re- 
plied: “We worship no other one.” A‘ milianus, 
as prefect, said to them: “I perceive that you 
are at once ungrateful to and insensible of the 
clemency of our princes. Wherefore you shall 
not remain in this city; but you shall be de- 
spatched to the parts of Libya, and settled in 
a place called Cephro: for of this place I have 
made choice in accordance with the command 
of our princes. It shall not in any wise be law- 
ful for you or for any others, either to hold 
assemblies or to enter those places which are 
called cemeteries. And if any one’ is seen not 
to have betaken himself to this place whither 
I have ordered him to repair, or if he be dis- 
covered in any assembly, he will prepare peril 
TOs SUES a neo Dereon ad 


: i ¥. 29. nes 
remyynuar Fy 
3 aypdgewss 


WORKS OF DIONYSIUS. —EXTANT FRAGMENTS. 





105 





for himself; for the requisite punishment will 
not fail. Be off, therefore, to the place whither 
you have been commanded to go.” So he forced’ 
me away, sick as I was; nor did he grant me the 
delay even of a single day. What opportunity, 
then, had I to think either of holding assemblies, 
or of not holding them ?+ fa auch 

6. Zhen after some other matters he says :— 
Moreover, we did not withdraw from the visible: 
assembling of ourselves together, with the Lord’s 
presence. But those in the city I tried to 
gather together with all the greater zeal, as if I 
were present with them ; for 1 was absent indeed 
in the body, as I said,° but present in the spirit.. 
And in Cephro indeed a considerable church 
sojourned with us, composed partly of the breth- 
ren who followed us from the city, and partly of 
those who joined us from Egypt. There, too, 
did God open to us a door? for the word. And. 
at first we were persecuted, we were stoned ; 
but after a period some few of the heathen for- 
sook their idols, and turned to God. For’ by. 
our means the word was then sown among them. ~ 
for the first time, and before that. they had never: 
received it. And as if to show that this had 
been the very purpose of God in conducting : us: 
to them, when we had fulfilled this ministry, He 
led us away again. For A‘milianus was minded 
to remove us to rougher parts, as it seemed, 
and to more Libyan-like districts ; and he gave’ 
orders to draw all in every direction into the 
Mareotic territory, and assigned villages to each. 
party throughout the country. But he issued 
instructions that we should be located specially 
by the public way, so that we might also be the 
first to be apprehended ; § for he evidently made. 
his arrangements and plams with a view:to an 
easy seizure of all of us whenever he should 
make up his mind to lay hold of. us. 

7. Now when I received the command. to 
depart to Cephro, I had no idea ‘of the situation 
of the place, and had scarcely even heard its 
name before; yet for all that, I went away 
courageously and calmly. But when word was 
brought me that I had to remove to the parts 
of Colluthion,? those present know how I was 
affected ; for here I shall be my own accuser. 





4 Germanus. had accused Dionysius of neglecting to hold the. 
assemblies of the brethren before the persecution broke out, and of 
rather providing for his own safety by flight. . For when persecution 
burst on them, the bishops were wont first to convene the people, in 
order to exhort them to hold fast the faith of Christ; then infants and 
catechumens were baptized, to provide against their departing this life 
without baptism, and the Eucharist was given to the faithful. — VALEs. 

5 aigOynris weTa TOV Kupiov auvvaywyis. 

6 ws elov, Codices Maz. and Med. give etmety, ‘so to speak; ” 
Fuk. and Savil. give as elmev 0 andatodos, ‘as the apostle said.” 
See on 1 Cor. v. 3. 

7 [Acts xiv. 27; Rev. iii. 8. If the author here quotes.the Apoc- 
alypse, itis noteworthy. Elucidation, p. 110. 

nuas dé paddAov ev 06q Kat mpwrous KaTadnPOncomevous ETakev, 

9 7a KoAdovOiwvos, supplying uépn, as Dionysius has already 
used the phrase ra wépn THs Av8vns. This was a district in the Mar. 
eotic al St Thus we have mention made also of 7a BovxsédAor, 
a certain tract in Egypt, deriving its name from-the old masters of 
the soil; Nicephorus writes KoAov@cov, which is probably more cor- 


rect; for KoAAov@iwy is a derivative from Colutho, which was. a com’ 


106 





At first, indeed, I was greatly vexed, and took it 
very ill; for though these places happened to be 
better known and more familiar to us, yet peo- 
ple declared that the region was one destitute of 
brethren, and even of men of character, and one 
exposed to the annoyances of travellers and to 
the raids of robbers. I found comfort, however, 
when the brethren reminded me that it was 
nearer the city; and while Cephro brought us 
large intercourse with brethren of all sorts who 
came from. Egypt, so that we were able to hold 
our sacred assemblies on a more extensive scale, 
yet there, on the other hand, as the city was in 


the nearer vicinity, we could enjoy more fre-: 


quently the sight of those who were the really 
beloved, and in closest relationship with us, and 
dearest to us: for these would come and take 
their rest among us, and, as in the more remote 
suburbs, there would be distinct and special 
meetings.’ And thus it turned out. 

_ 8. Then, after some other matters, he gives 
again the following account of what befell him: 
— Germanus, indeed, boasts himself of many 
professions of faith. He, forsooth, is able to 
speak of many adverse things which have hap- 
pened to him! Can he then reckon up in his 
own case as many condemnatory sentences? as 
we can number in ours, and confiscations too, 
and proscriptions, and spoilings of goods, and 
losses of dignities,3 and despisings of worldly 
honour, and contemnings of the laudations of 
governors and councillors, and patient subjec- 
tions to the threatenings of the adversaries, and 
to outcries, and perils, and persecutions, and a 
wandering life, and the pressure of difficulties, 
and all kinds of trouble, such as befell me in the 
time of Decius and Sabinus,5 and such also as I 


mon name in Egypt. Thus a certain poet of note in the times of 
Anastasius, belonging to the Thebaid, was so named, as Suidas in- 
forms us. There was also a Coluthus, a certain schismatic, in Egypt, 
in the times of Athanasius, who is mentioned often in the Apologia; 
and Gregory of Nyssa names him Acoluthus in his Contra Euno- 
mium, book ii. — VALES. 

l xata épos guvaywyai, When the suburbs were somewhat dis- 
tant from the city, the brethren resident in them were not compelled 
to attend the meetings of the larger church, but had meetings of their 
own in a basilica, or some building suitable for the purpose. The 
Greeks, too, gave the name mpoagretov to places at some considera- 
ble distance from the city, as well as to suburbs immediately connected 
with it. Thus Athanasius calls Canopus a mpodoreov; and so 
apne is spoken of as the mpodarecoy of Antioch, Achyrona as that 
of Nicomedia, and Septimum as that of Constantinople, though these 
places were distant some miles from the cities. From this place it is 
also inferred that in the days of Dionysius there was still but one 
church in Alexandria, where all the brethren met for devotions. But 
in the time of Athanasius, when several churches had been built by 
the various bishops, the Alexandrians met in different places, kata 
weépos Kai Stppynudvws, as Athanasius says in his first Apology to Con- 
stantius; only that on the great festivals, as at the paschal season and 
at Pentecost, the brethren &ia not meet separately, but all in the larger 
church, as Athanasius also shows us. — VALES. 

2 awopacas, 

3 Maximus, in the scholia to the book of Dionysius the Areopa- 

ite, De calestihierarchia, ch. 5, states that Dionysius was by pro- 
Pasion a irhetor before his conversion: 0 your péyas Atoviatos 
o Adekardpewy exiaxomos, 0 amo pytopwr, etc.— VALES. 

4 rev evavTiwy amedwy, 

S This Sabinus had been prefect of Egypt in the time of Decius; 
it is of him that Dionysius writes in his Ppistle to Fabius, which is 

iven above: The Atmilianus, prefect of Egypt, who is mentioned 

ere, afterwards seized the imperial power, as Pollio writes in his 
Thirty Tyrants, who, howéver, calls him general (duce), and not 
prefect of Egypt. — Vatzs. 








WORKS OF DIONYSIUS. —EXTANT FRAGMENTS. 


fd ae 


have been suffering under the present severities 
of AZmilianus? But where in the world did Ger- 
manus make his appearance? And what men- 
tion is made of him? But I retire from this 
huge act of folly into which I am suffering 
myself to fall on account of Germanus; and 
accordingly I forbear giving to the brethren, 
who already have full knowledge of these things, 
a particular and detailed narrative of all that 
happened. 


EPISTLE XI.—TO HERMAMMON.® 


1. But Gallus did not understand the wicked- 
ness of Decius, nor did he note beforehand what 
it was that wrought his ruin. But he stumbled 
at the very stone which was lying before his eyes ; 
for when his sovereignty was’ in a prosperous 
position, and when affairs were turning out ac- 
cording to his wish,? he oppressed those holy 
men who interceded with God on behalf of his 
peace and his welfare. And consequently, per- 
secuting them, he persecuted also the prayers 
offered in his own behalf. 

2. And to John a revelation is made in like 
manner :® “ And there was given unto him,’ he 
says, ‘a mouth speaking great things, and blas- 
phemy; and power was given unto him, and 
forty and two months.” And one finds both 
things to wonder at in Valerian’s case ; and most 
especially has one to consider how different it 
was with him before these events,‘°— how mild 
and well-disposed he was towards the men of 
God. For among the emperors who preceded 
him, there was not one who exhibited so kindly 
and favourable a disposition toward them as he 
did ; yea, even those who were said to have be- 
come Christians openly '' did not receive them 
with that extreme friendliness and graciousness 
with which he received them at the beginning 


6 Eusebius, Asst. Eccles., vii. 1, 10, 23. Eusebius introduces 
this extract thus: ‘‘In an epistle to Hermammon, Dionysius makes 
the following remarks upon Gallus” the Emperor. 

7 xata vouy is the reading in the Codices Maz., Med., Fuk., and 
Savil., and adopted by Rufinus and others. But Robertus Stephanus, 
from the Codex Regius, gives xara povy, “‘ according to the stream,” 
i.e., favourably. 

8 Eusebius prefaces this extract thus: ‘‘ Gallus had not held the 
government two full years when he was removed, and Valerian, to- 

ether with his son Gallienus, succeeded him. And what Dionysius 
2 said of him may be learned from his Epistle to Hermammon, in 
which he makes the following statement.” 

9 efovgla Kai wnves TecvapaKxoyTadvo, 
expounds the numbers as referring to the period during which the 
persecution under Valerian continued: see him, under the year 257 
A.D., ch. 7. [See Introductory Note, p. 78, sufra. Here is a quota- 
tion from the Apocalypse, to be noted in view of our author's ques- 
tionings, parti., i. 5, p. 83, supra.] 

lo The text is, kat ToUTwY uaALoTa TA MPO AVTOU ws OVTWS exXE 
guvvoety* éws nmos, etc. Gallandi emends the sentence thus: «at 
avTov Ta wadL\oTAa MPO TOUTWY, ws OVX OUTWS ETXE, TUYVYOELY, ews 
jmos, etc. Codex Regius gives ws pév nmos, But Codices Maz 
and Med. give ews nmcos, while Fuk. and Savil. give ews yap vos. 

11 He means the Emperor Philip, who, as many of the ancients 
have recorded, was the first of the Roman emperors to profess the 
Christian religion. But as Dionysius speaks in the plural number, to 
Philip may be added Alexander Severus, who had an image of Christ 
in the chapel of his Lares, as Lampridius testifies, and who favoured 
and sustained the Christians during the whole period of his empire. 
It is to be noted further, that Dionysius says of these emperors only 
that they were said and thought to be Christians, not that they were 
so in reality. —GALLANDI, 


Rev. xiii. 5. Baronius 





WORKS OF DIONYSIUS. —EXTANT FRAGMENTS. 


107 





of his reign ; and his whole house was filled then 
with the pious, and it was itself a very church 
of God. But the master and president! of the 
Magi of Egypt? prevailed on him to abandon 
that course, urging him to slay and persecute 
those pure and holy men as adversaries and ob- 
stacles to their accursed and abominable incanta- 
tions. For there are, indeed, and there were men 
who, by their simple presence, and by merely 
showing themselves, and by simply breathing and 
uttering some words, have been able to dissipate 
the artifices of wicked demons. But he put it 
into his mind to practise the impure rites of 
initiation, and detestable juggleries, and execra- 
ble sacrifices, and to slay miserable children, and 
to make oblations of the offspring of unhappy 
fathers, and to divide the bowels of the newly- 
born, and to mutilate and cut up the creatures 
made by God, as if by such means they 3 would 
attain to blessedness. 

3. Afterwards he subjoins the following: — 
Splendid surely were the thank-offerings, then, 
which Macrianus brought them‘ for that empire 
which was the object of his hopes ; who, while for- 
merly reputed as the sovereign’s faithful public 
treasurer,5 had yet no mind for anything which 
was either reasonable in itself or conducive to the 
public good,° but subjected himself to that curse 
of prophecy which says, “Woe unto those who 
prophesy from their own heart, and see not the 
public good!”7 For he did not discern that 
providence which regulates all things; nor did 
he think of the judgment of Him who is before 
all, and through all, and over all. Wherefore he 
also became an enemy to His Catholic Church ; 
and besides that, he alienated and estranged 
himself from the mercy of God, and fled to the 
utmost possible distance from His salvation.® 
And in this indeed he demonstrated the reality 
of the peculiar significance of his name.9 





1 apxirvvaywyos, j 

2 Baronius thinks that this was that Magus who, a little while 
before the empire of Decius, had incited the Alexandrians to persecute 
the Christians, and of whom Dionysius speaks in his Epistle to Fabius. 
What follows here, however, shows that Macrianus is probably the 


person alluded to. : 

3 evdarorycovras, So Codices Maz., Med., Fuk., and Savil. 
read: others give evdacuovycavras. It would seem to require evdat- 
povycorra, “as if he would attain;” for the reference is evidently 
to Valerian himself. 

4 By the avrois some understand trois BactAevor; others better, 
tois daizoat. According to Valesius, the sense is this: that Macrianus 
having, by the help and presages of the demons, attained his hope of 
empire, made a due return to them, by setting Valerian in arms 
against the Christians, 

5 é7i Tav KaBdAov Adywy. The Greeks gave this name to those offi- 
cials whom the Latins called ratzonales, or procuratores summe ret, 
Under what emperor Macrianus was procurator, is left uncertain here. 

6 ovdey evAoyor ovdé KaDoAtKov eppdvyngev. There is a play here 
on the two senses of the word xaOoAtxds, as seen in the official title emi 
tav KaGoAov Adywy, and in the note of character in ovdé xaOoAcKov, 
But it can scarcely be reproduced in the English. ; é 

7 ovai Tots mpopytevovary amd Kapdias a’Tav Kai TO KaBdAOV MH 
BAerovow, The quotation is probably from Ezek. xiii. 3, of which 
Jerome gives this interpretation: Vae his gut prophetant ex corde 
suo et omnino non vident. . 

8 Robertus Stephanus edits tis ¢avrod éxxAngias, “from his 
Church,” following the Codex Mediczus. 
Bive owrnpias, : : 
, 9 A play upon the name Macrianus, as connected with waxpav, 
“atadistance.” [This playfulness runs through the section. ] 





But the best manuscripts | 


4. And again, after some other matters, he pro- 
ceeds thus : — For Valerian was instigated to these 
acts by this man, and was thereby exposed to 
contumely and reproach, according to the word 
spoken éy the Lord to Isaiah: ‘“ Yea, they have 
chosen their own ways, and their own abomina- 
nations in which their souls delighted; I also 
will choose their mockeries,’° and will recompense 
their sin.” 1" But this man * (Macrianus), being 
maddened with his passion for the empire, all 
unworthy of it as he was, and at the same time 
having no capacity for assuming the insignia of 
imperial government,"3 by reason of his crippled "4 
body,'5 put forward his two sons as the bearers, 
so to speak, of their father’s offences. For un- 
mistakeably apparent in their case was the truth 
of that declaration made by God, when He said, 
“Visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the 
children, unto the third and fourth generation 
of them that hate me.”’ For he heaped his own 
wicked passions, for which he had failed in secur- 
ing satisfaction,’® upon the heads of his sons, and 
thus wiped off*'7 upon them his own wickedness, 
and transferred to them, too, the hatred he him- 
self had shown toward God. 

5.‘ That man,’ then, after he had betrayed the 
one and made war upon the other of the empe- 
rors preceding him, speedily perished, with his 
whole family, root and branch. And Gallienus 
was proclaimed, and acknowledged by all. And 
he was at once an old emperor and a new; for 
he was prior to those, and he also survived them. 
To this effect indeed is the word spoken dy the 
Lord to Isaiah: “ Behold, the things which were 
from the beginning have come to pass ; and there 
are new things which shall now arise.” 7° For as 
a cloud which intercepts the sun’s rays, and over- 
shadows it for a little, obscures it, and appears it- 
self in its place, but again, when the cloud has 
passed by or melted away, the sun, which had 
risen before, comes forth again and shows itself: 
so did this Macrianus put himself forward,?* and 
achieve access”? for himself even to the very 





10 éumatymata, 

11 Isa. Ixvi, 3, 4. 

12 Christophorsonus refers this to Valerian. But evidently the 
otros 6€ introduces a different subject in Macrianus; and besides, 
Valerian could not be said to have been originally unworthy of the 
power which he aspired to. 

13 roy BagiAccoyv Vmoduvat Kocpor, 

14 avarnpw. : 

15 Joannes Zonaras, in his Ax#ads, states that Macrianus was 
lame. 

16 Sv nrvxet. So Codex Regius reads. But Codices Maz., Med., 
and Fuk. give nurvxet, “in which he succeeded.” 

17 e£wpoptato, 

18 Eusebius introduces the extract thus: He (Dionysius) addressed 
also an epistle to Hermammon and the brethren in Egypt; and after 
giving an account of the wickedness of Decius and his successors, he 
states many other circumstances, and also mentions the peace of Gal- 
lienus. And it is best to hear his own relation as follows. 

19 This is rightly understood of Macrianus, by whose treachery 
Valerian came under the power of the Persians. Aurelius Victor, 
Syncellus, and others, testify that Valerian was overtaken by that 
calamity through the treachery of his generals. 

20 Isa. xii. 9. 

21 mpoctas. But Valesius would read mpocoras, adstans. 

22 mpoomeAdoas is the reading of three of the codices and of 
Nicephorus; others give mporeAacas. 


108 


WORKS OF DIONYSIUS. —EXTANT FRAGMENTS. 





empire of Gallienus now established ; but now 
he is ¢ha# no more, because indeed he never was 
it, while this other, z.c., Gadienus, is just as he 
was. And his empire, as if it had cast off old 
age, and had purged itself of the wickedness 
formerly attaching to it, is at present in a more 
vigorous and flourishing condition, and is now 
seen and heard of at greater distances, and 
stretches abroad in every direction. 

6. Then he further indicates the exact time at 
which he wrote this account, as follows :—And 
it occurs to me again to review the days of the 
imperial years. For I see that those most im- 
pious men, whose names may have been once 
so famous, have in a short space become name- 
less. But our more pious and godly prince ' has 
passed his septennium, and is now in his ninth 
year, in which we are to celebrate the festival.? 


EPISTLE XII.—TO THE ALEXANDRIANS.3 


1. To other men, indeed, the present state of 
matters would not appear to offer a fit season for 
a festival: and this certainly is no festal time to 
them ; nor, in sooth, is any other that to them. 
And I say this, not only of occasions manifestly 
sorrowful,4 but even of all occasions whatsoever 
which people might consider to be most joyous.5 
And now certainly all things are turned to mourn- 
ing, and all men are in grief, and lamentations 
resound through the city, by reason of the multi- 
tude of the dead and of those who are dying 


1 (Rom. xiii. 4, 6. St. Paul’s strong expressions in this place 
must explain these expressions. A prince was, guoad hoc, compara- 
tively speaking, godly and pious, as he “‘ attended continually to this 
very thing.” So, “ most religious,” in the Anglican Liturgy. ] 

2 Who ever expressed himself thus, — that one after his seven 
years was passing his ninth year? This septennium (erTaetnpis) 
must designate something peculiar, and different from the time follow- 
ing it. It is therefore the septennium of imperial power which he had 
held along with his father. In the eighth year of that empire, Macria- 
nus possessed himself of the imperial honour specially in Egypt. After 
his sempaon of the purple, however, Gallienus had still much au- 
thority in Egypt. At length, in the ninth year of Gallienus, that is, 
in 261, Macrianus the father and the two sons being slain, the sov- 
ereignty of Gallienus was recognised also among the Egyptians. And 
then Gallienus gave a rescript to Dionysius, Pinna, and Demetrius, 
bishops of Egypt, to re-establish the sacred places, —a boon which 
he had granted in the former year. The ninth year of Gallienus, 
moreover, began about the midsummer of this year; and the time at 
which this letter was written by Dionysius, as Eusebius observes, 
may be gathered from that, and falls consequently before the Paschal 
season of 262 A.D.— PEARSON, p. 72. GALL. 

§ Eusebius, Hist, Eccles., vii. 22 Eusebius prefaces the 2tst 
chapter of his seventh book thus: ‘“‘ When peace had scarcely yet 
been established, he (Dionysius) returned to Alexandria. But when 
sedition and war again beaks out, and made it impossible for him to 
have access to all the brethren in that city, divided as they then were 
into different parties, he addressed them again by an epistle at the 
passover, as if he were still an exile from Alexandria.” Then he in- 
serts the epistle to Hierax; and thereafter, in ch. xxii., introduces the 
present excerpt thus: “‘ After these events, the pestilence succeeding 
the war, and the festival being now at hand, he again addressed the 
brethren by letters, in which he gave the following description of the 
gteat troubles connected with that calamity.” 

4 ovx dws THY émAvTwy is the reading of Codices Maz., Med., 
and Savil.; others give, less correctly, émAocmwy. 

S The text gives, ada’ ovd’ ei tis mepixapis bv oinfelev wddcota, 
which is put probably for the mere regular construction, dy otowrTo 

av pdAtota meptxapyn. Nicephorus reads, €¢ tts meptxapins Oy oinbecn, 
The idea is, that the heathen could have no real festal time. All sea- 
sons, those apparently most joyous, no‘less than those evidently sor- 
rowful, must i times void of all real rejoicing to them, until they 
learn the grace of God. 








day by day. For as it is written in the case of 
the first-born of the Egyptians, so now too a 
great cry has arisen. “ For there is not a house 
in which there is not one dead.”® And would 
that even this were all ! . 
2. Many terrible calamities, it is true, have 
also befallen us before this. For first they drove 
us away ; and though we were quite alone, and 
pursued by all, and in the way of being slain, 
we kept our festival, even at such a time. And 
every place that had been the scene of some of 
the successive sufferings which befell any of us, 
became a seat for our solemn assemblies, —- the 
field, the desert, the ship, the inn, the prison, — 
all alike. The most gladsome festival of all, 
however, has been celebrated. by those perfect 
martyrs who have sat down at the feast in heaven, 
And after these things war and famine surprised 
us. These were calamities which we shared, in- 
deed, with the heathen. But we had also to 
bear by ourselves alone those ills with which they 
outraged us, and we had at the same time to sus- 
tain our part in those things which they either 
did to each other or suffered at each other’s 
hands ; while again we rejoiced deeply in that 
peace of Christ which He imparted to us alone. 
3. And after we and they together had en- 
joyed a very brief season of rest, this pestilence 
next assailed us, —a calamity truly more dread- 
ful to them than all other objects of dread, and 
more intolerable than any other kind of trouble 
whatsoever ;7 and a misfortune which, as a cer- 
tain writer of their own deciares, alone prevails 
over all hope. To us, however, it was not so; 
but in no less measure than other ills it proved an 
instrument for our training and probation. For 
it by no means kept aloof from us, although it 
spread with greatest violence among the heathen. 
4. To these statements he in due succession 
makes this addition : — Certainly very many of 
our brethren, while, in their exceeding love and 
brotherly-kindness, they did not spare themselves, 
but kept by each other, and visited the sick with- 
out thought of their own peril, and ministered to 
them assiduously, and treated them for their heal- 
ing in Christ, died from time to time most joyfully 
along with them, lading themselves with pains 
derived from others, and drawing upon them- 
selves their neighbours’ diseases, and willingly tak- 
ing over to their own persons the burden of the 
sufferings of those around them.’ And many who 





6 Ex. xii. 30. 

7 Dionysius is giving a sort of summary of all the calamities which 
befell the Alexandrian earch from the commencement of his episco- 

al rule: namely, first, persecution, referring to that which began 
in the last year of the reign of Philip: then war, meaning the civil 
war of which he speaks in his Epistle to Fabius; then pestilence, allud- 
ing to the sickness which began in the time of Decius, and traversed 
the land under Gallus and Volusianus. — VALEs. 

8 advapaggouevoe Tas adynddvas. Some make this equivalent to 
mitigantes. It means properly to “‘ wipe off,” and so to become 
“responsible” for. Here.it is used apparently to express much the 
same idea as the two preceding clauses. 


ne SO ae RP on tora 








f 
; 
f 


WORKS OF DIONYSIUS. —EXTANT FRAGMENTS. 


had thus cured others of their sicknesses, and 
restored them to strength, died themselves, hav- 
ing transferred to their own bodies the death 
that lay upon these. And that common saying, 
which else seemed always to be only a polite 
form of address,' they expressed in actual fact 
then, as they departed this life, like the “of- 
scourings of all? Yea, the very best of our 
brethren have departed this life in this manner, 
including some presbyters and some deacons, 
and among the people those who were in high- 
est reputation: so that this very form of death, 
in virtue of the distinguished piety and the 
stedfast faith which were exhibited in it, ap- 
peared to come in nothing beneath martyrdom 
itself. 

5. And they took the bodies of the saints on 
their upturned hands,3 and on their bosoms, and 
closed * their eyes, and shut their mouths. And 
carrying them in company, and laying them out 
decently, they clung to them, and embraced 
them, and prepared them duly with washing and 
with attire. And then in a little while after they 
had the same services done for themselves, as 
those who survived were ever following those who 
departed before them. But among the heathen 
all was the very reverse. For they thrust aside any 
who began to be sick, and kept aloof even from 
their dearest friends, and cast the sufferers out 
upon the public roads half dead, and left them 
unburied, and treated them with utter contempt 
when they died, steadily avoiding any kind 
of communication and intercourse with death ; 
which, however, it was not easy for them alto- 
gether to escape, in spite of the many precau- 
tions they employed.® ; 


EPISTLE XIII. — TO HIERAX, A BISHOP IN EGYPT.’ 


1. But what wonder should there be if I find 
it difficult to communicate by letter with those 
who are settled in remote districts, when it seems 
beyond my power even to reason with myself, 
and to take counsel with® my own soul? For 
surely epistolary communications are very requi- 
site for me with those who are, as it were, 
my own bowels, my closest associates, and my 
brethren — one in soul with myself, and mem- 
bers, too, of the same Church. And yet no way 





1 pdvns hrdoppocvrns éxerGar, : 

2 The phrase mepiWnua ravrwy refers to x Cor. iv. 13. Walesius 
supposes chat among the Alexandrians it may have been a humble and 
complimentary form of salutation, ¢yw eije mepiynud cov; or that 
the expression mepiWnua mavtwy had come to be habitually applied to 
the Christians by the heathen. 

3 umriats xepot, [See Introductory Note, p. 77.] 

4 xaBatpourtes, 

5 onopopovrres. 

6 [Compare Defoe, Plague tn London.] ; ; 

7 Eusebius, Kirst. Eccles., vii. 21. The preface to this extract in 
Eusebius is as follows: ‘‘ After this he (Dionysius) wrote also another 
Paschal! epistle to Hierax, a bishop in Egypt, in which he makes the 
aa yy ) tsa about the sedition then prevailing at Alexandria.” 

r, for. 





109 


opens up by which I can transmit such addresses. 
Easier, indeed, would it be for one, I do not 
say merely to pass beyond: the limits of the 
province, but to cross from east to west, than to 
travel from this same Alexandria to Alexandria. 
For the most central pathway in this city? is 
vaster '° and more impassable even than that ex- 
tensive and untrodden desert which Israel only 
traversed in two generations; and our smooth 
and waveless harbours have become an image 
of that sea through which the people drove, at 
the time when it divided itself and stood up like 
walls on either side, and in whose thoroughfare 
the Egyptians were drowned. For often they 
have appeared like the Red Sea, in consequence 
of the slaughter perpetrated inthem. ‘The river, 
too, which flows by the city, has sometimes ap- 
peared drier than the waterless desert, and more 
parched than that wilderness in which Israel was 
so overcome with thirst on their journey, that 
they kept crying out against Moses, and the water 
was made to stream for them from the precipi- 
tous '! rock by the power of Him who alone doeth 
wondrous things. And sometimes, again, it has 
risen in such flood-tide, that it has overflowed all 
the country round about, and the roads, and the 
fields, as if it threatened to bring upon us once 
more that deluge of waters which occurred in the 
days of Noah. 

2. But now it always flows onward, polluted 
with blood and slaughters and the drowning 
struggles of men, just as it did of old, when on 
Pharaoh’s account it was changed by Moses into 
blood, and made putrid. And what other liquid 
could cleanse water, which itself cleanses all 
things? How could that ocean, so vast and 
impassable for men, though poured out on it, 
ever purge this bitter sea? Or how could even 
that great river which streams forth from Eden,'? 
though it were to discharge the four heads into 
which it is divided into the one channel of the 
Gihon,'3 wash away these pollutions? Or when 
will this air, befouied as it is by noxious exhala- 
tions which rise in every direction, become pure 
again? For there are such vapours sent forth 
from the earth, and such blasts from the sea, 
and breezes from the rivers, and reeking mists 
from the harbours, that for dew we might sup- 
pose ourselves to have the impure fluids "4 of the 
corpses which are rotting in all the underlying 
elements. And yet, after all this, men are 
amazed, and are at a loss to understand whence 





9 ecaitaty THs TOAEws. Codex Regius gives tav méAewv, The 
sedition referred to as thus dividing Alexandria is probably that which 
broke out when A®milianus seized the sovereignty in Alexandria. 
See Pollio’s Thirty Tyrants. 

10 dretpos. But Codices Fuk. and Savil. give amopos, ‘ impracti- 
cable.” 

Il axpoTdmov, 

12 °ESéu, 

13 Written Indy in Codex Alexandrinus, but l'edy in Codex Vath 
canus. 

14 (x@pas, 


It may perhaps mean “‘ smitten” here. 


TIO 


come these constant pestilences, whence these 
terrible diseases, whence these many kinds of 
fatal inflictions, whence all that large and multi- 
form destruction of human life, and what reason 
there is why this mighty city no longer contains 
within it as great a number of inhabitants, tak- 
ing all parties into account, from tender children 
up to those far advanced in old age, as once it 
maintained of those alone whom it called hale 
old men.' But those from forty years of age up 
to seventy were so much more numerous then, 
that their number cannot be made up now even 
when those from fourteen to eighty years of age 
have been added to the roll and register of per- 
sons who are recipients of the public allowances 
of grain. And those who are youngest in ap- 
pearance have now become, as it were, equals 
in age with those who of old were the most 
aged. And yet, although they thus see the 
human race constantly diminishing and wasting 
away upon the earth, they have no trepidation 
in the midst of this increasing and advancing 
consumption and annihilation of their own 
number. 





3 Suoydportas. 





ELUCIDATION. 


EPISTLE XIV.—FROM HIS FOURTH FESTIVAL 
EPISTLE? 


Love is altogether and for ever on the alert, 
and casts about to do some good even to one 
who is unwilling to receive it. And many atime 
the man who shrinks from it under a feeling 
of shame, and who declines to accept services of 
kindness on the ground of unwillingness to be- 
come troublesome to others, and who chooses 
rather to bear the burden of his own grievances 
than cause annoyance and anxiety to any one, is 
importuned by the man who is full of love to 
bear with his aids, and to suffer himself to be 
helped by another, though it might be as one 
sustaining a wrong, and thus to do a very great 
service, not to himself, but to another, in per- 
mitting that other to be the agent in putting an 
end to the ill in which he has been involved. 


2 éx THs 8 eoptactikys éemtatoAns. From the Sacred Parallels 
of Fohn of Damascus, Works, ii. p. 753 C, edit. Paris, 1712. In 
his Ecclestastical History, book vii. ch. 20, Eusebius says: ‘In 
addition to these epistles, the same Dionysius also composed others 
about this time, designated his Festival Epistles, and in these he 
says much in commendation of the Paschal feast. One of these he 
addressed to Flavius, and another to Domitius and Didymus, in which 
he gives the canon for eight years, and shows that the Paschal feast 
ought not to be kept until the passing of the vernal equinox. And 
ey these, he wrote another epistle to his co-presbyters at Alex- 
andria.” 





ELUCIDATION. 


(Apocalypse, note 7, p. 105, and note 9, p. 106.) 


THE moderation of Dionysius is hardly less conspicuous than his fearlessness of inquiry in the 


questions he raises about the Apocalypse." 
the value set upon it by his fellow-Christians. 


He utterly refuses to reject it.? 
Only, he doubts as to (¢#e John) the “inspired 


He testifies to 


person” who was its author, and with critical skill exposes the inferiority of the Greek of the 
Apocalypse to that of the Gospel and Epistles of St. John. Obviously he accepts it as part of 


the canon, only doubting as to the author. 


Modestly he owns that it passes his understanding, 


So Calvin forbore to comment upon it, and owned to “ headache” when he came to it. 





TP, 84, note 6, 





@ P. 82, note 6. 





ns 


Lee. hak) eat 


EXEGETICAL 


THE WORKS OF DIONYSIUS. 


FRAGMENTS." 


L—A COMMENTARY ON THE BEGINNING OF j this Solomon had also an experience surpassing 


ECCLESIASTES.,? 
CHAP, I. 


Ver. 1. “ Zhe words of the son of David, 

king of Israel in Jerusalem.” 

In like manner also Matthew calls the Lord 
the son of David. 

3. “ What profit hath a man of all his labour 

which he taketh under the sun?” 

For what man is there who, although he may 
have become rich by toiling after the objects of 
this earth, has been able to make himself three 
cubits in stature, if he is naturally only of two 
cubits in stature? Or who, if blind, has by 
these means recovered his sight? Therefore we 
ought to direct our toils to a goal beyond the 
sun: for thither, too, do the exertions of the 
virtues reach. 

4. “One generation passeth away, and an- 
other generation cometh: but the earth 
abideth for ever” (unto the age). 

Yes, unto the age,* but not unto the ages.5 

16. “I communed with mine own heart, say- 

ing, Lo, I am come to great estate, and 
have gotten more wisdom than all they 
that have been before me in Jerusa- 
lem ; yea, my heart had great experi- 
ence of wisdom and knowledge. 

17. I knew parables and science : that this in- 

deed is also the spirit’s choice.® 

18. For in multitude of wisdom is multitude 

of knowledge: and he that increaseth 
knowledge increaseth grief.” 

I was vainly puffed up, and increased wisdom ; 
not the wisdom which God has given, but that 
wisdom of which Paul says, “The wisdom of 
this world is foolishness with God.”7 For in 


t See, in the Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum of Gallandi, the Ap- 
pendix to vol. xiv., added from the manuscripts, after the editor’s 
death, by an anonymous scholar. 

<I {Compare the Metaphrase, p.9, supra. Query, are not these 
twin ea a of exegetical exercises in the school at Alexandria? ] 

att. 1, 2. 

4 cis Tov aiwva, 

5 ais TOUS aisvas, 

© wrpoalpeane. 

7 x Cor, lil. 19. 


prudence, and above the measure of all the an- 
cients. Consequently he shows the vanity of it, 
as what follows in like manner demonstrates : 
“And my heart uttered® many things: I knew 
wisdom, and knowledge, and parables, and sci- 
ences.” But this was not the genuine wisdom 
or knowledge, but that which, as Paul says, puffeth 
up. He spake, moreover, as it is written,? three 
thousand parables. But these were not parables 
of a spiritual kind, but only such as fit the com- 
mon polity of men; as, for instance, utterances 
about animals or medicines. For which reason 
he has added in a tone of raillery, “I knew that 
this also is the spirit’s choice.” He speaks also 
of the multitude of knowledge, not the knowl- 
edge of the Holy Spirit, but that which the 
prince of this world works, and which he con- 
veys to men in order to overreach their souls, 
with officious questions as to the measures of 
heaven, the position of earth, the bounds of the 
sea. But he says also, “He that increaseth 
knowledge increaseth sorrow.” For they search 
even into things deeper than these, — inquiring, 
for example, what necessity there is for fire to 
go upward, and for water to go downward ; and 
when they have learned that it is because the 
one is light and the other heavy, they do but 
increase sorrow: for the question still remains, 
Why might it not be the very reverse ? 


CHAP, Il. 


Ver. 1. “I said in mine heart, Go to now, 
make trial as in mirth, and behold 
in good. And this, too, is vanity.” 

For it was for the sake of trial, and in accord- 

ance with what comes by the loftier and the 
severe life, that he entered into pleasure. And 
he makes mention of the mirth, which men call 
so. And he says, “in good,” referring to what 
men call good things, which are not capable of 
giving life to their possessor, and which make 


8 elwe, for which eide, ‘ discerned,” is suggested.  - - ¢ 
9 x Kings iv. 32. i 


112 


WORKS OF DIONYSIUS. — EXEGETICAL FRAGMENTS. 





the man who engages in them vain like them- 
ee 


reason of these things, nor by their means did 
he gain friendship with God. Necessarily he is 


. “I said of laughter, It is mad; and of|led to speak also of the true riches and the 


mirth, What doest thou?” 

Laughter has a twofold madness ; because 
madness begets laughter, and does not allow the 
sorrowing for sins; and also because a man of 
that sort is possessed with madness,” in the con- 
fusing of seasons, and places, and persons. For 
he flees from those who sorrow. “ And to mirth, 
What doest thou?’ Why dost thou repair to 
those who are not at liberty to be merry? » Why 
to the drunken, and the avaricious, and the rapa- 
cious? And why this phrase, “as wine?”3  Be- 
cause wine makes the heart merry; and it acts 
upon the poor in spirit. The flesh, however, also 
makes the heart merry, when it acts in a regular 
and moderate fashion. 

3. “And my heart directed me in wisdom, and 

to overcome in mirth, until I should 

know what is that good thing to the sons 
of men which they shall do under the sun 
for the number of the days of their life.” 

_ Being directed, he says, by wisdom, I over- 
came pleasures in mirth. Moreover, for me the 
aim of knowledge was to occupy myself with 
nething vain, but to find the good ; for if a per- 
sok finds that, he does not miss the discernment 
also of the profitable. The sufficient is also the 
opportune,‘ and is commensurate with the length 
of va 

. “I made me great works; I builded me 
houses ; I planted me vineyards. 

5. I made me gardens and orchards. 

_ 6, I made me pools of water, that by these I 
might rear woods producing trees. 

7. I got me servants and maidens, and had 
servants born in my house; also I had 
large possessions of great and small cattle 
above all that were in Jerusalem before 
me. 

8. I gathered me also silver and gold, and the 
peculiar treasure of kings and of the 
provinces. I gat me men-singers and 
women-singers, and the delights of the 
sons of men, as cups and the cupbearer. 

g. And I was great, and increased more than 
all that were before me in Jerusalem: 
also my wisdom remained with me. 

ro, And whatsoever mine eyes desired, I kept 

not from them ; I withheld not my heart 

from any pleasure. A 
You see how he reckons up a multitude of 
houses and fields, and the other things which he 
mentions, and then finds nothing profitable in 
them. For neither was he any better in soul by 





3 wrepidopar, 
3 wepipdperac, 
3 ws olvor, 


4 On, temporary. 


|abiding property. Being minded, therefore, to 
show what kinds of possessions remain with the 
possessor, and continue steadily and maintain 
themselves for him, he adds: “ Also my wisdom 
remained with me.” For this alone remains, 
and all these other things, which he has already 
reckoned up, flee away and depart. Wisdom, 
therefore, remained with me, and I remained in 
virtue of it. For those other things fall, and 
also cause the fall of the very persons who run 
after them. But, with the intention of instituting 
a comparison between wisdom and those things 
which are held to be good among men, he adds 
these words, ‘‘ And whatsoever mine eyes desired, 

I kept not from them,” and so forth ; whereby 
he describes as evil, not only those toils which 
they endure who toil in gratifying themselves 
with pleasures, but those, too, which by necessity 
and constraint men have to sustain for their main- 
tenance day by day, labouring at their different 
occupations in the sweat of their faces. For 
the labour, he says, is great; but the art5 by the 
labour is temporary, adding ® nothing serviceable 
among things that please. Wherefore there 1s 
no profit. For where there is no excellence 
there is no profit. With reason, therefore, are 
the objects of such solicitude but vanity, and the 
spirit’s choice. Now this name of “spirit” he 
gives to the “soul.” For choice is a quality, 

not a motion.? And David says: “Into Thy 
hands I commit my spirit.”* And in good truth 

“did my wisdom remain with me,’ for it made 

me know and understand, so as to enable me to 

speak of all that is not advantageous? under 
the sun. If, therefore, we desire the righteously 

profitable, if we seek the truly advantageous, if 

it is our aim to be incorruptible, let us engage 

in those labours which reach beyond the sun. 

For in these there is no vanity, and there is not 

the choice of a spirit at once inane and hurried 

hither and thither to no purpose. 

12. “And I turned myself to behold wisdom, 
and madness, and folly: for what man 
is there that shall come after counsel in 
all those things which it has done?” !° 

He means the wisdom which comes from God, 

and which also remained with him. And by 
madness and folly he designates all the labours 
of men, and the vain and silly pleasure they have 
in them. Distinguishing these, therefore, and 
their measure, and blessing the true wisdom, he 
has added: “ For what man is there’ that shall 


3 réx . 

6 Reading: mpootiOetoa for mporOctoa, 

7 motoy ov Kivyots. 

8 Ps, xxxi. 5. 

9 nepageia, 

30 Gs éAcdgeTat omricw THs BovAns gUunayTa Oca émouneev auT™ s 


. 


WORKS OF DIONYSIUS. —EXEGETICAL FRAGMENTS. 


come after counsel?”’ For this counsel instructs 
us in the wisdom that is such indeed, and gifts 
us with deliverance from madness and folly. 

13. “Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, 
as much as light excelleth darkness.” 

He does not say this in the way of comparison. 
For things which are contrary to each other, and 
mutually destructive, cannot be compared. But 
his decision was, that the one is to be chosen, 
and the other avoided. To like effect is the 
saying, “Men loved darkness rather than light.” ! 
For the term “rather’”’ in that passage expresses 
the choice of the person loving, and not the 
comparison of the objects themselves. 

14. “The wise man’s eyes are in his head, but 

the fool walketh in darkness.” 

' That man always inclines earthward, he means, 
and has the ruling faculty? darkened. It is true, 
indeed, that we men have all of us our eyes in 
our head, if we speak of the mere disposition of 
the body. But he speaks here of the eyes of the 
mind. For as the eyes of the swine do not turn 
naturally up towards heaven, just because it is 
made by nature to have an inclination toward the 
belly ; so the mind of the man who has once 
been enervated by pleasures is not easily diverted 
from the tendency thus assumed, because he has 
not “respect unto all the commandments of the 
Lord.”3 Again: “Christ is the head of the 
Church.”4 And they, therefore, are the wise 
who walk in His way; for He Himself has said, 
“Tam the way.”5 On this account, then, it be- 
comes the wise man always to keep the eyes of 
his mind directed toward Christ Himself, in order 
that he may do nothing out of measure, neither 
being lifted up in heart in the time of prosperity, 
nor becoming negligent in the day of adversity : 
“for His judgments are a great deep,” ° as you 
will learn more exactly from what is to follow. 

14. “And I perceived myself also that one 
event happeneth to them all. 

15. Then said I in my heart, As it happeneth 
to the fool, so it happeneth even to me ; 
and why was I then more wise ?”’ 

The run of the discourse in what follows deals 
with those who are of a mean spirit as regards 
this present life, and in whose judgment the arti- 
cle of death and all the anomalous pains of the 
body are a kind of dreaded evil, and who on 
this:account hold that there is no profit in a life 
of virtue, because there is no difference made 
in ills like these between the wise man and the 
fool. He speaks consequently of these as the 
words of a madness inclining to utter senseless- 
ness ; whence he also adds this sentence, “ For 





1 John iii. 19. 
2 rd NyeHovind", 
3 Ps, cxix. 6. 
4 Eph. v. 23. 
s a xiv, 6. 
'S. XXXxvi. 6, 








ian 


the fool talks over-much ;”7 and by the “ fool”’ 
here he means himself, and every one who rea- 
sons in that way. Accordingly he condemns 
this absurd way of thinking. And for the same 
reason he has given utterance to such sentiments 
in the fears of his heart; and dreading the 
righteous condemnation of those who are to be 
heard, he solves the difficulty in its pressure by 
his own reflections. For this word, “ Why was 
I then wise?”’ was the word of a man in doubt 
and difficulty whether what is expended on wis- 
dom is done well or to no purpose ; and whether 
there is no difference between the wise man and 
the fool in point of advantage, seeing that the 
former is involved equally with the latter in the 
same sufferings which happen in this present 
world. And for this reason he says, “I spake 
over-largely ° in my heart,” in thinking that there 
is no difference between the wise man and the 
fool. 

16. “For there is no remembrance of the 

wise equally with the fool for ever.” 

For the events that happen in this life are all 
transitory, be they even the painful incidents, of 
which he says, “ As all things now are consigned 
to oblivion.” 9 For after a short space has passed 
by, all the things that befall men in this life per- 
ish in forgetfulness. Yea, the very persons to 
whom these things have happened are not re- 
membered all in like manner, even although they 
may have gone through like chances in life. For 
they are not remembered for these, but only for 
what they may have evinced of wisdom or folly, 
virtue or vice. The memories of such are not 
extinguished (equally) among men in conse- 
quence of the changes of lot befalling them. 
Wherefore he has added this: “ And how shall 





the wise man die along with the fool? The death 


of sinners, indeed, is evil: yet the memory of 
the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked 
is extinguished.” ?° 

22. “ For that falls to man in all his labour.” 

In truth, to those who occupy their minds with 
the distractions of life, life becomes a painful 
thing, which, as it were, wounds the heart. with 
its goads, that is, with the lustful desires of in- 
crease. And sorrowful also is the solicitude con- 
nected with covetousness: it does not so much 
gratify those who are successful in it, as it pains 
those who are unsuccessful; while the day is 
spent in laborious anxieties, and the night puts 
sleep to flight from the eyes, with the cares of 
making gain. Vain, therefore, is the zeal of the 
man who looks to these things. 

24. “And there is nothing good for a man, 

but what he eats and drinks, and what 





7 €k TEpLOgEvMaToOS. 

8 repiogor, 

9 kaOote Hdn TA TavTa érednoOn. 
10 Prov, x. 7. 


114 


WORKS OF DIONYSIUS. — EXEGETICAL FRAGMENTS. 





will show to his soul good in his labour.| says: ‘A man that is an heretic, after the first 


This also I saw, that it is from the hand 
of God. 

25. For who eats and drinks from his own 

resources ?’? ! 

That the discourse does not deal now with 
material meats, he will show by what follows ; 
namely, “It is better to go to the house of 
mourning than to go to the house of feasting.” ? 
And so in the present passage he proceeds to 
add: “And (what) will show to his soul good in 
its labour.” And surely mere material meats and 
drinks are not the soul’s good. For the flesh, 
when luxuriously nurtured, wars against the soul, 
and rises in revolt against the spirit. And how 
should not intemperate eatings and drinkings also 
be contrary to God?3 He speaks, therefore, 
of things mystical. For no one shall partake of 
the spiritual table, but one who is called by 
Him, and who has listened to the wisdom which 
says, “Take and eat.’ 4 


CHAP. III. 


Ver. 3. “There is a time to kill, and a time 
to heal.” 
_ To “kill,” in the case of him who perpetrates 
unpardonable transgression ; and to “heal,” in 
the case of him who can show a wound that will 
bear remedy. 

4. “A time to weep, and a time to laugh.” 

A time to weep, when it is the time of suffer- 
ing ; as when the Lord also says, “ Verily I say 
unto you, that ye shall weep and lament.” 5 But 
to laugh, as concerns the resurrection : “ For your 
sorrow,” He says, “shall be turned into joy.’’® 

4. “A time to mourn, and a time to dance.” 

When one thinks of the death which the trans- 
gression of Adam brought on us, it is a time to 
mourn ; but it is a time to hold festal gatherings 
when we call to mind the resurrection from the 
dead which we expect through the new Adam.” 

6. ‘A time to keep, and a time to cast away.” 

A time to keep the Scripture against the un- 
worthy, and a time to put it forth for the worthy. 
Or, again: Before the incarnation it was a time 
to keep the letter of the law; but it was a time 
to cast it away when the truth came in its flower. 

7. “A time to keep silence, and a time to 
speak.” 

A time to speak, when there are hearers who 
receive the word; but a time to keep silence, 
when the hearers pervert the word; as Paul 


3 wap’ avrov. 

2 Eccles, vii. 2. 

3 The text gives, mas S¢ kal ovK mapéx cod acdtwv Bpwpatwy 
Kai “eOn, 

4 Prov. ix. 5. 

5 Luke vi. 25; John xvi. 20. 

ohn xvi. 20. 

7 [The fast of the Paschal week, and the feast that follows, are here 

referred to. Of course the religious sa/tatzon of the Hebrews (2 Sam 


vi. 14) is the thought of KoAedeth, and figuratively it is here adopted | me.” 


fer holy mirth. } 








i 


and second admonition, reject.” ® 

10. “I have seen, then, the travail which God 
hath given to the sons of men to be 
exercised in it. 

11. Everything that He hath made is beautiful 
in its time: and He hath set the whole 
world in their heart; so that no man 
can find out the work that God maketh 
from the beginning and to the end.”’ 

And this is true. For no one is able to com- 

prehend the works of God altogether. More- 
over, the world is the work of God. No one, 
then, can find out as to this world what is its 
space from the beginning and unto the end, that 
is to say, the period appointed for it, and the 
limits before determined unto it; forasmuch as 
God has set the whole world as @ realm of igno- 
rance in our hearts. And thus one says: “ De- 
clare to me the shortness of my days.’’9 In this 
manner, and for our profit, the end of this world 
(age) —that is to say, this present life—is a 
thing of which we are ignorant. 


Il.— THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE. 


AN INTERPRETATION, — CHAP, XXII. 42-48. 


Ver. 42. “Father, if Thou be willing to re- 
move '° this cup from me: never- 
theless not my will, but Thine, be 
done.” 

But let these things be enough to say on the 
subject of the will. This word, however, “ Let 
the cup pass,” does not mean, Let it not come 
near me, or approach me.‘! For what can “ pass 
from Him,” certainly must first come nigh Him ; 
and what does pass thus from Him, must be by 
Him. For if it does not reach Him, it cannot 
pass from Him. For He takes to Himself the 
person of man, as having been made man. 
Wherefore also on this occasion He deprecates 
the doing of the inferior, which is His own, and 
begs that the superior should be done, which is 
His Father’s, to wit, the divine will; which 
again, however, in respect of the divinity, is one 
and the same will in Himself and in the Father. 
For it was the Father’s will that He should 
pass through every trial (temptation) ; and the 
Father Himself in a marvellous manner brought 
Him on this course, not indeed with the trial 
itself as His goal, nor in order simply that He 
might enter into that, but in order that He might 
prove Himself to be above the trial, and also 
beyond it.’?. And surely it is the fact, that the 
Saviour asks neither what is impossible, nor what 





8 Tit. iii. 10. 

9 Ps. cil. 24, THY OALYOTHTA TOY NMEPOV MoV avayyeLAdy por, 

10 rapeveyKeiv, 

Il ov« éott, Migne suggests ovxére: ‘‘ Let it no more come near 


12 Wer avtév. May it be, “‘and next to Himself” (the Father) ? 


WORKS OF DIONYSIUS. —EXEGETICAL FRAGMENTS. 


11s 





is impracticable, nor what is contrary to the will 
of the Father. It is something possible; for 
Mark makes mention of His saying, “Abba, 
Father, all things are possible unto Thee.’’! 
And they are possible if He wills them; for 
Luke tells us that He said, “ Father, if Thou be 
willing, remove? this cup from me.” The Holy 
Spirit, therefore, apportioned among the evan- 
gelists, makes up the full account of our Sav- 
jour’s whole disposition by the expressions of 
these several narrators together. He does not, 
then, ask of the Father what the Father wills 
not. For the words, “If Thou be willing,” 
were demonstrative of subjection and docility,3 
not of ignorance or hesitancy. For this reason, 
the other scripture says, “‘ All things are-possible 
unto Thee.” And Matthew again admirably 
describes the submission and humility * when he 
says, “If it be possible.” For unless I adapt 
the sense in this way, some will perhaps assign 
an impious signification to this expression, “ If 
it be possible ;”’ as if there were anything impos- 
sible for God to do, except that only which He 
does not will to do. But .. . being straight- 
way strengthened in His humanity by His an- 
cestral® divinity, he urges the safer petition, and 
desires no longer that that should be the case, 
but that it might be accomplished in accord- 
ance with the Father’s good pleasure, in glory, 
in constancy, and in fulness. For John, who 
has given us the record of the sublimest and 
divinest of the Saviour’s words and deeds, heard 
Him speak thus: “And the cup which my 
Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” 7 
Now, to drink the cup was to discharge the 
ministry and the whole economy of trial with 
fortitude, to follow and fulfil the Father’s deter- 
mination, and to surmount all apprehensions. 
And the exclamation, ‘“‘ Why hast Thou forsaken 
me?” was in due accordance with the requests 
He had previously made: Why is it that death 
has been in conjunction with me all along up 
till now, and that I bear not yet the cup? This 
I judge to have been the Saviour’s meaning in 
this concise utterance. 

And He certainly spake truth then. Never- 
theless He was not forsaken. But He drank 
out the cup at once, as His plea had implied, 
and then passed away. And the vinegar which 
was handed to Him seems to me to have been 
a symbolical thing. For the turned wine 9 indi- 
cated very well the quick turning °° and change 





3 Mark xiv. 36. 

2 wapeveyxe, 

3 émerkeias, 

4 The text gives kav TodTo maAuy Td eixtuKdy, etc. Migne pro- 
poses, Kdv roUTw maAty 7d evxtixov = and Matthew again describes 
the supplicatory and docile in Him. 

S Reading ovrws for ovre. 

6 rarpixys. 

7 John xviii. 11. 

8 tapeAnAvde, 

9 axtpomtas olvos, 

19 tporyy. 





which He sustained, when He passed from His 
passion to impassibility, and from death to death- 
lessness, and from the position of one judged 
to that of one judging, and from subjection 
under the despot’s power to the exercise of 
kingly dominion. And the sponge, as I think, 
signified the complete transfusion '' of the Holy 
Spirit that was realized in Him. And the reed 
symbolized the royal sceptre and the divine law. 
And the hyssop expressed that quickening and 
saving resurrection of His, by which He has also 
brought health to us.? 

43. “And there appeared an angel unto Him 
from heaven, strengthening Him. 

44. And being in an agony, He prayed more 
earnestly ; and His sweat was as it were 
great drops of blood falling down to the 
ground.” 

The phrase, ‘“‘a sweat of blood,” is a current 
parabolic expression used of persons in intense 
pain and distress ; as also of one in bitter grief 
people say that the man “ weeps tears of blood.” 
For in using the expression, “as it were great 
drops of blood,” he does not declare the drops 
of sweat to have been actually drops of blood.'3 
For he would not then have said that these drops 
of sweat were like blood. For such is the force 
of the expression, “‘as it were great drops.” 
But rather with the object of making it plain 
that the Lord’s body was not bedewed with any 
kind of subtle moisture which had only the show 
and appearance of actuality, but that it was really 
suffused all over with sweat in the shape of large 
thick drops, he has taken the great drops of 
blood as an illustration of what was the case with 
Him. And accordingly, as by the intensity of 
the supplication and the severe agony, so also 
by the dense and excessive sweat, he made the 
facts patent, that the Saviour was man by nature 
and in reality, and not in mere semblance and 
appearance, and that He was subject to all the 
innocent sensibilities natural to men. Never- 
theless the words, “I have power to lay down 
my life, and I have power to take it again,” '™ 
show that His passion was a voluntary thing ; 
and besides that, they indicate that the life which 
is laid down and taken again is one thing, and 
the divinity which lays that down and takes it 
again is another. 

He says, “one thing and another,” not as 
making a partition into two persons, but as show- 
ing the distinction between the two natures.'s 

And as, by voluntarily enduring the death in 
the flesh, He implanted incorruptibility in it ; so 





Il avaxpacty, 

12 The text is, nuads Vyra ESecgev. Migne proposes vylacev, 

13 [Note this somewhat modern “explaining away.” It proves 
the freedom of our author from any predisposition to exegetical ex- 


| aggeration, if nothing more. ] 


14 John x, 18. P ‘ 
Is ‘This sentence is supposed to be an interpolation by the con 


| structor of the Catena. 


116 





also, by taking to Himself of His own free-will 
the passion of our servitude,' He set in it the 
seeds of constancy and courage, whereby He 
has nerved those who believe on Him for the 
mighty conflicts belonging to their witness-bear- 
ing. Thus, also, those drops of sweat flowed 
from Him in a marvellous way like great drops 
of blood, in order that He might, as it were, 
drain off? and empty the fountain of the fear 
which is proper to our nature. For unless this 
had been done with a mystical import, He cer- 
tainly would not, even had He been’ the most 
timorous and ignoble of men, have been bedewed 
in this unnatural way with drops of sweat like 
drops of blood under the mere force of His 
agony. 

Of like import is also the sentence in the nar- 
rative which tells us that an angel stood by the 
Saviour and strengthened Him. For this, too, 
bore also on the economy entered into on our 
behalf. For those who are appointed to engage 
in the sacred exertions of conflicts on account 
of piety, have the angels from heaven to assist 
them. And the prayer, “Father, remove the 
cup,” He uttered probably not as if He feared 
the death itself, but with the view of challenging 
the devil by these words to erect the cross for 
Him. With words of deceit that personality de- 
luded Adam ; with the words of divinity, then, let 
the deceiver himself now be deluded. Howbeit 
assuredly the will of the Son is not one thing, 
and the will of the Father another. For He 
who wills what the Father wills, is found tc have 
the Father’s will. It is ina figure, therefore, that 
He says, “not my will, but Thine.” For it is 
not that He wishes the cup to be removed, but 
that He refers to the Father’s will the right issue 
of His passion, and honours thereby the Father 
as the First. For if the fathers ® style one’s dis- 


position gzomé,’ and if such disposition relates | 


also to what is in consideration hidden as if by 
settled purpose, how say some that the Lord, who 
is above all these things, bears a gnomic will?§ 
Manifestly that can be only by defect of reason. 
45. “ And when He rose from prayer, and was 
come to His disciples, He found them 

sleeping for sorrow ; 
46. And said unto them, Why sleep ye? Rise 
and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.” 
For in the most general sense it holds good 





I The text is, THs SovAcias, 
feeling of our fear.” 

2 avagnpavy. 

3 The text is, ovde H ofddpa SecAdtatos, etc, 
Migne, ¢ instead of y. 

4 [Note the following sentence, without which, as explanatory, this 
might be quoted as a Monothelite statement. Garb ling is a conven- 


Migne suggests, THs SerAcas = “ the 


We read, with 


ient resource for those who claim the Fathers for other false systems. ] | 


5 apxny. 

6 [This seems to be a quotation from the Alexandrian Fathers 
showing how early such questions began to be eae Settled in 
the Sixth Council, A.D. 681, the /as¢ ‘‘ General Council.’ 

7 yvioun, gnome. 

8 OdAnwa yrwmiKor, 








ed + er Ae 


Sin ele er ae 


WORKS OF DIONYSIUS. —EXEGETICAL FRAGMENTS. 





that it is apparently not possible for any man? 
to remain altogether without experience of ill 
For, as one says, “ the whole world lieth in wick- 
edness ;”’ '° and again, “The most of the days 
of man are labour and trouble.’”’*! But you will 
perhaps say, What difference is there between 
being tempted, and falling or entering into 
temptation? Well, if one is overcome of evil 
—and he will be overcome unless he struggles 
against it himself, and unless God protects him 
with His shield —that man has entered into 
temptation, and is in it, and is brought under it 
like one that is led captive. But if one with- 
stands and endures, that man is indeed tempted ; 
but he has not entered into temptation, or fallen 
into it. Thus Jesus was led up of the Spirit, not 
indeed to enter into temptation, but to be tempted 
of the devil.'?, And Abraham, again, did not enter 
into temptation, neither did God lead him into 
temptation, but He tempted (tried) him; yet 
He did not drive him into temptation. The 
Lord Himself, moreover, tempted (tried) the 
disciples. Thus the wicked one, when he tempts 
us, draws us into the temptations, as dealing 
himself with the temptations of evil. But God, 
when He tempts (tries), adduces the tempta- 
tions (trials) as one untempted of evil. For 
God, it is said, “cannot be tempted of evil.” '3 
The devil, therefore, drives us on by violence, 
drawing us to destruction ; but God leads us by 
the hand, training us for our salvation. 

47. “And while He yet spake, behold a mul- 
titude, and he that was called Judas, 
one of the twelve, went before them, 
and drew near unto Jesus, and kissed 
Him. 

48. But Jesus said unto him, Judas, betrayest 
thou the Son of man with a kiss?” 

How wonderful this endurance of evil by the 

Lord, who even kissed the traitor, and spake 
words softer even than the kiss! For He did 
not say, O thou abominable, yea, utterly abom- 
inable traitor, is this the return you make to us 
for so great kindness? But, somehow, He says 
simply “Judas,” using the ‘proper name, which 
was the address that would be used by one who 
commiserated a person, or who wished to call 
him back, rather than of one in anger. And 
He did not say, “thy Master, the Lord, thy 
benefactor ;”” but He said simply, “the Son of 
man,”’ that is, the tender and meek one: as if 
He meant to say, Even supposing that I was not 
your Master, or Lord, or benefactor, dost thou 
still betray one so guilelessly and so tenderly 
affected towards thee, as even to kiss thee in 
the hour of thy treachery, and that, too, when 





9 padrtota lows mavTe avOpary, 
10 x John v. 19. 

TEDPsiXC. 10: 

12 Matt. iv. 1 

13 Jas. i, 13. 


een 


WORKS OF DIONYSIUS, — EXEGETICAL FRAGMENTS. 


the kiss was the signal for thy treachery? Blessed 
art Thou, O Lord! How great is this example 
of the endurance of evil that Thou hast shown 
us in Thine own person! how great, too, the 
pattern of lowliness! Howbeit, the Lord has 
given us this example, to show us that we ought 
not to give up offering our good counsel to our 
brethren, even should nothing remarkable be 
effected by our words. 

For as incurable wounds are wounds which 
cannot be remedied either by severe applications, 
or by those which may act more pleasantly upon 
them ;' so? the soul, when it is once carried 
captive, and gives itself up to any kind of wick- 
edness, and refuses to consider what, is really 
profitable for it, although a myriad counsels 
should echo in it, takes no good to itself. But 
just as if the sense of hearing were dead within 
it, it receives no benefit from exhortations ad- 
dressed to it; not because it cannot, but only 
because it will not. This was what happened 
in the case of Judas. And yet Christ, although 
He knew all these things beforehand, did not at 
any time, from the beginning on to the end, omit 
to do all in the way of counsel that depended 
on Him. And inasmuch as we know that such 
was His practice, we ought also unceasingly to 
endeavour to set those right* who prove careless, 
even although no actual good may seem to be 
effected by that counsel. 


III.—ON LUKE XXII. 42, ETCS 


But let these things be enough to say on the 
subject of the will. This word, however, “ Let 
the cup pass,” does not mean, Let it not come 
near me, or approach me. For what can pass 
from Him must certainly first come nigh Him, 
and what does thus pass from Him must be by 
Him. For if it does not reach Him, it cannot 
pass from Him. Accordingly, as if He now felt 
it to be present, He began to be in pain, and to 
be troubled, and to be sore amazed, and to be in 
an agony. And as if it was at hand and placed 
before Him, He does not merely say “ the cup,” 
but He indicates it by the word “this.” There- 
fore, as what passes from one is something which 
neither has no approach nor is permanently set- 
tled with one, so the Saviour’s first request is 
that the temptation which has come softly and 
plainly upon Him, and associated itself lightly 
with Him, may be turned aside. And this is 
the first form of that freedom from falling into 





1 Some such clause as ta@jvat dvvatat requires to be supplied 
here. 

2 Reading ow for ovTe. 

3 Reading tivcovy for oTvovy. 

4 pvOmiGerv, 

5 Another fragment from the Vatican Codex, 1611, fol. 291. See 
also Mai, Brbdiotheca Nova, vi. t.165. This is given here in a lon- 
ger and fuller form than in the Greek of Gallandi in his Szddiotheca, 
xiv,, Appendix, p. 115,as we have had it presented above, and than 
in the Latin of Corderius in his Catena on Luke xxii. 42, etc. This 
text as taken from a complete codex: 


' several narrators together. 





| 
| 
{ 


117 


temptation, which He also counsels the weaker 
disciples to make the subject of their prayers ; 
that, namely, which concerns the approach of 
temptation: for it must needs be that offences 
come, but yet those to whom they come ought not 
to fallinto the temptation. But the most perfect 
mode in which this freedom from entering into 
temptation is exhibited, is what He expresses in 
His second request, when He says not merely, 
“ Not as I will,” but also, “but as Thou wilt.” 
For with God there is no temptation in evil ; but 
He wills to give us good exceeding abundantly 
above what we ask or think. That His will, 
therefore, is the perfect will, the Beloved Him- 
self knew; and often does He say that He has 
come to do that will, and not His own will, — 
that is to say, the will of men. For He takes 
to Himself the person of men, as having been 
made man. Wherefore also on this occasion 
He deprecates the doing. of the inferior, which 
is His own, and begs that the superior should 
be done, which is His Father’s, to wit, the divine 
will, which again, however, in respect of the 
divinity, is one and the same will in Himself and 
in His Father. For it was the Father’s will that 
He should pass through every trial (temptation), 
and the Father Himself in a marvellous manner 
brought Him on this course ; not, indeed, with 
the trial itself as His goal, nor in order simply 
that He might enter into that, but in order that 
He might prove Himself to be above the trial, 
and also beyond it. And surely it is the fact 
that the Saviour asks neither what is impossible, 
nor what is impracticable, nor what is contrary 
to the will of the Father. It is something possi- 
ble, for Mark makes mention of His saying, 
“Abba, Father, all things are possible unto 
Thee ;’’ and they are possible if He wills them, 
for Luke tells us that He said, ‘‘ Father, if ‘Thou 
be willing, remove this cup from me.” The Holy 
Spirit therefore, apportioned among the evangel- 
ists, makes up the full account of our Saviour’s 
whole disposition by the expressions of these 
He does not then 
ask of the Father what the Father wills not. 
For the words, “if Thou be willing,” were de- 
monstrative of subjection and docility, not of 
ignorance or hesitancy. And just as when we 
make any request that may be accordant with 
his judgment, at the hand of father or ruler or 
any one of those whom we respect, we are accus- 
tomed to use the address, though not certainly 
as if we were in doubt about it, “if you please ;” 
so the Saviour also said, “if Thou be willing: ” 
not that He thought that He willed something 
different, and thereafter learned the fact, but that 
He understood exactly God’s willingness to re- 
move the cup from Him, and as doing so:also 
apprehended justly that what He wills is also 
possible unto Him. For this reason the oth: 


118 





scripture says, “All things are possible unto 
Thee.” And Matthew again admirably describes 
the submission and the humility, when he says, 
“if it be possible.” For unless we adapt the 
sense in this way, some will perhaps assign an 
impious signification to this expression “ if it be 
possible,” as if there were anything impossible 
for God to do, except that only which He does 
not will to do. Therefore the request which He 
made was nothing independent, nor one which 
pleased Himself only, or opposed His Father’s 
will, but one also in conformity with the mind 
of God. And yet some one may say that He 
is overborne and changes His mind, and asks 
presently something different from what He 
asked before, and holds no longer by His own 
will, but introduces His Father’s will. Well, such 
truly is the case. Nevertheless He does not by 
any means make any change from one side to 
another ; but He embraces another way, and a 
different method of carrying out one and the 
same transaction, which is also a thing agreeable 
to both ; choosing, to wit, in place of the mode 
which is the inferior, and which appears unsatis- 
fying also to Himself, the superior and more 
admirable mode marked out by the Father. For 
no doubt He did pray that the cup might pass 
from Him; but He says also, “ Nevertheless, 
not as I will, but as Thou wilt.”” He longs pain- 
fully, on the one hand, for its passing from Him, 
but (He knows that) it is better as the Father 
wills. For He does not utter a petition for its 
not passing away now, instead of one for its re- 
moval; but when its withdrawal is now before 
His view, He chooses rather that this should be 
ordered as the Father wills. For there is a two- 
fold kind' of withdrawal: there is one in the 
instance of an object that has shown itself and 
reached another, and is gone at once on being 
followed by it or on outrunning it, as is the case 
with racers when they graze each other in pass- 
ing ; and there is another in the instance of an 
object that has sojourned and tarried with another, 
and sat down by it, as in the case of a marauding 
band or a camp, and that after a time withdraws 
on being conquered, and on gaining the opposite 
of a success. For if they prevail they do not 
retire, but carry off with them those whom they 
have reduced ; but if they prove unable to win 
the mastery, they withdraw themselves in dis- 
grace. Now it was after the former similitude 
that He wished that the cup might come into 
His hands, and promptly pass from Him again 
very readily and quickly; but as soon as He 
spake thus, being at once strengthened in His 
humanity by the Father’s divinity, He urges the 
safer petition, and desires no longer that that 
should he the case, but that it might be accom- 
plished in accordance with the Father’s good 





t Suwaucs, 





WORKS OF DIONYSIUS. —EXEGETICAL FRAGMENTS. 


pleasure, in glory, in constancy, and in fulness. 
For John, who has given us the record of the 
sublimest and divinest of the Saviour’s words 
and deeds, heard Him speak thus: “ And the 
cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not 
drink it?” Now, to drink the cup was to dis- 
charge the ministry and the whole economy of 
trial with fortitude, to follow and fulfil the Father’s 
determination, and to surmount all apprehen- 
sions ; and, indeed, in the very prayer which 
He uttered He showed that He was leaving 
these (apprehensions) behind Him. For of two 
objects, either may be said to be removed from 
the other: the object that remains may be said 
to be removed from the one that goes away, and 
the one that goes away may be said to be removed 
from the one that remains. Besides, Matthew 
has indicated most clearly that He did indeed 
pray that the cup might pass from Him, but yet 
that His request was that this should take place ~ 
not as He willed, but as the Father willed t. 
The words given by Mark and Luke, again, ought 
to be introduced in their proper connection. 
For Mark says, “ Nevertheless not what I will, 
but what Thou wilt ;” and Luke says, “ Never- 
theless not my will, but Thine be done.” He 
did then express Himself to that effect, and He 
did desire that His passion might abate and reach 
its end speedily. But it was the Father’s will at 
the same time that He should carry out His con- 
flict in a manner demanding sustained effort,? 
and in sufficient measure. Accordingly He (the 
Father) adduced all that assailed Him. But of 
the missiles that were hurled against Him, some 
were shivered in pieces, and others were dashed 
back as with invulnerable arms of steel, or rather 
as from the stern and immoveable rock. Blows, 
spittings, scourgings, death, and the lifting up in 
that death,3 all came upon Him; and when all 
these were gone through, He became silent and 
endured in patience unto the end, as if He suf- 
fered nothing, or was already dead. But when 
His death was being prolonged, and when it was 
now overmastering Him, if we may so speak, 
beyond His utmost strength, He cried out to 
His Father, “Why hast Thou forsaken me?” 
And this exclamation was in due accordance 
with the requests He had previously made : Why 
is it that death has been in such close conjunc- 
tion with me all along up till now, and Thou dost 
not yet bear the cup past me?4 Have I not 
drunk it already, and drained it? But if not, 
my dread is that I may be utterly consumed by 
its continuous pressure ;5 and that is what would 
befall me, wert Thou to forsake me: then would 
the fulfilment abide, but I would pass away, and 





2 AvTapws. 

3 tov Oavatov TO vWwma, 

4 napadepecs, : 

Fi z tee pees SNe Sawer ee 

5 ec d€ ovK Envoy abto 75y Kai avyiAwoa: adda Séos wn Un’ adrou 
mArpys emixetmevov katamobenv. 


WORKS OF DIONYSIUS. — EXEGETICAL FRAGMENTS. 


119 





be made of none effect. Now, then, I entreat 
Thee, let my baptism be finished, for indeed I 
have been straitened greatly until it should be 
accomplished. — This I judge to have been the 
Saviour’s meaning in this concise utterance. And 
He certainly spake truth then. Nevertheless He 
was not forsaken. Albeit He drank out the cup 
at once, as His plea had implied, and then passed 
away. And the vinegar which was handed to 
Him seems to me to have been a symbolical 
thing. For the turned wine indicated very well 
the quick turning and change which He sustained 
when He passed from His passion to impassi- 
bility, and from death to deathlessness, and from 
the position of one judged to that of one judging, 
and from subjection under the despot’s power to 
the exercise of kingly dominion. And the sponge, 
as I think, signified the complete transfusion of 
the Holy Spirit that was realized in Him. And 
the reed symbolized the royal sceptre and the 
divine law. And the hyssop expressed that quick- 
ening and saving resurrection of His by which He 
has also brought health to us.2_ But we have gone 
through these matters in sufficient detail on Mat- 
thew and John. With the permission of God, 
we shall speak also of the account given by Mark. 
But at present we shall keep to what follows in 
our passage. 


IvV.— AN EXPOSITION OF LUKE XXII. 46, ETC.3 


This prayer He also offered up Himself, fall- 
ing repeatedly on His face ; and on both occa- 
sions He urged His request for not entering into 
temptation: both when He prayed, “If it be 
possible, let this cup pass from me ;’’ and when 
He said, “ Nevertheless not as I will, but as 
Thou wilt.” For He spoke of not entering into 
temptation, and He made that His prayer; but 
He did not ask that He should have no trial 
whatsoever in these circumstances, or* that no 
manner of hardship should ever befall Him. 
For in the most general application it holds 
good, that it does not appear to be possible for 
any man to remain altogether without experience 
of ill: for, as one says, “The whole world lieth 
in wickedness ;’’5 and again, “‘The most of the 
days of man are labour and trouble,” ® as men 
themselves also admit. Short is our life, and 
full of sorrow. Howbeit it was not meet that 
He should bid them pray directly that that curse 
might not be fulfilled, which is expressed thus : 
“ Cursed is the ground in thy works: in sorrow 
shalt thou eat of it al! the days of thy life ;’’7 





1 xexevwmeévos, 

2 [In these allegorical interpretations we see the pupil of Origen. ] 

3 Another fragment, connected with the preceding on Christ’s 
prayer in Gethsemane. Edited in a mutilated form, as given by 
Gallandi, in his Brb/zotheca, xiv. p. 117, and here presented in its 
completeness, as found in the Vatican Codex 1611, f. 292, 6. 

4 Reading 7 for ,v. 

S$: John v. 19. 

© Ps. xe. 10. 

Y Gen iii, 17 








or thus, ‘ Earth thou art, and unto earth shalt 
thou return.” 8 For which reason the Holy Scrip- 
tures, that indicate in many various ways the dire 
distressfulness of life, designate it as a valley of 
weeping. And most of all indeed is this world 
a scene of pain to the saints, to whom He ad- 
dresses this word, and He cannot lie in uttering 
it: “In the world ye shall have tribulation.” 9 
And to the same effect also He says by the 
prophet, ‘‘ Many are the afflictions of the right- 
eous.” '© But I suppose that He refers to this 
entering not into temptation, when He speaks in 
the prophet’s words of being delivered out of the 
afflictions. For He adds, “The Lord will de- 
liver him out of them all.” And this is just in 
accordance with the Saviour’s word, whereby He 
promises that they will overcome their afflictions, 
and that they will participate in that victory 
which He has won for them. For after saying, 
“Tn the world ye shall have tribulation,” He 
added, “‘ But be of good cheer, I have overcome 
the world.” And again, He taught them to pray 
that they might not fall into temptation, when He 
said, “ And lead us not into temptation ;”’ which 
means, “Suffer us not. to fall into temptation.” 
And to show that this did not imply they should 
not be tempted, but really that they should be 
delivered from the evil, He added, “ But deliver 
us from evil.” But perhaps you will say, What 
difference is there between being tempted, and 
falling or entering into temptation? Well, if one 
is overcome of evil—and he will be overcome 
unless he struggles against it himself, and unless 
God protects him with His shield —that man 
has entered into temptation, and is in it, and is 
brought under it like one that is led captive. 
But if one withstands and endures, that man is 
indeed tempted; but he has not entered into 
temptation, or fallen under it. Thus Jesus was 
led up of the Spirit, not indeed to enter into 
temptation, but “to be tempted of the devil.” ' 
And Abraham, again, did not enter into tempta- 
tion, neither did God lead him into temptation, 
but He tempted (tried) him; yet He did not 
drive him into temptation. The Lord Himself, 
moreover, tempted (tried) the disciples. And 
thus the wicked one, when he tempts us, draws 
us into the temptations, as dealing himself with 
the temptations of evil; but God, when He 
tempts (tries), adduces the temptations as one 
untempted of evil. For God, it is said, “can- 
not be tempted of evil.”’??_ The devil, therefore, 
drives us on by violence, drawing us to destruc- 
tion ; but God leads us by the hand, training us 
for our salvation. 





8 Gen. iii. 19. 

9 John xvi. 33. 
Io Ps. xxxiv. 19. 
11 Matt. iv. 1. 
12 Jas. i, 13+ 


120 


— 7 Vo Boban’ « 


WORKS OF DIONYSIUS. —EXEGETICAL FRAGMENTS, 





V.—ON JOHN VIII. 12! 


Now this word “I am” expresses His eternal 
subsistence. For if He is the reflection of the 
eternal light, He must also be eternal Himself. 
For if the light subsists for ever, it is evident 
that the reflection also subsists for ever. And 
that this light subsists, is known only by its shin- 
1ng; neither can there be a light that does not 
give light. We come back, therefore, to our 
tllustrations. If there is day, there is light; 
and if there is no such thing, the sun certainly 
cannot be present.? If, therefore, the sun had 
been eternal, there would also have been endless 
day. Now, however, as it is not so, the day 
begins when the sun rises, and it ends when the 
sun sets. But God is eternal light, having neither 
beginning nor end. And along with Him there 
is the reflection, also without beginning, and ever- 
lasting. The Father, then, being eternal, the 
Son is also eternal, being light of light; and if 
God is the light, Christ is the reflection; and 
if God is also a Spirit, as it is written, “God is a 
Spirit,” Christ, again, is called analogously Spirit.3 


VI.—OF THE ONE SUBSTANCE 


The plant that springs from the root is some- 
thing distinct from that whence it grows up; and 
yet it is of one nature with it. And the river 
which flows from the fountain is something dis- 
tinct from the fountain. For we cannot call 
either the river a fountain, or the fountain a 
river. Nevertheless we allow that they are both 
one according to nature, and also one in sub- 
stance ; and we admit that the fountain may be 





1 A fragment. Edited from the Vatican Codex 1996, f. 78, belong- 
ing to a date somewhere about the tenth century. 

2 Reading moAAov ye Set, The text gives moAv ye det, 

3 arpis. If this strange reading aruis is correct, there is appar- 
ently a play intended on the two words mvedue and atuis, =if God 
is a mvevma, which word literally signifies Wind or Air, Christ, on 
that analogy, may be called atuis, that is to say, the Vapour or 
Breath of that Wind. 

4 That the Son is not different from the Father in nature, but con- 
natural and consubstantial with Him. From the Panoplia of Euthy- 
mius Zigabenus in the Cod. xix. Vantane Biblioth. 








conceived of as father, and that the river is what 
is begotten of the fountain.$ a 


VIL—ON THE RECEPTION OF THE LAPSED 
TO PENITENCE® 


But now we are doing the opposite. For 
whereas Christ, who is the good Shepherd, goes 
in quest of one who wanders, lost among the 
mountains, and calls him back when he flees 
from Him, and is at pains to take him up on 
His shoulders when He has found him, we, on 
the contrary, harshly spurn such a one even 
when He approaches us. Yet let us not consult 
so miserably for ourselves, and let us not in this 
way be driving the sword against ourselves. For 
when people set themselves either to do evil or 
to do good to others, what they do is certainly 
not confined to the carrying out of their will on 
those others ; but just as they attach themselves 
to iniquity or to goodness, they will themselves 
become possessed either by divine virtues or by 
unbridled passions. And the former will become 
the followers and comrades of the good angels ; 
and both in this world and in the other, with the 
enjoyment of perfect peace and immunity from 
all ills, they will fulfil the most blessed destinies 
unto all eternity, and in God’s fellowship they 
will be for ever (in possession of) the supremest 
good. But these latter will fall away at once 
from the peace of God and from peace with 
themselves, and both in this world and after 
death they will abide with the spirits of blood- — 
guiltiness.7 Wherefore let us not thrust from 
us those who seek a penitent return; but let us 
receive them gladly, and number them once 
more with the stedfast, and make up again what 
is defective in them. 


5 [See his explanations in the epistle to Dionysius, p. 92, supra.] 

6 A fragment, probably by the Alexandrian Dionysius, This 
seems to be an excerpt from his works On Penztence, three of which 
are mentioned by Jerome in his De Script, Eccl., ch. 69. See Mai, 
Classict Auctores, x. 484. It is edited here from the Vatican Codex. 

7 ros maAapvatots Saimogt, Or, with the demons of vengeance. 


NOTE BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR. 


FREQUENT references to Gadlandi, whose collection I have been unable to inspect, the cost of 
the best edition being about two hundred dollars, makes it worth while to insert here, from a 
London book-catalogue, the following useful memoranda: “ Gallandti, Cong. Orat. (Andr.) 
Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum Antiquorumque Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Greco-Latina; Opera 
silicet eorundum minora ac rariora usque ad xiii, Seculum complexa, quorum clxxx. et amplius 
nec in Veteri Parisiensi, neque in postrema Lugdunensi edita sunt. Venet., 1765. 


“The contents are given in Darling, col. 298-306. 


Of the three hundred and eighty-nine 


writers enumerated, it appears that nearly two hundred are not in the earlier collections. 

“The contents of these great collections are, not the works of the Great Fathers, of whose 
writings separate editions have been published, but the works, often extensive and important, of 
those numerous Ecclesiastical writers whose works go, with the Greater Fathers referred to, to 


make up the sum of Church Patristic literature.” 





JULIUS AFRICANUS. 





INTRODUCTORY NOTICE 


TO 


JULIUS AFRICANUS. 


[A.D. 200-232-245.] Ina former volume, strengthened by a word from Archbishop Usher,’ I 
have not hesitated to claim for Theophilus of Antioch a primary place among Christian chronolo- 
gists. It is no detraction from the fame of our author to admit this, and truth requires it. But 

the great Alexandrian school must again come into view when we speak of any considerable 
achievements, among early Christian writers, in this important element of all biblical, in fact, all 
historical, science. Africanus was a pupil of Heraclas, and we must therefore date his pupilage in 
Alexandria before A.D. 232, when Dionysius succeeded Heraclas in the presidency of that school. 
It appears that in a.D. 226 he was performing some duty in behalf of Emmaus (Nicopolis) in 
Palestine ; but Heraclas, who had acted subordinately as Origen’s assistant as early as A.D. 218, 
could not have become the head of the school, even provisionally, till after Origen’s unhappy 
ordination. Let us assume the period of our author’s attending the school under Heraclas to be 
between a.D. 228 and A.D. 232, however. We may then venture to reckon his birth as circa a.p. 
200. And, if he became “bishop of Emmaus,” it could hardly have been before the year 240, 
when he was of ripe age and experience. He adds additional lustre to the age of Gregory Thau- 
maturgus and Dionysius, as well as to that of their common mother in letters and theology, the 
already ancient academy of Pantzenus and of Clement. His reviving credit in modern times has 
been largely due to the learned criticism of Dr. Routh, to whose edition of these Fragments the 
student must necessarily apply. Their chief interest arises from the important specimen which 
treats of the difficult question of the, genealogies of our Lord contained in the evangelists. For 
a succinct statement of the points involved, and for a candid concession that they were not pre- 
served to meet what modern curiosity would prefer to see established, I know of nothing more 
satisfactory than the commentary of Wordsworth,3 from which I have borrowed almost wholly one 
of my elucidations. 

The reader will remember the specimen of our author’s critical judgment which is given with 
the works of Origen.4 He differed with that great author, and the Church Catholic has sustained 
his judgment as just. I regret that the Edinburgh editors thought it necessary to make the Led/er 
to Origen concerning the Apocryphal Book of Susannah a mere preface to Origen’s answer. It 
might have been quoted there as a preface ; but it is too important not to be included here, with 
the other fragments of his noble contributions to primitive Christian literature. 

It does not clearly appear, from the Edinburgh edition, who the translator is; but here follows 
the 

TRANSLATOR’S INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 


THE principal facts known to us in the life of Africanus are derived from himself and the 
Chronicon of Eusebius. He says of himself that he went to Alexandria on account of the fame 





— — = 


1 Vol. ii. p. 87, this series. 2 Vol. iv. p. 227. 3 OnSt. Matt. i. 1-17. 4 Vol. iv. p. 385. 
; 123 


124 INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 





of Heraclas. In the Chronicon, under the year 226, it is stated that “ Nicopolis in Palestine, 
which formerly bore the name of Emmaus, was built, Africanus, the author of the Chronology, 
acting as ambassador on behalf of it, and having the charge of it.” Dionysius Bar-Salibi speaks 
of Africanus as bishop of Emmaus. 

Eusebius describes Africanus as being the author of a work called xeoroé.t Suidas says tuat 
this book detailed various kinds of cures, consisting of charms and written forms, and such like. 
Some have supposed that such a work is not likely to have been written by a Christian writer: 
they appeal also to the fact that no notice is taken of the xeoroc by Jerome in his notice of Afri- 
canus, nor by Rufinus in his translation of Eusebius. ‘They therefore deem the clause in Eusebius 
an interpolation, and they suppose that two bore the name of Africanus, — one the author of the 
xeorot, the other the Christian writer. Suidas identifies them, says that he was surnamed Sextus, 
and that he was a Libyan philosopher. 

The works ascribed to Africanus, beside the Ces#, are the following : — 

1. Five Books of Chronology. Photius? says of this work, that it was concise, but omitted 
nothing of importance. It began with the cosmogony of Moses, and went down to the advent of 
Christ. It summarized also the events from the time of Christ to the reign of the Emperor 
Macrinus. 

2. A very famous letter to Aristides, in which he endeavoured to reconcile the apparent dis- 
crepancies in the genealogies of Christ given by Matthew and Luke. 

3. A letter to Origen, in which he endeavoured to prove that the story of Susanna in Daniel 
was a forgery. A translation of this letter has been given with the Works of Origen. 

The Acts of Symphorosa and her Seven Sons are attributed in the mss. to Africanus ; but no 
ancient writer speaks of him as the author of this work, 


— ~~ ee 











l Hist, Eccl., vi. 31. 2 Cad. 34. 


THE EXTANT WRITINGS OF JULIUS AFRICANUS. 


I.—THE EPISTLE TO ARISTIDES. 


I, 


[AFRICANUS ON THE GENEALOGY IN THE HoLy 
GosPELs." — Some indeed incorrectly allege that 
this discrepant enumeration and mixing of the 
names both of priestly men, as they think, and 
royal, was made properly,? in order that Christ 
might be shown rightfully to be both Priest and 
King ; as if any one disbelieved this, or had any 
other hope than this, that Christ is the High 
Priest of His Father, who presents our prayers 
to Him, and a supramundane King, who rules 
by the Spirit those whom He has delivered, a 
co-operator in the government of all things. 
And this is announced to us not by the cata- 
logue of the tribes, nor by the mixing of the 
registered generations, but by the patriarchs and 
prophets. Let us not therefore descend to such 
religious trifling as to establish the kingship and 
priesthood of Christ by the interchanges of the 
names. For the priestly tribe of Levi, too, was 
allied with the kingly tribe of Juda, through the 
circumstance that Aaron married Elizabeth the 
sister of Naasson,3 and that Eleazar again mar- 
ried the daughter of Phatiel,# and begat chil- 
dren. The evangelists, therefore, would thus 
have spoken falsely, affirming what was not truth, 
but a fictitious commendation. And for this 
reason the one traced the pedigree of Jacob the 
father of Joseph from David through Solomon ; 
the other traced that of Heli also, though in a 
different way, the father of Joseph, from Nathan 
the son of David. And they ought not indeed 
to have been ignorant that both orders of the 
ancestors enumerated are the generation of Da- 
vid, the royal tribe of Judas For if Nathan 
was a prophet, so also was Solomon, and so too 


1 This letter, as given by Eusebius, is acephalous. A large por- 
tion of it is supplied by Cardinal Angelo Mai in the Arb/rotheca nova 
Patrum, vol. iv. pp. 231 and 273. e enclose in brackets the parts 
wanting in Gallandi, who copied Eusebius (H7st. Ecc/., i. 7). On 
this celebrated letter of Africanus to Aristides, consult especially 
Eusebius (H7st. Eccl, i. 7); also Jerome, comm. on Matt, i. 16; 
Augustine, Retract., it. 7; Photius, cod. xxxiv. p. 22; and in addi- 
tion to these, Zacharias Chrysopol. in Brd/. P. P. Lugd., vol. xix. 
Pp. 751. 

2 Sixaiws, 

3 Ex, vi. 23. 

4 Ex. vi. 25. 

5 [Heb. vii. 14.] 





the father of both of them; and there were 
prophets belonging to many of the tribes, but 
priests belonging to none of the tribes, save the 
Levites only. To no purpose, then, is this fab- 
rication of theirs. Nor shall an assertion of 
this kind prevail in the Church of Christ against 
the exact truth, so as that a lie should be con- 
trived for the praise and glory of Christ. For 
who does not know that most holy word of the 
apostle also, who, when he was preaching and 
proclaiming the resurrection of our Saviour, and 
confidently affirming the truth, said with great 
fear, “If any say that Christ is not risen, and we 
assert and have believed this, and both hope for 
and preach that very thing, we are false witnesses 
of God, in alleging that He raised up Christ, 
whom He raised not up?”® And if he who 
glorifies God the Father is thus afraid lest he 
should seem a false witness in narrating a mar- 
vellous fact, how should not he be justly afraid, 
who tries to establish the truth by a false state- 
ment, preparing an untrue opinion? For if the 
generations are different, and trace down no 
genuine seed to Joseph, and if all has been 
stated only with the view of establishing the 
position of Him who was to be born—to con- 
firm the truth, namely, that He who was to be 
would be king and priest, there being at the 
same time no proof given, but the dignity of 
the words being brought down to a feeble hymn, 
—it is evident that no praise accrues to God 
from that, since it is a falsehood, but rather 
judgment returns on him who asserts it, because 
he vaunts an unreality as though it were reality. 
Therefore, that we may expose the ignorance 
also of him who speaks thus, and prevent any 
one from stumbling at this folly, I shall set forth 
the true history of these matters. ] 


Il. 


For? whereas in Israel the names of their gen- 
erations were enumerated either according to 
nature or according to law, — according to nature, 





§ x Cor. xv. 12, etc. / ; 
7 Here what is given in Eusebius begins. 


135 


126 


THE EXTANT WRITINGS OF JULIUS AFRICANUS. 





indeed, by the succession of legitimate offspring, 
and according to law whenever another raised 
up children to the name of a brother dying 
childless ; for because no clear hope of resur- 
rection was yet given them, they had a repre- 
sentation of the future promise in a kind of 
mortal resurrection, with the view of perpetu- 
ating the name of one deceased ; — whereas, 
then, of those entered in this genealogy, some 
succeeded by legitimate descent as son to father, 
while others begotten in one family were intro- 
duced to another in name, mention is therefore 
made of both — of those who were progenitors 
in fact, and of those who were so only in name. 
Thus neither of the evangelists is in error, as 
the one reckons by nature and the other by law. 
For the several generations, viz., those descend- 
ing from:Solomon and those from Nathan, were 
so intermingled‘ by the raising up of children 
to the childless,? and by second marriages, and 
the raising up of seed, that the same persons 
are quite justly reckoned to belong at one time 
to the one, and at another to the other, i.e., to 
their reputed or to their actual fathers. And 
hence it is that both these accounts are true, and 
come down to Joseph, with considerable in- 
tricacy indeed, but yet quite accurately. 


Ill. 


But in order that what I have said may be 
made evident, I shall explain the interchange 3 
of the generations. If we reckon the genera- 
tions from David through Solomon, Matthan is 
found to be the third from the end, who begat 
Jacob the father of Joseph. But if, with Luke, 
we reckon them from Nathan the son of David, 
in like manner the third from the end is Melchi, 
whose son was Heli the father of Joseph. For 
Joseph was the son of Heli, the son of Melchi.+ 
As Joseph, therefore, is the object proposed to us, 
we have to show how it is that each is represented 
as his father, both Jacob as descending from Solo- 
mon, and Heli as descending from Nathan: first, 
how these two, Jacob and Heli, were brothers ; 
and then also how the fathers of these, Matthan 
and Melchi, being of different families, are shown 
to be the grandfathers of Joseph. Well, then, 
Matthan and Melchi, having taken the same 
woman to wife in succession, begat children who 
were uterine brothers, as the law did not prevent a 
widow, whether such by divorce or by the death 


1 Reading ovvererAdxy. Migne would make it equivalent to 
*superimplexum est.” Rufinus renders it, “‘ Reconjunctum namque 
est sibi invicem genus, et illud per Salomonem et illud quod per 
Nathan deducitur,” etc. 

2 avaotageaty atéxvwy, Rufinus and Damascenus omit these 
words in their versions of the passage. 

3 The reading of the Codex Regius is xoAov@‘ay, i.e,, succession; 
the other leading Mss. give eraAAaynr,i.e., interchange or confusion, 

4 But in our text in Luke iii, 23, 24, and so, too, in the Vulgate, 
Matthat and Levi are inserted between Heli and Melchi. It may be 
that these two names were not found in the copy used by Africanus. 


$ Here Africanus applies the term “ widow” (yy evougar) to one | 


divorced as well as to one bereaved, 


of her husband, from marrying another. By 
Estha, then —for such is her name according 
to tradition — Matthan first, the descendant of 
Solomon, begets Jacob ; and on Matthan’s death, 
Melchi, who traces his descent back to Nathan, 
being of the same tribe but of another family, 
having married her, as has been already said, had 
ason Heli. Thus, then, we shall find Jacob and 
Heli uterine brothers, though of different fami- 
lies. And of these, the one Jacob having taken 
the wife of his brother Heli, who died childless, 
begat by her the third, Joseph — his son by na- 
ture and by account. Whence also it is written, 
“ And Jacob begat Joseph.” But according to 
law he was the son of Heli, for Jacob his brother 
raised up seed to him. Wherefore also the gen- 
ealogy deduced through him will not be made 
void, which the Evangelist Matthew in his enu- 
meration gives thus : “ And Jacob begat Joseph.” 
But Luke, on the other hand, says, “ Who was 
the son, as was supposed? (for this, too, he 
adds), of Joseph, the son of Heli, the son of 
Melchi.” For it was not possible more distinctly 
to state the generation according to law; and 
thus in this mode of generation he has entirely 
omitted the word “begat” to the very end, car- 
rying back the genealogy by way of conclusion 
to Adam and to God. 





Iv. 


Nor indeed is this incapable of proof, neither 
is it a rash conjecture. For the kinsmen of 
the Saviour after the flesh, whether to magnify 
their own origin or simply to state the fact, but 
at all events speaking truth, have also handed 
down the following account : Some Idumean rob- 
bers attacking Ascalon, a city of Palestine, be- 
sides other spoils which they took from a temple 
of Apollo, which was built near the walls, carried 
off captive one Antipater, son of a certain Herod, 
a servant of the temple, And as the priest? was 
not able to pay the ransom for his son, Antipater 
was brought up in the customs of the Idumeans, 
and afterwards enjoyed the friendship of Hyrca- 
nus, the high priest of Judea. And being sent on 
an embassy to Pompey on behalf of Hyrcanus, 
and having restored: to him the kingdom which 
was being wasted by Aristobulus his brother, he 
was so fortunate as to obtain the title of pro- 


6 rata Adyov. 

7 Two things may be remarked here: first, that Africanus refers 
the phrase ‘‘ as was supposed ” not only to the words ‘‘ son of Joseph,” 
but also to those that follow, “‘ the son of Heli; ”’ so that Christ would 
be the son of Joseph by legal adoption, just in the same way as 
Joseph was the son of Heli, which would lead to the absurd and im- 
pious conclusion that Christ was the son of Mary and a brother of 
Joseph married by her after the death of the latter. And second, that 
in the genealogy here assigned to Luke, Melchi holds the ¢Arra@ 
place; whence it would seem either that Africanus’s memory had 
failed him, or that as Bede conjectures in his copy of the Gos el 
Melchi stood in place of Matthat (Migne). [A probable pois 

8 Other mss. read, “‘ Adam the son of God.” 

9 The word “‘ priest” is used here perhaps improperly for ‘‘ sers 
vant of the imple,” Le., tepeus for tepooovaes, 





ae 


oe 


| THE EXTANT WRITINGS 


OF JULIUS AFRICANUS. 


107 





curator of Palestine! And when Antipater was 


treacherously slain through envy of his great good 
fortune, his son Herod succeeded him, who was 
afterwards appointed king of Judea under Antony 
and Augustus by a decree of the senate. His 
sons were Herod and the other tetrarchs. These 
accounts are given also in the histories of the 
Greeks.? 
v. 


But as up to that time the genealogies of 
the Hebrews had been registered in the public 
archives, and those, too, which were traced back 
to the proselytes 3— as, for example, to Achior 
the Ammanite, and Ruth the Moabitess, and 
those who left Egypt along with the Israelites, 
and intermarried with them — Herod, knowing 
that the lineage of the Israelites contributed 
nothing to him, and goaded by the consciousness 
of his ignoble birth, burned the registers of their 
families. This he did, thinking that he would 
appear to be of noble birth, if no one else could 
trace back his descent by the public register to 
the patriarchs or proselytes, and to that mixed 
race called geore.4 A few, however, of the stu- 
dious, having private records of their own, either 
by remembering the names or by getting at them 


1 So Josephus styles him “ procurator of Judea, and viceroy” 
(dmepednris THs “lovéaias, and énitporos). 

2 This whole story about Antipater is fictitious. Antipater’s 
father was not Herod, a servant in the temple of Apollo, but Antipa- 
ter an Idumean, as we learn from Josephus (xiv. 2). his Antipater 
was made prefect of Idumea by Alexander king of the Jews, and laid 
the foundation of the power to which his descendants rose. He ac- 

uired great wealth, and was on terms of friendship with Ascalon, 
aza, and the Arabians, 

3 Several mss. read apximporxnAvTwr for aype mpoonrvTwv, whence 
some conjecture that the correct reading should be axpt tav apxumpo- 
onAvTwr, i.e., back to the “chief proselytes,” — these being, as_ it 
were, patriarchs among the proselytes, ike Achior, and those who 
joined the Israelites on their fight from Egypt. 

4 This word occurs in the Septuagint version of Ex, xii. 19, and 
refers to the strangers who left Egypt along with the Israelites. For 
Israe] was accompanied by a mixed body, consisting on the one hand 
of native Egyptians, who are named avr6x@oves in that passage of 
Exodus, and by the resident aliens, who are called yewwpac, Justin 
Martyr has the form yydpav in Dialogue with Trypho, ch. cxxii. 
The root of the term is evidently the Hebrew 1\J, ‘‘ stranger.” 


II. — NARRATIVE OF EVENTS HAPPENING IN PERSIA 





in some other way from the archives, pride them- 
selves in preserving the memory of their noble 
descent ; and among these happen to be those 
already mentioned, called desposyni,S on account 
of their connection with the family of the Saviour. 
And these coming from Nazara and Cochaba, 
Judean villages, to other parts of the country, 
set forth the above-named genealogy® as ac- 
curately as possible from the Book of Days,’ 
Whether, then, the case stand thus or not, no 
one could discover a more obvious explanation, 
according to my own opinion and that of any 
sound judge. And let this suffice us for the 
matter, although it is not supported by testimony, 
because we have nothing more satisfactory or 
true to allege upon it. The Gospel, however, ‘in 
any case states the truth. 


VI. 


Matthan, descended from Solomon, begat 
Jacob. Matthan dying, Melchi, descended from 
Nathan, begat Heli by the same wife. There- 
fore Heli and Jacob are uterine brothers. Heli 
dying childless, Jacob raised up seed to him and 
begat Joseph, his own son by nature, but the 
son of Heli by law. Thus Joseph was the son 
of both.® 


5 The word Seomoavvot was employed to indicate the Lord’s 
relatives, as being His according to the flesh. The term means litez- 
ally, ‘‘ those who belong to a master,’’ and thence it was used also to 
signify ‘‘ one’s heirs.” 

& mpoecpynuévny, Nicephorus reads rpoxepevny, 

7 éx te THS BiBAov THY nuepwr. By this “* Book of Days” Afti- 
canus understands those “* day-books” which he has named, a little 
before this, (duwttxas amoypapas, For among the Jews, most per- 
sons setting a high value on their lineage were in the habit of keeping 
by them private records of their descent copied from the public ar- 
chives, as we see it done also by nobles among ourselves. Besides, 
by the insertion of the particle re, which is found in all our codices, 
and also in Nicephorus, it appears that something is wanting in this 
passage. Wherefore it seems necessary to supply these words, «ac 
ard pvyuns és oooy éétxvovvto, “and from memory,” etc. Thus at 
least Rufinus seems to have read the passage, for he renders it: Or- 
dinem supradicte generationis partim memoriter, partim etiam ex 
dierum libris, in quantum erat possibile, perdocebant (Migne). 

8 [Elucidation I.]} 


ON THE BIRTH OF 


CHRIST.' 


Tue best introduction to this production will be the following preface, as given in Migne : — 
Many men of learning thus far have been of opinion that the narrative by Africanus of events 
happening in Persia on Christ’s birth,? is a fragment of that famous work which Sextus Julius 
Africanus, a Christian author of the third century after Christ, composed on the history of the 
world in the chronological order of events up to the reign of Macrinus, and presented in five 
books to Alexander, son of Mammza, with the view of obtaining the restoration of his native 
town Emmaus. With the same expectation which I see incited Lambecius and his compendiator 
Nesselius, I, too, set myself with the greatest eagerness to go over the codices of our Electoral 
Library. . . . But, as the common proverb goes, I found coals instead of treasure. This. narra- 


tive, so far from its being to be ascribed to a writer well reputed by the common. voice of 





I Edited from two Munich codices by J. Chr. von. Aretin, in his Bestrage zur Geschichte und Literatur, anno 1804, p. ii. iP: 49: 
[I place this apocryphal fragment here as a mere appendix to the Genealogical Argument. An absurd appendix, indeed.] 
2 Which is extant in two Mss. in the Electoral Library of Munich, and in one belonging to the Imperial Library of Vienna. 


128 


Pipa titi eee 
+ 


THE EXTANT WRITINGS OF JULIUS AFRICANUS. 





antiquity, does not contain anything worthy of the genius of the chronographer Africanus. 
Wherefore, since by the unanimous testimony of the ancients he was a man of consummate 
learning and sharpest judgment, while the author of the Ces#, which also puts forward ‘the name 
of Africanus, has been long marked by critics with the character either of anile credulity, or of a 
marvellous propensity to superstitious fancies, I can readily fall in with the opinion of those who 
think that he is a different person from the chronographer, and would ascribe this wretched pro- 
duction also to him. But, dear reader, on perusing these pages, if your indignation is not stirred 
against the man’s rashness, you will at least join with me in laughing at his prodigious follies, and 
will learn, at the same time, that the testimonies of men most distinguished for learning are not 
to ke rated so highly as to supersede personal examination when opportunity permits. _ 


EVENTS IN PERSIA : 


ON THE INCARNATION OF OUR LORD AND GOD AND 
SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST. 


Christ first of all became known from Persia. 
For nothing escapes the learned jurists of that 
country, who investigate all things with the ut- 
most care. The facts,’ therefore, which are 
inscribed upon the golden plates,? and laid up 
in the royal temples, I shall record; for it is 
from the temples there, and the priests con- 
nected with them, that the name of Christ has 
been heard of. Now there is a temple there to 
Juno, surpassing even the royal palace, which 
temple Cyrus, that prince instructed in all piety, 
built, and in which he dedicated in honour of 
the gods golden and silver statues, and adorned 
them with precious stones, —that I may not 
waste words in a profuse description of that 
ornamentation. Now about that time (as the 
records on the plates testify), the king having 
entered the temple, with the view of getting an 
interpretation of certain dreams, was addressed 
by the priest Prupupius thus: I congratulate 
thee, master: Juno has conceived. And the 
king, smiling, said to him, Has she who is dead 
conceived? And he said, Yes, she who was 
dead has come to life again, and begets life. 
And the king said, What is this? explain it to 
me. And he replied, In truth, master, the time 
for these things is at hand. For during the 
whole night the images, both of gods and god- 
desses, continued beating. the ground, saying to 
each other, Come, let us congratulate Juno. 
And they say to me, Prophet, come forward ; 
congratulate Juno, for she has been embraced. 
And I said, How can she be embraced who no 
longer exists? To which they reply, She has 
come to life again, and is no longer called Juno,3 
but Urania. For the mighty Sol has embraced 
her. Then the goddesses say to the gods, mak- 





1 The mss. read yap, for. 

3 The term in the original (a4AxAapiats) is one altogether foreign 
to Greek, and seems to be of Arabic origin. The sense, however, is 
evident from the use of synonymous terms in the context. 

3 There is a play upon the words, perhaps, in the original. The 
Greek term for june (“Hpa) may be derived from épa, ter7a, so that 
the antithesis intended is, ‘She is no longer called Aarthly, but 
Heavenly.” 








ing the matter plainer, Pege + is she who is em- 
braced ; for did not Juno espouse an artificer? 
And the gods say, That she is rightly called 
fege,we admit. Her name, moreover, is A/yria; 
for she bears in her womb, as in the deep, a 
vessel of a myriad talents’ burden. And as to 
this title Pege, let it be understood thus: This 
stream of water sends forth the perennial stream 
of spirit, —a stream containing but a single 
fish,5 taken with the hook of Divinity, and sus- 
taining the whole world with its flesh as though 
it were in the sea. You have well said, She has 
an artificer [in espousal] ; but by that espousal 
she does not bear an artificer on an equality with 
herself. For this artificer who is born, the son 
of the chief artificer, framed by his excellent 
skill the roof of the third heavens, and. estab- 
lished by his word this lower world, with its 
threefold sphere © of habitation. 

Thus, then, the statues disputed with each 
other concerning Juno and Pege, and [at length] 
with one voice they said: When the day is fin- 
ished, we all, gods and goddesses, shall know 
the matter clearly. Now, therefore, master, tarry 
for the rest of the day. For the matter shall 
certainly come to pass. For that which emerges 
is no common affair, 

And when the king abode there and watched 
the statues, the harpers of their own accord be- 
gan to strike their harps, and the muses to sing ; 
and whatsoever creatures were within, whether 
quadruped or fowl, in silver and gold, uttered 
their several voices, And as the king shuddered, 
and was filled with great fear,,he was about to 
retire. For he could not endure the sponta- 
neous tumult. The priest therefore said to him, 
Remain, O king, for the full revelation is at hand 
which the God of gods has chosen to declare 
to us. 

And when these things were said, the roof 
was opened, and a bright star descended and 


4 i.e., Fountain, Spring, or Stream. 
5 The initial letters of the Greek “Incots Xpiotds Cod Yids 
Zwryp, i.e., “‘ Jesus Christ the Son of God the Saviour,” when joined 
together, make the word (,@us, i.e., fish; and the fathers used the 
word, therefore, as a mystic symbol of Christ, who could live in the 
depth of our mortality as in the abyss of the sea. ii 


Vol. ii. p. 297. 
6 i.e., as sea, land, and sky. : ! 


AH 





stood above the pillar of Pege, and a voice was 
heard to this effect: Sovereign Pege, the mighty 
Son has sent me to make the announcement to 
you, and at the same time to do you service in 
parturition, designing blameless nuptials with 
you, O mother of the chief of all ranks of being, 
bride of the triune Deity. And the child begot- 
ten by extraordinary generation is called the 
Beginning and the And, — the beginning of sal- 
vation, and the end of perdition. 

And when this word was spoken, all the statues 
fell upon their faces, that of Pege alone standing, 
on which also a royal diadem was found placed, 
having on its upper side a star set in a carbuncle 
and an emerald. And on its lower side the star 
rested. 

And the king forthwith gave orders to bring 
in all the interpreters of prodigies, and the sages 
who were under his dominion., And when all 
the heralds sped with their proclamations, all 
these assembled in the temple. And when they 
saw the star above Pege, and the diadem with 
the star and the stone, and the statues lying on 
the floor, they said: O king, a root (offspring) 
divine and princely has risen, bearing the image 
of the King of heaven and earth. For Pege- 
Myria is the daughter of the Bethlehemite Pege. 
And the diadem is the mark’ of a king, and the 
star is a celestial announcement of portents to 
fall on the earth. Out of Judah has arisen a 
kingdom which shall subvert all the memorials 
of the Jews. And the prostration of the gods 
upon the floor prefigured the end of their hon- 
our. For he who comes, being of more ancient 
dignity, shall displace all the recent. 
fore, O king, send to Jerusalem. For you will 
find the Christ of th : Omnipotent God borne in 
bodily form in the wodily arms of a woman. 
And the star remaired above the statue of Pege, 
called the Celestial, until the wise men came 
forth, and then it went with them. 

And then, in the depth of evening, Dionysus 
appeared in the temple, unaccompanied by the 
Satyrs, and said to the images: Pege is not 
one of us, but stands far above us, in that 
she gives birth to a man whose conception is in 
divine fashion." O priest Prupupius ! what dost 
thou tarrying here? An action, indicated in 
writings of old,? has come upon us, and we shall 
be convicted as false by a person of power and 
energy.3 Wherein we have been deceivers, we 
have been deceivers ; and wherein we have ruled, 
we have ruled. No longer give we oracular re- 
sponses. .Gone from us is our honour. With- 
out glory and reward are we become. There is 
One, and. One only, who receives again at the 
hands of all His proper honour. For the rest, 





1 Beias TYXNS TVAAnLBA, 
® éyypapos. 
3 dumpaxtov, 


E EXTANT WRITINGS OF JULIUS AFRICANUS. 


Now there- | 








129 





be not disturbed.4 No longer shall the Persians 
exact tribute of earth and sky. For He who es- 
tablished these things is at hand, to bring practi- 
cal tribute5 to Him who sent Him, to renew the 
ancient image, and to put image with image, and 
bring the dissimilar to similarity. Heaven re- 
joices with earth, and earth itself exults at receiv- 
ing matter of exultation from heaven. Things 
which have not happened above, have happened 
on earth beneath. He whom the order of the 
blessed has not seen, is seen by the order of the 
miserable. Flame threatens those ; dew attends 
these. To Myria is given the blessed lot of 
bearing Pege in Bethlehem, and of conceiving 
grace of grace. Judzea has seen its bloom, and 
this country is fading. To Gentiles and aliens, 
salvation is come; to the wretched, relief is min- 
istered abundantly. With right do women dance, 
and say, Lady Pege, Spring-bearer, thou mother 
of the heavenly constellation. Thou cloud that 
bringest us dew after heat, remember thy de- 
pendants, O mistress. 

The king then, without delay, sent some of 
the Magi under his dominion with gifts, the star 
showing them the way. And when they returned, 
they narrated to the men of that time those 
same things which were also written on the plates ~ 
of gold, and which were to the following effect :— 

When we came to Jerusalem, the sign, together 
with our arrival, roused all the people. How is 
this, say they, that wise men of the Persians are 
here, and that along with them there is this 
strange stellar phenomenon? And the chief of 
the Jews interrogated us in this way: What is 
this that attends you,® and with what purpose 
are you here? And we said: He whom ye call 
Messias is born. And they were confounded, 
and dared not withstand us. But they said to us, 
By the justice of Heaven, tell us what ye know 
of this matter. And we made answer to them: 
Ye labour under unbelief; and neither without 
an oath nor with an oath do ye believe us, but 
ye follow your own heedless counsel. For the 
Christ, the Son of the Most High, is born, and 
He is the subverter of your law and synagogues. 
And therefore is it that, struck with this most 
excellent response as with a dart,” ye hear in 
bitterness this name which has come upon you 
suddenly. And they then, taking counsel to- 
gether, urged us to accept their gifts, and tell 
to none that such an event had taken place in 
that land of theirs, lest, as they say, @ revolt rise 
against us. But we replied: We have brought 
gifts in His honour, with the view of proclaiming 
those mighty things which we know to have hap- 
pened in our country on occasion of His birth ; 
and do ye bid us take your bribes, and conceal 








4 The text gives 6poBaédet, for which Migne proposes Oopvf76e. 
* S mpaxtixous Popovs, 
Tl TO émOpevov, perhaps meant for, What business brings you? 
7 bmép martelas apiotys WaTEp KaTaToOgevomeEvo., , 


130 


THE EXTANT WRITINGS OF JULIUS AFRICANUS. 





the things which have been communicated to us 
by the Divinity who is above the heavens, and 
neglect the commandments of our proper King? 
And after urging many considerations on us, 
they gave the matter up. And when the king 
of Judzea sent for us and had some converse with 
us, and put to us certain questions as to the 
statements we made to him, we acted in the 
same manner, until he was thoroughly enraged 
at our replies. We left him accordingly, with- 
out giving any greater heed to him than to any 
common person. 

And we came to that place then to which we 
were sent, and saw the mother and the child, 
the star indicating to us the royal babe. And 
we said to the mother: What art thou named, O 
renowned mother? And she says: Mary, mas- 
ters. And we said to her: Whence art thou 
sprung?! And she replies: From this district 
of the Bethlehemites.2 Then said we: Hast 
thou not had a husband? And she answers: I 
was only betrothed with a view to the marriage 
covenant, my thoughts being far removed from 
this. For I had no mind to come to this. And 
while I was giving very little concern to it, when 
a certain Sabbath dawned, and straightway at 
the rising of the sun, an angel appeared to me 
bringing me suddenly the glad tidings of a son. 
And in trouble I cried out, Be it not so to me, 
Lord, for I have not a husband. And he per- 
suaded me to believe, that by the will of God I 
should have this son. 

Then said we to her: Mother, mother, all 
the gods of the Persians have called thee blessed. 
Thy glory is great; for thou art exalted above 
all women of renown, and thou art shown to be 
more queenly than all queens. 

The child, moreover, was seated on the ground, 
being, as she said, in His second year, and hav- 
ing in part the likeness of His mother. And she 
had long hands,3 and a body somewhat delicate ; 
and her colour was like that of ripe wheat ;4 and 
she was of a round face, and had her hair bound 





1 oppwpery. 

2 BnOAcwrwr, 

3 papas Tas xelpas according to Migne, instead of the reading 
of the manuscript, waxpiy Thy Knpav éxovaa, 

4 avTOxXpoos, 





up. And as we had along with us a servant 
skilled in painting from the life, we brought with 
us to our country a likeness of them both; and 
it was placed by our hand in the sacred 5 temple, 
with this inscription on it: To Jove the Sun, the 
mighty God, the King of Jesus, the power of 
Persia dedicated this. 

And taking the child up, each of us in turn, 
and bearing Him in our arms, we saluted Him 
and worshipped Him, and presented to Him 
gold, and myrrh, and frankincense, addressing 
Him thus: We gift Thee with Thine own, O 
Jesus, Ruler of heaven. Ill would things un- 
ordered be ordered, wert Thou not at hand. In 
no other way could things heavenly be brought 
into conjunction with things earthly, but by Thy 
descent. Such service cannot be discharged, if 
only the servant is sent us, as when the Master 
Himself is present; neither can so much be 
achieved when the king sends only his satraps 
to war, as when the king is there himself. It 
became the wisdom of Thy system, that Thou 
shouldst deal in this manner with men.® 

And the child leaped and laughed at our ca- 
resses and words. And when we had bidden the 
mother farewell,7 and when she had shown us 
honour, and we had testified to her the reverence 
which became us, we came again to the place in 
which we lodged. And at eventide there ap- 
peared to us one of a terrible and fearful coun- 
tenance, saying: Get ye out quickly, lest ye be 
taken in a snare. And we in terror said; And 
who is he, O divine leader, that plotteth against so 
august an embassage? And he replied: Herod ; 
but get you up straightway and depart in safety 
and peace. 

And we made speed to depart thence in all 
earnestness ; and we reported in Jerusalem all 
that we had seen. Behold, then, the great things 
that we have told you regarding Christ ; and we 
saw Christ our Saviour, who was made known 
as both God and man. To Him be the glory and 
the power unto the ages of the ages. Amen. 





5 Scomeret, 

6 The manuscripts give avtaptas, for which Migne proposes 
avOpHmovs or avtepyatas. [Unworthy, wholly so, of our author, 
This curious specimen of the rowzances of antiquity might better have 
found its place with other Protevangelza in vol. viii., this series. 

7 auvtagdpmevor, 


Ill.—- THE EXTANT FRAGMENTS OF THE FIVE BOOKS OF THE CHRONOG- 
RAPHY OF JULIUS AFRICANUS. 


ie: 
On the Mythical Chronology of the Egyptians and Chaldeans. 


The Egyptians, indeed, with their boastful 
notions of their own antiquity, have put forth a 
sort of account of it by the hand of their astrolo- 
gers in cycles and myriads of years ; which some 
of those who have had the repute of studying 





1 In Georgius Syncellus, Chron., p. 17, ed. Paris, 14 Wenet. 





such subjects profoundly have in a summary 
way called lunar years; and inclining no less 
than others to the mythical, they chink they fall 
in with the eight or nine thousands of years 
which the Egyptian priests in Plato falsely 
reckon up to Solon.? 





2 The text is: . . . ouumimrover Tats OxTwm Kai evvéa xtALcaow 
étwv, &s Atyumtiwv o. mapa TlAatwve tepets eis ZoAwva Karapid- 
MOUPTES OVK adnbevovas, 


THE EXTANT WRITINGS OF JULIUS AFRICANUS. 


131 





(And after some other matter :) 


For why should I speak of the three myriad 
years of the Phcenicians, or of the follies of the 
Chaldeans, their forty-eight myriads? For the 
Jews, deriving their origin from them as descend- 
ants of Abraham, having been taught a modest 


mind, and one such as becomes men, together 


with the truth by the spirit of Moses, have 
handed down to us, by their extant Hebrew his- 
tories, the number of 5500 years as the period 
up to the advent of the Word of salvation, that 
was announced to the world in the time of the 
sway of the Cesars. 


II.” 


When men multiplied on the earth, the angels 
of heaven came together with the daughters of 
men. In some copies I found “the sons of 
God.” What is meant by the Spirit, in my opin- 
ion, is that the descendants of Seth are called 
the sons of God on account of the righteous 
men and patriarchs who have sprung from him, 
even down to the Saviour Himself; but that the 
descendants of Cain are named the seed of men, 
as having nothing divine in them, on account of 
the wickedness of their race and the inequality 
of their nature, being a mixed people, and hay- 
ing stirred the indignation of God.? But if it is 
thought that these refer to angels, we must take 
them to be those who deal with magic and jug- 
glery, who taught the women the motions of the 
stars and the knowledge of things celestial, by 
whose power they conceived the giants as their 
children, by whom wickedness came to its height 
on the earth, until God decreed that the whole 
race of the living should perish in their impiety 
by the deluge. 


1.3 


Adam, when 230 years old, begets Seth ; and 
after living other 700 years he died, that is, a 
second death. 

Seth, when 205 years old, begat Enos; from 
Adam therefore to the birth of Enos there are 
435 years in all. 

Enos, when 190 years old, begets Cainan. 

Cainan again, when 170 years old, begets 
Malaleel ; 

And Malaleel, when 165 years old; begets 
Jared ; 

And Jared, when 162 years old, begets Enoch ; 

And Enoch, when 165 years old, begets Ma- 
thusala ; and having pleased God, after a life of 
other 200 years, he was not found. 

Mathusala, when 187 years old, begat Lamech. 

Lamech, when 188 years old, begets Noe. 


» ¥ In Georgius Syncellus, Ckvon., p. 19, al. 15. eed 
2 The text here is manifestly corrupt: émemexOevtTwv avtov, THY 
ayavaxtynow mojocagda Tov Weor, 


4 In Georgius Syncellus, Chrvox., p. 81, al. 65. 











Iv.4 
On the Deluge. 


God decreed to destroy the whole race of the 
living by a flood, having threatened that men 
should not survive beyond 120 years. Nor let it 
be deemed a matter of difficulty, because some 
lived afterwards a longer period than that. For 
the space of time meant was 100 years up to the 
flood in the case of the sinners of that time; 
for they were 20 years old. God instructed Noe, 
who pleased him on account of his righteous- 
ness, to prepare an ark ; and when it was finished, 
there entered it Noe himself and his sons, his 
wife and his daughters-in-law, and firstlings of 
every living creature, with a view to the duration 
of the race. And Noe was 600 years old when 
the flood came on. And when the water abated, 
the ark settled on the mountains of Ararat, which 
we know to be in Parthia ;5 but some say that 
they are at Celene ° of Phrygia, and I have seen 
both places. And the flood prevailed for a year, 
and then the earth became dry. And they came 
out of the ark in pairs, as may be found, and 
not in the manner in which they had entered, 
viz., distinguished according to their species, and 
were blessed by God. And each of these things 
indicates something useful to us. 


v.7 


Noe was 600 years old when the flood came 
on. From Adam, therefore, to Noe and the 
flood, are 2262 years. 

v1.8 


And after the flood, Sem begat Arphaxad. 

Arphaxad, when 135 years old, begets Sala in 
the year 2397. 

Sala, when 130 years old, begets Heber in the 
year 2527. 

- Heber, when 134 years old, begets Phalec in 
the year 2661, so called because the earth was 
divided in his days. 

Phalec, when 130 years old, begat Ragan, and 
after living other 209 years died. 


vil.9 
In the year of the world 3277, Abraham en- 
tered the promised land of Canaan. 
vit.*° 
Of Abraham. 


From this rises the appellation of the Hebrews. 
For the word Heérews is interpreted to mean 








4 In Georgius Syncellus, Chron., p. 21, al. 17. 

S That is, in Armenia. 

6 For there was a hill Ararat in Phrygia, from which the mee 
issued, and the ark was declared to have rested there by the Sibylline 
oracles. [But see vol. v. p. 149.] 

7 In Georgius Syncellus, Chvox., p. 83, al. 67. 

8 In the same, p. 86, al. 68. 

9 In the same, p. 93, al. 74. [Compare vol. v. p. 148.] 

10 In the same, p. 99, al. 79. [VY is the verb. ] 


132 


THE EXTANT WRITINGS 





OF JULIUS AFRICANUS, 





those who migrate across, viz., who crossed the 
Euphrates with Abraham ; and it is not derived, 
as some think, from the fore-mentioned Heber. 
From the flood and Noe, therefore, to Abraham’s 
entrance into the promised land, there are in all 
1015 years; and from Adam, in 20 generations, 
3277 years. 
: IX." 
Of Abraham and Lot. 


When a famine pressed the land of Canaan, 
Abraham came down to Egypt ; and fearing lest 
he should be put out of the way on account of 
the beauty of his wife, he pretended that he was 
her brother. But Pharaoh took her to himself 
when she was commended to him; for this is 
the name the Egyptians give their kings. And 
he was punished by God; and Abraham, along 
with all pertaining to him, was dismissed en- 
tiched. In Canaan, Abraham’s shepherds and 
Lot’s contended with each other; and with 
mutual consent they separated, Lot choosing 
to dwell in Sodom on account of the fertility 
and beauty of the land, which had five cities, 
Sodom, Gomorrah, Adama, Seboim, Segor, and 
as many kings. On these their neighbours the 
four Syrian kings made war, whose leader was 
Chodollogome. xing o: At‘lam. And they met 
by the Salt Sea, which is now called the Dead 
Sea. In it J nave seen very many wonderful 
things. For tnat water sustains ne living thing, 
and dead bodies are carried beneath its depths, | 
while the living do not readily even dip under 
it. Lighted torches are borne upon it, but when 
extinguished they sink. And there are the springs 
of bitumen; and it yields alum and salt a little 
different from the common kinds, for they are 
pungent and transparent. And wherever fruit is 
found about it, it is found full of a thick, foul 
smoke. And the water acts as a cure to those 
who use it, and it is drained in a manner con- 
trary to any other water.? And if it had not the 
river Jordan feeding it like a shell,3 and to a great 
extent withstanding its tendency, it would have 
failed more rapidly than appears. There is also 
by it a great quantity of the balsam plant; but 
it is supposed to have been destroyed by God 
on account of the impiety of the neighbouring 
people. 





x.4 
Of the Patriarch Jacob, 
1. The shepherd’s tent belonging to Jacob, 
which was preserved at Edessa to the time of 


Antonine Emperor of the Romans, was destroyed 
by a thunderbolt.5 





1 In Georgius Syncellus, Chron., p. 100, al. 80, 

2 Anyet Te wavTi VdaTe TagXwy TaévarTia, 

3 ws mropdvpar. 

4 In Georgius Syncellus, Chro#., p. 107, al. 86. 

S$ Heliogabalus is probably intended, in whose time Africanus 
flourished. At least so thinks Syncellus. 


2. Jacob, being displeased at what had been 
done by Symeon and Levi at Shecem against the 
people of the country, on account of the viola- 
tion of their sister, buried at Shecem the gods 
which he had with him near a rock under the 
wonderful terebinth,° which up to this day is 
reverenced by the neighbouring people in honour 
of the patriarchs, and removed thence to Bethel. 
By the trunk of this terebinth there was an altar 
on which the inhabitants of the country offered 
ectene? ip their general assemblies ; and though 
it seemed to be burned, it was not consumed, 
Near it is the tomb of Abraham and Isaac. And 
some say that the staff of one of the angels who 
were entertained by Abraham was planted there. 


x1.8 


From Adam, therefore, to the death of Joseph, 
according to this book, are 23 generations, and © 


3563 years. 
XIL.9 


From this record,'° therefore, we affirm that 
Ogygus,'' from whom the first flood (in Attica) 
derived its name,'? and who was saved when 
many perished, lived at the time of the exodus 
of the people from Egypt along with Moses.'3 
(After a break); And after Ogygus, on account 
of the vast destruction caused by the flood, 
the present land of Attica remained without a 
king til! the time of Cecrops, 18g years."¢ Phi- 
lochoru.;, however, affirms that Ogygus, Actzeus, 
or whatever other fictitious name is adduced, 
never existed. (After another break): From 
Ogygus to Cyrus, as from Moses to his time, are 
1235 years. 

XHI.75 


1. Up to the time of the Olympiads there is 
no certain history among the Greeks, all things 
before that date being confused, and in no way 
consistent with each other. But these Olympiads 


6 On this terebinth, see Scaliger (ad Greca Euseb., p. 414); 
Franciscus Quaresimus, in Elucid. terre sancta ; Eugenius Ro- 
gerius, etc.; and also Valesius, ad Exused. De Vit. Constant., iii. 53, 
notes 3 and 5. 

7 Scaliger acknowledges himself ignorant of this word éxrevas. 
In the Eastern Church it is used to denote protracted prayers ( preces 
protensiores) offered by the deacon on behalf of all classes of men, 
and the various necessities of human life. See Suicer, sud voce. 
Allatius thinks the text corrupt, and would read, 颰 ov ta Te oAoKav- 
TwMaTa Kal Tas exarouBas avepepov = on which they offered both 
holocausts and hecatombs. [Littledale, Zastern Offices, p. 253.] 

8 In Georgius Syncellus, Chvon., p. 106, al. 85. 

9 In the same, p. 148, al. 118, from the Third Book of the Chron. 
of Africanus. 

10 guyvTayparos, 

1! Others write Ogyges. Josephus (1 Apionem), Euseb. (de 
Prepar.). Tatian [vol. ii, p. 81], Clemens [not so, vol ii. p. 324] 
and others, write Ogygus. 

12 The text is, 05 Tod mpwrod KataxAvopov yeyovey émuvupos. 
The word éravujos is susceptible of two meanings, either “ taking 
the name from” or ‘‘ giving the name to.” ’Qyvy.a xaxe was a pro- 
verbial expression for primeval ills. 

13 The text is here, kata thy Altyumtov Tov Aaod peta Muvoews 
foo yevéa@at, for which we may read cata thy ef Atyvwrou, etc. 


14 “Qyvyov ‘Axratoy } Ta TAagaopeva TwY Ovouatwy. Compare 
xiii. 6, where we have rov yap peta “Oyvyov ‘Axracoy, etc. 
15 From Georgius Syncellus, Chron., Third Book. In Euseb, 


Prepar., x. 40. [Compare vol. ii. pp. 324-334-] 





' THE EXTANT WRITINGS 


were thoroughly investigated’ by many, as the 
Greeks made up the records of their history not 
according to long spaces, but in periods of four 
years. For which reason I shall select the most 
remarkable of the mythical narratives before the 
time of the first Olympiad, and rapidly run over 
them. But those after that period, at least those 
that are notable, I shall take together, Hebrew 
events in connection with Greek, according to 
their dates, examining carefully the affairs of the 
Hebrews, and touching more cursorily on those 
of the Greeks ; and my plan will be as follows: 


_ Taking up some single event in Hebrew history 


synchronous with another in Greek history, and 
keeping by it as the main subject, subtracting or 
adding as may seem needful in the narrative, I 
shall note what Greek or Persian of note, or re- 
markable personage of any other nationality, 
flourished at the date of that event in Hebrew 
history ; and thus I may perhaps attain the ob- 
ject which I propose to myself. 

2. The most famous exile that befell the He- 
brews, then — to wit, when they were led captive 
by Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon — lasted 
70 years, as Jeremias had prophesied. Berosus 
the Babylonian, moreover, makes mention of 
Nabuchodonosor. And after the 70 years of 
captivity, Cyrus became king of the Persians at 
the time of the 55th Olympiad, as may be ascer- 
tained from the Bidéiothece of Diodorus and the 
histories of Thallus and Castor, and also from 
Polybius and Phlegon, and others besides these, 
who have made the Olympiads a subject of study. 
For the date is a matter of agreement among 
them all. Asd Cyrus then, in the first year of 


_ his reign, which was the first year of the 55th 


Olympiad, effected the first partial restoration 
of the people by the hand of Zorobabel, with 
whom also was Jesus the son of Josedec, since the 
period of 70 years was now fulfilled, as is nar- 
rated in Esdra the Hebrew historian. The nar- 


‘ratives of the beginning of the sovereignty of 


Cyrus and the end of the captivity accordingly 
coincide. And thus, according to the reckoning 
of the Olympiads, there will be found a like 
harmony of events even to our time. And by 
following this, we shall also make the other 
narratives fit in with each other in the same 
manner. 

3. But if the Attic time-reckoning is taken as 
the standard for affairs prior to these, then from 
Ogygus, who was believed by them to be an au- 
tochthon, in whose time also the first great flood 
took place in Attica, while Phoroneus reigned 
over the Argives, as Acusilaus relates, up to the 
date of the first Olympiad, from which period the 
Greeks thought they could fix dates accurately, 
there are altogether 1020 years ; which number 





© aepiBavro. 











OF JULIUS AFRICANUS. 


133 





both coincides with the above-mentioned, and 
will be established by what follows. For these 
things are also recorded by the Athenian? his- 
torians Hellanicus and Philochorus, who record 
Attic affairs; and by Castor and Thallus, who 
record Syrian affairs; and by Diodorus, who 
writes a universal history in his Bibtothece ; 
and by Alexander Polyhistor, and by some of 
our own time, yet more carefully, and; by all 
the Attic writers. Whatever narrative of note, 
therefore, meets us in these 1020 years, shall be 
given in its proper place. 

4. In accordance with this writing, therefore, 
we affirm that Ogygus, who gave his name to the 
first flood, and was saved when many perished, 
lived at the time of the exodus of the people 
from Egypt along with Moses. And this we 
make out in the following manner. From Ogy- 
gus up to the first Olympiad already mentioned, 
it will be shown that there are 1020 years; and 
from the first Olympiad to the first year of the 
55th, that is the first year of King Cyrus, which 
was also the end of the captivity, are 217 years. 
From Ogygus, therefore, to Cyrus are 1237. And 
if one carries the calculation backwards from 
the end of the captivity, there are 1237 years. 
Thus, by analysis, the same period is found to the 
first year of the exodus of Israel under Moses 
from Egypt, as from the 55th Olympiad to 
Ogygus, who founded Eleusis. And from this 
point we get a more notable beginning for Attic 
chronography. 

5. So much, then, for the period prior to 
Ogygus. And at his time Moses left Egypt. 
And we demonstrate in the following manner 
how reliable is the statement that this happened 
at that date. From the exodus of Moses up to 
Cyrus, who reigned after the captivity, are 1237 
years. For the remaining years of Moses are 40. 
The years of Jesus, who led the people after 
him, are 25; those of the elders, who were 
judges after Jesus, are 30; those of the judges, 
whose history is given in the book of Judges, 
are 490; those of the priests Eli and Samuel 
are 90; those of the successive kings of the He- 
brews are 490. Zhen come the 70 years of the 
captivity,s the last year of which was the first 
year of the reign of Cyrus, as we have already 
said. 

6. And from Moses, then, to the first Olym- 
piad there are 1020 years, as to the first year of 
the 55th Olympiad from the same are 1237, in 
which enumeration the reckoning of the Greeks 
coincides with us. And after Ogygus, by reason 


2 There is a difficulty in the text; Viger omits “‘ Athenian.” 

3 The Latin translator expunges the ‘‘and” (xai), and makes it 
= more careful thax all the Attic writers. 

4 The original here, as in the same passage above, is corrupt. It 
gives kata thy Aiyumtoy, which Migne would either omit entirely or 
replace by am’ Aiydmrrov, 

_ 5 These words are inserted according to Viger’s proposal, as there 
is a manifest omission in the text. oe 


134 THE EXTANT WRITINGS 


of the vast destruction caused by the flood, the 
present land of Attica remained without a king 
up to Cecrops, a period of 189 years. For 
Philochorus asserts that the Actzeus who is said 
to have succeeded Ogygus, or whatever other fic- 
titious names are adduced, never existed. And 
again: From Ogygus, therefore, to Cyrus, says 
he, the same period is reckoned as from Moses 
to the same date, viz., 1237 years; and some of 
the Greeks also record that Moses lived at that 
same time. Polemo, for instance, in the first 
book of his Greek History, says: In the time 
of Apis, son of Phoroneus, a division of the 
army of the Egyptians left Egypt, and settled in 
the Palestine called Syrian, not far from Arabia : 

these are evidently those who were with Moses, 
And Apion the son of Poseidonius, the most labo- 
rious of grammarians, in his book Against the 
ews, and in the fourth book of his //story, 
says that in the time of Inachus king of Argos, 
when Amosis reigned over Egypt, the Jews re- 
volted under the leadership of Moses. And 
Herodotus also makes mention of this revolt, 
and of Amosis, in his second book, and in a 
certain way also of the Jews themselves, reck- 
oning them among the circumcised, and calling 
them the Assyrians of Palestine, perhaps through 
Abraham. And Ptolemy the Mendesian, who 
narrates the history of the Egyptians from the 
earliest times, gives the same account of all these 
things ; so that among them in general there is 
no difference worth notice in the chronology. 

7. It should be observed, further, that all the 
legendary accounts which are deemed specially 
remarkable by the Greeks by reason of their 
antiquity, are found to belong to a period pos- 
terior to Moses ; such as their floods and confla- 
grations, Prometheus, Io, Europa, the Sparti, the 
abduction of Proserpine, their mysteries, their 
legislations, the deeds of Dionysus, Perseus, the 
Argonauts, the Centaurs, the Minotaur, the affairs 
of Troy, the labours of Hercules, the return of 
the Heraclide, the Ionian migration and the 
Olympiads. And it seemed good to me to give 
an account especially of the before-noted period 
of the Attic sovereignty, as I intend to narrate 
the history of the Greeks side by side with that 
of the Hebrews. For any one will be able, if 
he only start from my position, to make out the 
reckoning equally well with me. Now, in the 
first year of that period of 1020 years, stretching 
from Moses and Ogygus to the first Olympiad, 
the passover and the exodus of the Hebrews from 
Egypt took place, and also in Attica the flood of 
Ogygus. And that is according to reason. For 
when the Egyptians were being smitten in the 
anger of God with hail and storms, it was only 





to be expected that certain parts of the earth |“ 


should suffer with them ; and, in especial, it was 
but to be expected that the Athenians should 











OF JULIUS AFRICANUS. 
participate in such calamity with the Egyptians, 
since they were supposed to be a colony from 
them, as Theopompus alleges in his 77icarenus, 
and others besides him. The intervening period 
has been passed by, as no remarkable event is 
recorded during it among the Greeks. But after 
94 years Prometheus arose, according to some, 
who was fabulously reported to have formed 
men ; for being a wise man, he transformed them 
from the state of extreme rudeness to culture. 





XIv.' 


Zéschylus, the son of Agamestor, ruled the 
Athenians twenty-three years, in whose time 
Joatham reigned in Jerusalem. 

And our canon brings Joatham king of Te 
within the first Olympiad. 


XV.? 


And Africanus, in the third book of his His- 
tory, writes: Now the first Olympiad recorded 
— which, however, was really the fourteenth — 
was the period when Corcebus was victor ;3 at 
that time Ahaz was in the first year of his reign 
in Jerusalem. Zhen in the fourth book he says 
It is therefore with the first year of the reign of 
Ahaz that we have shown the first Olympiad to 
fall in. 

XVI.4 


On the Seventy Weeks of Daniel. 


1. This passage, therefore, as it stands thus, 
touches on many marvellous things. At present, 
however, I shall speak only of those things in it 
which bear upon chronology, and matters con- 
nected therewith. That the passage speaks then 
of the advent of Christ, who was to manifest 
Himself after seventy weeks, is evident. For in 
the Saviour’s time, or from Him, are transgres- 
sions abrogated, and sins brought to an end. 
And through remission, moreover, are iniquities, 
along with offences, blotted out by expiation ; — 
and an everlasting righteousness is preached, 
different from that which is by the law, and vis- 
ions and prophecies (are) until John, and the 
Most Holy is anointed. For before the advent of 
the Saviour these things were not yet, and were 
therefore only looked for. And the beginning 
of the numbers, that is, of the seventy weeks 
which make up 490 years, the angel instructs us 
to take from the going forth of the command- 
ment to answer and to build Jerusalem. And 





1 From Georgius Syncellus, Third Book. In the Chron. Pas: 
chal., p. 104, ed. Paris, 84 Venet. 

2 From the same, Book III., and from Book IV. 
p. 197, al. 158. 

3 The text is, avaypadjvar 58 mpdtnv thy Tecoapecnaidenatny 


In Syncellug 


4 From Book y._ In Eusebius, Demonst. Evang., Book VIII 
ch. ii. p. 389, etc. The Latin version of this section is by Bernar. 
dinus Dosa of Verona. There is also a version by Jerome givep 
in his commentary on Dan ix, 24. 


THE EXTANT WRITINGS OF JULIUS AFRICANUS. 


135 





this happened in the twentieth year of the reign 
of Artaxerxes king of Persia. For Nehemiah his 
cup-bearer besought him, and received the an- 
swer that Jerusalem should be built. And the 
word went forth commanding these things ; for 
up to that time the city was desolate. For when 
Cyrus, after the seventy years’ captivity, gave free 
permission to all to return who desired it, some 
of them under the leadership of Jesus the high 
priest and Zorobabel, and others after these 
under the leadership of Esdra, returned, but 
were prevented at first from building the temple, 
and from surrounding the city with a wall, on 
the plea that that had not been commanded. 

2. It remained in this position, accordingly, 
until Nehemiah and the reign of Artaxerxes, 
and the 115th year of the sovereignty of the 
Persians. And from the capture of Jerusalem 
that makes 185 years. And at that time King 
Artaxerxes gave order that the city should be 
built ; and Nehemiah being despatched, super- 
intended the work, and the street and the sur- 
rounding wall were built, as had been prophesied. 
And reckoning from that point, we make up 
seventy weeks to the time of Christ. For if 
we begin to reckon from any other point, and 
not from this, the periods will not correspond, 
and very many odd results will meet us. For if 
we begin the calculation of the seventy weeks 
from Cyrus and the first restoration, there will 
be upwards of one hundred years too many, 
and there will be a larger number if we begin 
from the day on which the angel gave the 
prophecy to Daniel, and a much larger number 
still if we begin from the commencement of 
the captivity. For we find the sovereignty of the 
Persians comprising a period of 230 years, and 
that of the Macedonians extending over 370 
years, and from that to the 16th! year of Tibe- 
rius Ceesar is a period of about 60 years. 

3. It is by calculating from Artaxerxes, there- 
fore, up to the time of Christ that the seventy 
weeks are made up, according to the numera- 
tion of the Jews. For from Nehemiah, who was 
despatched by Artaxerxes to build Jerusalem in 
the r1s5th year of the Persian empire, and the 
4th year of the 83d Olympiad, and the zoth 
year of the reign of Artaxerxes himself, up to 
this date, which was the second year of the 202d 
Olympiad, and the 16th year of the reign of 
Tiberius Czesar, there are reckoned 475 years, 
which make 490 according to the Hebrew nu- 
meration, as they measure the years by the 
course of the moon ; so that, as is easy to show, 
their year consists of 354 days, while the solar 
year has 3653days. For the latter exceeds the 
period of twelve months, according to the moon’s 
course, by 11} days. Hence the Greeks and 





I Jerome in his version gives the 15th (qguzutum decimum). 








the Jews insert three intercalary months every 
8 years. For 8 times 114 days makes up 3 
months. Therefore 475 years make 59 periods 
of 8 years each, and 3 months besides. But 
since thus there are 3 intercalary months every 
8 years, we get thus 15 years minus a few days; 
and these being added to the 475 years, make 
up in all the 70 weeks. 


XVII.? 


On the Fortunes of Hyrcanus and Antigonus, and on Herod, 
Augustus, Antony, and Cleopatra, in abstract. 

1. Octavius Sebastus, or, as the Romans call 
him, Augustus, the adopted son of Caius, on 
returning to Rome from Apollonias in Epirus, 
where he was educated, possessed himself of the 
first place in the government. And Antony 
afterwards obtained the rule of Asia and the dis- 
tricts beyond. In his time the Jews accused 
Herod ; but he put the deputies to death, and 
restored Herod to his government. Afterwards, 
however, along with Hyrcanus and Phaszlus his . 
brother, he was driven out, and betook himself 
in flight to Antony. And as the Jews would not 
receive him, an obstinate battle took place ; and 
in a short time after, as he had conquered in 
battle, he also drove out Antigonus, who had 
returned. And Antigonus fled to Herod the 
Parthian king, and was restored by the help of 
his son Pacorus, which help was given on his 
promising to pay 1000 talents of gold. And 
Herod then in his turn had to flee, while Pha- 
seelus was slain in battle, and Hyrcanus was sur- 
rendered alive to Antigonus. And after cutting 
off his ears, that he might be disqualified for the 
priesthood, he gave him to the Parthians to lead 
into captivity; for he scrupled to put him to 
death, as he was a relation of his own. And 
Herod, on his expulsion, betook himself first to 
Malichus king of the Arabians; and when he 
did not receive him, through fear of the Par- 
thians, he went away to Alexandria to Cleopatra. 
That was the 185th Olympiad. Cleopatra hav- 
ing put to death her brother, who was her consort 
in the government, and being then summoned 
by Antony to Cilicia to make her defence, com- 
mitted the care of the sovereignty to Herod ; 
and as he requested that he should not be en- 
trusted with anything until he was restored to 
his own government,3 she took him with her and 
went to Antony. And as he was smitten with 
love for the princess, they despatched Herod 
to Rome to Octavius Augustus, who, on behalf 
of Antipater, Herod’s father, and on behalf of 
Herod himself, and also because Antigonus was 
established as king by the help of the Par- 





2 In Syncellus, p. 307, al. 244. ane, i ; 
3 The sense is doubtful here: xat ws ovdey ngiov moreverOas 
€qT’ Gv KaTaxO)j Eis THY EavTOU apxNY, etG, 


136 


- 


ee i 


THE EXTANT WRITINGS OF JULIUS AFRICANUS. : 





thians, gave a commission to the generals in 
Palestine and Syria to restore him to his govern- 
ment, And in concert with Sosius he waged 
war against Antigonus for a long time, and in 
manifold engagements. At that time also, Jose- 
phus, Herod’s brother, died in his command. 
And Herod coming to Antony ' 

2. For three years they besieged Antigonus, 
and then brought him alive to Antony. And 
Antony himself also proclaimed Herod as king, 
and gave him, in addition, the cities Hippus, 
Gadara, Gaza, Joppa, Anthedon, and a part of 
Arabia, Trachonitis, and Auranitis, and Sacia, 
and Gaulanitis;? and besides these, also the 
procuratorship of Syria. Herod was declared 
king of the Jews by the senate and Octavius 
Augustus, and reigned 34 years. Antony, when 
about to go on an expedition against the Parthi- 
ans, slew Antigonus the king of the Jews, and 
gave Arabia to Cleopatra ; and passing over into 
the territory of the Parthians, sustained a severe 
defeat, losing the greater part of his army. That 
was in the 186th Olympiad. Octavius Augustus 
led the forces of Italy and all the West against 
Antony, who refused to return to Rome through 
fear, on account of his failure in Parthia, and 
through his love for Cleopatra. And Antony 
met him with the forces of Asia. Herod, how- 
ever, like a shrewd fellow, and one who waits 
upon the powerful, sent a double set of letters, 
and despatched his army to sea, charging his 
generals to watch the issue of events. And when 
the victory was decided, and when Antony, after 
sustaining two naval defeats, had fled to Egypt 
along with Cleopatra, they who bore the letters 
delivered to Augustus those which they had been 
keeping secretly for Antony. And on Herod 
falls3 . 

3. Cleopatra shut herself up in a mausoleum,* 
and made away with herself, employing the wild 
asp as the instrument of death. At that time 
Augustus captured Cleopatra’s sons, Helios and 
Selene,5 on their flight to the Thebaid. Nicopo- 
lis was founded opposite Actium, and the games 
called Actia were instituted. On the capture of 
Alexandria, Cornelius Gallus was sent as first 
governor of Egypt, and he destroyed the cities 
of thé Egyptians that refused obedience. Up 


eee 


to this time the Lagidz ruled; and the whole | 


duration of the Macedonian empire after the 
subversion of the Persian power was 298 years. 
Thus is made up the whole period from the 
foundation of the Macedonian empire to its 
subversion in the time of the Ptolemies, and 


ander Cleopatra, the last of these, the date of 





1 There is a break here in the original. 

2 This is according to the rendering of the Latin version. 

3 Here again there is a blank in the original. 

4 The text is corrupt here. It gives, ev Tw MeraoAiw, a word 
unknown in Greek. Scaliger reads - ‘acoatdAcov, Goarus proposes 
MavowAaiorv, which we adopt in the translation. 

5 he: sun and 7907, 





which event is the 11th year of the monarchy 
and empire of the Romans, and the 4th year 
of the 187th Olympiad. Altogether, from Adam 
5472 years are reckoned. 

4. After the taking of Alexandria the 188th 
Olympiad began. Herod founded anew the city 
of the Gabinii,° the ancient Samaria, and called it 
Sebaste ; and having erected its seaport, the 
tower of Strato, into a city, he named it Czsarea 
after the same, and raised in each a temple in 
honour of Octavius. And afterwards he founded 
Antipatris in the Lydian plain, so naming it after 
his father, and settled in it the people about 
Sebaste, whom he had dispossessed of their land. 
He founded also other cities ; and to the Jews he 
was severe, but to other nations most urbane. 

It was now the 189th Olympiad, which (Olym- 
piad) in the year that had the bissextile day, the 
6th day before the Calends of March, —i.e., 
the 24th of February, — corresponded with the 
24th year of the era of Antioch, whereby the year 
was determined in its proper limits.” 


xvu1.8 


On the Circumstances connected with our Saviour’s Passiom 
and His Life-giving Resurrection. 

1. As to His works severally, and His cures 
effected upon body and soul, and the mysteries 
of His doctrine, and the resurrection from the 
dead, these have been most authoritatively set 


forth by His disciples and apostles before us. 


On the whole world there pressed a most fearful 
darkness ; and the rocks were rent by an earth- 
quake, and many places in Judea and other dis- 
tricts were thrown down. ‘This darkness Thallus, 
in the third book of his A/story, calls, as appears 
to me without reason, an eclipse of the sun. 
For the Hebrews celebrate the passover on the 
14th day according to the moon, and the passion 
of our Saviour falls on the day before the pass- 
over ; but an eclipse of the sun takes place only 
when the moon comes under the sun. And it 
cannot happen at any other time but in the in- 
terval between the first day of the new moon 
and the last of the old, that is, at their junction : 
how then should an eclipse be supposed to hap- 
pen when the moon is almost diametrically op- 
posite the sun? Let that opinion pass however ; 
let it carry the majority with it ; and let this por- 





6 Samaria was so named in reference to its restoration by Gabinius, 
the proconsul of Syria. See Josephus (A ztég., book xiv. ch. x.), who 
states that Gabinius traversed Judea, and gave orders for the rebuild- 
ing of such towns as he found destroyed; and that in this way Sama- 
ria, Azotus, Scythopolis, Antedon, Raphia, Dora, Marissa, and not a 
few others, were restored. 

7 The text is: iv ‘Odvmmeas pr nts. m™po = kadavoav Maptiwy 
Kara "AvTLOXets KO ever HXOn, Sv Ns Emi Tay Siwy optwy éaTy Oo 
éviautés. In every fourth year the 24th day of February( = vi. Cal. 
Mart.) was reckoned twice. There were three different eras of An- 
tioch, of which the one most commonly used began in November 49 
B.c, Migne refers the reader to the notes of Goarus on the passage, 
which we have not seen. ‘Ihe sense of this obscure passage seems 
to be. that that period formed another fixed point in chronology. 

8 In Georgius Syncellus, Chron., p. 322 or 256. 


THE EXTANT WRITINGS OF JULIUS AFRICANUS. 


137 





tent of the world be deemed an eclipse of the 
sun, like .others a portent only to the eye. 
Phlegon records that, in the time of Tiberius. 
Ceesar, at full moon, there was a full eclipse of 
the sun from the sixth hour to the ninth — mani- 
festly that one of which we speak. But what 
has an eclipse in common with an earthquake, 
the rending rocks, and the resurrection of the! 
dead, and so great a perturbation throughout 
the universe? Surely no such event as this is re- 
corded for a long period. But it was a darkness 
induced by God, because the Lord happened 
then to suffer. And calculation makes out that 
the period of 70 weeks, as noted in Daniel, is 
completed at this time. 

2. From Artaxerxes, moreover, 70 weeks are 
reckoned up to the time of Christ, according to 
the numeration of the Jews. For from Nehe- 
miah, who was sent by Artaxerxes to people 
Jerusalem, about the 120th year of the Persian 
empire, and in the 2oth year of Artaxerxes him- 
self, and the 4th year of the 83d Olympiad, up 
to this time, which was the 2d year of the ro2d 
Olympiad, and the 16th year of the reign of 
Tiberius Cesar, there are given 475 years, which 
make 490 Hebrew years, since they measure the 
years by the lunar month of 294 days, as may 
easily be explained, the annual period according 
to the sun consisting of 3654 days, while the 
lunar period of 12 months has 11} days less. 
For which reason the Greeks and the Jews insert 
three intercalary months every eight years. For 
8 times 114 days make 3 months. The 475 years, 
therefore, contain 59 periods of 8 years and three 
months over: thus, the three intercalary months 
for every 8 years being added, we get 15 years, 
and these together with the 475 years make 70 
weeks. Let no one now think us unskilled in 
the calculations of astronomy, when we fix with- 
out further ado the number of days at 365}. 
For it is not in ignorance of the truth, but rather 
by reason of exact study,? that we have stated 
our opinion so shortly. But let what follows also 
be presented as in outline 3 to those who en- 
deavour to inquire minutely into all things. 

3. Each year in the general consists of 365 
days ; and the space of a day and night being 
divided into nineteen parts, we have also five 
of these. And in saying that the year consists of 
3654 days, and there being the five nineteenth 
parts... to the 475 there are 6} days. Fur- 
thermore, we find, according to exact computa- 
tion, that the lunar month has 293 days... .4 


Lévy texara thy ower. [Vol. iii. p. 58, Elucid. V., this series. ] 
2 dca THy AewTOAOYyiav, 
3 Or, on a table; ws ev ypadn, 

. 4 The text in the beginning of this section is hopelessly corrupt. 
Scaliger declares that neither could he follow these things, nor did the 
man that dreamt them understand them. We may subjoin the Greek 
text as it stands in, Migne; Meragi d¢ rov Aéyew Toy eviavTov 
Hucpwv tke, Kat TeTpauopiov, Kal Tav amd LO THs vUXOnKEpoD, 
Mepov €.. , €is TA VOE, NuepaL TO TapaAAnAoY Eciais’, kal TeTpa- 
wopioy, “Ers ye myv roy THs ceAjvyns yva Kata THY axpiBH AETTO- 





And these come to5 a little time. Now it hap- 
pens that from the 2oth year of the reign of. 
Artaxerxes (as it is given in Ezra among the 
Hebrews), which, according to the Greeks, was 
the 4th year of the 80th Olympiad, to the 16th: 
year of Tiberius Czesar, which was the. second 
year of the ro2d Olympiad, there are in all the 
475 years already noted, which in the Hebrew 
system make 490 years, as has been previously 
stated, that is, 70 weeks, by which period the 
time of Christ’s advent was measured in the’an-” 
nouncement made to Daniel by Gabriel. And 
if any one thinks that the 15 Hebrew years added 
to the others involve us in an error of 10, noth- 
ing at least which cannot be accounted. for-has 
been introduced. And the 14 week which we. 
suppose must be added to make the whole num- > 
ber, meets the question about the 15 years, and 
removes the difficulty about the time; and that 
the prophecies are usually put forth in a some- 
what symbolic form, is quite evident. i 

4. As far, then, as is in our power, we have 
taken the Scripture, I think, correctly ; especially 
seeing that the preceding section about the vision 
seems to state the whole matter shortly, its first - 
words being, “In the third year of the reign of 
Belshazzar,’’® where he prophesies of the sub. 
version of the Persian power by the Greeks, 
which empires are symbolized in the prophecy 
under the figures of the ram and the goat re-- 
spectively.?. “The sacrifice,” he says, “ shall be 
abolished, and the holy places shall be made 
desolate, so as to be trodden under foot ; which 
things shall be determined within 2300 days.”7 
For if we take the day as a month, just as else- 
where in prophecy days are taken as years, and 
in different places are used in. different ways, re- 
ducing the period in the same way as has been 
done above to Hebrew months, we shall find the 
period fully made out to the 2oth year of the 
reign of Artaxerxes, from the capture of Jerusa- 
lem. For there are given thus 185 years, and 
one year falls to be added to these — the year in 
which Nehemiah built the wall of the city. In 186 
years, therefore, we find 2300 Hebrew months, 
as 8 years have in addition 3 intercalary months. 
From Artaxerxes, again, in whose time the com- 
mand went forth that Jerusalem should be built, 
there are 70 weeks. These matters, however, we 
have discussed by themselves, and with greater 
exactness, in our book Ox the Weeks and this 
Prophecy. But Iam amazed that the Jews deny 
that the Lord has yet come, and that the fol- 
lowers of Marcion refuse to admit that His com- 
ing was predicted in the prophecies when the 
Scriptures display the matter so openly to our 





Aoytay evpicxomev KO, Kal NMLOELas NuEpas Kai vUKTOS StatpeDeLons 
cis pep ge, TOUTWY TAO, Kai HutgY, , & ylveTas évvevnKooTOTEes 
Tapta Toia, 

5 Katayivera. 

6 Dan. viii. 3. 

7 Dan. viii. 13, 14. 


vi 04: 7 Te Oe PL Een A) eae eee ee ae 
in ‘ ‘ j ’ fi 


| 
138 THE EXTANT WRITINGS OF JULIUS AFRICANUS. 
words,? and are not ignorant of the grace of faith, 
give thanks to the Father,3 who has bestowed 
on us His creatures Jesus Christ the Saviour 
of all, and our Lord ;4 to whom be glory and 
majesty, with the Holy Spirit, for ever. 


view. And after something else: The period, 
then, to the advent of the Lord from Adam and 
the creation is 5531 years, from which epoch to 
the 250th Olympiad there are 192 years, as has 
been shown above. 


XIx,! 
For we who both know the measure of those| 2 go, pinetey, words, three Mss. give paréy, saylogs. 
_3 For nuiv Marp: there is another reading, nuwy mazpact = to 
Him who gave to our fathers, 
4 ‘These words, ‘‘ and our Lord,” are wanting in three MSs, 


1 In Basil, De algae Sancto, ch. xxix. § 73; Works, vol. iii. 
p. 6r, edit, Paris, [Elucidation II. | 


IV.— THE PASSION OF ST. SYMPHOROSA AND HER SEVEN SONS.! 


THE text is given from the edition of Ruinart. His preface, which Migne also cites, is as 
follows: “The narrative of the martyrdom of St. Symphorosa and her seven sons, which we 
here publish, is ascribed in the mss. to Julius Africanus, a writer of the highest repute. And it 
may perhaps have been inserted in his books on Chronography, —a work which Eusebius (/7is¢. 
LEccles., vi. 31) testifies to have been written with the greatest care, since in these he detailed the 
chief events in history from the foundation of the world to the times of the Emperor Heliogaba- 
lus. As that work, however, is lost, that this narrative is really to be ascribed to Africanus, I 
would not venture positively to assert, although at the same time there seems no ground for 
doubting its genuineness. We print it, moreover, from the editions of Mombritius, Surius, and 
Cardulus, collated with two Colbert mss. and one in the library of the Sorbonne. The occasion 
for the death of these saints was found in the vicinity of that most famous palace which was 
built by Adrian at his country seat at Tiber, according to Spartianus. For when the emperor 
gave orders that this palace, which he had built for his pleasure, should be purified by some 
piacular ceremonies, the priests seized this opportunity for accusing Symphorosa, alleging that the 
gods would not be satisfied until Symphorosa should either sacrifice to them or be herself sacri- 
ficed ; which last thing was done by Hadrian, whom, from many others of his deeds, we know to 
have been exceedingly superstitious, about the year of Christ 120, that is, about the beginning 
of his reign, at which period indeed, as Dio Cassius observes, that emperor’put a great number 
to death. The memory of these martyrs, moreover, is celebrated in all the most ancient martyr- 
ologies, although they assign different days for it. The Roman, along with Notker, fixes their 
festival for the 18th July, Rabanus for the 21st of the same month, Usuardus and Ado for the 
21st June. In the Tiburtine road there still exists the rubbish of an old church, as Aringhi states 
(Rom. Subter., iv. 17), which was consecrated to God under their name, and which still retains 
the title, Zo the Seven Brothers. 1 have no doubt that it was built in that place to which the 
pontiffs in the Acfa, sec. iv., gave the name, Zo the Seven Biothanati, i.e., those cut off by a | 
violent death, as Baronius remarks, at the year 138.” So far Ruinart: see also Tillemont, A/ém. 
LEccles., ii. pp. 241 and 595 ; and the Bollandists, Act. S.S. Funit, vol. iv. p. 350. 


1. When Adrian had built a palace, and wished 
to dedicate it by that wicked ceremonial, and 
began to seek responses by sacrifices to idols, 
and to the demons that dwell in idols, they 
teplied,? and said: “The widow Symphorosa, 
with her seven sons, wounds us day by day in 
invoking her God. If she therefore, together 
with her sons, shall offer sacrifice, we promise 
to make good all that you ask.” Then Adrian 
ordered her to be seized, along with her sons, 
and advised them in courteous terms to consent 





! Gallandi, Br5/. Patrum, vol. i. Proleg. p. Ixxi. and p. 329. 
2 See Eusebius, Life of Constantzne, it. 50. 


to offer sacrifice to the idols. To him, however, 
the blessed Symphorosa answered: ‘My hus- 
band Getulius,3 together with his brother Aman- 
tius, when they were tribunes in thy service, 
suffered different punishments for the name on 
Christ, rather than consent to sacrifice to idols, 
and, like good athletes, they overcame thy de- 
mons in death. For, rather than be prevailed 
on, they chose to be beheaded, and suffered 
death ; which death, being endured for the name 
of Christ, gained them temporal ignominy indeed 





3 The Martyrologies celebrate their memory on the roth Tunes 
one of the Colbert mss. gives Zotecus for Getuleus. 





Pe ey 


| i> 


ee YF" Te a. Vee \ eee 


ELUCIDATIONS. 





among men of this earth, but everlasting honour 
and glory among the angels; and moving now 
among them, and exhibiting’ trophies of their 
sufferings, they enjoy eternal life with the King 
eternal in the heavens.” 

2. The Emperor Adrian said to the holy 
Symphorosa: “ Either sacrifice thou along with 
thy sons to the omnipotent gods, or else I shall 
cause thee to be sacrificed thyself, together with 
thy sons.” The blessed Symphorosa answered : 
“And whence is this great good to me, that I 
should be deemed worthy along with my sons to 
be offered as an oblation to God?”??,> The Em- 
peror Adrian said: “I shall cause thee to be 
sacrificed to my gods.” The blessed Symphorosa 
replied : “ Thy gods cannot take me in sacrifice ; 
but if Iam burned for the name of Christ, my 
God, I shall rather consume those demons of 
thine.” The Emperor Adrian said: ‘“ Choose 
thou one of these alternatives: either sacrifice 
to my gods, or perish by an evil death.” The 
blessed Symphorosa replied: ‘Thou thinkest 
that my mind can be altered by some kind of 
terror ; whereas I long to rest with my husband 
Getulius,3 whom thou didst put to death for 
Christ’s name.’’ Then the Emperor Adrian or- 
dered her to be led away to the temple of Her- 
cules, and there first to be beaten with blows on 
the cheek, and afterwards to be suspended by the 
hair. But when by no argument and by no ter- 
ror could he divert her from her good resolution, 
he ordered her to be thrown into the river with 
a large stone fastened to her neck. And her 
brother Eugenius, principal of the district of 
Tiber, picked up her body, and buried it in a 
suburb of the same city. 





1 A Colbert ms. gives “laudantes” = praising. wis; 

2 This response, along with the next interrogation, is wanting in 
the Colbert manuscript. i ; 

3 Sur., Card., and the Colbert Codex give “‘ Zoticus.” 








139 





3. Then, on another day, the Emperor Adrian 
ordered all her seven sons to be brought before 
him in company ; and when he had challenged 
them to sacrifice to idols, and perceived that they 
yielded by no means to his threats and terrors, 
he ordered seven stakes to be fixed around the 
temple of Hercules, and commanded them to be 
stretched on the blocks there. And he ordered 
Crescens, the first, to be transfixed in the throat ; 
and Julian, the second, to be stabbed in the 
breast ; and Nemesius, the third, to be struck 
through the heart ; and Primitivus, the fourth, to 
be wounded in the navel; and Justin, the fifth, 
to be struck through in the back with a sword ; 
and Stracteus,‘ the sixth, to be wounded in the 
side ; and Eugenius, the seventh, to be cleft in 
twain from the head downwards. 

4. The next day again the Emperor Adrian 
came to the temple of Hercules, and ordered 
their bodies to be carried off together, and cast 
into a deep pit; and the pontiffs gave to that 
place the name, Zo the Seven Biothanads After 
these things the persecution ceased for a year 
and a half, in which period the holy bodies of 
all the martyrs were honoured, and consigned 
with all care to tumuli erected for that purpose, 
and their names are written in the book of life. 
The natal day, moreover, of the holy martyrs of 
Christ, the blessed Symphorosa and her seven 
sons, Crescens, Julian, Nemesius, Primitivus, Jus- 
tin, Stracteus, and Eugenius, is held on the 18th 
July. Their bodies rest on the Tiburtine road, 
at the eighth mile-stone from the city, under the 
kingship of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is 
honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen. 


4 The Colbert Codex reads ‘‘ Extacteus;’’ Cardulus gives ‘‘ Stac- 
teus,” by which name he is designated beneath by them all. 

5 In one of the Colbert codices, and in another from the Sorbonne, 
there is a passage inserted here about the death of Adrian, which is 
said to have happened a little after that of these martyrs. 


ELUCIDATIONS. 


I. 


(Joseph the son of both, p. 127.) 


THE opinion that Luke’s genealogy is that of 4Zary was unknown to Christian antiquity. In the 
fifteenth century it was first propounded by Latin divines to do honour (as they supposed) to the 


Blessed Virgin. 
agreed that : — 
1. Both genealogies are those of Joseph. 


It was first broached by Annius of Viterbo, A.D. 1502. 


Christian antiquity is 


2. That Joseph was the son of Jacob or of Heli, either by adoption, or because Jacob and 
Heli were either own brothers or half-brothers ; so that, — 
3. On the death of one of the brothers, without issue, the surviving brother married his 


140 ELUCIDATIONS. 





widow, who became the mother of Joseph by this marriage ; so that Joseph was reckoned the 
son of Jacob and the son of Heli.! 
4. Joseph and Mary were of the same lineage, but the Hebrews did not reckon descent from the 


side of the woman. For them St. Luke’s genealogy is the sufficient register of Christ’s royal 


descent and official claim. St. Luke gives his sersona/ pedigree, ascending to Adam, and saguee 
ing Him ke the whole human race. 


sag 
(Conclusion, cap. xix. p. 138.) 


On Jewish genealogies, note Dean Prideaux,? vol. i. p. 296, and compare Lardner, vol. ii. 
129, ef abi. Stillingfleet’ should not be overlooked in what he says of the uncertainties of 
heathen chronology. 

Lardner repeatedly calls our author a “ great man ;” and his most valuable account,‘ digested 
from divers ancient and modern writers, must be consulted by the student. Let us observe the 
books of Scripture which his citations attest, and the great value of his attestation of the two 
genealogies of our Lord. Lardner dates the Letter to Origen5 a.p. 228 or 240, according to 
divers conjectures of the learned. He concludes with this beautiful tribute: “We may glory in 
Africanus as a Christian”’ among those “ whose shining abilities rendered them the ornament of 
the age in which they lived, -- men of unspotted characters, giving evident proofs of honesty and 


integrity.” 


NOTE. 


Tue valuable works of Africanus are found in vol. ix. of the Edinburgh edition, mixed up with 
the spurious Decrefa’s and remnants of preceding volumes. I am unable to make out very 
clearly who is the translator, but infer that Drs. Roberts and Donaldson should be credited with 
this work. 





1 Routh, Religu. Sacre, vol. ii. pp. 233, 339, 34, 355- Compare also vol. ii. 334 and 346, this series, 
2 AJso on the Seventy Weeks (p. 134, supra), vol i. pp. 227-240 and 322. 

3 Origines Sacra, vol. i. pp. 64-120. 

4 Works, vol. ii. pp. 457-468. 

$ See Introductory Notice, p. 123, note 4, supra. 





’ aed mab lie a! ‘ oh 


Aan 





4 





va 


\ 
\ 
j 
oe at 
t 
’ 
~ 
, 
‘ 
rt) 
y, 
' 
— 

x i 

oS i 














INTRODUCTORY NOTICE 


TO 


ANATOLIUS AND MINOR WRITERS. 





InsteEaD of reprinting a disjointed mass of “ Fragments,’ I have thought it desirable to 
present them in a group, illustrative of the Alexandrian school. I give to Anatolius the deserved 
place of prominence, marking him as the meet successor of Africanus in ability if not in the 
nature of his pursuits. His writings and the testimony of Eusebius prove him to have been a 
star of no inferior magnitude, even in the brilliant constellation of faith and genius of which he 
is part. 

These minor writers I have arranged, not with exclusive reference to minute chronology, but 
with some respect to their material, as follows : — 


I. Anatolius, A.D. 270. 
II. Alexander of Cappadocia, a.p. 250. 
III. Theognostus, A.D. 205. 
IV. Pierius, A.D. 300. 
V. Theonas, A.D. 300. 
VI. Phileas, A.D. 307. 
VII. Pamphilus, A.D. 309. 


145 





ie ap 


ANATOLIUS AND MINOR WRITERS. 





ANATOLIUS OF ALEXANDRIA. 


TRANSLATOR’S BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 


[a.D. 230-270-280.] From Jerome’ we learn that Anatolius flourished in the reign of Probus 
and Carus, that he was a native of Alexandria, and that he became bishop of Laodicea. Euse- 
bius gives a somewhat lengthened account of him,? and speaks of him in terms of the strongest 
laudation, as one surpassing all the men of his time in learning and science. He tells us that 
he attained the highest eminence in arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy, besides being a great 
proficient also in dialectics, physics, and rhetoric. His reputation was so great among the Alex- 
andrians that they are said to have requested him to open a school for teaching the Aristotelian 
philosophy in their city.3 He did great service to his fellow-citizens nn Alexandria on their being 
besieged by the Romans in a.p. 262, and was the means of saving the lives of numbers of them. 
After this he is said to have passed into Syria, where Theotecnus, the bishop of Czesareia, ordained 
him, destining him to be his own successor in the bishopric. After this, however, having occasion 
to travel to Antioch to attend the synod convened to deal with the case of Paul of Samosata, as 
he passed through the city of Laodicea, he was detained by the people and made bishop of the 
place, in succession to Eusebius.* This must have been about the year 270 a.D. How long he 
held that dignity, however, we do not know. Eusebius tells us that he did not write many books, 
but yet enough to show us at once his eloquence and his erudition. Among these was a treatise 
on the \(hronology of Easter, of which a considerable extract is preserved in Eusebius. The 
book itself exists now only in a Latin version, which is generally ascribed to Rufinus, and which 
was published by AXgidius Bucherius in his Doctrina Temporum, which was issued at Antwerp in 
1634. Another work of his was the Jusétutes of Arithmetic, of which we have some fragments 
in the beoroyovpeva THs dptOuynrixys, which was published in Paris in 1543. Some small fragments 
of his mathematical works, which have also come down to us, were published by Fabricius in his 
Bibliotheca Greca, iii. p. 462. 








B De illustr. virts., ch. 73. [The dates which are known suggest conjectural dates of our author's birth and death, | 

3 In the 32d chapter of the seventh book of his Ecclestastical History. 

3 ['' There were giants in those days.” How gloriously, even in the poverty and distress of the martyr-ages, the cultivation of learm 
ing was established by Christianity! ] 

4 [This Eusebius was a learned man, born at Alexandria. J 


145 


THE WRITINGS OF ANATOLIUS. 





THE PASCHAL CANON OF ANATOLIUS OF ALEXANDRIA: 


I. 


As we are about to speak on the subject of 
the order of the times and alternations of the 
world, we shall first dispose of the positions of di- 
verse calculators ; who, by reckoning only by the 
course of the moon, and leaving out of account 
the ascent and descent of the sun, with the addi- 
tion of certain problems, have constructed di- 
verse periods,” self-contradictory, and such as 
are never found in the reckoning of a true com- 
putation; since it is certain that no mode of 
computation is to be approved, in which these 
two measures are not found together. For even 
in the ancient exemplars, that is, in the books 
of the Hebrews and Greeks, we find not only 
the course of the moon, but also that of the sun, 
and, indeed, not simply its course in the general,3 
but even the separate and minutest moments of 
its hours all calculated, as we shall show at the 
proper time, when the matter in hand demands 
it. Of these Hippolytus made up a period of 
sixteen years with certain unknown courses of 
the moon. Others have reckoned by a period 
of twenty-five years, others by thirty, and some 
by eighty-four years, without, however, teaching 
thereby an exact method of calculating Easter. 
But our predecessors, men most learned in the 
books of the Hebrews and Greeks, — I mean Isi- 
dore and Jerome and Clement, — although they 
have noted similar beginnings for the months, 
just as they differ also in language, have, never- 
theless, come harmoniously to one and the same 
most exact reckoning of Easter, day and month 
and season meeting in accord with the highest 
honour for the Lord’s resurrection. But Origen 
also, the most erudite of all, and the acutest in 
making calculations, -— a man, too, to whom the 
epithet yaAxeur7s 5 is given, —has published in 
a very elegant manner a little book on Easter. 
And in this book, while declaring, with respect 
to the day of Easter, that attention must be 
given not only to the course of the moon and 
the transit of the equinox, but also to the pas- 
sage (¢ranscensum) of the sun, which removes 
every foul ambush and offence of all darkness, 
and brings on the advent of light and the power 
and inspiration of the elements of the whole | 





1 First edited from an aacient manuscript by A¢gidius Bucherius, 
of the Society of Jesus. 
2 Circulos, |Note the reference to Hippolytus. | 
3 Gressus, ol. v. p. 3: also Bunsen, 1. pp. 13, 281. 
4 [It seems probable that the hegemony which Alexandria had 


| which passed to the Arabians from the Church. 





established in all matters of learning led to that full recognition of it, 
by the Council of Nicaea, which made its bishop the dictator to the | 
whole Church in the annual calculation of Easter. Vol. ii. 343 ] } 

5 iie., smith” or “ brasier,”” probably from his asstducty, | 


world, he speaks thus: In the (matter of the) 
day of Easter, he remarks, I do not say that it 
is to be observed that the Lord’s day should be 
found, and the seven® days of the moon which 
are to elapse, but that the sun should pass that 
division, to wit, between light and darkness, con- 
stituted in an equality by the dispensation of the 
Lord at the beginning of the world; and that, 
from one hour to two hours, from two to three, 
from three to four, from four to five, from five 
to six hours, while the light is increasing in the 
ascent of the sun, the darkness should decrease.” 

. . . and the addition of the twentieth number 
being completed, twelve parts should be supplied 
in one and the same day. But if I should have 
attempted to add any little drop of mine® after 
the exuberant streams of the eloquence and sci- 
ence of some, what else should there be to be- 
lieve but that it should be ascribed by all to 
ostentation, and, to speak more truly, to mad- 
ness, did not the assistance of your promised 
prayers animate us for a little? For we believe 
that nothing is impossible to your power of 
prayer, and to your faith. Strengthened, there- 
fore, by this confidence, we shall set bashfulness 
aside, and shall enter this most deep and unfore- 
seen sea of the obscurest calculation, in which 
swelling questions and problems surge around us 
on all sides. 

II. 


There is, then, in the first year, the new moon 
of the first month, which is the beginning of 
every cycle of nineteen years, on the six and 
twentieth day of the month called by the Egyp- 
tians Phamenoth.? But, according to the months 
of the Macedonians, it is on the two-and-twenti- 
eth day of Dystrus. And, as the Romans would 
say, it is on the eleventh day before the Kalends 
of April. Now the sun is found on the said six- 
and-twentieth day of Phamenoth, not only as 
having mounted to the first segment, but as 
already passing the fourth day in it. And this 
segment they are accustomed to call the first 
dodecatemorion (twelfth part), and the equinox, 
and the beginning of months, and the head of 


6 Lunae Se Perhaps, as Bucher conjectures, Lunae xiv., four- 
teen days, 

7? The ext is doubtful and corrupt here. 

8 Aliguid stillictdrz. 

9 [The Church’s Easter-calculations created modern astronomy, 
(See Whewell’s 
Inductive Sctences.) They preserved it, but did not improve it, in 
Spain. Christianity re-adopted it, and the presbyter Copernicus 
new-created it. he court of Rome (not he Churek Catholic) 
persecuted Galileo; but it did so under the lead of professional 
** Science,’ which had darkened the human mind, from the days of 
Pythagoras, respecting 47s more enlightened system, | 





THE WRITINGS OF ANATOLIUS. 





the cycle, and the starting-point’ of the course 
of the planets. And the segment before this 
they call the last of the months, and the twelfth 
segment, and the last dodecatemorion, and the 
end of the circuit? of the planets. And for this 
reason, also, we maintain that those who place 
the first month in it, and who determine the 
fourteenth day of the Paschal season by it, make 
no trivial or common blunder. 


Ti. 


Nor is this an opinion confined to ourselves 
alone. For it was also known to the Jews of 
old and before Christ, and it was most carefully 
observed by them.3 And this may be learned 
from what Philo, and Josephus, and Musczeus 
have written ; and not only from these, but in- 
deed from others still more ancient, namely, the 
two Agathobuli,t who were surnamed the Mas- 
ters, and the eminent Aristobulus,5 who was one 
of the Seventy who translated the sacred and 
holy Scriptures of the Hebrews for Ptolemy 
Philadelphus and his father, and dedicated his 
exegetical books on the law of Moses to the 
same kings. These writers, in solving some ques- 
tions which are raised with respect to Exodus, 
say that all alike ought to sacrifice the Passover ® 
after the vernal equinox in the middle of the 
first month. And that is found to be when the 
sun passes through the first segment of the solar, 
or, as some among them have named it, the 
zodiacal circle. 

IV. 


But this Aristobulus also adds, that for the 
feast of the Passover it was necessary not only 
that the sun should pass the equinoctial segment, 
but the moon also. For as there are two equi- 
noctial segments, the vernal and the autumnal, 
and these diametrically opposite to each other, 
and since the day of the Passover is fixed for 





f The word is adeots, which Valesius makes equivalent to adery- 
pia, the rope or post from which the chariots started in the race, and 
so = starting-point, — TR. 

2 weptodov. 

3 mpos avr@y — others read mpé, before them. : 

4 Anatolius writes that there were two Agathobuli with the sur- 
mame Masters: but I fear that he is wrong in his opinion that they 
were more ancient than Philo and Josephus. For Agathobulus, the 

hilosopher. flourished in the times of Adrian, as Eusebius writes in 
fis Chronicon, and after him Georgius Syncellus. — VALES. | : 

5 ‘AptatoBovAov tod mavv — Rufinus erroneously renders it A r7s- 
tobulum ex Paneade, Aristobulus of Paneas. Scaliger also, in his 
Animadversiones Eusebtana, p. 130, strangely thinks that the text 
should be corrected from the version of Rufinus, And Bede, in his 
De Rattone Comput, also follows the faulty rendering of Rufinus, 
and writes Aristobulus et Paniada, as though the latter word were 
the proper name of a Jewish writer, finding probably in the Codex of 
Rufinus, which he possessed, the reading Aristobulus e¢ Paneada, 
which indeed is found in a very ancient Paris manuscript, and also in 
the Codex Corbetensts. But that that Aristobulus was not one of the 
seventy translators, as Anatolius writes, is proved by Scaliger in the 
work cited above. This Aristobulus was also surnamed didacKados, 
or Master, as we see from the Maccabees, ii. 1. For I do not agree 
with Scaliger in distinguishing this Aristobulus, of whom mention is 
made in the Maccabees, from the Peripatetic philosopher who dedi- 
cated his Commentartes on the Law of Moses to. 
metor.— VALEs. [See vol. ii. p. 487, and Elucidation II. p. 520, 
same volume, this series. | 

© 7a dtaByrypta Oveuv, 











tolemy Philo- | 





147 


the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, 
the moon will have the position diametrically 
opposite the sun; as is to be seen in full moons. 
And the sun will thus be in the segment of the 
vernal equinox, and the moon necessarily will be 
at the autumnal equinox. 





Vv. 


I am aware that very many other matters were 
discussed by them, some of them with consider- 
able probability, and others of them as matters 
of the clearest demonstration,? by which they 
endeavour to prove that the festival of the Pass- 
over and unleavened bread ought by all means 
to be kept after the equinox. But I shall pass 
on without demanding such copious demonstra- 
tions (on subjects ®) from which the veil of the 
Mosaic law has been removed ; for now it re- 
mains for us with unveiled face to behold ever 
as ina glass Christ Himself and the doctrines 
and sufferings of Christ. But that the first month 
among the Hebrews is about the equinox, is 
clearly shown also by what is taught in the book 
of Enoch.9 

VI. 


And, therefore, in this concurrence of the sun 
and moon, the Paschal festival is not to be 
celebrated, because as long as they are found in 
this course the power of darkness is not over- 
come ; and as long as equality between light and 
darkness endures, and is not diminished by the 
light, it is shown that the Paschal festival is not 
to be celebrated. Accordingly, it is enjoined 
that that festival be kept after the equinox, be- 
cause the moon of the fourteenth,'° if before the 
equinox or at the equinox, does not fill the whole 
night. But after the equinox, the moon of the 
fourteenth, with one day being added because 
of the passing of the equinox, although it does 
not extend to the true light, that is, the rising of 
the sun and the beginning of day, will never- 
theless leave no darkness behind it. And, in 
accordance with this, Moses is charged by the 
Lord to keep seven days of unleavened bread for 
the celebration of the Passover, that in them no 
power of darkness should be found to surpass 
the light. And although the outset of four nights 
begins to be dark, that is, the 17th and 18th and 
19th and 2oth, yet the moon of the 2oth, which 





7 xvptaxas amodetfers — Christophorsonus renders it vatas; Rufi- 
nus gives valzdissimas assertiones. The Greeks use xvptos in this 
sense, xuptat dicat, dofat, &c., dects?ve, valid, judgments, opinions, 

c. 
8 The text gives arattav dy mepinpntat, &c.; various codices 
read am’ avtwy, &c. Valesius now proposes vAas amattwv’ & repi- 
venta, J shall pass on without... ee the verl ts removed from 
me. 

9 An apocryphal book of some antiquity, which professes to pro- 
ceed from the patriarch of that name, but of whose existence prior to 
the Christian era there is no real evidence. The first author who 
clearly refers to it by name is Tertullian. _[ Vol. iii. p. 62, and iv. 38c. | 

10 ‘xiv. luna. The Romans used the phrase una prima, secunda, 
&c., as meaning, the first, second day, &c., after new moon, — TR. 


148 


THE WRITINGS OF ANATOLIUS. 





rises before that, does not permit the darkness to 
extend on even to midnight. 


VII. 


To us, however, with whom it is impossible 
for all these things to come aptly at one and the 
same time, namely, the moon’s fourteenth, and 
the Lord’s day, and the passing of the equinox, 
and whom the obligation of the Lord’s resurrec- 
tion binds to keep the Paschal festival on the 
Lord’s day, it is granted that we may extend the 
beginning of our celebration even to the moon’s 
twentieth. For although the moon of the zoth 
does not fill the whole night, yet, rising as it 
does in the second watch, it illumines the greater 
part of the night. Certainly if the rising of the 
moon should be delayed on to the end of two 
watches, that is to say, to midnight, the light 
would not then exceed the darkness, but the dark- 
ness the light. But it is clear that in the Paschal 
feast it is not possible that any part of the dark- 
ness should surpass the light ; for the festival of 
the Lord’s resurrection is ove of light, and there 
is no fellowship between light and darkness. 
And if the moon should rise in the third watch, 
it is clear that the 22d or 23d of the moon would 
then be reached, in which it is not possible that 
there can be a true celebration of Easter. For 
those who determine that the festival may be 
kept at this age of the moon, are not only unable 
to make that good by the authority of Scripture, 
but turn also into the crime of sacrilege and con- 
tumacy, and incur the peril of their souls ; inas- 
much as they affirm that the true light may be 
celebrated along with something of that power 
of darkness which dominates all. 


VIII. 


Accordingly, it is not the case, as certain cal- 
culators of Gaul allege, that this assertion is 
opposed by that passage in Exodus,’ where we 
read: “In the first month, on the fourteenth 
day of the first month, at even, ye shall eat un- 
leavened bread until the one-and-twentieth day 
of the month at even. Seven days shall there 
be no leaven found in your houses.” From this 
they maintain that it is quite permissible to cele- 
brate the Passover on the twenty-first day of the 
moon ; understanding that if the twenty-second 
day were added, there would be found eight 
days of unleavened bread. A thing which can- 
not be found with any probability, indeed, in the 
Old Testament, as the Lord, through Moses, 
gives this charge: ‘Seven days ye shall eat un- 
leavened bread.” ? Unless perchance the four- 
teenth day is not reckoned by them among the 
days of unleavened bread with the celebration 


1 Exod. xii. 18, 1 


2 Exod. xii. 15; tare xxiii. 6. 








of the feast; which, however, is contrary to the 
Word of the Gospel which says: “ Moreover, on 
the first day of unleavened bread, the disciples 
came to Jesus.”3 And there is no doubt as to its 
being the fourteenth day on which the disciples 
asked the Lord, in accordance with the custom 
established for them of old, ‘“ Where wilt Thou 
that we prepare for Thee to eat the Passover?” 
But they who are deceived with this error main- 
tain this addition, because they do not know 
that the 13th and 14th, the 14th and 15th, the 
15th and 16th, the 16th and 17th, the 17th and 
18th, the 18th and roth, the rgth and 2oth, the 
2oth and 21st days of the moon are each found, 
as may be most surely proved, within a single 
day. For every day in the reckoning of the 
moon does not end in the evening as the same 
day in respect of number, as it is at its begin- 
ning in the morning. For the day which in the 
morning, that is up to the sixth hour and half, 
is numbered the 13th day of the month, is found 
at even to be the 14th. Wherefore, also, the 


-Passover is enjoined to be extended on to the 


21st day at even; which day, without doubt, in 
the morning, that is, up to that term of hours 
which we have mentioned, was reckoned the 
2oth. Calculate, then, from the end of the 13th* 
day of the moon, which marks the beginning of 
the 14th, on to the end of the 2oth, at which 
the 21st day also begins, and you will have only 
seven days of unleavened bread, in which, by 
the guidance of the Lord, it has been determinec 
before that the most true feast of the Passover 
ought to be celebrated. 


IX. 


But what wonder is it that they should have 
erred in the matter of the 21st day of the moon 
who have added three days before the equinox, 
in which they hold that the Passover may be 
celebrated? An assertion which certainly must 
be considered altogether absurd, since, by the 
best-known historiographers of the Jews, and by 
the Seventy Elders, it has been clearly deter- 
mined that the Paschal festival cannot be cele- 
brated at the equinox. 


X. 


But nothing was difficult to them with whom 
it was lawful to celebrate the Passover on any 
day when the fourteenth of the moon happened 
after the equinox. Following their example up 
to the present time all the bishops of Asia — as 
themselves also receiving the rule from an unim- 
peachable authority, to wit, the evangelist John, 
who leant on the Lord’s breast, and drank in 
instructions spiritual without doubt — were in 





3 Matt. xxvi.17; Mark xiv. 12; Luke xxii. 7. 
4 But the text gives rath, 


THE WRITINGS 


ORSANATOLIUS: 149 





the way of celebrating the Paschal feast, without 
question, every year, whenever the fourteenth 
day of the moon had come, and the lamb was 
sacrificed by the Jews after the equinox was past ; 
not acquiescing, so far as regards this matter, 
with the authority of some, namely, the success- 
ors of Peter and Paul, who have taught all the 
churches in which they sowed the spiritual seeds 
of the Gospel, that the solemn festival of the 
resurrection of the Lord can be celebrated only 
on the Lord’s day. Whence, also, a certain con- 
tention broke out between the successors of these, 
namely, Victor, at that time bishop of the city 
of Rome, and Polycrates, who then appeared to 
hold the primacy among the bishops of Asia. 
And this contention was adjusted most rightfully 
by Irenzus,' at that time president of a part of 
Gaul, so that both parties kept by their own or- 
der, and did not decline from the original cus- 
tom of antiquity. The one party, indeed, kept 
the Paschal day on the fourteenth day of the 
first month, according to the Gospel, as they 
thought, adding nothing of an extraneous kind, 
but keeping through all things the rule of faith. 
And the other party, passing the day of the 
Lord’s Passion as one replete with sadness and 
grief, hold that it should not be lawful to cele- 
brate the Lord’s mystery of the Passover at any 
other time but on the Lord’s day, on which the 
resurrection of the Lord from death took place, 
and on which rose also for us the cause of ever- 
lasting joy. For it is one thing to act in accord- 
ance with the precept given by the apostle, yea, 
by the Lord Himself, and be sad with the sad, 
and suffer with him that suffers by the cross, His 
own word being: “ My soul is exceeding sorrow- 
ful, even unto death ;”? and it is another thing 
to rejoice with the victor as he triumphs over an 
ancient enemy, and exults with the highest tri- 
umph over a conquered adversary, as He Him- 
self also says: “Rejoice with Me; for I have 
found the sheep which I had lost.” 3 


XI. 


Moreover, the allegation which they some- 
times make against us, that if we pass the moon’s 
fourteenth we cannot celebrate the beginning of 
the Paschal feast in light,* neither moves nor 
disturbs us. For, although they lay it down as 
a thing unlawful, that the beginning of the Pas- 
chal festival should be extended so far as to the 
moon’s twentieth; yet they cannot deny that 
it ought to be extended to the sixteenth and 
seventeenth, which coincide with the day on 
which the Lord rose from the dead. But we 





1 [Vol. iii. p. 630. The conventre ad of Irenzeus is thus shown 
to be geographical, not ecclesiastical. Vol. i. pp. 415, 569.] 

2 Matt xxvi. 38. 

3 Luke xv. 6. 

4 Lucidusm, 





decide that it is better that it should be extended 
even on to the twentieth day, on account of 
the Lord’s day, than that we should anticipate the 
Lord’s day on account of the fourteenth day ; 
for on the Lord’s day was it that light was shown 
to us in the beginning, and now also in the end, 
the comforts of all present and the tokens of all 
future blessings. For the Lord ascribes no less 
praise to the twentieth day than to the fourteenth, 
For in the book of Leviticus 5 the injunction is 
expressed thus : “In the first month, on the four- 
teenth day of this month, at even, is the Lord’s 
Passover. And on the fifteenth day of this 
month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the 
Lord. Seven days ye shall eat unleavened bread. 
The first day shall be to you one most diligently 
attended ® and holy. Ye shall do no servile 
work thereon. And the seventh day shall be to 
you more diligently attended’? and holier; ye 
shall do no servile work thereon.’”’ And hence 
we maintain that those have contracted no guilt ® 
before the tribunal of Christ, who have held 
that the beginning of the Paschal festival ought 
to be extended to this day. And this, too, the 
most especially, as we are pressed by three diffi- 
culties, namely, that we should keep the solemn 
festival of the Passover on the Lord’s day, and 
after the equinox, and yet not beyond. the limit 
of the moon’s twentieth day. 


XII. 


But this again is held by other wise and most 
acute men to be an impossibility, because with- 
in that narrow and most contracted limit of a 
cycle of nineteen years, a thoroughly genuine 
Paschal time, that is to say, one held on the 
Lord’s day and yet after the equinox, cannot 
occur. But, in order that we may set in a 
clearer light the difficulty which causes their in- 
credulity, we shall set down, along with the 
courses of the moon, that cycle of years which 
we have mentioned ; the days being computed 
before in which the year rolls on in its alternating 
courses, by Kalends and Ides and Nones, and 
by the sun’s ascent and descent. 


XIII. 
The moon’s age set forth in the Julian Calendar. 
January, on the Kalends, one day, the moon’s 
first (day) ; on the Nones, the 5th day, the 
moon’s 5th; on the Ides, the 13th day, the 
moon’s 13th. On the day betore the Kalends 


|of February, the 31st day, the moon’s Ist; on 


the Kalends of February, the 32d day, the moon’s 


5 Levit. xxii. 5-7. 

6 Celeberrimus, honoured, solemn. 

7 Solemn, 

8 [The sanctzfication of the Lord's Day is thus shown to be a 
Christian principle The feast of Easter was the Great Lord’s Day, 
but the rule was common to the weekly Easter. | 


150 THE WRITINGS 


5 ES a ee ae 


OF: ANATOLIUS. 





2d ; on the Nones, the 36th day, the moon’s 6th ; 
on the Ides, the 44th day, the moon’s 14th. On 
the day before the Kalends of March, the 59th 
day, the moon’s 29th ; on the Kalends of March, 
the 6oth day, the moon’s 1st ; on the Nones, the 
66th day, the moon’s 7th; on the Ides, the 74th 
day, the moon’s 15th. On the day before the 
Kalends of April, the goth day, the moon’s 2d ; 

on the Kalends of April, the g1st day, the moon’ s 
3d; on the Nones, the g5th day, the moon’s 7th ; 

on the Ides, the 103d day, the moon’s 15th. On 
the day before the Kalends of May, the r2oth 
day, the moon’s 3d; on the Kalends of May, 
the r21st day, the moon’s 4th; on the Nones, 
the 127th day, the moon’s roth ; on the Ides, the 
135th day, the moon’s 18th. On the day before 
the Kalends of June, the 151st day, the moon’s 
3d; on the Kalends of June, the 152d day, 
the moon’s 5th; on the Nones, the 153d day, 
the moon’s gth ; on the Ides, the 164th day, the 
moon’s 17th. On the day before the Kalends 
of July, the 181st day, the moon’s 5th; on the 
Kalends of July, the 182d day, the moon’s 6th ; on 
the Nones, the 188th day, the moon’s rath; 
on the Ides, the 196th day, the moon’s 2oth. 
On the day before the Kalends of August, the 
212th day, the moon’s 5th; on the Kalends of 
August, the 213th day, the moon’s 7th; on the 
Nones, the 217th day, the moon’s 12th; on the 
Ides, the 225th day, the moon’s roth. On 
the day before the Kalends of September, the 
243d day, the moon’s 7th; on the Kalends of 
September, the 244th day, the moon’s 8th; on 
the Nones, the 248th day, the moon’s 12th; 
on the Ides, the 256th day, the moon’s zoth. On 
the day before the Kalends of October, the 273d 
day, the moon’s 8th ; on the Kalends of October, 
the 247th day, the moon’s 9th; on the Nones, 
the 280th day, the moon’s 15th ; on the Ides, the 
288th day, the moon’s 23d. On the day before 
the Kalends of November, the 304th day, the 
moon’s gth; on the Kalends of November, the 
305th day, the moon’s roth; on the Nones, 
the 309th day, the moon’s 14th; on the Ides, 
the 317th day, the moon’s 22d. On the day 
before the Kalends of December, the 334th day, 
the moon’s roth; on the Kalends of Decem- 
ber, the 335th day, the moon’s 11th; on the 
Nones, the 339th day, the moon’s 15th; on 
the Ides, the 347th day, the moon’s 23d. On 
the day before the Kalends of January, the 
365th day, the moon’s 11th; on the Kalends 
of January, the 366th day, the moon’s rath. 


XIV. 
The Paschal or Easter Table of Anatolius. 


Now, then, after the reckoning of the days 
and the exposition of the course of the moon, 
whereon the whole revolves on to its end, the 











cycle of the years may be set forth from the com- 
mencement.'' This makes the Passover (Easter 
season) circulate between the 6th day before 
the Kalends of April and the gth before the 
Kalends of May, according to the following 
table : — 


Equinox. EASTER. 


XVth belore the Kalends of 
May, i.e., 17th April . 


. SABBATH . 


. Lorp’s Day. (Nes of April, i.e., rst 


. IID Day (FE- 
RIAL) XIth before the Kalends of 


ay, i.e,, 21st April . 


. IlIp pay. . .| Ides af April, i.e., 13th 
ee 


IVth before the Kalends of 
April, ie., 29th March . 


XIVth before the Kalends 
of May, i.e., 18th April . 


ViIth before the Kalends of 
April, i.e., 27th March . 


. IVTH DAY 
. VTH DAY. . 
. SABBATH? , 


. Lorp’s Day. 


Kalends of April, i.e., rst 
“a il 


. IID pay. . 


. IIIp pay. VIIIth before the Ides of 


April, i.e., 6th April 


IVth before the Kalends of 
April, i.e., 29th March 


| IIId before the Ides of 
April, i.e., rxth April . 


IIlId before the Nones of 
April, ie., 3d April. . 


1Xth before the Kalends of 
May, i.e., 23d April . . 


VIth before the Ides of 
April, i.e., 8th April . 


IId before the Kalends of 
April, i.e., 31st March . 


.| XIVth before the Kalends 
of May, i.e., 18th April. 


IId before the Nones of 
April, i.e., 4th April. . 


. IVTH DAY 


. VTH DAY. . 


. VITH pay . 


. SABBATH. . 


. Lorp’s Day. 


SMA DEDAY? Tens 


. IVtTH pay? . 


SOV TH DAY- ais 


ViIth before the Kalends of 
April, i.e., 27th March . 


. VITH Day . 





XV. 


This cycle of nineteen years is not approved 
of by certain African investigators who have 
drawn up larger cycles, because it seems to be 
somewhat opposed to their surmises and opinions. 
For these make up the best proved accounts 
according to their calculation, and determine a 
certain beginning or certain end for the Easter 
season, so as that the Paschal festival shall not 
be celebrated before the eleventh day before the 
Kalends of April, i.e., 24th March, nor after the 





lL Annorum ctrculi principium tnchoandum est. 
2 Bissextile reckoning. [Compare note 2, p. 110, suAra.1 





7=\T 
Vi 


THE WRITINGS OF ANATOLIUS. 





moon’s twenty-first, and the eleventh day before 
the Kalends of May, i.e., 21st April. But we 


_ hold that these are limits not only not to be fol- 


lowed, but to be detested and overturned. For 
even in the ancient law it is laid down that this 
is to be seen to, viz., that the Passover be not 
celebrated before the transit of the vernal equi- 
nox, at which the last of the autumnal “rm is 
overtaken,' on the fourteenth day of the first 
month, which is one calculated not by the begin- 
nings of the day, but by those of the moon. 
And as this has been sanctioned by the charge 
of the Lord, and is in all things accordant with 
the Catholic faith, it cannot be doubtful to any 
wise man'that to anticipate it must be a thing 
unlawful and perilous. And, accordingly, this 
only is it sufficient for all the saints and Catho- 
lics to observe, namely, that giving no heed to 
the diverse opinions of very many, they should 
keep the solemn festival of the Lord’s resurrec- 
tion within the limits which we have set forth. 


XVI. 


Furthermore, as to the proposal subjoined to 
your epistle, that I should attempt to introduce 
into this little book some notice of the ascent 
and descent of the sun, which is made out in 
the distribution of days and nights. The matter 
proceeds thus: In fifteen days and half an hour, 
the sun ascending by so many minutes, that is, 
by four in one day, from the eighth day before 
the Kalends of January, i.e., 25th December, 
to the eighth before the Kalends of April, i.e., 
25th March, an hour is taken up;3 at which 
date there are twelve hours and a twelfth. On 
this day, towards evening, if it happen also to be 
the moon’s fourteenth, the lamb was sacrificed 
among the Jews. But if the number went be- 
yond that, so that it was the moon’s fifteenth 
or sixteenth on the evening of the same day, on 
the fourteenth day of the second moon, in the 
same month, the Passover was celebrated ; and 
the people ate unleavened bread for seven days, 
up to the twenty-first day at evening. Hence, 
if it happens in like manner to us, that the 


seventh day before the Kalends of April, 26th} 


March, proves to be both the Lord’s day and 
the moon’s fourteenth, Easter is to be celebrated 
on the fourteenth. But if it proves to be the 
moon’s fifteenth or sixteenth, or any day up to 
the twentieth, then our regard for the Lord’s res- 
urrection, which took place on the Lord’s day, 
will lead us to celebrate it on the same princi- 
ple; yet this should be done so as that the 


beginning of Easter may not pass beyond the| 


1 In guo autumnaltis novissima pars vincttur. 

2 Lune orsibus. 

3 Diminuttur. [This year (1886) we have the lowest possible 
Easter. } 





151 





close of their festival, that is to say, the moon’s 
twentieth. And therefore we have said that those 
parties have committed no trivial offence who 
have ventured either on anticipating or on going 


| beyond this number, which is given us in the di- 


vine Scriptures themselves. And from the eighth 
day before the Kalends of April, 25th March, 
to the eighth before the Kalends of July, 24th 
June, in fifteen days an hour is taken up: the 
sun ascending every day by two minutes and a 
half, and the sixth part of a minute. And from 
the eighth day before the Kalends of July, 24th 
June, to the eighth before the Kalends of Octo- 
ber, 24th September, in like manner, in fifteen 
days and four hours, an hour is taken up: the 
sun descending every day by the same number 
of minutes. And the space remaining on to the 
eighth day before the Kalends of January, 25th 
December, is determined in a similar number 
of hours and minutes. So that thus on the 
eighth day before the Kalends of January, for 
the hour there is the hour and half. For up to 
that day and night are distributed. And the 
twelve hours which were established at the vernal 
equinox in the beginning by the Lord’s dispensa- 
tion, being distributed over the night on the 
eighth before the Kalends of July, the sun as- 
cending through those eighteen several degrees 
which we have noted, shall be found conjoined 
with the longer space in the twelfth. And, again, 
the twelve hours which should be fulfilled at the 
autumnal equinox in the sun’s descent, should be 
found disjoined on the sixth before the Kalends 
of January as six hours divided into twelve, the 
night holding eighteen divided into twelve. And 
on the eighth before the Kalends of July, in like 
manner, it held six divided into twelve. 


XVII. 


Be not ignorant of this, however, that those 
four determining periods,‘ which we have men- 
tioned, although they are approximated to the 
Kalends of the following months, yet hold each 
the middle of a season, viz., of spring and sum- 
mer, and autumn and winter. And the begin- 
nings of the seasons are not to be fixed at that 
point at which the Kalends of the month begin. 
But each season is to be begun in such way 
that the equinox divides the season of spring 
from its first day ; and the season of summer is 
divided by the eighth day before the Kalends 
of July, and that of autumn by the eighth before 
the Kalends of October, and that of winter by 
the eighth before the Kalends of January in like 
manner.5 





4 Temporum confinia. : 

5 [Compare what is said of Hippolytus, vol. v. p. 3, this series. 
See ue valuable work of Professor Seabury on the Calendar, ed 
1872. 


152 THE WRITINGS 


OF ANATOLIUS. 





FRAGMENTS OF THE BOOKS ON ARITHMETIC." 


What is mathematics ? 

Aristotle thinks that all philosophy consisted 
of theory and practice,? and divides the practi- 
cal into ethical and political, and the theoretic 
again into the theological, the physical, and the 
mathematical. And thus very clearly and skil- 
fully he shows that mathematics is (a branch of) 
philosophy. 

The Chaldeans were the originators of as- 
tronomy, and the Egyptians of geometry and 
arithmetic. ... 

And whence did mathematics derive its name? 

Those of the Peripatetic school affirmed that 
in rhetoric and poetry, and in the popular music, 
any one may be an adept though he has gone 
through no process of study; but that in those 
pursuits properly called studies,3 none can have 
any real knowledge unless he has first become a 
student of them. Hence they supposed that the 
theory of these things was called Mathematics, 
from yd0nua, study, science. And the followers 
of Pythagoras are said to have given this more 
distinctive name of mathematics to geometry and 
arithmetic alone. For of old these had each its 
own separate name; and they had up till then 
no name common to both. And he (Archytas) 
gave them this name, because he found science 4 
in them, and that in a manner suitable to man’s 
study. For they (the Pythagoreans) perceived 
that these studies dealt with things eternal and 
immutable and perfect,° in which things alone 
they considered that science consisted. But the 
more recent philosophers have given a more ex- 
tensive application to this name, so that, in their 
opinion, the mathematician deals not only with 
substances 7 incorporeal, and falling simply within 
the province of the understanding,° but also with 
that which touches upon corporeal and sensible 
matter. For he ought to be cognisant of? the 
course of the stars, and their velocity, and their 
magnitudes, and forms, and distances. And, be- 
sides, he ought to investigate their dispositions 
to vision, examining into the causes, why they 
are not seen as of the same form and of the 
same size from every distance, retaining, indeed, 
as we know them to do, their dispositions rela- 





1 Fabricius, Bzd/zoth. Greca, ed. Harles, vol. iii. p. 462. Ham- 
burg, 1793. 

2 Oewptas kat mpagtews, 

3 uabyjmata, 

4 70 éemornporixoy, 

5 padnorv. 

© ciAcxpivy, absolute. 

7 vAn»y. 

8 vonthy. 

9 Oewpntixds. 


| tive to each other,’ but producing, at the same 

time, deceptive appearances, both in respect of 
order and position. And these are so, either 
as determined by the state of the heavens and 
the air, or as seen in reflecting and all polished 
surfaces and in transparent bodies, and in all 
similar kinds. In addition to this, they thought 
that the man ought to be versed in mechanics and 
geometry and dialectics. And still further, that 
he should engage himself with the causes of the 
harmonious combination of sounds, and with the 
composition of music ; which things are bodies," 
or at least are to be ultimately referred to sensi- 
ble matter. 

What is mathematics ? 

Mathematics is a theoretic science * of things 
apprehensible by perception and sensation for 
communication to others.'3 And before this a 
certain person indulging in a joke, while hitting 
his mark, said that mathematics is that science 
to which Homer’s description of Discord may 
be applied : — 


| “ Small at her birth, but rising every hour, 

While scarce the skies her horrid (mighty) head can 
bound, 

She stalks on earth and shakes the world around.” 


For it begins with a point and a line,’5 and forth- 
with it takes heaven itself and all things within 
its compass. 

How many divisions are there of mathematics ? 

Of the more notable and the earliest mathe- 
matics there are two principal divisions, viz., 
arithmetic and geometry. And of the mathe- 
matics which deals with things sensible there are 
six divisions, viz., computation (practical arith- 
metic), geodesy, optics, theoretical music, me- 
chanics, and astronomy. But that neither the. 
so-called tactics nor architecture,’® nor the popu- 
lar music, nor physics, nor the art which is called 
equivocally the mechanical, constitutes, as some 
think, a branch of mathematics, we shall prove, 
as the discourse proceeds, clearly and system- 
atically. 

As to the circle having eight solids and six 
superficies and four angles. . . . What branches 
of arithmetic have closest affinity with each other? 
Computation and theoretical music have a closer 











10 rovs mpos GAAnAa Adyous. 

Ir comara, substances. 

12 émoTnun OewpyTiKy. 

13 moos THY THY UTOMiTTOVTWY SoaLY, 
4 Itad, iv. 442-443 (Pope). 

15 on} JLecou Kat YPAUNAS. 

16 70 apytTexToMKoy, 





affinity than others with arithmetic; for this de- 
partment, being one also of quantity and ratio, 
approaches it in number and proportion.t Op- 
tics and geodesy, again, are more in affinity with 
geometry. And mechanics and astrology are 
in general affinity with both. 

As to mathematics having its principles? in 
hypothesis and about hypothesis. Now, the 
term hypothesis is used in three ways, or indeed 
in many ways. For according to one usage of 
the term we have the dramatic revolution ;3 and 
in this sense there are said to be hypotheses in 
the dramas of Euripides. According to a sec- 
ond meaning, we have the investigation of mat- 
ters in the special in rhetoric ; and in this sense 
the Sophists say that a hypothesis must be pro- 
posed. And, according to a third signification, 
the beginning of a proof is called a hypothesis, 
as being the begging of certain matters with a 
view to the establishment of another in question. 
Thus it is said that Democritus* used a hypothe- 
sis, namely, that of atoms and a vacuum; and 
Asclepiades 5 that of atoms® and pores. Now, 
when applied to mathematics, the term hypothe- 
sis is to be taken in the third sense. 

That Pythagoras was not the only one who 
duly honoured arithmetic, but that his best known 

1 avadoytas, 

2 dpxas, beginnings. 

3 mepimeteva, reversal of circumstances on which the plot of a 
tragedy hinges. 

4 A native of Abdera, in Thrace, born about 460 B.c., and, along 
with Leucippus, the founder of the philosophical theory of atoms, 
according to which the creation of all things was explained as being 
due to the fortuitous combination of an infinite number of atoms float- 
ing in infinite space. 

5 A famous physician, a native of Bithynia, but long resident in 
great repute at Rome in the middle of the first century B.c. He 
adopted the Epicurean doctrine of atoms and pores, and tried to form 
a new theory of disease, on the principle that it might be in all cases 
reduced to obstruction of the pores and irregular distribution of the 


atoms. 
6 oyxots, 


ALEXANDER OF CAPPADOCIA. 





Lois. 


disciples did so too, being wont to say that “ ali 
things fit number.” 7 

That arithmetic has as its immediate end 
chiefly the theory of science,® than which there 
is no end either greater or nobler. And its sec- 
ond end is to bring together in one all that is 
found in determinate substance.? 

Who among the mathematicians has made 
any discovery ? ; 

Eudemus’° relates in his Astrologies that» 
(Enopides ™ found out the circle of the zodiac 
and the cycle # of the great year.. And Thales *3 
discovered the eclipse of the sun and its period 
in the tropics in its constant inequality. And 
Anaximander “4 discovered that the earth is poised - 
in space,'5 and moves round the axis of the uni- 
verse. And Anaximenes*® discovered that the 
moon has her light from the sun, and found out 
also the way in which she suffers eclipse. And 
the rest of the mathematicians have also made - 
additions to these discoveries. We may instance 
the facts — that the fixed stars move round the 
axis passing through the poles, while the planets - 
remove from each other ‘7 round the perpendicu- 
lar axis of the zodiac; and that the axis of the 
fixed stars and the planets is the side of a pente- 
decagon with four-and-twenty parts. 


7 [Wisd. xi. 20; Ecclus. xxxviii. 29 and xlii. 7.] 
8 thy émcatnmorixyny Ocwpiar, 
. 9 avaddAnBdnv xaradaBelv Toga TH Mpiopery ovaiqg cupAEeByKev. 

i A native of Rhodes, a disciple of Aristotle, and editor of his ” 
works. 

11 A native of Chios, mentioned by Plato in connection with Anax- 
Bae) and therefore supposed by some to have been a contemporary 
of the latter sage. 

12 repiotacwy, revolution. 

13 Of Miletus, one of the sages, and founder of the Ionic school. 

14 Of Miletus, born 610 B.c., the immediate successor of Thales in 
the Ionic school of philosophy. 

15 weréwpos, 

16 Of Miletus, the third in the series of Ionic philosophers. 

17 améxovaw adaAnawy. 


ALEXANDER OF CAPPADOCIA. 


TRANSLATOR’S BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 


[a.D. 170-233-251.] Alexander was at first bishop of a church in Cappadocia, but on his 
visiting Jerusalem he was appointed to the bishopric of the church there, while the previous 


bishop Narcissus was alive, in consequence of a vision which was believed to be divine.’ 
the Decian persecution he was thrown into prison at Cesarea, and died there,” A.D. 251. 


During 
The 


only writtings of his which we know are those from which the extracts are made.3 





3 Euseb., Hist. Eccles., vi. 11. 
2 Ibid., vi. 46. 


¥ 


[Narcissus must have been born about A.D. 12x. Might have known Polycarp.] 
[Narcissus lived till A.p. 237, and died a martyr, aged 116.] 


3 [He was a pupil of Pantzenus, continued under Clement, and defended Origen against the severity of Demetrius. Two dates which 
are conjectural are adjusted to these facts. I find it difficult to reconcile them with those implied by Eusebius.] 


154 


ALEXANDER OF CAPPADOCIA. 





FROM THE EPISTLES OF ALEXANDER. 


I. AN EPISTLE TO THE PEOPLE OF ANTIOCH.' 


Alexander, a servant and prisoner of Jesus 
Christ, sends greeting in the Lord to the blessed 
church of Antioch. Easy and hight has the Lord 
made my bonds to me during the time of my im- 
prisonment, since I have learned that in the prov- 
idence of God, Asclepiades — who, in regard to 
the right faith, is most eminently qualified for the 
office — has undertaken the episcopate of your 
holy church of Antioch. And this epistle, my 
brethren and masters, I have sent by the hand 
of the blessed presbyter Clement,? a man vir- 
tuous and well tried, whom ye know already, and 
will know yet better; who also, coming here by 
the providence and supervision of the Master, 
has strengthened and increased the Church of 
the Lord. 


Il, FROM AN EPISTLE TO THE ANTINOITES.3 

Narcissus salutes you, who held the episcopate 
in this district before me, who is now also my 
colleague and competitor in prayer for you,‘ 
and who, having now attained to‘ his hundred 
and tenth year, unites with me in exhorting you 
to be of one mind.° 


Ill, FROM AN EPISTLE TO ORIGEN.7 
For this, as thou knowest, was the will of God, 





1 A fragment. In Eusebius, A’7st, Eccles., book vi. ch. xi. 

2 It was the opinion of Jerome in his Cata/ogus that the Clement 
spoken of by Alexander was Clement of Alexandria. This Clement, at 
any rate, did live up to the time of the Emperor Severus, and sojourned 
in these parts, as he tells us himself in the first book of his S¢ro- 
matets, And he was also the friend of bishop Alexander, to whom 
he dedicated his book On the Ecclestastical Canon, or Agatust the 
Jews, as Eusebius states in his Eccles. Hist., book vi. ch. xin, 
(Migne). [But from the third of these epistles one would certainly 
draw another inference. How could he, a pupil of Clement, describe 
and introduce his »aster in such terms as Me uses here?] 

3 In Euseb., Hist. Eccles., book vi. ch. xi. 

4 guvegetagouerds por dia Tov evx@v. Jerome renders it: Salu- 
tat vos Narcissus, qui ante me hic tenuit episcopalem locum et nunc 
mecum eundem orationibus regit. 

S nvuKws. ! 

6 The text gives opotws enor dpevioar. Several of the codices 
and also Nicephorus give the better reading, owotws enor onodpovngat, 
which is confirmed by the interpretations of Rufinus and Jerome, 

7 In Euseb., Hist. Eccles., ch. xiv. 


that the friendship subsisting between us from 
our forefathers should be maintained unbroken, 
yea rather, that it should increase in fervency and 
strength. For we are well acquainted with those 
blessed fathers who have trodden the course 
before us, and to whom we too shall soon go: 
Pantenus, namely, that man verily blessed, my 
master ; and also the holy Clement, who was once 
my master and my benefactor; and all the rest 
who may be like them, by whose means also I 
have come to know thee, my lord and brother, 
who excellest all.8 


IV. FROM AN EPISTLE TO DEMETRIUS, BISHOP OF 
ALEXANDRIA.? 


And he ?° —i.e., Demetrius — has added to his 
letter that this is a matter that was never heard 
cf before, and has never been done now, — 
namely, that laymen should take part in pudiic 
speaking,’ when there are bishops present. But 
in this assertion he has departed evidently far 
from the truth by some means. For, indeed, 
wherever there are found persons capable of 
profiting the brethren, such persons are exhorted 
by the holy bishops to address the people. Such 
was the case at Laranda,; where Evelpis was thus 
exhorted by Neon; and at Iconium, Paulinus 
was thus exhorted by Celsus; and at Synada, 
Theodorus also by Atticus, our blessed breth- 
ren. And it is probable that this is done in 
other places also, although we know not the 
fact.!? 





tribute confirms the enthusiastic eulogy of 


8 (This contempora 
See p. 38, supra.} 


the youthful Gregory. 

9 In Euseb., Hast. Eccles., ch. xix. ; 

10 Demetrius is, for honour’s sake, addressed in the third person. 
Perhaps » o} ayoTns or some such form preceded. 

Il outdeiv. 

12 (This precise and definite testimony is not to be controverted. 
It follows the traditions of the Synagogue (Acts xiii. 15), and agrees 
with the Pauline prescription as to the use of the chartsmata in 
1 Cor, xiv. The chiefs of the Synagogue retained the power of giving 
this liberty, and this passed to the Christian authorities. ] 





NOTE BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR. 


Ir Alexander died in the Decian persecution, it is noteworthy how far the sub-apostolic age 
extended. This contemporary of Cyprian was coadjutor to Narcissus, who may have seen those 


who knew St. John. 


See vol. i. p. 416, note 1, this series ; also vol i. p. 568, Fragment ii. 





THEOGNOSTUS OF ALEXANDRIA. 155 





THEOGNOSTUS OF ALEXANDRIA. 


TRANSLATOR’S BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 


[a.D. 260. I can add nothing but conjectures to the following:] Of this Theognostus we 
have no account by either Eusebius or Jerome. Athanasius, however, mentions him more 
than once with honour. Thus he speaks of him as dvyjp Adyws, an e/oguent or learned man.* 
And again as @edyvworos 6 Oavydovos kal orovoaios, the admirable and zealous Theognostus.? 
He seems to have belonged to the Catechetical school of Alexandria, and to have flourished there 
'n the latter half of the third century, probably about a.p. 260. That he was a disciple of Origen, 
or at least a devoted student of his works, is clear from Photius.3 He wrote a work in seven 
books, the title of which is thus given by Photius:+ Zhe Outlines of the blessed Theognostus, the 
exegele of Alexandria. Dodwell and others are of opinion that by this term exegeze,5 is meant 
the presidency of the Catechetical school and the privilege of public teaching; and that the 
title, Outlines, was taken from Clement, his predecessor in office. According to Photius, the 
work was on this plan. The first book treated of God the Father, as the maker of the universe ; 
the second, of the necessary existence of the Son; the third, of the Holy Spirit; the fourth, 
of angels and demons; the fifth and sixth, of the incarnation of God; while the seventh bore 
the title, On Goa’s Creation.7? Photius has much to say in condemnation of Thegnostus, who, 
however, has been vindicated by Bull® and Prudentius Maranus.? Gregory of Nyssa has also 
charged him with holding the same error as Eunomius on the subject of the Son’s relation to 


the work of creation.'° 
doctrine. 


FROM HIS SEVEN BOOKS OF 


y 3 


The substance ™ of the Son is not a substance 
devised extraneously,"3 nor is it one introduced 
out of nothing ; ‘4 but it was born of the sub- 
stance of the Father, as the reflection of light or 
as the steam of water. For the reflection is not 


1 De Decret. Nic. Syn., 25, Works, vol. i. part i. p. 230. 

2 Epist. 4, to Serapion, sec. 9, vok i. part ii, p. 702. 

3 Bzbi., cod, 106, 

4 rod pexapiov Geoyrworov ‘AAcfavdptws nat efnyntov vroru- 
races, 

S efnynrov. 

6 Yrorurwcets, 2 

7 De Det Creatione. 

8 Defens. fid. Nic., sec. ii. chap. 10. [Bull always vindicates 
where he can do so, on the peers of justice, for which I have con- 
tended on p. y. (prefatory) of vol. iv.] 

9 Drvinit I. C., iv. 24. 

30 Book iii., against Eunomtus. 

12 From book ii, In Athanasius, On the Decrees of the Nicene 
Cousctl, sec. xxv. From the edition BB., Paris, 1698, vol. i. part i. 
p. 230. Athanasius introduces this fragment in the following terms: 
— Learn then, ye Christ-opposing Arians, that Theognostus, a man 
of learning, did not decline to use the expression “‘ of the substance” 
(x THs ovaias), For, writing of the Son in the second book of his 
Outlines, he has spoken thus: The sudstance of the Son. —TR. 

12 ovata. 

13 é£wOey ehevpedeica, 

4 éx ph ovtmy éreurnxOn, 


He is adduced, however, by Athanasius as a defender of the Homoiisian 


HYPOTYPOSES OR OUTLINES. 


the sun itself, and the steam is not the water 
itself, nor yet again is it anything alien ; nether 
ts He Himself the Father, nor ts He alten, but 
He is *5 an emanation '° from the substance of the 
Father, this substance of the Father suffering 
the while no partition. For as the sun remains 
the same and suffers no diminution from the rays 
that are poured out by it, so neither did the 
substance of the Father undergo any change in 
having the Son as an image of itself. 


EY 


Theognostus, moreover, himself adds words to 
this effect: He who has offended against the 
first term'® and the second, may be judged to de- 
serve smaller punishment; but he who has also 
despised the third, can no longer find pardon. 








15 The words in italics were inserted by Routh from a Catena on the 
Epistle to the Hebrews, where they are ascribed to Theognostus: 
“ He Himself” is the Son. 

16 amdppota. ’ , 

17 In Athanasius, Epist. 4, to Serapion, sec. 11, vol. i. part ii, p. 703 

18 Opoy, 


156 


For by the first term and the second, he says, is 
meant the teaching concerning the Father and 
the Son; but by the third is meant the doctrine 
committed to us with respect to the perfection ! 
and the partaking of the Spirit. And with the 
view of confirming this, he adduces the word 
spoken by the Saviour to the disciples: “I have 
yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot 
bear them now. But when the Holy Spirit is 
come, He will teach you,’’? 


1.3 


Then he says again: As the Saviour converses 
with those not yet able to receive what is per- 





1 reAewwoet, [ie,, making the disciples réActor. Jas. i. 4.] 
2 Jno. xvi, 12, 13. 


PIERIUS OF ALEXANDRIA. 





fect, condescending to their littleness, while the 
Holy Spirit communes with the perfected, and 
yet we could never say on that account that the 
teaching of the Spirit is superior to the teaching 
of the Son, but only that the Son condescends 
to the imperfect, while the Spirit is the seal of 
the perfected ; even so it is not on account of 
the superiority of the Spirit over the Son that the 
blasphemy against the Spirit is a sin excluding 
impunity and pardon, but because for the im- 
perfect there is pardon, while for those who 
have tasted the heavenly gift,5 and been made 
perfect, there remains no plea or prayer for 
pardon. 


4 ra TéActa, 


3 From Athanasius, as above, p. 155. 5 Heb. vi. 4. [Compare Matt. xii. 31.] 


PIERIUS OF ALEXANDRIA: 


TRANSLATOR’S BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 


[a.p. 275.] Among the very eminent men who flourished near his own time, Eusebius men- 
tions Pierius, a presbyter of Alexandria, and speaks of him as greatly renowned for his voluntary 
poverty, his philosophical erudition and his skill in the exposition of Scripture and in discoursing 
to the public assemblies of the Church.2_ He lived in the latter part of the third century, and 
seems to have been for a considerable period president of the Catechetical school at Alexandria. 
Jerome says that he was called Origenes, gunior ; and according to Photius, he shared in some of 
the errors of Origen, on such subjects especially as the doctrine of the Holy Ghost and the pre- 
existence of souls. In his manner of life he was an ascetic. After the persecution under Galerius 
or Maximus he lived at Rome. He appears to have devoted himself largely to sacred criticism 
and the study of the text of Scripture ; and among several treatises written by him, and extant in 
the time of Photius, we find mention made of one on the prophet Hosea. And, in addition to 
the Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians,4 Photius notices twelve books of his, and 
praises both their composition and their matter.5 


_ 1 [See Introductory Note, p. 143, supra; also p. 99, note 8, supra.] 
2 Hist, Eccl., vii. 32. 
3 [Perhaps only speculatively (see Frag. II. #/ra), not dogmatically. Compare Wordsworth’s Platonic Ode on Immortality. ] 
4 Lardner (part ii. book i. chap. xxiv.) does not think that there was a commentary written by Pierius on this epistle, but only that the 
word of Paul, mentioned below, was expounded at length in some work or other by Pierius. Fabricius holds the opposite opinion. — TR. 
$ See Eusebius as above, Jerome in the preface to Hosea, Photius, cod. 118, 119; Epiphantus, 69, 2; Lardner, part ii. book i. chap. 
24; &c. 





PIERIUS OF ALEXANDRIA. 1s 


I,—A FRAGMENT OF A WORK OF PIERIUS ON THE FIRST EPISTLE OF 
PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS:.' 


Origen, Dionysius, Pierius, Eusebius of Czsa- | meaning of the apostle, and purposed to explain 
reia, Didymus, and Apollinaris, have interpreted | the words, For J would that all men were even 
this epistle most copiously ;? of whom Pierius, | as 7 myse/f3 added this remark: In saying this, 
when he was expounding and unfolding the| Paul, without disguise, preaches celibacy.‘ 





3 1 Cor. vii. 7. 


1 This very brief quotation is preserved in Jerome’s Second Epis- 4 Vol. iv. p. 243, edit. Benedictin. [No doubt he does, as did his 
tle to Pammac ius. Master, Christ, before him, and under the same limitations. Matt. 
32 Latissime. xix. 12.] 


. 


II.—A SECTION ON THE WRITINGS OF PIERIUS.' 


DIFFERENT DISCOURSES OF THE PRESBYTER PIERIUS. | not in the sense put on it by the adherents of 
Arius. With respect to the Spirit, however, he 
lays down his opinion in a very dangerous and 
far from pious manner. For he affirms that He 
is inferior to the Father and the Son in glory.’ 
He has a passage also in the book ® entitled, On 
the Gospel according to Luke, from which it is 
possible to show that the honour or dishonour 
of the image is also the honour or dishonour of 
the original. And, again, he indulges in some 
obscure speculations, after the manner of the non- 
sense of Origen, on the subject of the “ pre-ex- 
istence of souls.” And also in the book on the 
Passover (Easter) and on Hosea, he treats both 
of the cherubim made by Moses, and of the pil- 
lar of Jacob, in which passages he admits the 
actual construction of those things, but propounds 
the foolish theory that they were given economi- 
cally, and that they were in no respect like other 
things which are made; inasmuch as they bore 
the likeness of no other form, but had only, as 
he foolishly says, the appearance of wings.? 


There was read a book by Pierius the pres- 
byter, who, they say, endured the conflict? for 
Christ, along with his brother Isidorus. And he 
is reputed to have been the teacher of the mar- 
tyr Pamphilus in ecclesiastical studies, and to 
have been president of the school at Alexandria. 
The work contained twelve books.3 And in 
style he is perspicuous and clear, with the easy 
flow, as it were, of a spoken address, displaying 
no signs of laboured art,* but bearing us quietly 
along, smoothly and gently, like off-hand speak- 
ing. And in argument he is most fertile, if any 
‘one is so. And he expresses his opinion on 
many things outside what is now established 
in the Church, perhaps in an antique manner ;5 
but with respect to the Father and the Son, he 
sets forth his sentiments piously, except that he 
speaks of two substances and two natures ; using, 
however, the terms substance and nature, as is 
apparent from what follows, and from what pre- 
cedes this passage, in the sense of person ® and 


— 7 [Photius must often be received with a grain of salt.] 
8 cis Tov Adyov, [On images, etc., Photius is no authority. } 

1 From the Brbdiotheca of Photius, cod. 119, p. 300, ed. Hoeschel. 9 The text here is evidently corrupt. It runs thus: oixovouias 
3 Of martyrdom. 52 Adyw ovyxwpynOjvar patarodoyer ws ovdey Hoay ws érepa Ta 
3 Adyous, yeyernucva, ws ovde tumov addAoy epepe pophys, adAAa povoy wre- 
4 émipedes évdeccvvpevos, i puyay KevoAoyet depery avra oxnua, Hoeschelius proposes ws 
5 [e.g., his Platonic ideas, as explained in note 3, p. 156, supra.] | ovdév joav, as érepoy Hoar, ws érepa, &c., and he rejects the ws in 
© yxecracis. [See my remarks, vol. iv. p, v., introductory. ] ws ovdév TUmov on the authority of four codices. — TR. 





158 THEONAS OF ALEXANDRIA, 





THEONAS OF ALEXANDRIA. 


\ 


TRANSLATOR’S BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 


[a.p. 300.] Of this Theonas we know extremely little. Eusebius' tells us that Maximus, 
who had held the episcopal office at Alexandria for eighteen years after the death of Dionysius, 
was succeeded by Theonas. That bishopric, we also learn, he held for nineteen years. His date 
is fixed as from about 282 to 300 a.p. The only thing of his that has come down to our time fs 
his letter to Lucianus, the chief chamberlain,? and a person in high favour with the emperor. 
This epistle, which is a letter of advice to that individual on the duties of his office, was first 
published in the Spicilegium of Dacherius, and again in Gallandi’s Bibdiotheca. The name of the 
emperor is not given, neither does the letter itself tell us who the Bishop Theonas was who wrote 
it. Hence some have, without much reason, supposed another Theonas, bishop of Cyzicus, as 
the author. And some, such as Cave, have thought the emperor in question was Constantius 
Chlorus. But the whole circumstances suit Diocletian best.3 Some infer from the diction of the 
epistle, as we have it, that it is a translation from a Greek original. 


THE EPISTLE OF THEONAS, BISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA, TO LUCIANUS, THE 
CHIEF CHAMBERLAIN.‘ 


BISHOP THEONAS TO LUCIANUS, THE CHIEF |tion. For if we seek our own glory, we set our 


CHAMBERLAIN OF OUR MOST INVINCIBLE | desire upon a vain and perishing object, and one 
seg ileriond 2 which leads ourselves on to death. But the glory 
: of the Father and of the Son, who for our salva- 
I give thanks to Almighty God and our Lord | tion was nailed to the cross, makes us safe for 
Jesus Christ, who has not given over the mani-|the everlasting redemption; and that is the 
festing of His faith throughout the whole world, | greatest hope of Christians, 
as the sole specific for our salvation,s and the} Wherefore, my Lucianus, I neither suppose 
extending of it even in the course of the perse-|nor desire that you should make it a matter of 
cutions of despots. Yea, like gold reduced in| boasting, that by your means many persons be- 
the furnace, it has only been made to shine | longing to the palace of the emperor have been 
the more under the storms of persecution, and | brought to the knowlege of the truth; but rather 
its truth and grandeur have only become always | does it become us to give the thanks to our God 
the more and more illustrious, so that now, peace | who has made thee a good instrument for a good 
being granted to the churches by our gracious | work, and has raised thee to great honour with 
prince, the works of Christians are shining even; the emperor, that you might diffuse the sweet 
in sight of the unbelieving, and God your Father, | savour of the Christian name to His own glory 
who is in heaven, is glorified thereby ;° a thing] and to the salvation of many. For just the more 
which, if we desire to be Christians in deed | completely that the emperor himself, though not 
rather than in word, we ought to seek and aspire | yet attached’ to the Christian religion, has en- 
after as our first object on account of our salva- | trusted the care of his life and person to these 
-—__—__-_— | same Christians as his more faithful servants, so 
Pe ec Ae much the more careful ought ye to be, and the 
reposttus cubtculariorum. ome m ‘ ‘ 
$ See Neander's Church History, vol. 1. p.197 (Bohn). |Chris-| more diligent and watchful in seeing to his safety, 
fst gave the Church 2 long peace (eee 0k iv. p.126) of welknigh | 20d in attending upon him, so that the name of 
ten years. | .. ie Christ may be greatly glorified thereby, and His 
4 In Dacherii Spicilegtum, tii. pp. 297-299 


> In salutis nostra umicum remedium., : 
> Matt. v. 16. | 7 Ascriptus. 


I 





























THEONAS OF ALEXANDRIA. 


159 





faith extended daily through you who wait upon 


the emperor. For in old times some former 
princes thought us malevolent and filled with all 
manner of crime; but now, seeing your good 
works, they should not be able to avoid glorifying 
Christ Himself.* 


II, 


Therefore you ought to strive to the utmost 
of your power not to fall into a base or dishon- 
ourable, not to say an absolutely flagitious way 
of thinking, lest the name of Christ be thus 
blasphemed even by you. Be it far from you 
that you should sell the privilege of access to 
the emperor to any one for money, or that you 
should by any means place a dishonest account 
of any affair before your prince, won over either 
by prayers or by bribes. Let all the lust of ava- 
rice be put from you, which serves the cause of 
idolatry rather than the religion of Christ.2. No 
filthy lucre, no duplicity, can befit the Christian 
who embraces the simple and unadorned 3 Christ. 
Let no scurrilous or base talk have place among 
you. Let all things be done with modesty, 
courteousness, affability, and uprightness, so that 
the name of our God and Lord Jesus Christ 
may be glorified in all. 

Discharge the official duties to which you are 
severally appointed with the utmost fear of God 
and affection to your prince, and perfect care- 
fulness. Consider that every command of the 
emperor which does not offend God has pro- 
ceeded from God Himself ;4 and execute it in 
love as well as in fear, and with all cheerfulness. 
For there is nothing which so well refreshes a 
man who is wearied out with weighty cares as 
the seasonable cheerfulness and benign patience 
of an intimate servant ; nor, again, on the other 


-hand, does anything so much annoy and vex 


him as the moroseness and impatience and 
grumbling of his servant. Be such things far 
from you Christians, whose walk is in zeal for the 
faith.s But in order that God may be honoured ° 
in yourselves, suppress ye and tread down all 
your vices of mind and body. Be clothed with 
patience and courtesy ; be replenished with the 
virtues and the hope of Christ. Bear all things 
for the sake of your Creator Himself; endure 
all things ; overcome and get above all things, 
that ye may win Christ the Lord. Great are 
these duties, and full of painstaking. But he 
that striveth for the mastery 7 is temperate in all 


things ; and they do it to obtain a corruptible | 


crown, but we an incorruptible. 


t [A beautiful concern of our author for the honour of the Master 
seems ee dictated this noble letter. Matt. v, 16.] 

2 vied Ss 

3 Macon } 

4 [See note 1, p. 108, sugra.] 

5 Out zelo fider inceditis. 

6 1 Peter iv. 11. 

* 1 Cor. ix, a5. 





II. 


But because, as I apprehend it, ye are assigned 
to different offices, and you, Lucianus, are styled 
the head of them all, whom, also, by the grace 
of Christ given you, you are able to direct and 
dispose in their different spheres, I am certain 
that it will not displease you if I also bring 
before your notice, in a particular and summary 
manner, some of my sentiments on the subject 
of these offices. For I hear that one of you 
keeps the private moneys of the emperor; an- 
other the imperial robes and ornaments ; another 
the precious vessels ; another the books, who, I 
understand, does not as yet belong to the believ- 
ers ; and others the different parts of the house- 
hold goods. And in what manner, therefore, 
these charges ought, in my judgment, to be 
executed, I shall indicate in a few words. 


IV. 


He who has charge of the private moneys of 
the emperor ought to keep every thing in an exact 
reckoning. He should be ready at any time to 
give an accurate account of all things, He 
should note down every thing in writing, if it is 
at all possible, before giving money to another. 
He should never trust such things to his mem- 
ory, which, being drawn off day by day to other 
matters, readily fails us, so that, without writing, 
we sometimes honestly certify things which have 
never existed ; neither should this kind of writ- 
ing be of a commonplace order, but such as easily 
and clearly unfolds all things, and leaves the 
mind of the inquirer without any scruple or 
doubt on the subject ; a thing which will easily 
be effected if a distinct and separate account 
is kept in writing of all receipts, and of the time 
when, and the person by whom, and the place 
at which they were made.* And, in like man- 
ner, all that is paid out to others, or expended 
by order of the emperor, should be entered in 
its own place by itself in the reckoning; and 
that servant should be faithful and prudent, so 
that his lord may rejoice that he has set him 
over his goods,? and may glorify Christ in him. 


Vv. 


Nor will the diligence and care of that servant 
be less who has the custody of the robes and 
imperial ornaments. All these he should enter 
in a most exact catalogue, and he should keep a 
note of what they are and of what sort, and in 
what places stored, and when he received them, 
and from whom, and whether they are soiled or 
unsoiled. All these things he should keep in his 
diligence ; he should often review again, and he 


8 (A most important hint to the clergy in their accounts with the 
Church, } 
9 Matt. xxiv. 45, 47. 


160 THEONAS OF 





should often go over them that they may be the 
more readily known again. All these he should 
have at hand, and all in readiness; and he 
should always give the clearest information on 
every matter on which it is sought, to his prince 
or his superior, whenever they ask about any 
‘thing ; and all this at the same time in such wise 
that every thing may be done in humility and 
cheerful patience, and that the name of Christ 
may be praised even in a small matter. 





VI. 


-°In a similar manner should he conduct him- 
self to whose fidelity are entrusted the vessels of 
silver and gold, and crystal or murrha,' for eating 
or for drinking. All these he should arrange 
suitably, of them all he should keep an account, 
and with all diligence he should make an inven- 
tory of how many and which sort of precious 
stones are in them. He should examine them 
all with great prudence ; he should produce them 
in their proper places and on their proper occa- 
sions. And he should observe most carefully to 
whom he gives them, and at what time, and from 
whom he receives them again, lest there should 
occur any mistake or injurious suspicion, or per- 
haps some considerable loss in things of value. 





VII. 


’ The most responsible person, however, amon 
you, and also the most careful, will be he who 
may be entrusted by the emperor with the cus- | 

_tody of his library. He will himself select for 
‘this office a person of proved knowledge, a man 
grave and adapted to great affairs, and ready to| 
‘reply to all applications for information, such aj 
“one as Philadelphus chose for this charge, and | 
appointed to the superintendence of his most 
noble library — I mean Aristeus, his confidential 
chamberlain, whom he sent also as his legate to 

Eleazar, with most magnificent gifts, in recogni- 

‘tion of the translation of the Sacred Scriptures ; 
and this person also wrote the full history of the 

Seventy Interpreters. If, therefore, it should | 
happen that a believer in Christ is called to this 
same office, he should not despise that secular lit- 
erature and those Gentile intellects which please 

:the.emperor.2?. To be praised are the poets for 
soathe greatness of their genius, the acuteness of 
« their inventions, the aptness and lofty eloquence 
:of«their-style. To be praised are the orators ; 
“:to:be' praised also are the philosophers in their 
‘own class.. To be praised, too, are the historians, 
who unfold tous the order of exploits, and: the 


v 





3 Murrhine vessels were first introduced into Rome by Pompey. | 
They were valued chiefly for their variegated colours, and were ex- 
tremely costly. Some think they were made of onyx stone, others of 
variegated glass: but most modern writers suppose that what is meant 
was some sort of porcelain. 
3 [A lofty spirit of liberal love for literature is here exemplified. ] 





ALEXANDRIA. 





manners and institutions of our ancestors, and 
show us the rule of life from the proceedings of 
the ancients. On occasion also he will endeav- 
our to laud the divine Scriptures, which, with 
marvellous care and most liberal expenditure, 
Ptolemy Philadelphus caused to be translated 
into our language ;3 and sometimes, too, the 
Gospel and the Apostle will be lauded for their 
divine oracles ; and there will be an opportunity 
for introducing the mention of Christ ; and, lit- 
tle by little, His exclusive divinity will be ex- 
plained ; and all these things may happily come 
to pass by the help of Christ. 

He ought, therefore, to know all the books 
which the emperor possesses; he should often 
turn them over, and arrange them neatly in their 
proper order by catalogue ; if, however, he shall 
have to get new books, or old ones transcribed, 
he should be careful to obtain the most accurate 
copyists ; and if that cannot be done, he should 
appoint learned men to the work of correction, 
and recompense them justly for their labours. 
He should also cause all manuscripts to be 
restored according to their need, and should 
embellish them, not so much with mere super- 
stitious extravagance, as with useful adornment ; 
and therefore he should not aim at having the 
whole manuscripts written on purple skins and 
in letters of gold, unless the emperor has spe- 
cially required that. With the utmost submis- 
sion, however, he should do every thing that is 
agreeable to Ceesar. As he is able, he should, 
with all modesty, suggest to the emperor that he 
should read, or hear read, those books which suit 
his rank and honour, and minister to good use 
rather than to mere pleasure. He should him- 
self first be thoroughly familiar with those books, 
and he should often commend them in presence 
of the emperor, and set forth, in an appropriate 
fashion, the testimony and the weight of those 
who approve them, that he may not seem to lean 
to his own understanding only. 


VIII. 


Those, moreover, who have the care of the 
emperor’s person should be in all things as 
prompt as possible; always, as we have said, 
cheerful in countenance, sometimes merry, but 


| ever with such perfect modesty as that he may 


commend it above all else in you all, and per- 
ceive that it is the true product of the religion 
of Christ. You should also all be elegant and 
tidy in person and attire, yet, at the same time, 
not in such wise as to attract notice by extrava- 
gance or affectation, lest Christian modesty be 
scandalised.4 Let every thing be ready at its 








3 It is from these words that the inference is drawn that this epis- 
tle was written by a Greek. 

4 |The teachings of Ciement had formed the minor morals of 
Christians, See vol. ii, book ii. pp. 237, 284.] 








PHILCEAS. 


165 





proper time, and disposed as well as possible 
in its own order. There should also be due 
arrangement among you, and carefulness that 
no confusion appear in your work, nor any loss 
of property in any way ; and appropriate places 
should be settled and suitably prepared, in ac- 
cordance with the capacity (capéw) and impor- 
tance of the places. 

Besides this, your servants should be the most 
thoroughly honest, and circumspect, and modest, 
and as serviceable to you as possible. And see 
that you instruct and teach them in true doctrine 
with all the patience and charity of Christ; but 
if they despise and lightly esteem your instruc- 
tions, then dismiss them, lest their wickedness 
by any hap recoil upon yourselves. For some- 
times we have seen, and often we have heard, 
how masters have been held in ill-repute in con- 
sequence of the wickedness of their servants. 

If the emperor visits her imperial majesty, or 
she him, then should ye also be most circumspect 
in eye and demeanour, and in all your words. 
Let her mark your mastery of yourselves and 
your modesty ;' and let her followers and _ at- 
tendants mark your demeanour; let them mark 
it and admire it, and by reason thereof praise 
Jesus Christ our Lord in you. Let your conver- 
sation always be temperate and modest, and sea- 
soned with religion as with salt.2_ And, further, 
let there be no jealousy among you or conten- 
tiousness, which might bring you into all manner 
of confusion and division, and thus also make 
you objects of aversion to Christ and to the 
emperor, and lead you into the deepest abomina- 





1 [Thus is reflected the teaching of St. Paul, 1 Tim. v, 2. All 
women to be honoured, and “all purity” to characterize society with 
them. 

2 Col. iv. 6 





tion, so that not one stone of your building could 
stand upon another. 


IX. 


And do thou, my dearest Lucianus, since thou 
art wise, bear with good-will the unwise ;3 and 
they too may perchance become wise. Do no 
one an injury at any time, and provoke no one 
to anger. If an injury is done to you, look to 
Jesus Christ ; and even as ye desire that He may 
remit your transgressions, do ye also forgive them 
theirs ; + and then also shall ye do away with all 
ill-will, and bruise the head of that ancient ser- 
pent,’ who is ever on the watch with all subtlety 
to undo your good works and your prosperous 
attainments. Let no day pass by without read- 
ing some portion of the Sacred Scriptures, at 
such convenient hour as offers, and giving some 
space to meditation.° And never cast off the 
habit of reading in the Holy Scriptures; for 
nothing feeds the soul and enriches the mind so 
well as those sacred studies do. But look to this 
as the chief gain you are to make by them, that, 
in all due patience, ye may discharge the duties 
of your office religiously and piously — that is, 
in the love of Christ — and despise all transitory 
objects for the sake of His eternal promises, 
which in truth surpass all human comprehension 
and understanding,’ and shall conduct you into 
everlasting felicity. 

A happy adieu to you in Christ, my Lord 
Lucianus. 


3 2 Cor. xi. 19. 

4 Mark xi. 25. 

5 Rom. xvi. 20. 

6 [Blessed spirit of primitive piety! 
relaxed in our own Laodicean age? | 

7 Phil. iv. 7. [How much there is in this letter which ought to 
Sere the consciences of wealthy and ‘‘ fashionable” Christians of our 
day! 


Is not this rule too much 


PHILEAS. 


TRANSLATOR’S BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 


[a.D. 307.] From Jerome’ we learn that this Phileas belonged to Thmuis, a town of Lower 
Egypt, the modern Zmazi, which was situated between the Tanite and Mendesian branches of the 
Nile, an episcopal seat, and in the time of Valentinian and Theodosius the Great a place of con- 


siderable consequence, enjoying a separate government of its own. 


Eusebius? speaks of him as 


a man not less distinguished for his services to his country than for his eminence in philosophical 


studies and his proficiency in foreign literature and science. 


He tells us further, that, along with 


another person of considerable importance, by name Philoromus, being brought to trial for his 





l De vir. tllustr., chap. 78. 





2 Hist. Eccles., viii. g and ro. 


EO ee ROPER nt ee Seas 





162 PHILEAS. 





faith, he withstood the threats and insults of the judge, and all the entreaties of relatives and 
friends, to compromise his Christian belief, and was condemned to lose his head. Jerome also, 
in the passage already referred to, names him a ¢rue philosopher, and, at the same time, a godly 
martyr ; and states, that on assuming the bishopric of his native district, he wrote a very elegant 
book in praise of the martyrs. Of this book certain fragments are preserved for us in Eusebius. 
In addition to these we have also an epistle which the same Phileas seems to have written in the 
name of three other bishops, as well as himself, to Meletius, the bishop of Lycopolis, and founder 
of the Meletian schism. This epistle appears to have been written in Greek ; but we possess only 
a Latin version, which, however, from its abrupt style, is believed to be very ancient. The four 
bishops whose names stand at the head of the Epistle —viz., Hesychius, Pachomius, Theodorus, 





and Phileas, are also mentioned by Eusebius (//is¢, Zccd,, viii. 13) as distinguished’ martyrs. 


This 


epistle was written evidently when those bishops were in prison, and its date is determined by the 


mention of Peter as the then bishop of Alexandria. 
probability as happening at Alexandria, under Maximus, about the year 307 A.D." 


‘The martyrdom of Phileas is fixed with much 
[But see Neale, 


Patriarchate of Alex., i. pp. 97-101, for his view of two bearing this name. ] 


FRAGMENTS OF THE EPISTLE OF PHILEAS TO THE PEOPLE OF THMUIS.? 


I, 


Having before them all these examples and 
signs and illustrious tokens which are given us 
in the divine and holy Scriptures, the blessed 
martyrs who lived with us did not hesitate, but, 
directing the eye of their soul in sincerity to that 
God who is over all, and embracing with willing 
mind the death which their piety cost them, they 
adhered steadfastly to their vocation. For they 
learned that our Lord Jesus Christ endured man’s 
estate on our behalf, that He might destroy all 
sin, and furnish us with the provision needful for 
our entrance into eternal life. “For He thought 
it not robbery to be equal with God: but made 
Himself of no reputation, taking upon Him the 
form of a servant: and being found in fashion 
as a man, He humbled Himself unto death, even 
the death of the cross.”3 For which reason also 
these Christ-bearing+ martyrs sought zealously 
the greater gifts, and endured, some of them, 
every kind of pain and all the varied contrivances 
of torture not merely once, but once and again ; 
and though the guards showed their fury against 
them not only by threatenings in word, but also 
by deeds of violence, they did not swerve from 
their resolution, because perfect love casteth out 
Sears 


Il. 


And to narrate their virtue and their manly 
endurance under every torment, what language 





1 [His diocese belonged to the region over which Alexandria had 
the primacy by the “‘ ancient usages. 

2 In Eusebius, Hzst. Eccles., viii. 10, 

3 Phil, ii, 6-8. 

4 xptorodépor, So Ignatius of Antioch was called deopdpos, God- 
bearer. [Vol. i. pp. 45, 49, this series.] 

§ x John iv. 18. 





would suffice? For as every one who chose was 
at liberty to abuse them, some beat them with 
wooden clubs,° and others with rods, and others 
with scourges, and others again with thongs, 
and others with ropes. And the spectacle of 
these modes of torture had great variety in it, 
and exhibited vast malignity. For some had their 
hands bound behind them, and were suspended 
on the rack and had every limb in their body 
stretched with a certain kind of pulleys.7. Then 
after all this the torturers, according to their 
orders, lacerated with the sharp iron claws ® the 
whole body, not merely, as in the case of mur- 
derers, the sides only, but also the stomach and , 
the knees and the cheeks. And others were 
hung up in mid-air, suspended by one hand 
from the portico, and their sufferings were fiercer 
than any other kind of agony by reason of the 
distention of their joints and limbs. And others 
were bound to pillars, face to face, not touching 
the ground with their feet, but hanging with all 
the weight of the body, so that their chains were 
drawn all the more tightly by reason of the ten- 
sion. And this they endured not simply as long 
as the governor 9 spoke with them, or had leisure 
to hear them, but well-nigh through the whole 
day. For when he passed on to others he left 
some of those under his authority to keep watch 
over these former, and to observe whether any 
of them, being overcome by the torture, seemed 





6 €vAots. What is meant, however, may be the instrument called 
by the Romans eguxleus, a ‘kind of rack in the shape of a horse, 
commonly used in taking the evidence of slaves. 

7 uayyavors Troi, 

8 The text gives auuvrnpiots éxdAagoy, for which Nicephorus 
reads auupyTyptots Tas KoAagers, The auuvrypra wee robably the 
Latin xxgude, an instrument of torture like claws. a. Rufaaus un- 
derstands the phrase. 

9 nyexwv. That is probably the Roman Prefectus Augustalis. 








likely to yield. But he gave them orders at the 
same time to cast them into chains without spar- 
ing, and thereafter, when they were expiring, to 
throw them on the ground and drag them along. 
For they said that they would not give them- 
selves the slightest concern about us, but would 
look upon us and deal with us as if we were 
nothing at all. This second mode of torture 
our enemies devised then over and above the 
scourging. 
Ill. 

And there were also some who, after the tor- 
tures, were placed upon the stocks and had both 
their feet stretched through all the four holes, so 
that they were compelled to lie on their back on 
the stocks, as they were unable (to stand) in 
consequence of the fresh wounds they had over 
the whole body from the scourging. And others 
being thrown upon the ground lay prostrated 
there by the excessively frequent application of 
the tortures ; in which condition they exhibited 
to the onlookers a still more dreadful spectacle 
than they did when actually undergoing their 
torments, bearing, as they did, on their bodies 
the varied and manifold tokens of the cruel in- 
genuity of their tortures. While this state of 
matters went on, some died under their tortures, 
putting the adversary to shame by their con- 
stancy. And others were thrust half-dead into 


PHILEAS: 









the prison, where in a few days, worn out with 
their agonies, they met their end. But the rest, 
getting sure recovery under the application of 
remedies, through time and their lengthened 
detention in prison, became more confident. 
And thus then, when they were commanded to 
make their choice between these alternatives, 
namely, either to put their hand to the unholy 
sacrifice and thus secure exemption from further 
trouble, and obtain from them their abominable 
sentence of absolution and liberation,‘ or else to 
refuse to sacrifice, and thus expect the judgment 
of death to be executed on them, they never 
hesitated, but went cheerfully to death. For 
they knew the sentence declared for us of old 
by the Holy Scriptures: “ He that sacrificeth to 
other gods,” it is said, “shall be utterly de- 
stroyed.”3 And again,+ “Thou shalt have no 
other gods before Me.” 5 





I ris émapartov edevOeptas. 

2 [It is impossible to accept modern theories of the tnconsidera- 
ble number of the primitive martyrs, in view of the abounding evi- 
dences of a chronic and continuous persecution always evidenced by 
even these fragments of authentic history. See vol. iv. p. 125.] 

3 Exod. xxii. 20. 

4 Exod, xx. 3. 

5 Eusebius, after quoting these passages, adds: — ‘‘ These are the 
words of a true philosopher, and one who was no less a lover of God 
than of wisdom, which, before the final sentence of his judge, and 
while he lay yet in prison, he addressed to the brethren in his church, 
at once to represent to them in what condition he was himself, and to 
exhort them to maintain steadfastly, even after his speedy death, their 
piety towards Christ.” —Tr. 


THE EPISTLE OF THE SAME PHILEAS OF THMUIS TO MELETIUS, BISHOP 
OF LYCOPOLIS, 


THE BEGINNING OF THE EPISTLE OF THE BISHOPS.’ 


Hesychius, Pachomius, Theodorus, and Phil- 
eas, to Meletius, our friend and fellow-minister 
in the Lord, greeting. Some reports having 
reached us concerning thee, which, on the tes- 
timony of certain individuals who came to us, 
spake of certain things foreign to divine order 
and ecclesiastical rule which are being attempted, 
yea, rather which are being done by thee, we, in 
an ingenuous manner held them to be untrust- 
worthy, regarding them to be such as we would 
not willingly credit, when we thought of the auda- 
city implied in their magnitude and their uncer- 
tain attempts. But since many who are visiting 


us at the present time have lent some credibility | 


to these reports, and have not hesitated to attest 
them as facts, we, to our exceeding surprise, 
have been compelled to indite this letter to 
thee. And what agitation and sadness have 
been caused to us all in common and to each of 
us individually by (the report of) the ordination 


1 This epistle was first edited by Scipio Maffeius from an ancient 
Verona manuscript in the Osserv. Letter, vol. iii. pp. 11-17, where 
is given the Fragment of a History of the Meletian Schism. 
See Neander’s important remarks on this whole document, Church 
History, iii. p. 310 (Bohn). — Tr. 








carried through by thee in parishes having no 
manner of connection with thee, we are unable 
sufficiently to express. We have not delayed, 
however, by a short statement to prove your 
practice wrong. ‘There is the law of our fathers 
and forefathers, of which neither art thou thy- 
self ignorant, established according to divine 
and ecclesiastical order; for it is all for the 
good pleasure of God and the zealous regara 
of better things.2 By them it has been estab- 
lished and settled that it is not lawful for any 
bishop to celebrate ordinations in other parishes3 
than his own; a law which is exceedingly im- 
portant* and wisely devised. For, in the first 
place, it is but right that the conversation and 
life of those who are ordained should be exam- 
ined with great care ; and in the second place, 
that all confusion and turbulence should be 
done away with. For every one shall have 
enough to do in managing his own parish, and 
in finding with great care and many anxieties 





2 Zelo meliorum. 

3 [Parishes = dioceses (so called now) ; but they were very small 
territorially, and every city had its ‘‘ bishop.” See Bingham, book ix. 
cap. 2, and Euseb., book v. cap. 23. Comp. note 1, p. 106, supra. | 

4 Bene nimis magna. 


164 


PHILEAS. 





suitable subordinates among these with whom he 
has passed his whole life, and who have been 
trained under his hands. But thou, neither 
making any account of these things, nor regard- 
ing the future, nor considering the law of our 
sainted fathers and those who have been taken 
to Christ time after time, nor the honour of our 
great bishop and father,’ Peter,? on whom we all 
depend in the hope which we have in the Lord 
Jesus Christ, nor softened by our imprisonments 
and trials, and daily and multiplied reproach, 
hast ventured on subverting all things at once. 
And what means will be left thee for justifying 
thyself with respect to these things? But per- 
haps thou wilt say: I did this to prevent many 
being drawn away with the unbelief of many, 
because the flocks were in need and forsaken, 
there being no pastor with them. Well, but it 
is most certain that they are not in such destitu- 
tion: in the first place, because there are many 
going about them and in a position to act as 
visitors ; and in the second place, even if there 
was some measure of neglect on their side, then 
the proper way would have been for the repre- 
sentation to be made promptly by the people, 
and for us to take account of them according to 
their desert.3 But they knew that they were in 
no want of ministers, and therefore they did not 
come to seek them. They knew that we were 
wont to discharge them with an admonition from 
such inquisition for matter of complaint, or that 
everything was done with all carefulness which 
seemed to be for their profit; for all was done 
under correction,* and all was considered with 
well-approved honesty. Thou, however, giving 
such strenuous attention to the deceits of certain 
parties and their vain words, hast made a stealthy 
leap to the celebrating of ordinations. For if, 
indeed, those with thee were constraining thee 
to this, and in their ignorance were doing vio- 
lence to ecclesiastical order, thou oughtest to 
have followed the common rule and have in- 
formed us by letter; and in that way what 
seemed expedient would have been done. And 
if perchance some persuaded you to credit their 
story that it was all over with us,—a thing of 
which thou couldest not have been ignorant, 
because there were many passing and repassing 
by us who might visit you, — even although, I 
say, this had been the case, yet thou oughtest to 
have waited for the judgment of the superior 
father and for his allowance of this practice. 
But without giving any heed to these matters, 
but indulging a different expectation, yea rather, 
indeed, denying all respect to us, thou hast pro- 


1 [The bishops of Alexandria are called Zofes to this day, and 
were so from the beginning. See vol. v. p 154. 

2 [Peter succeeded Theonas as sixteenth bishop and primate of 
Alexandria. See vol. iv. p. 384; also Neale, Pat. of Alex.,i. p. go.] 

3 Oportuerat ex populo properare ac nos exigere pro merito. 

4 Sub arguente. 





vided certain rulers for the people. For now we 
have learned, too, that there were also divisions,5 
because thy unwarrantable exercise of the right 
of ordination displeased many. And thou wert 
not persuaded to delay such procedure or re- 
strain thy purpose readily even by the word of 
the Apostle Paul, the most blessed seer,° and the 
man who put on Christ, who is the Christ of all 
of us no less; for he, in writing to his dearly- 
beloved son Timothy, says: “Lay hands sud- 
denly on no man, neither be partaker of other 
men’s sins.”? And thus he at once shows his 
own anxious consideration for him,® and gives 
him his example and exhibits the law according 
to which, with all carefulness and caution, par- 
ties are to be chosen for the honour of ordina- 
tion.2 We make this declaration to thee, that in 
future thou mayest study ’° to keep within the 
safe and salutary limits of the law. 


THE CONCLUSION OF THE EPISTLE OF THE BISHOPS. 


After receiving and perusing this epistle, he 
neither wrote any reply nor repaired to them in 
the prison, nor went to the blessed Peter. But 
when all these bishops and presbyters and dea- 
cons had suffered martyrdom in the prison at 
Alexandria, he at once entered Alexandria. Now 
in that city there was a certain person, by name 
Isidorus, turbulent in character, and possessed 
with the ambition of being a teacher. And 
there was also a certain Arius, who wore the 
habit of piety, and was in like manner possessed 
with the ambition to be a teacher. And when 
they discovered the object of Meletius’s passion '! 
and what it was that he sought, hastening to him, 
and looking with an evil eye on the episcopal 
authority of the blessed Peter, that the aim and 
desire of Meletius might be made patent,’? they 
discovered to Meletius certain presbyters, then 
in hiding, to whom the blessed Peter had given 
power to act as parish-visitors. And Meletius 
recommending them to improve the opportunity 
given them for rectifying their error, suspended 
them for the time, and by his own authority or- 
dained two persons in their place,'3 namely, one 
in prison and another in the mines. On learn- 
ing these things the blessed Peter, with much 
endurance, wrote to the people of Alexandria an 
epistle in the following terms.'4 





5 The manuscript reads chr#smata, for which schismata is pro- 
osed. 

® 6 Provtsorts— perhaps rather, THE PROVIDER — the saint who 
with careful forethought has mapped out our proper course in 
such matters. 

7 x Tim. vy, 22, 

8 Erga illum providentiam. 

9 The manuscript gives ordinando adnuntias, for which 1s pro- 
posed ordinand?. Adnuntianus. 

10 Reading studeas for studetur, 

Il Cupiditatem. 

12 Ut cogniscatur concupiscentia Meletit. 

13 The text is— Commendans ef occastonem Meletius, separa- 
vit eos, &c.: on which see especially Neander, iii p. 311 (Bohn). 

14 This epistle i is given elsewhere, [This volume, infra.) 


PAMPHILUS. 165 





PAMPHILUS. 


TRANSLATOR’S BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 


[4.D. 309.] According to the common account Pamphilus was a native of Berytus, the 
modern Beirfit, and a member of a distinguished Phoenician family. Leaving Berytus, however, 
at an early period, he repaired to Alexandria and studied under Pierius, the well-known head of 
the Catechetical school there. At a subsequent period he went to the Palestinian Cesareia, and 
was made a presbyter of the Church there under Bishop Agapius. In course of the persecutions 
of Diocletian he was thrown into prison by Urbanus, the governor of Palestine. This took place 
towards the end of the year 307 a.p., and his confinement lasted till the beginning of the year 
309, when he suffered martyrdom by order of Firmilianus, who had succeeded Urbanus in the 
governorship of the country. During his imprisonment he enjoyed the affectionate attendance 
of Eusebius, the Church historian, and the tender friendship which subsisted long between the 
two is well known. It was as a memorial of that intimacy that Eusebius took the surname of 
Pamphili. Pamphilus appears to have given himself up with great enthusiasm to the promotion 
of Biblical studies, and is spoken of as the founder of a theological school in which special 
importance was attached to exposition. He busied himself also with the transcription and dis- 
semination of the Scriptures and other writings, such as those of Origen, of whom he was a 
devoted follower. At Czesareia he established a great public library,’ consisting mainly of eccle- 
siastical writers ; and among the treasures of that library are mentioned the Ze¢rapla and Hexapla 
of Origen, from which, with the help of Eusebius, he produced a new and revised edition of the 
Septuagint. There is a statement in Jerome? to the effect that, though he was so great a student 
of the writings of others, Pamphilus, through an excess of modesty, wrote no work of his own, 
with exception of some letters to his friends.3 But there is a work bearing the title of 4x Exfosi- 
tion of the Chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, which is attributed by many to him, although 
others ascribe it to Euthalius, bishop of Sulce. And besides this there is also the Apology for 
Origen, of which, according to the statement of Photius,* the first five books were compiled by 
Pamphilus, in conjunction with Eusebius, during the period of his imprisonment, the sixth book 
being added by Eusebius after his friend’s martyrdom. Of this 4fo/ogy we possess now only the 
first book, and that, too, only in the faulty Latin version of Rufinus. There are repeated and 
warmly eulogistic references to Pamphilus in the Zcclestastical History of Eusebius. Thus he 
speaks of him as that holy martyr of our day; and as that most eloquent man, and that philoso- 
pher truly such in his life;® and again, as that most admirable man of our times, that glory of 
the church of Cesareta.’ He devotes the eleventh chapter of the eighth book also to a notice 
of Pamphilus and other martyrs. And besides all this he wrote a separate life of his friend, in 
three books, of which, however, all has perished, with exception of a few disputed fragments.® 





1 [Another glorious product of the school of Alexandria. ] 

2 Apol, contr. Ruf., book i, num. 9, Works, ii. p. 465. 

3 Proprit operis nthil omnino scripsit, exceptis epistolis guas ad amicos forte mittebat ; in tantum se humilitate dejecerat. 

4 Bibl. Cod., cxviil. p. 295. 

5 [brd., vi. 32. 

© Jbid., vii. 32, 

7 [bid., viii, 13. 

8 [Evidently he impressed Eusebius as an extraordinary man in an age of colossal minds, and we must lament the loss of his writings. ] 


166 


PAMPHILUS. 





AN EXPOSITION OF THE CHAPTERS OF THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.' 


Having had ourselves the advantage of the 
method and model received from our fathers 
and teachers, we attempt, in a modest way, to 
give these in this exposition of the chapters, 
entreating your forgiveness for the rashness of 
such an endeavour in us who are young in point 
both of years and of study,? and looking to have 
the indulgence’ of every one who reads this 
writing in prayer on our behalf. We make this 
exposition, therefore, after the history of Luke, 
the evangelist and historian. And, accordingly, 
we have indicated whole chapters by the letters 
of the alphabet,‘ and their subdivisions into parts 
we have noted by means of the asterisk.5 


A. Of Christ’s teaching after His resurrection, 
and of His appearing to the disciples, 
and of the promise of the gift of the 
Holy Ghost, and of the spectacle and 
manner of Christ’s assumption.® 

B. Peter’s discourse to those who were made 

disciples, on the subject of the death and 

reprobation 7 of Judas ;** in this chapter 
we have also the section on the substitu- 
tion of Matthias, who was elected by lot 
through the grace of God with prayer. 
the divine descent? of the Holy Ghost 
on the day of Pentecost which lighted 
on them who believed. In this we have 
also * the instruction delivered by Peter, 
and * passages from the prophets on the 
subject, and* on the passion and res- 
urrection and assumption of Christ, and 
the gift of the Holy Ghost ; also * of the 
faith of those present, and their salva- 
tion by baptism; and, further,* of the 
unity of spirit pervading the believers 
and promoting the common good, and of 
the addition made. to their number. 

D. Of the healing in (the name of) Christ of 
the man lame from his birth; and of the 
discourse '° of Peter, in which he reasons 


1 This éxOeors was edited, under the name of Euthalius, Bishop 

of Suice, towards the end of the preceding century, by Laurentius 

acagnius, in the collection of Monumenta Vetera, p. 428, published 

at Rome. Fabricius also compared the edition of Montfaucon with 
the Roman. This collation is added here. — MIGNE. 

2 The text is véot xpovp Te kal paOymatwy, éexagrov, &c.; for 
which Euthal., xpovwy Te Kai paOypatwy map’ vuwy éxdgrou, 

3 ouprepipopav Kourgouevor, 

4 But Euthal., dca pew vod wéAavos .. 
i.e., by the different colours of black and vermilion. 

5 These marks are wholly wanting in the Coislin Codex, from 
which Montfaucon edited the piece. But they are found in the Vati- 
can Codex. — TR. 

6 Euthal, adds, cai wept tis éevddkou nat Sevtépas avtov mapov- 
gias, i.e, and of His glorious and second coming 

7 amoBodAns. 

8 But Euthal. amooroAns, apostleship. 

9 emiporTncews. 

10 KaTnxnTEws. 


. dra 58 Tod KivvaBapews, 


and sympathizes and counsels with re- 
spect to his‘! salvation. And here we 
have * the interposition’? of the chief 
priests through jealousy of what had taken 
place, and their judgment on the miracle, 
and Peter’s confession '3 of the power and 
grace of Christ. Also the section on * 
the unbelieving chief priests, command- 
ing that they should not speak boldly in 
the name of Christ,'4 and of the dismissal *5 
of the apostles. Then* the thanksgiv- 
ings offered up by the Church for the 
faithful constancy of the apostles. 

E. Of the harmonious and universal fellowship 
of the believers; and also* of Ananias 
and Sapphira and their miserable end. 

F. Of the apostles being cast into prison, and 
led out of it by night by the angel of the 
Lord, who enjoined them to preach Jesus 
without restraint ; and* of the fact that, 
on the following day, the chief priests ap- 
prehended them again, and, after scour- 
ging them, sent them away with the charge 
not to teach any longer. Then* the 
trusty opinion of Gamaliel touching the 
apostles, together with certain examples 
and proofs. 

G. Of the election of the seven deacons. 

H. The rising and slanderous information of the 
Jews against Stephen, and his address 
concerning the covenant of God with 
Abraham, and concerning the twelve pa- 
triarchs. Also the account of the famine 
and the buying of corn, and the mutual 
recognition of the sons of Jacob, and of 
the birth of Moses and the appearance 
of God *° to Moses, which took place at 
Mount Sinai. * Also of the exodus and 
and calf-making of Israel (and other mat- 
ters), up to the times of Solomon and the 
building of the temple. * Then the ac- 
knowledgment of the supercelestial glory 
of Jesus Christ which was revealed to 
Stephen himself, on account of which 
Stephen was himself stoned, and _ fell 
asleep piously. 

I. Of the persecution of the Church and the 
burial of Stephen; also* of the healing 
of many in Samaria by Philip the apostle. 


11 But Euthal., adrav, their. 

12 émigtacia. 

13 Kuthal. inserts wept amecAjjs, and of the threatening of the 
chief priests. 

14 eni tw Ovduatt; but Euthal., ért 70 voy, 

Is Reading avécews with Euthal., instead of avaveorews. 

16 Geopaveca, 


Brit, - 





s ~ 25s > * an 
' ‘ 


PAMPHILUS. 


167 





J. Of Simon Magus, who believed and was bap- 
tized with many others; also* of the 
sending of Peter and John to them, and 
their praying for the descent of the Holy 
Ghost upon the baptized. 

K. That the participation of the Holy Ghost was 
not given ' for money,” nor to hypocrites, 
but to saints by faith ; also * of the hypoc- 
risy and the reproof of Simon. 

L. That the Lord helps the good and the believ- 
ing on the way to salvation, as is shown 
from the instance of the eunuch. 

M. Of the. divine call that came from heaven for 
Paul to the apostleship of Christ ; also * 
of the healing and the baptism of Paul 
by the hand of Ananias, in accordance 
with the revelation from God, and of his 
boldness of speech and his association 
with the apostles by the instrumentality 
of Barnabas.3 

N. Of the paralytic A®neas who was cured by 
Peter at Lydda. Also* the account of 
Tabitha, the friend of widows, whom Peter 
raised from the dead by means of prayer 
in Joppa. 

O. Of Cornelius, and what the angel said to him. 
Also what was spoken‘ to Peter from 
heaven with respect to the calling of the 
Gentiles. Then* that Peter, on being 
summoned, came to Cornelius. * The 
repetition by Cornelius of the things 
which the angel said5 to Cornelius him- 
self.* Peter’s instruction of them in 
Christ, and the gift of the Holy Ghost 
upon those who heard him, and how 
those who believed from among the Gen- 
tiles were baptized there. 

P. That Peter recounts to the apostles who con- 
tended with him® all the things that 
had happened in order and separately. 
* Then the sending of Barnabas to the 
brethren in Antioch. 

Q. The prophecy of Agabus respecting the fam- 
ine in the world,” and the liberal relief 
sent to the brethren in Jerusalem. 

R. The slaying of the Apostle James. * Also 
the apprehension of Peter by Herod, and 
the account of the manner in which the 
angel by divine command delivered him 
from his bonds, and how Peter, after show- 
ing himself to the disciples by night, 
quietly withdrew. Also of the punish- 
ment of the keepers, and then of the 





1 edidoro; Euthal., diSorat is given. 
2 Ore ovK a&pyupiov: Euthal., ov de’ apyuplov, 
3 Euthal., da BapvaBav, on Barnabas’s account. 
4 Euthal, ‘inserts marty, again. 
s The text is dv elmev o ayyedos, &c, But Euthal., dy 6 ayyedos 
émapwaptipye Kai Vpnyyirato, which the angel testified and showed. 
Siaxpibetae mpos aurov. 


7 The text gives oixoupertnis; Euthal,, oixovjevys. 


miserable and fatal overthrow® of the 
impious Herod. 

S. The sending of Barnabas and Paul by the 
Holy Ghost to Cyprus. * The things 
which he did? there in the name of 
Christ on Elymas the sorcerer. 

T. Paul’s admirable '° exposition of the truth con- 
cerning Christ, both from the law and 
from the prophets in their order, both 
historical and evangelical ; * his use both 
of the confuting and the argumentative 
mode of discourse on the subject of the 
transference of the word of preaching to 
the Gentiles, and of their persecution and 
their arrival at Iconium. 

U. How, when they had preached Christ in 
Iconium, and many had believed, the 
apostles were persecuted. 

V. Of the man lame from his birth in Lystra 
who was healed by the apostles; on ac- 
count of which they were taken by the 
people of the place for gods who had 
appeared on earth. After that, however, 
Paul is stoned there by the neighbouring 
people. 

W. That according to the decree and judgment 
of the apostles, the Gentiles who believe 
ought not to be circumcised. Here, also, 
is the epistle of the apostles themselves 
to those from among the Gentiles, on 
the subject of the things from which they 
should keep themselves." * The dissen- 
sion of Paul with Barnabas on account 
of Mark. 

X. Of the teaching of Timothy, and of the com- 
ing of Paul into Macedonia according 
to revelation. *Of the faith and salva- 
tion of a certain woman Lydia, and * of 
the cure of the damsel having a spirit of 
divination, on account of which the mas- 
ters of the damsel cast Paul into prison ; 
and * of the earthquake and miracle which 
happened there ; and how the jailer be- 
lieved and was baptized forthwith that 
‘same night with all his house."? * That 
the apostles on being besought went out 
from the prison. 

Y. Of the tumult that arose in Thessalonica on 
account of their preaching, and of the 
flight of Paul to Berea, and thence to 
Athens. 

Z. Of the inscription on the altar at Athens, and 
of the philosophic preaching and piety 
of Paul. 





8 The text gives xatachayys; Euthal., caragrpopis. 

9 Euthal., etpyicavro, they did. 

10 evOadrs. 

11 Reading gvAaxréwy with Euthal., instead of dvAakewr, 

12 The text gives mavevttos; Euthal., mavéagtios, Montfaucon 
reads mavoixé, 


168 


AA. Of Aquila and Priscilla, and the unbelief 
of the Corinthians, and of the good-will 
of God towards them according to fore- 
knowledge revealed to Paul. Also* of 
Priscus,' the chief ruler of the synagogue, 
who believed with certain others and was 
baptized. And* that a tumult being 
stirred up in Corinth, Paul departed ; and 
coming to Ephesus, and having dis- 
coursed there, he left it. *And con- 
cerning Apollos, an eloquent man and a 
believer. 

BRE Of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost 
conferred by means of the prayer of 
Paul on those who believed in Ephesus, 
and of the healing of the people. * Of 
the sons of Sceva, and as to its not being 
meet to approach? those who have be- 
come unbelieving and unworthy of the 
faith ; and of the confession of those who 
believed ;* and of the tumult that was 
stirred up in Ephesus by Demetrius, the 
silversmith, against the apostles. 

CC. Of the circuit of Paul, in which also we 
have the account of the death of Euty- 
chus and his restoration by prayer in 
Troas ; also Paul’s own pastoral exhorta- 
tions 3 to the presbyters at Ephesus ; also 
Paul’s voyage from Ephesus to Ceesareia 
in Palestine. 

DD. The prophecy of Agabus as to what should 
befall Paul in Jerusalem. 

EE. The address of James to Paul touching 
the matter that he should not offer to 
keep the Hebrews back from the prac- 
tice of circumcision. 

FF. Of the tumult that was excited against Paul 
in Jerusalem, and how the chief-cap- 
tain rescues him from the mob. * Also 
Paul’s speech* concerning himself and his 


t But Euthal., Kptomov, Crispus. 

2 mrpooxwpeiv; Euthal., éyxerpecv. 

3 Euthal., wapaiveots motwavtixy, pastoral exhortation. 
4 KatagTacts. 





MALCHION. 





vocation to be an apostle ; * and of what 
Ananias said to Paul in Damascus, and 
of the vision and the voice of God that 
befell him once in the temple. * And 
that when Paul was about to be beaten 
for these words, on declaring that he was 
a Roman, he was let go. 

GG. What Paul endured, and what he said, and 
what he did exactly 5 when he came down 
into the council. 

HH. Of the ambush planned by the Jews against 
Paul, and its discovery to Lysias; * and 
that Paul was sent to Cesareia to the 
governor with soldiers and with a letter. 

II. Of the accusation laid by Tertullus in Paul’s 
case, and of his defence of himself be- 
fore the governor. 

JJ. Of the removal of Felix and the arrival of 
Festus as his successor, and of Paul’s 
pleading before them,° and his dismissal. 

KK. The coming of Agrippa and Bernice, and 
their inquiry into the case of Paul.’ 
* Paul’s defence of himself before Agrippa 
and Bernice, respecting his nurture in the 
law, and his vocation to the Gospel. That 
Paul does no wrong to the Jews, Agrippa 
said to Festus. 

LL. Paul’s voyage to Rome, abounding in very 
many and very great perils. * Paul’s ex- 
hortation to those with him as to his 
hope of deliverance. The shipwreck of 
Paul, and how they effected their safety 
on the island of Melita, and what mar- 
vellous things he did on it. 

MM. How Paul reached Rome from Melita. 

NN. Of Paul’s discourse with the Jews in Rome. 


There are in all forty chapters; and the sec- 
tions following these, and marked with the aster- 
isk,® are forty-eight. 


5 ev@uvBddws, perhaps here, as Montfaucon makes it, sagactously. 
6 Euthal., éx’ avtov, before hin. 

7 Euthal., cata [avaov, agatust Paul. 

8 Euthal., dua cuvvaBapews, weth the vermilion. 


MALCHION. 


TRANSLATOR’S BIOGRAPHICAL 


NOTICE. 


[a.D.270.] Eusebius! speaks of Malchion as a man accomplished in other branches of learn- 
ing? and well-versed in Greek letters in particular, and as holding the presidency of the Sophists’ 
school at Antioch. Jerome; says that he taught rhetoric most successfully in the same city. 








i Hist, Ecci., vii. ag. 


2 avnp Ta Te GAAa Ady.os. 


3 De viris illustr., ch. 71. 








ee oe ~ a 
j j 

_ 

3 . 


MALCHION. 169 





Nor was it. only that he excelied in secular erudition ; but for the earnest sincerity of his Christian. 
faith he obtained the dignity of presbyter in the church of that place, as Eusebius also tells us. 
He took part in the Synod of Antioch, which Eusebius calls the final council, and which Gallandi 
and others call the second, in opposition to Pearson, who holds that there was but one council at 
Antioch. This synod met apparently about a.p. 269, and dealt with Paul of Samosata, who had . 
introduced the heresy of Artemon into the church of Antioch ; and Eusebius says that Malchion: 
was the only one who, in the discussion which took place there with the arch-heretic, and which’ 
was taken down by stenographers who were present, was able to detect the subtle and crafty sen- 
timents of the man. Paul’s real opinions being thus unveiled, after he had baffled the acuteness 
of his ecclesiastical judges for some time, he was at length convicted; and the discussion was - 
published, and a synodical epistle was sent on the subject to Dionysius, bishop of Rome, and 
to Maximus of Alexandria, and to all the provinces, which, according to Jerome (De vir. illustr., 
ch. 71), was written by Malchion, and of which we have extracts in Eusebius.' | 


I.—THE EPISTLE WRITTEN BY MALCHION, IN NAME OF THE SYNOD OF 
ANTIOCH, AGAINST PAUL OF SAMOSATA.:! 


To Dionysius and Maximus, and to all our 
fellows in the ministry throughout the world, 
both bishops and presbyters and deacons, and 
to the whole Catholic Church under heaven, 
Helenus and Hymenzus and Theophilus and 
Theotecnus and Maximus, Proclus, Nicomas, and 
Aelianus, and Paul and Bolanus and Protogenes 
and Hierax and Eutychius and Theodorus and 
Malchion and Lucius, and all the others who are 
with us, dwelling in the neighbouring cities and 
nations, both bishops and presbyters and deacons, 
together with the churches of God, send greet- 
ing to our brethren beloved in the Lord. 

1. After some few introductory words, they 
proceed thus : — We wrote to many of the bish- 
ops, even those who live at a distance, and ex- 
horted them to give their help in relieving us 
from this deadly doctrine ; among these, we ad- 
dressed, for instance, Dionysius, the bishop of 
Alexandria, and Firmilian of Cappadocia, those 
men of blessed name. Of these, the one wrote 
to Antioch without even deigning to honour the 
leader in this error by addressing him ; nor did 
he write to him in his own name, but to the whole 
district,2 of which letter we have also subjoined 
acopy. And Firmilian, who came twice in per- 
son, condemned the innovations in doctrine, as 
we who were present know and bear witness, and 
as many others know as well as we. But when 
he (Paul) promised to give up these opinions, he 
believed him ; and hoping that, without any re- 
proach to the Word, the matter would be rightly 
settled, he postponed his decision; in which 
action, however, he was deceived by that denier 
of his God and Lord, and betrayer of the faith 








| Elucidation I., p. 172.] 


t In Eusebius, vii. 30./ 
isdi See p. 163, note 3, supra,] 


2 raeoixta [= jurisdiction. 








which he formerly held. And now Firmilian was : 
minded to cross to Antioch ; and he came as far’ 
as Tarsus, as having already made trial of the: 
man’s infidel3 iniquity. But when we had just ' 
assembled, and were calling for him and waiting 
for his arrival, his end came upon him. 
2. After other matters again, they tell us in the 
following terms of what manner of life he was: 
— But there is no need of judging his actions’. 
when he was outside (the Church), when he re. 
volted from the faith and turned aside to spuri- 
ous and illegitimate doctrines. Nor need we say 
any thing of such matters as this, that, whereas 
he was formerly poor and beggarly, having neither » 
inherited a single possession from his fathers, nor 
acquired any property by art or by any trade, he 
has now come to have excessive wealth by his 
deeds of iniquity and sacrilege, and by those 
means by which he despoils and concusses the 
brethren, casting the injured unfairly in their ‘ 
suit,4 and promising to help them for a price, yet 
deceiving them all the while and to their loss, 
taking advantage of the readiness of those in 
difficulties to give in order to get deliverance 
from what troubled them, and thus supposing 
that gain is godliness. Neither need I say any 
thing about his pride and the haughtiness with 
which he assumed worldly dignities, and his wish- 
ing to be styled procurator® rather than bishop. 
and his strutting through the market-places, and 
reading letters and reciting them7 as he walked 
in public, and his being escorted by multitudes of 





3 apynordeov, 

4 xaTaBpaBevwy, perhaps = receiving bribes from. 

S‘r Tim. vi. 5. 

6 dovenvapios, the name given under the Emperors to those 
procurators who received 200 sestertia of annual salary. 

7 yrayopevwv. {[ Letters, e.g , from Zenobia.] 


170 


MALCHION. 





people going before him and following him ; so 
that he brought ill-will and hatred on the faith 
by his haughty demeanour and by the arrogance 
of his heart. Nor shall I say any thing of the 
quackery which he practises in the ecclesiastical 
assemblies, in the way of courting popularity and 
making a great parade, and astounding by such 
arts the minds of the less sophisticated ; nor of 
his setting up for himself a lofty tribunal and 
throne, so unlike a disciple of Christ ; nor of his 
having a secretum! and calling it by that name, 
after the manner of the rulers of this world ; nor 
of his striking his thigh with his hand and _ beat- 
ing the tribunal with his feet ; nor of his censur- 
ing and insulting those who did not applaud him 
nor shake their handkerchiefs,? as is done in the 
theatres, nor bawl out and leap about after the 
manner of his partisans, both male and female, 
who were such disorderly listeners to him, but 
chose to hear reverently and modestly as in the 
house of God; nor of his unseemly and violent 
attacks in the congregation upon the expounders 
of the Word who have already departed this life, 
and his magnifying of himself, not like a bishop, 
but like a sophist and juggler ; nor of his putting 
a stop to the psalms sung in honour of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, as the recent compositions of recent 
men, and preparing women to sing psalms in 
honour of himself in the midst of the Church, 
in the great day of the Paschal festival, which 
choristers one might shudder to hear. And be- 
sides, he acted on those bishops and presbyters, 
who fawned upon him in the neighbouring dis- 
tricts and cities, to advance the like opinions in 
their discourses to their people. 

3. For we may say, to anticipate a little what 
we intend to write below, that he does not wish 
toa acknowledge that the Son of God came down 
from heaven. And this is a statement which 
shall not be made to depend on simple asser- 
tion ; for it is proved abundantly by those memo- 
randa which we sent you, and not least by that 
passage in which he says that Jesus Christ is 
from below. And they who sing his praise and 
eulogise him among the people, declare that 
their impious teacher has come down as an angel 
from heaven. And such utterances the haughty 
man does not check, but is present even when 
they are made. And then again there are these 
women — these adopted sisters,3 as the people 
of Antioch call them— who are kept by him 





! oyxpytov (from the Latin secerno, to separate) was the name 
given to the elevated place, railed in and curtained, where the magis- 
trate sat to decide cases. 

2 xatageiovart Tats OBovats, alluding to the custom of shaking the 
orarta or linen handkerchiefs as a token of applause. [Elucid. II.] 

3 guvetcdxtous yuvaikas, priests’-housekeepers. See Lange on 
Nicephorus, vi. 30, and B. Rhenanus on Rufinus, vii.. The third 
canon of the Nicene Council in the Codex Corbeiensis has this title, 
De subintroductts td est adoptivis sorortbus, Of the subintro- 
duced, that ts, the.adopted sisters. See also on the abuse, Jerome, 
in'the Eprstle to Eustochtus. They appear also to have been called 
commanentes and agapet@. See the note of Valesius in Migne. 
[ Vol. ii. p. 47, and (same vol.) Elucidation II. p. 57.] ; 





and by the presbyters and deacons with him, 
whose incurable sins in this and other matters, 
though he is cognisant of them, and. has con- 
victed them, he connives at concealing, with the 
view of keeping the men subservient to himself, 
and preventing them, by fear for their own posi- 
tion, from daring to accuse him in the matter 
of his impious words and deeds. Besides this, 
he has made his followers rich, and for that he 
is loved and admired by those who set their 
hearts on these things. But why should we write 
of these things? For, beloved, we know that 
the bishop and all the clergy4 ought to be an 
example in all good works to the people. Nor 
are we ignorant of the fact that many have fallen 
away through introducing these women into their 
houses, while others have fallen under suspicion. 
So that, even although one should admit that he 
has been doing nothing disgraceful in this matter, 
yet he ought at least to have avoided the sus- 
picion that springs out of such a course of con- 
duct, lest perchance some might be offended, 
or find inducement to imitate him. For how, 
then, should any one censure another, or warn 
him to beware of yielding to greater familiarity 
with a woman, lest perchance he might slip, as 
it is written : 5 if, although he has dismissed one, 
he has still retained two with him, and these in 
the bloom of their youth, and of fair counte- 
nance ; and if when he goes away he takes them 
with him ; and all this, too, while he indulges in 
luxury and surfeiting ? 

4. And on account of these things all are 
groaning and lamenting with themselves; yet 
they have such a dread of his tyranny and power 
that they cannot venture on accusing him.” And 
of these things, as we have said already, one 
might take account in the case of a man who 
held Catholic sentiments and belonged to our 
own number; but as to one who has betrayed ° 
the mystery (of the faith), and who swaggers7 
with the abominable heresy of Artemas, — for 
why should we hesitate to disclose his father ? — 
we consider it unnecessary to exact of him an 
account for these things. 

5. Lhen at the close of the epistle they add the 
Jollowing words: —We have been compelled, 
therefore, to excommunicate this man, who thus 
opposeth God Himself, and refuses submission, 
and to appoint in his place another bishop for 
the Church Catholic, and that, as we trust, by 
the providence of God—namely, the son of 
Demetrianus, a man of blessed memory, and one 
who presided over the same Church with dis- 
tinction in former times, Domnus by name, a 
man endowed with all the noble qualities which 





4 lepatetov, 

S Referring either to Proverbs vi. or to Ecclesiasticus xxv. 
6 eopxnoduevov, danced away. 

7 éumoumevovta, ; 





Ave \Y 


MALCHION. 


become a bishop. And this fact we have com- 
municated to you in order that ye may write 
him, and receive letters of communion! from 





1 kowwwvika yoaupata, On this Valesius gives the following note: 
— The Latins call these zttere communicatoria, the use of which 
is of very ancient date in the Church, They called the same also 
Jormate, as Augustine witnesses in Epistle 163. There were, more- 
over, two kinds of them. For there were some which were given to 
the clergy and laity when about to travel, that they might be admitted 
to communion by foreign bishops. And there were others which 
bishops were in the way of sending to other bishops, and which they 





171 





him. And that other may write to. Artemas, if 
it please him ; and those who think with Artemas 
may hold communion with him, if they are so 
minded. 


in turn received from others, for the purpose of attesting their inter- 
communion; of which sort the Synod speaks here. These were 
usually sent by recently-ordained bishops soon after their ordination. 
Augustine, Epistle 162; Cyprian, in the Epistle to Cornelius, p. 320; 
and the Synodical Epistle of the Council of Sardica, appear to refer to 
these, though they may refer also to the formate. {Vo i. p. 12, 0.9. ] 


II. — FRAGMENTS APPARENTLY OF THE SAME EPISTLE OF THE SYNOD OF 
ANTIOCH ; TO WIT, OF THAT PART OF IT WHICH IT IS AGREED THAT 


EUSEBIUS LEFT UNNOTICED.'! 


He says, therefore, in the commentaries (they 
speak of Paul), that he maintains the dignity of 
wisdom. 


And thereafter : 


If, however, he had been united? according 
to formation and generation, this is what befalls 
the man. And again: For that wisdom, as we 
believe, was not congenerate 3 with humanity sub- 
stantially, but qualitatively.4 


And thereafter: 


In what respect, moreover, does he mean to 
allege that the formation’ of Christ is different 
and diverse from ours, when we hold that, in this 
one thing of prime consequence, His constitution 
differs from ours, to wit, that what in us is the 
interior man, is in Him the Word.® 


And thereafter : 


If he means to allege that Wisdom dwells in 
Him as in-no other, this expresses indeed the 
same mode of inhabitation, though it makes it 
excel in respect of measure and multitude; He 
being supposed to derive a superior knowledge 
from the Wisdom, say for example, twice as large 
as others, or any other number of times as large ; 
or, again, it may be less than twice as large a 
knowledge as others have. This, however, the 
catholic and ecclesiastical canons disallow, and 
hold rather that other men indeed received of 
Wisdom as an inspiration from without, which, 





l In Leontius of Byzantium, contra Nestor., book iii., towards 
the end. 

2 Copulatus erat. 

3 Congeneratam. 

4 Secundum qualitatem. 

5 Formationem. 

6 We say, that as the exterior and the interior man are one person, 
so God the Word and humanity have been assumed as one person, a 
thing which Paul denies. — Can. 





though with them, is distinct from them ;7 but 
that Wisdom in verity came of itself substantially 
into His body by Mary. 


And after other matters: 


And they hold that there are not two Sons. 
But if Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and if 
Wisdom also is the Son of God; and if the 
Wisdom is one thing and Jesus Christ another, 
there are two Sons. 


And thereafter : 


Moreover understand (Paul would say) the 
union with Wisdom in a different sense, namely 
as being one according to instruction and par- 
ticipation ;* but not as if it were formed accord- 
ing to the substance in the body. 


And after other matters : 


Neither was the God who bore the human 
body and had assumed it, without knowledge 9 
of human affections ‘° in the first instance ; '* nor 
was the human body without knowledge, in the 
first instance, of divine operations in him in 
whom He (the God) was, and by whom He 
wrought these operations. He was formed, in 
the first instance, as man in the womb; and, in 
the second instance, the God also was in the 
womb, united essentially with the human,"3 that 
is to say, His substance being wedded with the 
man. 


7 Alia est apud tpsos. 

8 Secundum disciplinam et partictpationem. Paul of Samo- 
sata used to say that the humanity was united with the Wisdom as 
instruction (disczf/ina) is united with the learner by participation, 
—Can. [See Hooker, book v. cap. 52, sec. 4.] 

9 Expers. 

10 Passionum, sufferings. 

tM Principaliter. 

12 Secundarto, i.e., kata Sevtepowy Adyov. — TURRIAN' 

13 guvovawwpévos To avOpwrive. 


172 


ELUCIDATIONS. 





IlIl.—FROM THE ACTS OF THE DISPUTATION CONDUCTED BY MALCHION | 


AGAINST PAUL 


The compound is surely made up of the sim- 


ple elements,? even as in the instance of Jesus 
Christ, who was made one (person), constituted 
by God the Word, and a human body which is 
of the seed of David, and who subsists without 
having any manner of division between the two, 
but in unity. You, however, appear to me to 
decline to admit a constitution 3 after this fash- 
ion ; to the effect that there is not in this person, 
the Son of God according to substance, but only 
the Wisdom according to participation. For you 
made this assertion, that the Wisdom bears dis- 


1 In Petrus Diaconus, De [ncarnat. ad Fulgentium, ch. 6. 
Amon; the works of Fulgentius, Epistle 16. 
* simplicibus fit certe compositum. 
3 Comfpositionem. 


OF SAMOSATA.! 


pensing, and therefore cannot be compounded ; 4 
and you do not consider that the divine Wisdom 
remained undiminished, even as it was before it 
evacuated itself;5 and thus in this self-evacua- 
tion, which it took upon itself in compassion (for 
us), it continued undiminished and unchange- 
able. And this assertion you also make, that 
the Wisdom dwelt in Him, just as we also dwell 
in houses, the one in the other,° and yet not as 
if we formed a part of the house, or the house 
a part of us. 


4 Outa sapientia dispendium patiatur et tdeo ere essé 
non possit —the sense intended being perhaps just that Paul alleged 
that the divine Wisdom admitted of being dispensed or imparted to 
another, but not of being substantially united with him. — Tr. 

5 Exinanisset. 

6 Some read alter zn altero, others alter tn altera. 


IV.—A POINT IN THE SAME DISPUTATION.' 


Did I not say before that you do not admit 
that the only-begotten Son, who is from all eter- 
nity before every creature, was made substantially 





! From the same Acts in Leontius, as above. 


existent? in the whole person of the Saviour ;? 
that is to say, was united wth Him according 
to substance ? 


2 ovormaBat, 
3 In toto Salvatore. 


ELUCIDATIONS. 


is 


(The epistle written by Malchion, p. 169.) 


MAatcuion, though a presbyter of Antioch, reflects the teaching of Alexandria, and illustrates 


its far-reaching influence. 


Firmilian, presiding at the Council of Antioch, was a pupil of Origen ; 
and Dionysius was felt in the counail, though unable to be present. 


Malchion and Firmilian, 


therefore, vindicate the real mind of Origen, though speaking in language matured and guarded. 
This council was, providentially, a rehearsal for Niczea. 


Ii. 


(Putting a stop to psalms, etc., p. 170.) 


Coleridge notes this, with an amusing comment on Paulus Samosatenus,' and refers to Pliny’s 


letter, of which see vol. v. p. 604, this series. 
gives the passage of our author as follows : 


Jeremy Taylor, from whom Coleridge quotes, 


“ Psalmos et cantus qui ad Dom. nostri J. C. honorem 


decantari solent, tanquam recentiores et a viris recentioris memorize editos, exploserit” (Works, 


ii. p. 281, ed: Bohn, 1844). 
Origen : 


“‘ Never was a great man so misunderstood as Origen.” 


Observe what Coleridge says elsewhere? on errors attributed to 


He adds: “The caro noumenon 


‘ was what Origen meant by Christ’s ‘ flesh consubstantial with His Godhead.’ ” 





t Notes on English Divines, vol. i. p. 199. 





Lbéd., p. 313. 











F. SALMOND, MAL 


Ss. D. 


THE REV. 


rary 





















SRM Sen Se NS Sti eee ” es 





es 


INTRODUCTORY NOTICE 


TO 


ARCHELAUS. 


[4.D. 277.] The Manichean heresy, which was destined to operate so terribly against the 
Church and the purity of the Gospel, encountered its earliest successful antagonism in the 7he- 
baid; and I have not doubted the wisdom of prefixing this Dispusation to the veritable name 
and work of Alexander of Lycopolis, as important to the complete history of the great Alexan- 
drian school. The Edinburgh translator of this work regards it as an “authentic relic of an- 
tiquity,”” in spite of Beausobre, who treats it as a romance. I have forced myself, in this 
republication, to reject no theory of the Edinburgh collaborators to which I have not been able 
to give as much critical attention, at least, as they have evidently bestowed upon their work. It 
seems to me a well-sustained presumption that the work is fundamentally real, and Dr. Neander 
admits its base of fact. It is useful, at any rate, in its form and place, as here presented, and so 
much may be inferred from the following : — 


TRANSLATOR’S INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 


A CERTAIN memorable Disputation, which was conducted by a bishop of the name of Arche- 
laus with the heretic Manes, is mentioned by various writers of an early date.' | What professes to 
be an account of that Disputation has come down to us in a form mainly Latin, but with parts in 
Greek. A considerable portion of this Latin version was published by Valesius in his edition of 
Socrates and Sozomen, and subsequently by others in greater completeness, and with the addi- 
tion of the Greek fragments.? There seems to be a difference among the ancient authorities cited 
above as to the person who committed these Acés to writing. Epiphanius and Jerome take it to 
have been Archelaus himself, while Heraclianus, bishop of Chalcedon, represents it to have been 
a certain person named Hegemonius. In Photius; there is a statement to the effect that this 
Heraclianus, in confuting the errors of the Manichzeans, made use of certain Acts of the Dispu- 
tation of Bishop Archelaus with Manes which were written by Hegemonius. And there are 
various passages in the Acés themselves which appear to confirm the opinion of Heraclianus.‘ 
Zacagnius, however, thinks that this is but an apparent discrepancy, which is easily reconciled on 








Thus Cyril of Jerusalem, in the sixth book of his Catecheses, §§ 27 and 30, tells us how Manes fled into Mesopotamia, and was met 
there by that shield of righteousness (6mAov d:xatoavvns) Bishop Archelaus, and was refuted by him in the presence of a number of Greek 
philosophers, who had been brought together as judges of the discussion. Epiphanius, in his Heveszes, |xvi., and again in his work De 
Mensurts et Podertbus, § 20, makes reference to the same occasion, and gives some excerpts from the Acts of the Disputation. And 
there are also passages of greater or less importance in Jerome (De vir. tllustr., ch. 72), Socrates (Hist. Eccles., i. 22), Heraclianus bishop 
of Chalcedon (as found in Photius, Bid/éotheca, Cod. xcv.), Petrus Siculus (Historia Manichaorum, pp. 25, 35) 37)» Photius (Adversus 
Manichaos, book i., edited in the Bib/ioth. Cotslin., Montfaucon, pp. 356, 358), and the anonymous authors of the Libellus Synodicus, 
ch. 27, and the Historia Hareseos Manicheorum in the Codex Regius of Turin. [See Cyril’s text in Routh, &. S., vol. v. pp. 198-205. ] 

2 As by Zacagnius at Rome, in 1698, in his Collectanea Monumentorum Veterum Ecclesia Grace ac Latine ; by Fabricius, in 
the Spreilegium Sanctorum Patrum Sacult, iii., in his edition of Hippolytus, etc. 

3 Biblioth., Cod. Ixxxv. [Coleridge thinks “‘ Manes” himself a myth, “a doubtful Zs.” 

4 See especially ch. 39 and 55. [Note reference to John de Soyres, vol. v. p. 604, this series. ] 

175 


a y “el 1 a. ira ay. 


176 INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 





the supposition that the book was first composed by Archelaus himself in Syriac, and afterwards 
edited, with certain amendments and additions, by Hegemonius, That the work was written 
originally in Syriac is clear, not only from the express testimony of Jerome,' but also from inter- 
nal evidence, and specially from the explanations offered now and again of the use of Greek 
equivalents. It is uncertain who was the author of the Greek version; and we can only con- 
jecture that Hegemonius, in publishing a new edition, may also have undertaken a translation into 
the tongue which would secure a much larger audience than the original Syriac. But that this 
Greek version, by whomsoever accomplished, dates from the very earliest period, is proved by the 
excerpts given in Epiphanius. As to the Latin interpretation itself, all that we can allege is, that 
it must in all probability have been published after Jerome’s time, who might reasonably be 
expected to have made some allusion to it if it was extant in his day; and before the seventh 
century, because, in quoting the Scriptures, it does not follow the Vulgate edition, which was 
received generally throughout the West by that period. That the Latin translator must have had 
before him, not the Syriac, but the Greek copy, is also manifest, not only from the general idio- 
-matic character of the rendering, but also from many nicer indications.? 

The precise designation of the seat of the bishopric of Archelaus has been the subject of 
considerable diversity of opinion. Socrates. and Epiphanius+ record that Archelaus was bishop 
of Caschar, or Caschara.s Epiphanius, however, does not keep consistently by that scription.® 
In the opening sentence of the Acés themselves it appears as Carchar.?7 Now we know that there 
were at least two towns of the name of Carcha: for the anonymous Ravenna geographer ® tells 
us that there was a place of that name in Arabia Felix; and Ammianus Marcellinus 9 mentions 
another beyond the Tigris, within the Persian dominion. ‘The clear statements, however, to the 
effect that the locality of the bishopric of Archelaus was in Mesopotamia, make it impossible 
that, either of these two towns could have been the seat of his rule. Besides this, in the third 
chapter of the Ac¢s themselves we find the name Charra occurring ; and hence Zacagnius and 
others have concluded that the place actually intended is the scriptural Charran, or Haran, in 
Mesopotamia, which is also written Charra in Paulus Diaconus,'? and that the form Carchar or 
Carchara was either a mere error of the transcribers, or the vulgar provincial designation. It 
must be added, however, that Neander"' allows this to be only a very uncertain conjecture, while 
others hold that Caschar is the most probable scription, and that the town is one altogether 
different from the ancient Haran. 

The date of the Disputation itself admits of tolerably exact settlement. Epiphanius, indeed, 
says that Manes fled into Mesopotamia in the ninth year of the reign of Valerianus and Gallienus, 
and that the discussion with Archelaus took place about the same time. ‘This would carry the 

date back to about 262 a.p. But this statement, although he is followed in it by Petrus Siculus 
and Photius, is inconsistent with the specification of times which he makes in dealing with the 
error of the Manichzans in his book On the Heresies. From the 37th chapter of the Acs, how- 
ever, we find that the Disputation took place, not when Gallienus, but when Probus held the 


1 De vir. tllustr., ch. 72. 

2 Such as the apparent confusion between ajp and avjp in ch. 8, and again between Aotpds and Acuds in the same chapter, and between 
myooe and mAyoge: in ch. 9, and the retention of certain Greek words, sometimes absolutely, and at other times with an explanation, as 
cybi, apocrusis, etc. 

3 Hest. Eccles., i. 22, 

4 Heres., \xvi. ch. 5 and 7, and De Mens. et Pond., ch. 20. 

5 Kaoxapwr, 

6 For elsewhere (Heves., Ixvi. 11) he writes Kaoxdpny, or, according to another reading, which is held by Zacagnius to be corrupt | 
KaAxapwr, | 
7 And that form is followed by Petrus Siculus (H7st. Mantch., p. 37) and Photius (lib. i., Adv. Manich.), who, in epitomizing the 

statements of Epiphanius, write neither Kacxdpwv nor KaAxdpwr, but Kapxapwr. 

8 Geogr., book ii. ch. 7. 

9 Book xviii. 23, and xxv, 20, 21. | 

10 Hyrst. Misc., xxii. 20. | 

MI Church History, ii. p. 165, ed. Bohn. 

12 De Mensur. et Pond., ch. 20. 











“a 
Ia 
= 
a“ 
} 
i 


INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 177 








empire, and that is confirmed by Cyril of Jerusalem.t | The exact year becomes also clearer from 


Eusebius, who? seems to indicate the second year of the reign of Probus as the time when the 
Manichean heresy attained general publicity — Secundo anno Probi ... insana Manicheorum 
herests in commune humani generis malum exorta; and from Leo Magnus, who in his second 
Discourse on Pentecost also avers that Manicheus became notorious in the consulship of Probus 


. and Paulinus. And as this consulship embraced part of the first and part of the second years of 


the empire of Probus, the Disputation itself would thus be fixed as occurring in the end of A.D. 277 
or the beginning of 278, or, according to the precise calculation of Zacagnius, between July and 
December of the year 277. 

That the Acés of this Disputation constitute an authentic relic of antiquity, seems well estab- 
lished by a variety of considerations. Epiphanius, for instance, writing about the year a.D. 376, 
makes certain excerpts from them which correspond satisfactorily with the extant Latin version. 
Socrates, again, whose Ecclesiastical History dates about 439, mentions these Acés, and acknowl- 
edges that he drew the materials for his account of the Manichzan heresy from them. The book 
itself, too, offers not a few evidences of its own antiquity and authenticity. The enumeration given 
of the various heretics who had appeared up to the time of Archelaus, the mention of his presence 
at the siege of the city,3 and the allusions to various customs, have all been pressed into that 
service, as may be seen in detail in the elaborate dissertation prefixed by Zacagnius in his Codlec- 
tanca Monumentorum Ecclesie Grece. At the same time, it is very evident that the work has 
come down to us in a decidedly imperfect form. There are, for example, arguments by Manes 
and answers by Archelaus recorded in Cyril4 which are not contained in our Latin version at all. 
And there are not a few notes of discrepancy and broken connections in the composition itself, 
which show that the manuscripts must have been defective, or that the Latin translator took great 
liberties with the Greek text, or that the Greek version itself did not faithfully reproduce the 
original Syriac. On the historical character of the work Neander® expresses himself thus :7 
“These Acts manifestly contain an ill-connected narrative, savouring in no small degree of the 
romantic. Although there is some truth at the bottom of it —as, for instance, in the statement 
of doctrine there is much that wears the appearance of truth, and is confirmed also by its agree- 
ment with other representations : still the Greek author seems, from ignorance of Eastern languages 
and customs, to have introduced a good deal that is untrue, by bringing in and confounding 
together discordant stories through an uncritical judgment and exaggeration.” 


(Spot aT SES 
1 Cateches., vi. p. 140. 
2 Chrontcon, lib. post., p. 177. 
3 In ch. 24. 
4 Catech., vi. p. m. 147. 
S$ As in the r2th, 25th, and 28th chapters. 
© [Compare Routh, Re/iguie Sacra, vol. v. pp. 4-206, and his everywhere learned notes. ] 
7 Church History, ii. pp. 165, 166, ed, Bohn. [Compare Robertson, vol. i. pp. 136-144] 











THE ACTS OF THE DISPUTATION! 
WITH THE HERESIARCH MANES, 


1. THE true THESAURUS ;? to wit, the Disputa- 
tion conducted in Carchar, a city of Mesopotamia, 
before Manippus and AXgialeus and Claudius and 
Cleobolus, who acted as judges. In this city of 
Mesopotamia there was a certain man, Marcellus 
by name, who was esteemed as a person worthy 
of the highest honour for his manner of life, his 
pursuits, and his lineage, and not less so for his 
discretion and his nobility of character: he was 
possessed also of abundant means ; and, what is 
most important of all, he feared God with the 
deepest piety, and gave ear always with due rever- 
ence to the things which were spoken of Christ. 
In short, there was no good quality lacking in 
that man, and hence it came to pass that he was 
held in the greatest regard by the whole city ; 
while, on the other hand, he also made an ample 
return for the good-will of his city by his munifi- 
cent and oft-repeated acts of liberality in bestow- 
ing on the poor, relieving the afflicted, and giving 
help to the distressed. But let it suffice us to 
have said thus much, lest by the weakness of our 
words we rather take from the man’s virtues than 
adduce what is worthy of their splendour. I 
shall come, therefore, to the task which forms 
my subject. On a certain occasion, when a large 
body of captives were offered to the bishop 
Archelaus by the soldiers who held the camp in 
that place, their numbers being some seven thou- 
sand seven hundred, he was harassed with the 
keenest anxiety on account of the large sum of 
money which was demanded by the soldiers as 
the price of the prisoners’ deliverance. And as 
he could not conceal his solicitude, all aflame for 
the religion and the fear of God, he at length 
hastened to Marcellus, and explained to him the 
importance and difficulty of the case. And when 
that pattern of piety, Marcellus, heard his narra- 
tion, without the least delay he went into his 
house, and provided the price demanded for the 
prisoners, according to the value set upon them 
by those who had led them captive ; and unlock- 





1 Of Archelaus, bishop of Caschar in Mesopotamia. 
2 Treasury. 
3 In Epiphanius, Heres., Ixvi. 10, it is Marsipus. 








ing the treasures of his goods, he at once dis- 
tributed the gifts of piety* among the soldiers, 
without any severe consideration of number or 
distinction,5 so that they seemed to be presents 
rather than purchase-moneys. And those soldiers 
were filled with wonder and admiration at the 
grandeur of the man’s piety and munificence, 
and were struck with amazement, and felt the 
force® of this example of pity; so that very 
many of them were added to the faith of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, and threw off the belt of mili- 
tary service,” while others withdrew to their camp, 
taking scarcely a fourth part of the ransom, and 
the rest made their departure without receiving 
even so much as would defray the expenses of 
the way. 

2. Marcellus, as might well be expected, was 
exceedingly gratified by these incidents; and 
summoning one of the prisoners; by name Cor- 
tynius, he inquired of him the cause of the war, 
and by what chance it was that they were over- 
come and bound with the chains of captivity. 
And the person addressed, on obtaining liberty 
to speak, began to express himself in these 
terms: “My lord Marcellus, we believe in the 
living God alone. And we have a custom of 
such a nature as I shall now describe, which has 
descended to us by the tradition of our brethren 
in the faith, and has been regularly observed by 
us up to the present day. ‘The practice is, that 
every year we go out beyond the bounds of the 
city, in company with our wives and children, 
and offer up supplications to the only and invisi- 
ble God, praying Him to send us rains for our 
fields and crops. Now, when we were cele- 
brating this observance at the usual time and in 
the wonted manner, evening surprised us as we 
lingered there, and were still fasting. Thus we 





4 Pretatis pretia, 

5 Nec numero aliquo nec discretione ulla distinguit. 
guzt, some propose drstribuzt. 

eading | commonentur, as in the text. 
suggested, = ‘‘ were deeply moved.” 

7 On the attitude of the Christians of the primitive Church towards 
warfare, see Tertullian’s De Corona Militis, ch. 11, and the twelfth 
canon of the Nicene Council. 

8 [The similar institution of the Rogation fasts in the Westis referred 
to the filth century, Pellicia, p. 372; Hooker, book vy. cap. xli. 2.] 


179 


For d7strn- 


Commtoventur is also 


18O 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 





were feeling the pressure of two of the most try- 
ing things men have to endure, — namely, fast- 
ing and want of sleep. But about midnight sleep 
enviously and inopportunely crept upon us, and 
with necks drooping and unstrung, and heads 
hanging down, it made our faces strike against 
our knees." Now this took place because the 
time was at hand when by the judgment of God 
we were to pay the penalty proper to our deserts, 
whether it might be that we were offenders in 
ignorance, or whether it might be that with the 
consciousness of wrong we nevertheless had not 
given up our sin. Accordingly at that hour a 
multitude of soldiers suddenly surrounded us, 
supposing us, as I judge, to have lodged our- 
selves in ambush there, and to be persons with 
full experience and skill in fighting battles ; and 
without making any exact inquiry into the cause 
of our gathering there, they threatened us with 
war, not in word, but at once by the sword. And 
though we were men who had never learned to 
do injury to any one, they wounded us pitilessly 
with their missiles, and thrust us through with 
their spears, and cut our throats with their 
swords. Thus they slew, indeed, about one 
thousand and three hundred men of our num- 
ber, and wounded other five hundred. And 
when the day broke clearly, they carried off the 
survivors amongst us as prisoners here, and that, 
too, in a way showing their utter want of pity for 
us. For they drove us before their horses, spur- 
ring us on by blows from their spears, and im- 
pelling us forward by making the horses’ heads 
press upon us. And those who had sufficient 
powers of endurance did indeed hold out; but 
very many fell down before the face of their 
cruel masters, and breathed out their life there ; 
and mothers, with arms wearied, and utterly 
powerless with their burdens, and distracted by 
the threats of those behind them, suffered the 
little ones that were hanging on their breasts to 
fall to the ground ; while all those on whom old 
age had come were sinking, one after the other, 
to the earth, overcome with their toils, and ex- 
hausted by want of food. The proud soldiers 
nevertheless enjoyed this bloody spectacle of 
men continually perishing, as if it had been a 
kind of entertainment, while they saw some 
stretched on the soil in hopeless prostration, 
and beheld others, worn out by the fierce fires 
of thirst and with the bands of their tongues 
utterly parched, lose the power of speech, and 
beheld others with eyes ever glancing backwards, 
groaning over the fate of their dying little ones, 
while these, again, were constantly appealing to 
their most unhappy mothers with their cries, and 
the mothers themselves, driven frantic by the 
severities of the robbers, responded with their 





' Reading cervictbus degravatis et laxts, demtsso cafpite, 
Srontem genibus elidit, The text gives demerso. 








lamentations, which indeed was the only thing 
they could do freely. And those of them whose 
hearts were most tenderly bound up with their 
offspring chose voluntarily to meet the same pre- 
mature fate of death with their children; while 
those, on the other hand, who had some capacity 
of endurance were carried off prisoners here with 
us. Thus, after the lapse of three days, during 
which time we had never been allowed to take 
any rest, even in the night, we were conveyed to 
this place, in which what has now taken place after 
these occurrences is better known to yourself.’”’ 
3. When Marcellus, the man of consummate 
piety, had heard this recital, he burst into a 
flood of tears, touched with pity for misfortunes 
so great and so various. But making no delay, 
he at once prepared victuals for the sufferers, 
and did service with his own hand for the 
wearied ; in this imitating our father Abraham 
the patriarch, who, when he entertained the 
angels hospitably on a certain occasion, did not 
content himself with merely giving the order to 
his slaves to bring a calf from the herd, but did 
himself, though advanced in years, go and place 
it on his shoulders and fetch it in, and did with 
his own hand prepare food, and set it before 
the angels. So Marcellus, in discharge of a sim- 
ilar office, directed them to be seated as his 
guests in companies of ten; and when the seven 
hundred tables were all provided, he refreshed 
the whole body of the captives with great de- 
light, so that those who had had strength to sur- 
vive what they had been called to endure, forgot 
their toils, and became oblivious of all their ills. 
When, however, they had reached the fifteenth 
day, and while Marcellus was still liberally sup- 
plying all things needful for the prisoners, it 
seemed good to him that they should all be put 
in possession of the means of returning to their 
own parts, with the exception of those who were 
detained by the attention which their wounds 
demanded ; and providing the proper remedies 
for these, he instructed the rest to depart to their 
own country and friends. And even to all these 
charities Marcellus added yet larger deeds of 
piety. For with a numerous band of his own 
dependants he went to look after the burying of 
the bodies of those who had perished on the 
march; and for as many of these as he could 
discover, of whatsoever condition, he securéd 
the sepulture which was meet for them. And 
when this service was completed he returned to 
Charra, and gave permission to the wounded to 
return thence to their native country when their 
health was sufficiently restored, providing also 
most liberal supplies for their use on their jour- 
ney. And truly the estimate of this deed made 
a magnificent addition to “re repute of the other 
noble actions of Marcellus; for through that 
whole territory the fame of the piety of Marcellus 





THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. ' 


181° 





spread so grandly, that large numbers of men 
belonging to various cities were inflamed with 
the intensest desire to see and become acquainted 
with the man, and most especially those persons 
who had not had occasion to bear penury before, 
— to all of whom this remarkable man, following 
the example of a Marcellus of old, furnished 
aid most indulgently, so that they all declared 
that there was no one of more illustrious piety 
than this man. Yea, all the widows, too, who 
were believers in the Lord had recourse to him, 
while the imbecile also could reckon on obtain- 
ing at his hand most certain help to meet their 
circumstances ; and the orphaned, in like man- 
ner, were all supported by him, so that his house 
was declared to be the hospice for the stranger 
and the indigent. And above all this, he re- 
tained in a remarkable and singular measure his 
devotion to the faith, building up his own heart 
upon the rock that shall not be moved. 

4. Accordingly,’ as this man’s fame was be- 
coming always the more extensively diffused 
throughout different localities, and when it had 
now penetrated even beyond the river Stranga, 
the honourable report of his name was carried 
into the territory of Persia. In this country dwelt 
a person called Manes, who, when this man’s re- 
pute had reached him, deliberated largely with 
himself as to how he might entangle him in the 
snares of his doctrine, hoping that Marcellus 
might be made an upholder of his dogma. For 
he reckoned that he might make himself master 
of the whole province, if he could only first 
attach such a man to himself. 
however, his mind was agitated with the doubt 
whether he should at once repair in person to 
the man, or first attempt to get at him by letter ; 
for he was afraid lest, by any sudden and unex- 


pected introduction of himself upon the scene, | 


some mischance might possibly befall him. At 
last, in obedience to a subtler policy, he resolved 
to write ; and calling to him one of his disciples, 
by name Turbo,? who had been instructed by 
Addas, he handed to him an epistle, and bade 
him depart and convey it to Marcellus. This 
adherent accordingly received the letter, and 
carried it to the person to whom he had been 
commissioned by Manes to deliver it, overtaking 
the whole journey within five days. The above- 
mentioned Turbo, indeed, used great expedition 
on this journey, in the course of which he also 
underwent very considerable exertion and trouble. 
For whenever he arrived,3 as‘ a traveller in for- 





1 At this point begins the portion of the work edited by Valesius 
from the Codex Bobiensis, which is preserved now in the Ambrosian 


Library. 

2 The Codex Bobiensis reads, ddda Turbonem. This Adda, or 
Addas, as the Greek gives it below in ch. xi., was one of those dis- 
ciples of Manes whom he charged with the dissemination of his heret- 
ical opinions in the East, as we see from ch. xi. 5 

3 Codex Bobiensis adds, ad vesperam, towards evening. _ 

4 The text gives velutt peregrinans. The Codex Bobiensis has 


quippe peregrinans. 


In this project, | 





eign parts, at a hospice, — and these were inns 
which Marcellus himself had supplied in his large 
hospitality,s —on his being asked by the keepers » 
of these hostels whence he came, and who he was, 
or by whom he had been sent, he used to reply : 
“‘T belong to the district of Mesopotamia, but I 
come at present from Persis, having been sent 
by Manichzeus, a master among the Christians.” 
But they were by no means ready to welcome a 
name unknown ® to them, and were wont some- 
times to thrust Turbo out of their inns, refusing 
him even the means of getting water for drinking 
purposes. And as he had to bear daily things 
like these, and things even worse than these, at 
the hands of those persons in the several locali- 
ties who had charge of the mansions and hospices, 
unless he had at last shown that he was convey- 
ing letters to Marcellus, Turbo would have met 
the doom of death in his travels. 

5. On receiving the epistle, then, Marcellus 
opened it, and read it in the presence of Arche- 
laus, the bishop of the place. And the follow- 
ing is a copy of what it contained : 7 — 

Manicheeus, an apostle of Jesus Christ, and- 
all the saints who are with me, and the virgins, 
to Marcellus, my beloved son: Grace, mercy, 
and peace be with you from God the Father, and 
from our Lord Jesus Christ ; and may the right 
hand of light preserve you safe from this present 
evil world, and from its calamities, and from the 
snares of the wicked one. Amen. 

I was exceedingly delighted to observe the 
love cherished by you, which truly is of the 
largest measure. But I was distressed at your 
faith, which is not in accordance with the right 
standard. Wherefore, deputed as I am to seek 
the elevation of the race of men, and sparing,® 
as I do, those who have given themselves over 
to deceit and error, I have considered it needful 
to despatch this letter to you, with a view, in the 
first place, to the salvation of your own soul, and 
in the second place also to that of the souls of 
those who are with you, so as to secure you 
against ? dubious opinions, and specially against 
notions like those in which the guides of the 
simpler class of minds indoctrinate their subjects, 
when they allege that good and evil have the 
same original subsistence,'° and when they posit 
the same beginning for them, without making 
any distinction or discrimination between light 
and darkness, and between the good and the 








S$ On the attention paid by the primitive Church to the duties of 
hospitality, see Tertullian, De Prescriptiontbus, ch. 20 [vol. iii. p. 
252, this series]; Gregory Nazianzenus, in his First Invective 
against Fulian; also Priorius, De literts canonicts, ch. 5, etc.; 
and Thomassin, De Tesserts hospitalttatis, ch. 26. 

6 In the text, Zotz, in the Codex Bobiensis, zgvoratum. 

7 This letter, along with the reply of Marcellus, is given by Epi: 
phanius in his Hereszes, n. 6, from which the Greek text is taken. 

8 hevdouevos. The Latin gives sudvenzens, relieving. 

9 The Greek text of Epiphanius gave mpos 7d adtaxpitov. Petas 
vius substituted mods 70 wy adcaxpitov; and that reading is confirmed 
by the Latin, utc ne zudiscretos animos geras. 

10 amo Tov avtou péepedGat. 


182 


evil or worthless, and between the inner man 


and the outer, as we have stated before, and 
without ceasing to mix up and confound together 
the one with the other. But, O my son, refuse 
thou thus thoughtlessly to identify these two 
things in the irrational and foolish fashion com- 
mon to the mass of men, and ascribe no such 
confusion to the God of goodness. For these 
men refer the beginning and the end and the 
paternity of these ills to God Himself, — ‘‘ whose 
end is near a curse.”* For they do not believe 
the word spoken by our Saviour and Lord Jesus 
Christ Himself in the Gospels,? namely, that “a 
good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither 
can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.”3 And 
how they can be bold enough to call God the 
maker and contriver of Satan and his wicked 
deeds, is a matter of great amazement to me. 
Yea, would that even this had been all the length 
to which they had gone with their silly efforts, 
and that they had not declared that the only- 
begotten Christ, who has descended from the 
bosom of the Father,*+ is the son of a certain 
woman, Mary, and born of blood and flesh and 
the varied impurities proper to women!5 How- 
beit, neither to write too much in this epistle, 
nor to trespass at too great length upon your 
good nature, — and all the more so that I have 
no natural gift of eloquence, —I shall content 
myself with what I have said. But you will have 
full knowledge of the whole subject when I am 
present with you, if indeed you still continue to 
care for® your own salvation. For I do not “cast 
a snare upon any one,”?7 as is done by the less 
thoughtful among the mass of men. Think of 
what I say, most honourable son. 

6. On reading this epistle, Marcellus, with the 
kindest consideration, attended hospitably to the 
needs of the bearer of the letter. Archelaus, on 
the other hand, did not receive very pleasantly 
the matters which were read, but “gnashed® with 
his teeth like a chained lion,” impatient to have 
the author of the epistle given over to him. Mar- 
cellus, however, counselled him to be at peace ; 
promising that he would himself take care to se- 
cure the man’s presence. And accordingly Mar- 
cellus resolved to send an answer to what had 
been written to him, and indited an epistle con- 
taining the following statements : — 

Marcellus, a man of distinction, to Manichzeus, 
who has made himself known to me by his epis- 
tle, greeting. 


I Sy rd TéAOs KaTapas éyyvs. Cf. Heb. vi. 8. 

2 The text gives €v rots cipnuévors evayyedtots, for which Tots 
eipmpévots ev Tots evVayyeAtors may be proposed. 

3 Matt. vii. 18. 

4 John i. 18. 

S tis GAAns dvcwdias TOV yuvatkor. 

6 peidy. 

7 x Cor. vii. 35. 

8 The text gives t1frendebat; the Codex Bobiensis has zn- 
fringebat. [It seems to be a proverb, and I have so marked it. We 
should say, ‘‘ he chafed like a lion,” etc.] 





THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 


An epistle written by you has come to my 
hand, and I have received Turbo with my wonted 
kindness ; but the meaning of your letter I have 
by no means apprehended, and may not do so 
unless you give us your presence, and explain its 
contents in detail in the way of conversation, as 
you have offered to do in the epistle itself. 
Farewell. 

This letter he sealed and handed to Turbo, 
with instructions to deliver it to the person from 
whom he had already conveyed a similar docu- 
ment. The messenger, however, was extremely 
reluctant to return to his master, being mindful 
of what he had had to endure on the journey, and 
begged that another person should be despatched 
in his stead, refusing to go back to Manes, or to 
have any intercourse whatever with him again. 
But Marcellus summoned one of his young men,? 
Callistus by name, and directed him to proceed 
to the place. Without any loss of time this young 
man set out promptly on his journey thither ; and 
after the lapse of three days he came to Manes, 
whom he found in acertain fort, that of Arabion *° 
to wit, and to whom he presented the epistle. 
On perusing it, he was glad to see that he had 
been invited by Marcellus ; and without delay he 
undertook the journey; yet he had a presenti- 
ment that Turbo’s failure to return boded no good, 
and proceeded on his way to Marcellus, not, as 
it were, without serious reflections. ‘Turbo, for 
his part, was not at all thinking of leaving the 
house of Marcellus; neither did he omit any 
opportunity of conversing with Archelaus the 
bishop. For both these parties were very dili- 
gently engaged in investigating the practices of 
Manicheeus, being desirous of knowing who he 
was and whence he came, and what was his man- 
ner of discourse. And he, Turbo, accordingly 
gave a lucid account of the whole position, nar- 
rating and expounding the terms of his faith in 
the following manner :'* — 

If you are desirous of being instructed in the 
faith of Manes by me, attend to me for a short 
space. That man worships two deities, unorigi- 
nated, self-existent, eternal, opposed the one to 
the other. Of these he represents the one as 
good, and the other as evil, and assigns the name 
of Zigh¢ to the former, and that of Darkness to 
the latter. He alleges also that the soul in men 
is a portion of the “ghz, but that the body and 
the formation of matter are parts of the darkness. 
He maintains, further, that a certain commingling 
or blending * has been effected between the two 
in the manner about to be stated, the following 





9 Ex puerts suts 

to Epiphanius, under this Herxesy, num. 7, says that this was a 
fort situated on the other side of the river Stranga, between Persia 
and Mesopotamia. 

II The section extending from this point on to ch. xii. is found 
word for word in the Greek of Epiphamus, num. 25. 

T2 w.€iy dé yTOL avyKpacev. 











THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 


183 





analogy being used as an illustration of the same ; 
to wit, that their relations may be likened to 
those of two kings in conflict with each other, 
who are antagonists from the beginning, and 
have their own positions, each in his due order. 
And so he holds that the darkness passed with- 
out its own boundaries, and engaged in a similar 
contention with the light; but that the good 
Father then, perceiving that the darkness had 
come to sojourn on His earth, put forth from 
Himself a power! which is called the Mother of 
Life ; and that this power thereupon put forth 
from itself she first man, and the five elements.” 
And these five elements are wind,3 light, water, 
fire, and matter. Now this primitive man, being 
endued with these, and thereby equipped, as it 
were, for war, descended to these lower parts, and 
made war against the darkness. But the princes 
of the darkness, waging war in turn against him, 
consumed that portion of his panoply which is 
the soul. Then was that first man grievously 
injured there underneath by the darkness ; and 
had it not been that the Father heard his prayers, 
and sent a second power, which was also put 
forth from Himself and was called the “ving 
Spirit, and came down and gave him the right 
hand, and brought him up again out of the grasp 
of the darkness, that first man would, in those 
ancient times, have been in peril of absolute over- 
throw. From that time, consequently, he left the 
soul beneath. And for this reason the Mani- 
cheeans, if they meet each other, give the right 
hand, in token of their having been saved from 
darkness ; for he holds that the heresies have 
their seat all in the darkness. Then the living 
Spirit created the world ; and bearing in himself 
three other powers, he came down and brought 
off the princes, and settled + them in the firma- 
ment, which is their body, (though it is called) 
the sphere. Then, again, the living Spirit created 
the luminaries, which are fragments of the soul, 
and he made them thus to move round and round 
the firmament; and again he created the earth 





1 wpoBdAdAew é€ avrov Svvayir. But the Codex Bobiensis gives 
she ated ex virtute, put forth from His power one, etc. The Codex 

asinensis has produxerit et esse virtutem, etc. 

2 The text is simply xat abrhy mpoBeBAnxévar Tov mpwTov avOpw- 
mov, Ta mévre orotxera, The Latin, with emendations from the Codex 
Bobiensis and Epiphanius, gives gué@ virtute ctrcumdedit primum 
hominem, que sunt quingue elementa, etc., = with which power He 
begirt the first man, which is the same as the five elements, etc. With 
slight differences the Codex Bobiensis reads gud circumdedzt, and 
the Codex Casinensis, gv@ virtute. Petavius pointed out that there 
is probably an omission in the text here. And from a passage in 
Epiphanius, Her., Ixvi. n. 45, it has been proposed to fill out the 
sentence thus: wpoBaAAecv é éavtov Svvayiy pytépa THs Swis, Kai 
authy mpoBeBAnxéevat Tov mpwtov avOpwrov, avTny dé Thy uyTEpa THs 
Gwis TOv Te mpwToy avOpwroy Ta mévTe aTOLxe1a, The sense might 
then be, that the good Father put forth from Himself a power called 
the Mother of Life, that this Mother of Life put forth the frst man, 
and that the said Mother of Life and the first man put forth (or con- 
stituted) the five elements. See the note in Routh’s Religute Sacre, 


v. p. 49. 
®; the Codex Bobiensis omits the vextus, wind. : 
4 The Greek gives éorepéwoev év TO otepevuzatt, The Latin 
version has, “‘ crucifixit eos in firmamento.” And Routh apparently 
favours the reading éoravpwoev = crucified them, etc. -Valesius and 
the Codex Bobiensis have, ‘‘ descendens eduxit principes Jesu, exiens 
in firmamentum quod est,” etc. 





in its eight species.5 And the Omophorus® sus- 
tains the burden thereof beneath ; and when he 
is wearied with bearing it he trembles, and in 
that manner becomes the cause of a quaking 
of the earth in contravention of its determinate 
times. On account of this the good Father sent 
His Son forth from His own bosom? into the 
heart of the earth, and into these lowest parts 
of it, in order to secure for him the correction 
befitting him.’ And whenever an earthquake 
occurs, he is either trembling under his weari- 
ness, or is shifting his burden from one shoulder 
to the other. Thereafter, again, the matter also 
of itself produced growths ;9 and when these 
were carried off as spoil on the part of some of 
the princes, he summoned together all the fore- 
most of the princes, and took from all of them 
individually power after power, and made up the 
man who is after the image of that first man, 
and united’ the soul (with these powers) in him. 
This is the account of the manner in which his 
constitution was planned. 

8. But when the living Father perceived that 
the soul was in tribulation in the body, being full 
of mercy and compassion, He sent His own 
beloved Son for the salvation of the soul. For 
this, together with the matter of Omophorus, 
was the reason of His sending Him. And the 
Son came and transformed Himself into the 
likeness of man, and manifested'! Himself to 
men as a man, while yet He was not a man, and 
men supposed that He was begotten. Thus He 
came and prepared the work which was to effect 
the salvation of the souls, and with that object 
constructed an instrument with twelve urns,’ 
which is made to revolve by the sphere, and 
draws up with it the souls of the dying. And 
the greater luminary receives these souls, and 
purifies them with its rays, and then passes them 
over to the moon; and in this manner the 
moon’s disc, as it is designated by us, is filled 
up. For he says that these two luminaries are 
ships or passage-boats.’3 Then, if the moon 
becomes full, it ferries its passengers across 
toward the east wind, and thereby effects its own 
waning ‘4 in getting itself delivered of its freight. 
And in this manner it goes on making the pas- 





5 eis edn OxTH. The Latin, however, gives ef sunt octo, “and 
they are eight; ” thus apparently having read evot dé ox7u), instead of 
€is etdy OKTH, 

6 i e., one who bears on his shoulders, the upholder. 

7 Reading é€x tev KdAmwv, de sintbus suis. But the Codex 


Bobiensis gives de fixzbus, from His own territories, ‘ 

8 The Greek text is, Omws alto Thy mpogyjKoveay emtimiay do, 
The Latin gives, “‘ quo illum, ut par erat, coerceret.” The Codex 
Bobiensis reads, ‘‘ quod illum, ut pareret, coerceret.” It is clear 


also that Petavius read correctly émitemiay for ém@vyiav in Epipha- 
nius. 

9 Ta puta. 

lo éSyaev., The Codex Bobiensis gives, “ vexit animam in eo.” 

11 But certain codices read et faredbat, ‘‘ and was obedient,” in 
stead of apparebat. 

12 xadous. 

13 ropOueca, 

14 amoxpovorv. The Codex Casinensis has afocrisin ; but the 
Codex Bobiensis gives afocrusin. 


184 


er ek, pay igh 
Pury sae, 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 





sage across, and again discharging its freight of 
souls drawn up by the urns, until it saves its own 
proper portion of the souls! Moreover, he 
maintains that every soul, yea, every living crea- 
ture that moves, partakes of the substance of 
the good Father. And accordingly, when the 
moon delivers over its freight of souls to the 
zons of the Father, they abide there in that 
pillar of glory, which is called the perfect air.? 
And this air is a pillar of light, for it is filled 
with the souls that are being purified. Such, 
moreover, is the agency by which the souls are 
saved. But the following, again, is the cause of 
men’s dying: A. certain virgin, fair in person, 
and beautiful in attire, and of most persuasive 
address, aims at making spoil of the princes 
that have been borne up and crucified on the 
firmament by the living Spirit; and she appears 
as a comely female to the princes, but as a 
handsome and attractive young man to the prin- 
cesses. And the princes, when they look on her 
in her splendid figure, are smitten with love’s 
sting ; and as they are unable to get possession 
of her, they burn fiercely with the flame of amo- 
rous desire, and lose all power of reason. While 
they thus pursue the virgin, she disappears from 
view. Then the great prince sends forth from 
himself the clouds, with the purpose of bringing 
darkness on the whole world, in his anger. And 
then, if he feels grievously oppressed, his ex- 
haustion expresses itself in perspiration, just as 
aman sweats under toil; and this sweat of his 
forms the rain. At the same time also the har- 
vest-prince,3 if he too chances to be captivated 
by the virgin, scatters pestilence + on the whole 
earth, with the view of putting men to death. 
Now this body (of man) is also called a cosmos, 
i.e., a microcosm, in relation to the great cosmos, 
i.e., the macrocosm of the universe; and all 
men have roots which are linked beneath with 
those above. Accordingly, when this prince is 
captivated by the virgin’s charms, he then begins 
to cut the roots of men; and when their roots 
are cut, then pestilence commences to break 
forth, and in that manner they die. And if he 
shakes the upper parts of the root mightily,5 an 
earthquake bursts, and follows as the conse- 
quence of the commotion to which the Omoph- 
orus is subjected. This is the explanation of 

(the phenomenon of) death. 
g. I shall explain to you also how it is that 


t The text gives tis Wuxns. But from the old Latin version, 
Mins has ARERST HM, we may conjecture that tov Wuxeav was 
rea 

2 The Latin version has “vz perfectus,” —a reading which is 
due apparently to the fact that the author had mistaken the anp of the 
Greek for avyp. [See note 2, p. 176, supra.] 

3 6 Oeprtpds dpxwr, The version of Petavius has, “ Sic et prin- 
ceps alter, messor appellatus.” Perhaps the reading should be 6 
Oepiomov apxwv. 

4 rowdy, Other codices give famem, as reading Acuov, famine. 

5 dav 6@ ra dvw THS pigns Tévw Gadrevoy. It may be also = = And 
if the upper parts of the root shake under the exertion. 








the soul is transfused into five bodies.® First of 
all, in this process some small portion of it is 
purified ; and then it is transfused into the body 
of a dog, or a camel, or some other animal. 
But if the soul has been guilty of homicide, it 
is translated into the body of the celephi;7 
and if it has been found to have engaged 
in cutting,’ it is made to pass into the dody 
of the dumb. Now these are the designations 
of the soul,—namely, intelligence, reflection, 
prudence, consideration, reasoning.? Moreover, 
the reapers who reap are likened to the princes 
who have been in darkness from the beginning,’° 
since they consumed somewhat of the panoply 
of the first man. On this account there is a 
necessity for these to be translated into hay, 
or beans, or barley, or corn, or vegetables, in 
order that in these forms they, in like manner, 
may be reaped and cut. And again, if any one 
eats bread, he must needs also become bread 
and be eaten. If one kills a chicken,’ he will 
be a chicken himself. If one kills a mouse, he 
will also become a mouse himself. If, again, 
one is wealthy in this world, it is necessary 
that, on quitting the tabernacle of his body, he 
should be made to pass into the body of a beg- 
gar, so as to go about asking alms, and thereafter 
he shall depart into everlasting punishment. 
Moreover, as this body pertains to the princes . 
and to matter, it is necessary that he who plants 
a persea’? should pass though many bodies until 
that persea is prostrated. And if one builds a 
house for himself, he will be divided and scat- 
tered among all the bodies."3 If one bathes in 
water, he freezes ‘4 his soul; and if one refuses 
to give pious regard ‘5 to his elect, he will be 
punished through the generations,’® and will be 
translated into the bodies of catechumens, until 
he render many tributes of piety ; and for this 
reason they offer to the elect whatever is best in 
their meats. And when they are about to eat 


6 ris petayyilerac n Wx eis mévre oomara, But the Codex 
Bobiensis reads cha (bide and the Latin version gives, ‘ ‘ quo- 
modo et anime in alia quoque corpora transfunduntur ” = how the 
souls are also transfused into other bodies. 

7 The text gives xeAepov, which is spoken of in Migne as an un- 
known animal, though édehos (thus accentuated) occurs in ecclesias- 
tical writers in the sense ofa leper. tis proposed to read éAehavTiwv, 

“of elephants; ’ ” and so the Codex Bobiensis gives ‘ ‘ elephantorum 
corpora,” and Codex Casinensis has ‘in elefantia eorum corpora,” 
which is probably an error for ‘‘ in elephantiacorum corpora.” Routh 
suggests ehepavtewy, [Religu. Sac., vol. v. p. 58.] 

Gepicaga, reaping. 

9 vous, Evvora, Ppdvnots, evOvunots, Aoyropos. 
sion renders, mens, sensus, prudentia, intellectus, cogitatio, 
vius gives, mens, , notio, tntelligentia, cogttatto, ratiocinatio. 

10 rots amrapx7s obow €ig OKOTOS. ut the Latin version gives 

‘ qui ex materia orti,” etc. — who, having sprung from matter, are in 
ae 

Il OovB.ov, 

12 Explained as a species of Egyptian tree, in which the fruit grows 
from the stem. The Codex Casinensis has the strange reading, Jer 
sead wlan, for perseant, etc. 

13 cis Ta bAa gwHmara, 

14 myaoet, But the Latin version gives wxdzerat, “wounds,” 
from the reading mAjooet, [Note 2, p. 176, supra.] 

15 evoeBevav, But the Latin version gives alimenta. 

16 eis Tas yeveas. But the Latin version has ‘ pcenis subdetur 
gehenn= ”’ = will suffer the pains of hell. [Compare p, 185, ¢x/ra, 
“ Gehen."] 


“ 


The Latin ver- 
Peta- 


See also Epiphanius, num. g. 








/ 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 


185 





bread, they offer up prayer first of all, address- 
ing themselves in these terms to the bread: “I 
have neither reaped thee, nor ground thee, nor 
pressed thee, nor cast thee into the baking-ves- 
sel; but another has done these things, and 
brought thee to me, and I have eaten thee with- 
out fault.” And when he has uttered these 
things to himself, he says to the catechumen,' 
“T have prayed for thee ;” and in this manner 
that person then takes his departure. For, as I 
remarked to you a little before, if any one reaps, 
he will be reaped; and so, too, if one casts 
grain into the mill, he will be cast in himself in 
like manner, or if he kneads he will be kneaded, 
or if he bakes he will be baked; and for this 
reason they are interdicted from doing any such 
work. Moreover, there are certain other worlds 
on which the luminaries rise when they have set 
on our world. And if a person walks upon the 
ground here, he injures the earth; and if he 
moves his hand, he injures the air; for the air is 
the soul (4fe) of men and living creatures, both 
fowl, and fish, and creeping thing. And as to 
every one existing in this world, I have told 
you that this body of his does not pertain to 
God, but to matter, and is itself darkness, and 
consequently it must needs be cast in darkness. 

10. Now, with respect to paradise, it is not 
called @ cosmos.4 The trees that are in it are 
lust and other seductions, which corrupt the 
rational powers of those men. And that tree in 
paradise, by which men know the good, is Jesus 
Himself, or5 the knowledge of Him in the 
world. He who partakes thereof discerns the 
good and the evil. The world itself, however, 
is not God’s work; but it was the structure of 
a portion of matter, and consequently all things 
perish in it. And what the princes took as spoil 
from the first man, that is what makes the moon 
full, and what is being purged day by day of the 
world. And if the soul makes its exit without 
having gained the knowledge of the truth, it is 
given over to the demons, in order that they 
may subdue it in the Gehennas of fire; and 
after that discipline it is made to pass into bodies 
with the purpose of being brought into subjec- 
tion, and in this manner it is cast into the mighty 
fire until the consummation. Again, regarding 
the prophets amongst you,® he speaks thus: 
Their spirit is one of impiety, or of the lawless- 

t But the Latin version gives, ‘‘ respondet ad eum qui ei detulit” 
= he makes answer to the person who brought it to him. 

2 The text is, cai maAty eioiv Erepot KOTMOL TLVEs, TY dwoTHpwv 
buvdvtwy amo TovTov Tod Koamov, ef By avaréAAover. Routh sug- 
gests ots reves, deleting éf dv. 

3 Reading «i tes, as in the text. Routh suggests et 7+, = As to 
everything existing in this world, I have told you that the body 
thereof does, etc. 

4 But the Latin has “qui vocatur,” etc. = which is called, etc. 
And Routh thereof proposes 6s xaAcirat for ob Kadetrat, 


5 The text gives samply » yv@ors, The Codex Bobiensis has et 
sctentia, Hence Routh would read kat n yvaois, and the knowl- 


ge. i f : 
6 Retaining the reading vmiv, though Petavius would substitute 
Heiv, us. [Routh corrects Petav., R. S., vol. v. pp. 63, 64.] 





ness of the darkness which arose at the begin- 
ning. And being deceived by this spirit, they 
have not spoken “wth; for the prince blinded 
their mind. And if any one follows their words, 
he dies for ever, bound to the clods of earth, 
because he has not learned the knowledge of 
the Paraclete. He also gave injunctions to his 
elect alone, who are not more than seven in 
number. And the charge was this: ‘When ye 
cease eating, pray, and put upon your head an 
olive, sworn with the invocation of many names 
for the confirmation of this faith.” The names, 
however, were not made known to me; for only 
these seven make use of them. And again, the 
name Sabaoth, which is honourable and mighty 
with you, he declares to be the nature of man, 
and the parent of desire; for which reason the 
simple 7 worship desire, and hold it to be a deity. 
Furthermore, as regards the manner of the crea- 
tion of Adam, he tells us that he who said, 
“Come and let us make man in our image, after 
our likeness,” or ‘after the form which we have 
seen,” is the prince who addressed the other 
princes in terms which may be thus interpreted : 
“Come, give me of the light which we have 
received, and let us make man after the form of 
us princes, even after that form which we have 
seen, that is to say,® the first man.” And in 
that manner he? created the man. They cre- 
ated Eve also after the like fashion, imparting to 
her of their own lust, with a view to the de- 
ceiving of Adam. And by these means the . 
construction of the world proceeded from the 
operations of the prince. 

11. He holds also that God has no part with 
the world itself, and finds no pleasure in it, by 
reason of its having been made a spoil of from 
the first by the princes, and on account of the 
ill that rose on it. Wherefore He sends and 
takes away from them day by day the soul be- 
longing to Him, through the medium of these » 
luminaries, the sun and the moon, by which the 
whole world and all creation are dominated. 
Him, again, who spake with Moses, and the 
Jews, and the priests, he declares to be the 
prince of the darkness; so that the Christians, 
and the Jews, and the Gentiles are one and the 
same body, worshipping the same God: for He 
seduces them in His own passions, being no God 
of truth. For this reason all those who hope in 
that God who spake with Moses and the prophets 
have to be bound together with the said deity,’° 
because they have not hoped in the God of 
truth ; for that deity spake with him in accord- 
ance with their own passions. Moreover, after 





7 amdAaprot, in the Latin version Szplicioves, a name apparently 
given to the Catholics by the Manichzans. See Ducangii Glossa- 
rium media et infime Grecitatis. | Routh, v. p.65, worth poting.| 

8 The text gives 0 é€o7t mpwtos av@pwras. Routh proposes 
€oTt, etc. 

9 Or, they. 

10 wet’ alTud Exovar deO7jvat, 


186 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 





all these things, he speaks in the following terms 
with regard to the end,' as he has also written: 
When the elder has displayed his image,” the 
Omophorus then lets the earth go from him, and 
so the mighty fire gets free, and consumes the 
whole world. Then, again, he lets the soil go 
with the new zon,3 in order that all the souls 
of sinners may be bound for ever. These things 
will take place at the time when the man’s 
image* has come.5 And all these powers put 
forth by God,°— namely, Jesus, who is in the 
smaller ship,? and the Mother of Life, and the 
twelve helmsmen,® and the virgin of the light, 
and the third elder, who is in the greater ship, and 
the living spirit, and the wall9 of the mighty fire, 
and the wall of the wind, and the air, and the 
water, and the interior living fire, — have their 
seat in the lesser luminary, until the fire shall 
have consumed the whole world: and that is. to 
happen within so many years, the exact number 
of which, however, I have not ascertained. And 
after these things there will be a restitution of the 
two natures ;*° and the princes will occupy the 
lower parts proper to them, and the Father 
the higher parts, receiving again what is His own 
due possession. — All this doctrine he delivered 
to his three disciples, and charged each to jour- 
ney to a separate clime."' The Eastern parts fell 
thus to the lot of Addas ; Thomas obtained the 
Syrian territories as his heritage; and another, 
to wit, Hermeias, directed his course towards 
Egypt. And to this day they sojourn there, with 
the purpose of establishing the propositions con- 
tained in this doctrine.'3 
12. When Turbo had made this statement, 
Archelaus was intensely excited ; but Marcellus 
remained unmoved, for he expected that God 
would come to the help of His truth. Arche- 
laus, however, had additional cares in his anxiety 
about the people, like the shepherd who be- 
comes concerned for his sheep when secret perils 
threaten them from the wolves. Accordingly 
Marcellus loaded Turbo with the most liberal 
gifts, and instructed him to remain in the house 
of Archelaus the bishop.“ | But on that selfsame 





l émi rede. 

2 The text is xdOws avros éypapev: ‘O mpeaBurns, etc. The 
Codex Bobiensis gives, ‘‘ Sicut ipse senior scripsit: Cum manifestam 
feceris,” etc.,= As the elder himself wrote: When thou hast, etc. 
The e/der here is probably the same as the #hrrd elder farther on. 

3 The Greek is, adinot tov BaAov pera Tov véov aiwvos; but the 
Latin version has the strangely diverse rendering, ‘‘ dimittunt animam 
quz objicitur inter medium novi saculi” = they let go the soul that is 
placed in the midst of the new age. [Routh has thy BadAov.] 

4 avdpras. 

5 But the Latin gives, “‘ cum statuta venerit dies” = when the ap- 
pointed day has come. 

6 ai d@ mpoBodat aca, 

7 wAoiw, [See Routh, p. 68, on this locus mire depravatus.] 

8 nuBepyyrac, 

9 Tetxos. 

10 trav dv0 dvcewv. But the Latin version gives duorum lumt- 
sartum, and the Codex Casinensis has /uminaritorum, the two 
luminaries. 

11 Reading xAcuara, with Petavius, for xAjmara. 

12 The Codex Casinensis makes no mention of Thomas. 

13 Here ends the Greek of Epiphanius. 

44 The words, the bishop, are omitted in the Codex Bobiensis. 


day Manes arrived, bringing along with him cer- 
tain chosen youths and virgins to the number 
of twenty-two.'5 And first of all he sought for 
Turbo at the door of the house of Marcellus ; 
and on failing to find him there, he went in to 
salute Marcellus. On seeing him, Marcellus at 
first was struck with astonishment at the costume 
in which he presented himself. For he wore a 
kind of shoe which is usually called in common 
speech the quadrisole ;'° he had also a party- 
coloured cloak, of a somewhat airy *7 appearance ; 
in his hand he grasped a very sturdy staff of 
ebony-wood ;'8 he carried a Babylonian book 
under his left arm; his legs were swathed in 
trousers of different colours, the one being red, 
and the other green as a leek; and his whole 
mien was like that of some old Persian master 
and commandant.'9 Thereupon Marcellus sent 
forthwith for Archelaus, who arrived so quickly 
as almost to outstrip the word, and on entering 
was greatly tempted at once to break out against 
him, being provoked to that instantly by the 
very sight of his costume and his appearance, 
though more especially also by the fact that he 
had himself been turning over in his mind in his 
retirement ?° the various matters which he had 
learned from the recital of Turbo, and had thus 
come carefully prepared. But Marcellus, in his 
great thoughtfulness, repressed all zeal for mere 
wrangling, and decided to hear both parties. 
With that view he invited the leading men of 
the city ; and from among them he selected as 
judges of the discussion certain adherents of the 
Gentile religion, four in number. The names 
of these umpires were as follows: Manippus, a 
person deeply versed in the art of grammar and 
the practice of rhetoric ; Avgialeus,?’ a very emi- 
nent physician, and a man of the highest repu- 
tation for learning ; and Claudius and Cleobolus,”” 
two brothers famed as rhetoricians.?3_ A splendid 
assemblage was thus convened ; so large, indeed, 
that the house of Marcellus, which was of im- 
mense size, was filled with those who had been 
called to be hearers. And when the parties who 
proposed to speak in opposition to each other 

Is But Codex Bobiensis gives duodectm, twelve. 

16 But the Codex Bobiensis gives ¢7zsolium, the trisole. 
book xv., tells us that the Persians wore high shoes. 

17 Aérina, sky-like, [This portrait seems from life.] 

18 Ducange in his Glossary, under the word EféAAcvos, shows 
from Callisthenes that the prophets or interpreters of sacred things 
carried an ebony staff. [Ezek. xxvii. 15; Routh, p. 71.] 

19 The text is, ‘‘ vultus vero ut senis Persz artificis et bellorum 
ducis videbatur.” Philippus Buonarruotius, in the Osservaziont 
sopra alcunt frammenti di vast anticht di Vetro, Florence, 1716, 
p. 69, thinks that this rendering has arisen from the Latin translator's 
having erroneously read ws dyucovpyod kat atpatnyov instead of ws 
dnuapxov kai atparnyov. Taking otparnyod, therefore, in the civil 
sense which it bears in various passages, he would interpret the sen- 
tence thus: ‘‘ His whole mien was like that of an old Persian ¢rtbune 
and magistrate.” See Gallandi’s note [in Routh, p. 71]. 


20 The text is secretius factum, etc. Routh suggests secretius 
Jactus, etc. 
| 21 The Codex Bobiensis reads “‘ A’gidius.” 

22 Epiphanius gives KAedBovaAos, 

23 Codex Casinensis reads xectores, governors. And Epiphanius 
num. 1o, makes the first a professor of Gentile philosophy, the second 
a physician, the third a grammarian, and the fourth a rhetorician. 


Strabo, 





THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 


187 





‘had taken their places in view of all, then those 
who had been elected as judges took their seats 
in a position elevated above all others: and the 
task of commencing the disputation was assigned 
to Manes. Accordingly, when silence was se- 
cured, he began‘ the discussion in the following 
terms :? — 

_ 13. My brethren, I indeed am a disciple of 
Christ, and, moreover, an apostle of Jesus; and 
it is owing to the exceeding kindness of Mar- 
cellus that I have hastened hither, with the view 
of showing him clearly in what manner he ought 
to keep the system of divine religion, so that 
the said Marcellus verily, who at present has put 
himself, like one who has surrendered himself 
prisoner, under the doctrine of Archelaus, may 
not, like the dumb animals, which are destitute 
of intellect and understand not what they do, be 
fatally smitten to the ruin of his soul, in conse- 
quence of any failure in the possession of further 
facilities for setting about the right observance 
of divine worship. I know, furthermore, and am 
certain, that if Marcellus is once set right,3 it will 
be quite possible that all of you may also have 
your salvation effected ; for your city hangs sus- 
pended upon his judgment. If vain presump- 
tion is rejected by every one of you, and if those 
things which are to be declared by me be heard 
with a real love for the truth, ye will receive the 
inheritance of the age to come, and the kingdom 
of heaven. I, in sooth, am the Paraclete, whose 
mission was announced of old time by Jesus, and 
who was to come to “convince the world of sin 
and unrighteousness.”* And even as Paul, who 
was sent before me, said of himself, that “he 
knew in part, and prophesied in part,” 5 so I re- 
serve the perfect for myself, in order that I may 
do away with that which is in part. Therefore 
receive ye this third testimony, that I am an elect 
apostle of Christ; and if ye choose to accept 
my words, ye will find salvation ; but if ye refuse 
them, eternal fire will have you to consume you. 
For as Hymenzeus and Alexander were “ delivered 
unto Satan, that they might learn not to blas- 
pheme,’’® so will all ye also be delivered unto 
the prince of punishments, because ye have done 
injury to the Father of Christ, in so far as ye 
declare Him to be the cause of all evils, and the 
founder of unrighteousness, and the creator of 
all iniquity. By such doctrine ye do, indeed, 
bring forth from the same fountain both sweet 
water and bitter, —a thing which can in no pos- 


1 For Jrimum the Codex Casinensis reads A/urtma,=he began 
a lengthened statement, etc. 

2 Thus far Valesius edited the piece from the Codex Bobiensis. 

3 Reading emendato. Codex Casinensis gives ent date. 

4 John xvi. 8. /njustitia. This reading, de tnjustitia, may be 
due to an error on the part of the scribe, but is more probably to be 
referred to the practice pursued by Manes in altering and corrupting 
the sacred text to suit his own tenets. See Epiphanius on this heresy, 
Bum. 53, and cap. 53, 1#/ra. 

Sr Cor. xiii. 9. 

6 x Tim. i. 29. 








[‘‘ He introduced much new matter.” ] 





sible way be either done or apprehended. For 
who ought to be believed? Should it be those 
masters of yours whose enjoyment is in the flesh, 
and who pamper themselves with the richest de- 
lights ; or our Saviour Jesus Christ, who says, as 
it is written in the book of the Gospels, “A good 
tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a 
corrupt tree bring forth good fruit,” 7 and who 
in another place assures us that the “ father of 
the devil ® is a liar and a murderer from the be- 
ginning,’ and tells us again that men’s desire 
was for the darkness,’° so that they would not fol- 
low that Word that had been sent forth in the 
beginning from the light," and (once more shows 
us) the man who is the enemy of the same, the 
sower of tares,'? and the god and prince of the 
age of this world, who blinds the minds of men 
that they may not be obedient to the truth in the 
Gospel of Christ?'3 Is that God good who has 
no wish that the men who are his own should be 
saved? And, not to go over a multitude of other 
matters, and waste much time, I-may defer * till 
another opportunity the exposition of the true 
doctrine ; and taking it for granted that I have 
said enough on this subject for the present, I may 
revert to the matter immediately before me, and 
endeavour satisfactorily to demonstrate the ab- 
surdity of these men’s teaching, and show that 
none of these things can be attributed to the 
God and Father of our Lord and Saviour, but 
that we must take Satan to be the cause of all 
our ills. To him, certainly, these must be car- 
ried back, for all ills of this kind are generated 
by him. But those things also which are written 
in the prophets and the law are none the less to 
be ascribed to him ; for he it is who spake then 
in the prophets, introducing into their minds very 
many ignorant notions of God, as well as tempta- 
tions and passions. They, too, set forth that 
devourer of blood and flesh ; and to that Satan 
and to his prophets all these things properly per- 
tain which he wished to transfer '5 to the Father 
of Christ, prepared as he was to write a few 
things in the way of truth, that by means of these 
he might also gain credence for those other state- 
ments of his which are false. Hence it is well 
for us to receive nothing at all of all those things 
which have been written of old even down to 
John, and indeed to embrace only the kingdom 
of heaven, which has been preached in the Gos- 
pel since his days; for they verily but made a 


7 Matt. vii. 18 

8 Patren: diabolt. 

9 John viii. 44. 

10 Referring, perhaps, to Johni. 5. eo ere 

11 The text gives, “ut insequerentur. . . . Verbum, et inimicum,” 
etc. The sense seems to be as above, supposing either that the verb 
tasequerentur is used with the meaning of assailing, persecuting, or 
that the «# is put for u¢ ne, as is the case with the exc@cat ut at the 
close of the sentence. 

12 Matt. xiii. 25. 

13 Eph. vi. 12; 2 Cor. iv 

14 Reading differens. 

1s Transformare. 


- 4: : Sereda < 
Sut Codex Casinensis gives disserens, 


188 


et a ee Dias 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 





mockery of themselves, introducing as they did 
things ridiculous and ludicrous, keeping some 
small words given in obscure outline in the law, 
but not understanding that, if good things are 
mixed up with evil, the result is, that by the cor- 
ruption of these evil things, even those others 
which are good are destroyed. And if, indeed, 
there is any one who may prove himself able to 
demonstrate that the law upholds the right, that 
law ought to be kept; but if we can show it to 
be evil, then it ought to be done away with and 
rejected, inasmuch as it contains the ministration 
of death, which was graven, which also covered 
and destroyed the glory on the countenance of 
Moses.? It is a thing not without peril, there- 
fore, for any one of you to teach the New Testa- 
ment along with the law and the prophets, as if 
they were of one and the same origin; for the 
knowledge of our Saviour renews she one from 
day to day, while the other grows old and infirm, 
and passes almost into utter destruction.s And 
this is a fact manifest to those who are capable 
of exercising discernment. For just as, when 
the branches of a tree become aged, or when the 
trunk ceases to bear fruit any more, they are cut 
down; and just as, when the members of the 
body suffer mortification, they are amputated, for 
the poison of the mortification diffuses itself from 
these members through the whole body, and un- 
less some remedy be found for the disease by the 
skill of the physician, the whole body will be 
vitiated ; so, too, if ye receive the law without 
understanding its origin, ye will ruin your souls, 
and lose your salvation. For “the law and the 
prophets were until John ;””* but since John the 
law of truth, the law of the promises, the law of 
heaven, the new law, is made known to the race 
of man. And, in sooth, as long as there was no 
one to exhibit to you this most true knowledge 
of our Lord Jesus, ye had not sin. Now, how- 
ever, ye both see and hear, and yet ye desire to 
walk in ignorance,5 in order that ye may keep ° 
that law which has been destroyed and aban- 
doned. And Paul, too, who is held to be the 
most approved apostle with us, expresses himself 
to the same effect in one of his epistles, when he 
says: “For if I build again the things which I 
destroyed, I make myself a prevaricator.”7 And 
in saying this he pronounces on them as Gentiles, 
because they were under the elements of the 
world,® before the fulness of faith came, believ- 
ing then as they did in the law and the prophets. 


1 Informatum. 

2 x Cor, iii, 7. 

3 Cf. Heb. viii. 13. 

4 Luke xvi. 16. 

5 In inscitias ire vyltis. It is proposed to read infictas = and yet 
ye desire to deny the truth. Routh suggests, e¢ odzstr's et in tnsct- 
tram tre vultts = and ye hate it, and choose to take your way into 
ignorance, 

6 Supplying odservetts in the clause wt legem, etc. 

7 Prevaricatorem. Gal. ii. 18 [Vulgate, But see p. 176]. 

® Gal, iv. 3, 








14. The judges said: If you have any clearer 
statement yet to make, give us some explanation 
of the nature 9 of your doctrine and the designa- 
tion '° of your faith. Manes replied: I hold that 
there are two natures, one good and another evil ; 


and that the one which is good dwells indeed in — 


certain parts proper to it, but that the evil one 
is this world, as well as all things in it, which are 
placed there like objects imprisoned "! in the por- 
tion of the wicked one, as John says, that “ the 
whole world lieth in wickedness,” !? and not in 
God. Wherefore we have maintained that there 
are two localities, — one good, and another which 
lies outside of this,"3 so that, having space therein 
in his, it might be capable of receiving into itself 
the creature, i.e., creation, of the world. For if 
we say that there is but a monarchy of one nature, 
and that God fills all things, and that there is no 
location outside of Him, what will be the sus- 
tainer of the creature, i.e., creation? where will. 
be the Gehenna of fire? where the outer dark- 
ness? where the weeping? Shall I say in Him- 
self? God forbid; else He Himself will also be 
made to suffer in and with these. Entertain no 
such fancies, whosoever of you have any care for 
your salvation ; for I shall give you an example, 
in order that you may have fuller understanding 
of the truth. The world is one vessel ; '* and if '5 
the substance of God has already filled this entire 
vessel, how is it possible now that anything more 
can be placed in this same vessel? If it is full, 
how shall it receive what is placed in it, unless 
a certain portion of the vessel is emptied? Or 
whither shall that which is to be emptied out 
make its way, seeing that there is no locality for 
it? Where then is the earth? where the heavens ? 
where the abyss? where the stars? where the 
settlements? ‘© where the powers? where the 
princes? where the outer darkness? Who is he 
that has laid the foundations of these, and where ? 
No one is able to tell us that without stumbling 
on blasphemy. And in what way, again, has He 
been able to make the creatures, if there is no 
subsistent matter? For if He has made them 
out of the non-existent, it will follow that these 
visible creatures should be superior, and full of 
all virtues. But if in these there are wickedness, 
and death, and corruption, and whatever is op- 
posed to the good, how say we that they owe 
their formation to a nature different from them- 
selves? Howbeit if you consider the way in 
which the sons of men are begotten, you will 





9 Or, standard. 

10 Titulo. 

1 Ergastula. 

12 Or, in the wicked one. 

13 The text gives ‘‘extra eum.” 
of God. 

14 Vas. 

1s The text gives simply “ quod Dei substantia,” etc. 
perhaps adopt, with Routh, “‘ quod s? Dei,” etc. 

16 Sedes. [‘‘ Thrones,” as in Milton.] Routh suggests -“derq, 
luminaries, 


1 John v. 19. ’ 
Routh suggests Deum, outside 


We may 


‘i ae eee 


60d 


ee THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES, 189 





that the creator of man is not the Lord, but | credible. -For as the power of pronouncing judg- 
another being, who is also himself of an unbe-| ment has been committed to us, we shall declare 
gotten‘ nature, who has neither founder, nor|what may make itself clear to our mind. We 
creator, nor maker, but who, such as he is, has | may, however, also grant to Archelaus the liberty 
been produced by his own malice alone. In ac- | of speaking to these statements of yours, so that, 


cordance with this, you men have a commerce | by comparing what is said by each of you, we 


with your wives, which comes to you by an occa-| may be able to give our decision in accordance 
sion of the following nature. When any one of| with the truth. Archelaus said: Notwithstand- 
you has satiated himself with carnal meats, and | ing, the adversary’s intent is replete with gross 


_ meats of other kinds, then the impulse of con-| audacity and blasphemy. Janes said: Hear, O 


cupiscence rises in him, and in this way the enjoy- | judges, what he has said of the adversary. He 
ment? of begetting a son is increased ; and this | admits, then, that there are two objects. Arche- 
happens not as if that had its spring in any vir- | avs said: It seerns to me that this man is full 
tue, or in philosophy, or in any other gift of mind, | of madness rather than of prudence, who would 
bat in fulness of meats only, and in lust and for- | stir up a controversy with me to-day because I 
nication. And how shall any one tell me that | chance to speak of the adversary. But this ob- 
our father Adam was made after the image of | jection of yours may be removed with few words, 
God, and in His likeness, and that he is like Him | notwithstanding that you have supposed from 
who made him? How can it be said that all of | this expression of mine that I shall allow that 


_ us who have been begotten of him are like him? there are these two natures.5 You have come 


Yea, rather, on the contrary, have we not a great | forward with a most extravagant® doctrine; for 
variety of forms, and do we not bear the impress | neither of the assertions made by you holds 
of different countenances? And how true this| good. For it is quite possible that one who is 
is, I shall exhibit to you in parables. Look, for|an adversary, not by nature, but by determina- 
instance, 2t 2 person who wishes to seal up a/ tion, may be made a friend, and cease to be an 
treasure, or some other object, and you will ob- | adversary; and thus, when the one of us has 
serve how, when he has got a little wax or clay, | come to acquiesce with the other, we twain shall 
he seeks to stamp it with an impression of his | appear to be, as it were, one and the same ob- 
own countenance from the ring which he wears ;3 |ject.- This account also indicates that rational 
but if another countenance also stamps the figure | creatures have been entrusted with free-will,” in 
of itself on the object in a similar manner, will | virtue of which they also admit of conversions. 
the impression seem like? By no means, al- been consequently there cannot be two unbegotten 
though you may be reluctant to acknowledge | natures. What do you say, then? Are these 
what is true. But if we are not like in the com- | two natures inconvertible? or are they converti- 
mon imapression, and if, instead of that, there are | ble? or is one of them converted? Manes, how- 
differences in us, how can it fail to be proved ever, held back, because he did not find a 
thereby that we are the workmanship of the | suitable reply; for he was pondering the con- 


princes, and of matter? For in due accordance 
with their form, and likeness, and image, we also 
exist as diverse forms. But if you wish to be 
fully instructed as to that commerce which took 
place at the beginning, and as to the manner in 
which it occurred, I shall explain the matter to 
ou. 
4 15. The judges said: We need not inquire as 
to the manner in which that primitive commerce 


' took place until we have first seen it proved that 


there are two natural principles. or when once 
it is made clear that there are two unbegotten 
natures, then others of your averments may also 


gain our assent, even although something in them | 


may not seem to fit in very readily with what is 





- | esse non possunt. 


clusion which might be drawn from either of 
two answers which he might make, turning the 
| matter over thus in his thoughts: If I say that 
they are converted, he will meet me with that 
statement which is recorded in the Gospel about 
the trees ;9 but if I say that they are not con- 
vertible, he will necessarily ask me to explain 
the condition and cause of their intermingling. 
In the meantime, after a little delay, Manes re- 
plied: They are indeed both inconvertible in so 
far as contraries ate concerned; but they are 
convertible as far as properties *° are concerned. 
Archelaus then said: You seem to me to be out 


| 4 The text is “quid dixerit adversarii;” some propose “ guod’ 

| or“ guia dixerit,” etc. 

: The manuscript reading is, “tam si quidem ex hoc arbitratus 

lest se affrmaturum.” For this it is proposed to read, as in the 

| translation, “ tametsi quidem ex hoc tratus es me affirmaturum.” 
© The text gives tngentem. Routh suggests inscicntem, stupid. 
7 [Vol tit. 301-302. See Coleridge (on Donne), English Divines, 


. | VOL i. p. 87 


% Adopting the — reading, “ et ideo dua ingenkz nature 
= text omits the dua, however; and in that 
| case the sense would be simply, And consequently there cannot be 


i9@ wunbegotten matures; or perhaps, And so they (the creatures) cannot 
i, | be of an uni 


: begotten 
9 (Matt. wu. 15-20.] 
© Propria. 





=. 


oe ee 


190 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 





of your mind, and oblivious of your own proposi- 
tions ; yea, you do not appear even to recognise 
the powers or qualities of the very words which 
you have been learning.!. For you do not un- 
derstand either what conversion is, or what is 
meant by uwxdegotten, or what duality implies, 
or what is past, or what is present, or what is 
future, as I have gathered from the opinions to 
which you have just now given expression. For 
you have affirmed, indeed, that each of these 
two natures is inconvertible so far as regards 
contraries, but convertible so far as regards prop- 
erties. But I maintain that one who moves in 
properties does not pass out of himself, but sub- 
sists in these same properties, in which he is 
ever inconvertible ; while in the case of one who 
is susceptible of conversion, the effect is that he 
is placed outside the pale of properties, and 
passes within the sphere of accidents,? 

16. Zhe judges said: Convertibility translates 
the person whom it befalls into another ; as, for 
example, we might say that if a Jew were to 
make up his mind to become a Christian, or, on 
the other hand, if a Christian were to decide to 
be a Gentile, this would be a species of converti- 
bility, and a cause of the same.3_ But, again, if 
we suppose a Gentile to keep by all his own 
heathen properties, and to offer sacrifices to his 
gods, and to do service to the temples as usual, 
surely you would not be of opinion that he 
could be said to be converted, while he yet 
holds by his properties, and goes on in them? 
What, then, do you say? Do they sustain con- 
vertibility or not? And as Manes hesitated, 
Archelaus proceeded thus: Vf, indeed, he says 
that both natures are convertible, what is there 
to prevent our thinking them to be one and the 
same object? For if they are inconvertible, 
then surely in natures which are similarly incon- 
vertible and similarly unbegotten there is no 
distinction, neither can the one of them be rec- 
ognised as good or as evil. But if they are both 
convertible, then, forsooth, the possible result 
may be both that the good is made evil, and 
that the evil is made good. If, however, this 
is the possible result, why should we not speak 
of one only as unbegotten,5 which would be 
a conception in worthier accordance with the 
reckoning of truth? For we have to consider 
how that evil one became so at first, or against 
what objects he exercised his wickedness before 
the formation of the world. When the heavens 








had not yet appeared, when the earth did not 
yet subsist, and when there was neither man nor 
animal, against whom did he put his wickedness 
in operation? whom did he oppress unjustly? 
whom did he rob and kill? But if you say that 
he first appeared in his evil nature to his own 
kin,® then without doubt you give the proof that 
he comes of a good nature. And if, again, all 
these are also evil, how can Satan then cast out 
Satan?7 But while thus reduced to.a dilemma 
on this point, you may change your position in 
the discussion, and say that the good suffered 
violence from the evil. But none the more is 
it without peril for you to make such a state- 
ment, to the effect of affirming the vanquishing 
of the light ; for what is vanquished has destruc- 

tion near it. For what says the divine word? 
“Who can enter into a strong man’s house, and 
spoil his goods, except he be stronger than he?’’9 

But if you allege that he first appeared in his evil 

nature to men, and only from that time showed 

openly the marks of his wickedness, then it fol- 

lows that before this time he was good, and that 

he took on this quality of conversion because 

the creation of man ‘° was found to have emerged 

as the cause of his wickedness. But, in fine, let 

him tell us what he understands by evil, lest per- 

chance he may be defending or setting up a 

mere name. And if it is not the name but the 

substance of evil that he speaks of, then let him 

set before us the fruits of this wickedness and 

iniquity, since the nature of a tree can never be 

known but by its fruit. 

17. Manes said: Let it first be allowed on 
your side that there is an alien root of wicked- 
ness, which God has not planted, and then I 
shall tell you its fruits. Archelaus said: Truth’s 
reckoning does not make any such require- 
ment ; and I shall not admit to you that there is 
a root of any such evil tree, of the fruit whereof 
no one has ever tasted. But just as, when a 
man desires to make any purchase, he does not 
produce the money unless he first ascertains by 
tasting the object whether it is of a dry or a 
moist species, so I shall not admit to you that 
the tree is evil and utterly corrupt, unless the 
quality of its fruit is first exhibited; for it is 
written, that “the tree is known by its fruits.” ' 
Tell us, therefore, O Manes, what fruit is yielded 
by that tree which is called evil, or of what na- 
ture it is, and what virtue it is, that we may also 
believe with you that the root of that same tree 





I Didicisti. But perhaps we ought to read dixist?, which you 
have been uttering. 

2 Alrena, of what is alien. 

3 The text runs thus: “ ut si dicamus, Judzus, si velit fieri Chris- 
tianus, aut si Christianus velit esse gentilis, hac species est converti- 
bilitatis et causa.” 

4 The text gives convertrbiles. 
inconyertible. 

5 The text is uaum dicamus ingenttum. 


Routh suggests zzconvertibiles, 


Routh suggests 


unum bonum, etc. = Why should we not speak of only one unbe- | 


gotten good? 





6 The text is, ‘‘ quod si suis eum dicas extitisse malum, sine dubio 
ergo ostenditur illum bonz esse nature.” Routh suggests, ‘‘ quia 
istis suis adversatur qui mali sunt,” etc. = The fact that he is adverse 
to those who are of his own kin, and who are evil, would be a proof 
that he comes of a good nature. 

7 Mark iii. 23. 

8 Or, kin to it, véctnum habet tnterttum. 

9 Mark iti. 27, 

10 The text is, ‘‘ creati hominis causa invenitur exstitisse malitiz,” 
for which we read ‘‘ creutio hominis,” etc. 

1 Matt. vii. 16. 


y 
D 


ee ae 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 





is of that character which you ascribe to it. 
Manes said: The root indeed is evil, and the 
tree is most corrupt, but the increase is not from 
God. Moreover, fornications, adulteries, mur- 
ders, avarice, and all evil deeds, are the fruits of 
that evil root. Archelaus said: That we may 
credit you when you say that these are the fruits 
of that evil root, give us a taste of these things ; 
for you have pronounced the substance of this 
tree to be ungenerate,' the fruits of which are 
produced after its own likeness. Manes said: 
The very unrighteousness which subsists in men 
offers the proof itself, and in avarice too you 
may taste that evil root. Archelaus said: Well, 
then, as you have stated the question, those in- 
iquities which prevail among men are fruits of 
this tree. Manes said: Quite so. Archelaus 
proceeded: If these, then, are the fruits, that is 
to say, the wicked deeds of men, it will follow 
that the men themselves will hold the place of 
the root and of the tree; for you have declared 
that they produce fruits of this nature. Manes 
said; That is my statement. <Archelaus an- 
swered: Not well say you, Zhat is my statement: 
for surely that cannot be your statement ; other- 
wise, when men cease from sinning, this tree of 
wickedness will appear to be unfruitful. J/anes 
said: What you say is an impossibility ; for even 
though one or another, or several, were to cease 
sinning, there would yet be others doing evil 
still. <Archelaus said: If it is at all possible for 
one or another, or several, as you admit, not to 
sin, it is also possible for all to do the same ; for 
they are all of one parent, and are all men of 
one lump. And, not to follow at my ease those 
affirmations which you have so confusedly made 
through all their absurdities, I shall conclude 
their refutation by certain unmistakeable counter- 
arguments. Do you allege that the fruits of the 
evil root and the evil tree are the deeds of men, 
that is to say, fornications, adulteries, perjuries, 
murders, and other similar things? JJanes said: 
I do. Archelaus said: Well, then, if it hap- 
pened that the race of men was to die off the 
face of the earth, so that they should not be able 
to sin any more, the substance of that tree would 
then perish, and it would bear fruit no more. 
Manes said: And when will that take place of 
which you speak? Archelaus said: What? is in 
the future I know not, for I am but a man ; never- 
theless I shall not leave these words of yours 
unexamined. What say you of the race of men? 
Is it unbegotten, or is it a production? Manes 
said: It is a production. <Archelaus said: If 
man is a production, who is the parent of adultery 


- and fornication, and such other things? Whose 





1 Ingenttam, . ; 

2 The text gives ‘‘ quoniam quod futurum est nescio, homo enim 
sum, non tamen,” etc. Routh suggests “‘ gvonam? quod futurum,” 
etc. = What has that to:do with the matter? The future I know not, 
etc. 





191 





fruit is this? Before man was made, who was 
there to be a fornicator, or an adulterer, or a 
murderer? Manes said: But if the man is 
fashioned of the evil nature, it is manifest that 
he is such a fruit,3 albeit he may sin, albeit he 
may not sin; whence also the name and race of 
men are once for all and absolutely of this char- 
acter, whether they may do what is righteous or 
what is unrighteous. Archelaus said: Well, we 
may also take notice of that matter. If, as you 
aver, the wicked one himself made man, why is 
it that he practises his malignity on him? 

18. Zhe judges said: We desire to have in- 
formation from you on this point, Manichzeus, 
to wit, to what effect you have affirmed him to 
be evil. Do you mean that he has been so from 
the time when men were made, or before that 
period? For it is necessary that you should 
give some proof of his wickedness from the very 
time from which you declare him to have been 
evil. Be assured* that the quality of a wine 
cannot be ascertained unless one first tastes it ; 
and understand that, in like manner, every tree 
is known by its fruit. What say you, then? 
From what time has this personality been evil? 
For an explanation of this problem seems to us 
to be necessary. Manes said: He has always 
been so. Archelaus said: Well, then, I shall 
also show from this, most excellent friends, and 
most judicious auditors, that his statement is by 
no means correct. For iron, to take an exam- 
ple, has not been an evil thing always, but only 
from the period of man’s existence, and since 
his art turned it to evil by applying it to false 
uses; and every sin has come into existence 
since the period of man’s being. Even that 
great serpent himself was not evil previous. to 
man, but only after man, in whom he displayed 
the fruit of his wickedness, because he willed it 
himself. If, then, the father of wickedness 
makes his appearance to us after man has come 
into being, according to the Scriptures, how can 
he be unbegotten who has thus been constituted 
evil subsequently to man, who is himself a pro- 
duction? But, again, why should he exhibit 
himself as evil just from the period when, on 
your supposition, he did himself create man? 
What did he desire in him? If man’s whole 
body was his own workmanship, what did he 
ardently affect in him? For one who ardently 
affects or desires, desires something which is 
different and better. If, indeed, man takes his 
origin from him in respect of the evil nature, 
we see how man was his own, as I have fre- 





3 The text is, ‘sed homo a mala natura plasmatus manifestum 
est quia ipse sit fructus,” etc. 

4 Routh, however, points differently, so that the sense is: Be 
assured that it is necessary to give some proof, etc. .. . For the 
quality of a wine, etc. 

5 The text is, “ex hominis tempore a se creati cur malus osten- 
datur,” which is taken to be equivalent to, ‘Cex tempore quo homi- 
nein ipse creavit,’’ etc. 


192 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 





quently shown.’ For if man was his own, he 
was also evil himself, just as it holds with our 
illustration of the like tree and the like fruit; 
for an evil tree, as you say, produces evil fruit. 
And seeing that all were evil, what did he desid- 
erate, or in what could he show the beginning 
of his wickedness, if from the time of man’s 
formation man was the cause of his wickedness? 
Moreover, the law and precept having been 
given to the man himself, the man had not by 
any means the power to yield obedience to the 
serpent, and to the statements which were made 
by him; and had the man then yielded no 
obedience to him, what occasion would there 
have been for him to be evil? But, again, if 
evil is unbegotten, how does it happen that man 
is sometimes found to be stronger than it? For, 
by obeying the law of God, he will often over- 
come every root of wickedness; and it would 
be a ridiculous thing if he, who is but the pro- 
duction, should be found to be stronger than the 
unbegotten. Moreover, whose is that law with 
its commandment — that commandment, I mean, 
which has been given to man? Without doubt 
it will be acknowledged to be God’s. And how, 
then, can the law be given to an alien? or who 
can give his commandment to an enemy? Or, 
to speak of him who receives the command- 
ment, how can he contend against the devil? 
that is to say, on this supposition, how can he 
contend against his own creator, as if the son, 
while he is a debtor to him for deéds of kind- 
ness, were to choose to inflict injuries on the 
father? Thus you but mark out the profitless- 
ness? of man on this side, if you suppose him 
to be contradicting by the law and command- 
ment him who has made him, and to be making 
the effort to get the better of him. Yea, we 
shall have to fancy the devil himself to have 
gone to such an excess of folly, as not to have 
perceived that in making man he made an ad- 
versary for himself, and neither to have consid- 
ered what might be his future, nor to have 
foreseen the actual consequence of his act; 
whereas even in ourselves, who are but produc- 
tions, there are at least some small gifts of 
knowledge, and a measure of prudence, and a 
moderate degree of consideration, which is some- 
times of a very trustworthy nature. And how, 
then, can we believe that in the unbegotten there 
is not some little portion of prudence, or con- 
sideration, or intelligence? Or how can we 
make the contrary supposition, according to your 


1 The reading adopted by Migne is, ‘‘ si ergo ex eo homo est, 
mala natura, demonstratur quomodo suus fuit, ut frequenter ostendi.” 
Others put the sentence interrogatively = If man takes his origin 
from him, (and) the evil nature is thus demonstrated, in what sense 
was man his own, etc.? Routh suggests ex guo for ex co=If the 
evil nature is demonstrated just from the time of man’s existence, 
how was man, etc.? 

2 The reading is zwuti2z#atem. But Routh points out that this is 
probably the translation of thy evréAciav, vslttatem, meanness. 








assertion, namely, that he is discovered to be of 
the most senseless apprehension, and the dullest 
heart, and, in short, rather like the brutes in his 
natural constitution? But if the case stands 
thus, again, how is it that man, who is possessed 
of no insignificant power in mental capacity and 
knowledge, could have received his substance 
from one who thus is, of all beings, the most 
ignorant and the bluntest in apprehension? How 
shall any one be rash enough to profess that 
man is the workmanship of an author of this 
character? But, again, if man consists both of 
soul and of body, and not merely of body with- 
out soul, and if the one cannot subsist apart 
from the other, why will you assert that these 
two are antagonistic and contrary to each other? 
For our Lord Jesus Christ, indeed, seems to me 
to have spoken of these in His parables, when 
He said: ‘“ No man can put new wine into old 
bottles, else the bottles will break, and the wine 
run out.”’3 But new wine is to be put into new 
bottles, as there is indeed one and the same 
Lord for the bottle and for the wine. For al- 
though the substance may be different, yet by 
these two substances, in their due powers, and 
in the maintenance of their proper mutual rela- 
tions, the one person of man subsists. We do 
not say, indeed, that the soul is of one substance 
with the body, but we aver that they have each 
their own characteristic qualities; and as the 
bottle and the wine are applied in the similitude 
to one race and one species of men, so truth’s 
reckoning requires us to grant that man was pro- 
duced complete by the one God: for the soul 
rejoices in the body, and loves and cherishes it ; 
and none the less does the body rejoice that it 
is quickened by the soul. But if, on the other 
hand, a person maintains that the body is the 
work of the wicked one, inasmuch as it is so 
corruptible, and antiquated, and worthless, it 
would follow then that it is incapable of sustain- 
ting the virtue of the spirit or the movement of 
the soul, and the most splendid creation of the 
same. For just as, when a person puts a piece 
of new cloth into an old garment, the rent is 
made worse ;5 so also the body would perish if 
it were to be associated, under such conditions, 
with that most brilliant production the soul. 
Or, to use another illustration: just as, when a 
man carries the, light of a lamp into a dark 


-place, the darkness is forthwith put to flight and 


makes no appearance ; so we ought to under- 
stand that, on the soul’s introduction into the 
body, the darkness is straightway banished, and 
one nature at once effected, and one man con- 
stituted in one species. And thus, agreeably 
therewith, it will be allowed that the new wine is 





3 Matt. ix. 17. 
4 Dominatione et observantia usu. 
5S Matt. ix, 16, 


‘cloth is not put into the old garment. 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 





put into new bottles, and that the piece of new 
But from 
this we are able to show that there is a unison 
of powers in these two substances, that is to say, 


_ in that of the body and in that of the soul; of 


which unison that greatest teacher in the Scrip- 
tures, Paul, speaks, when he tells us, that “God 
hath set the members every one of them in the 
body as it hath pleased Him.” ! 

1g. But if it seems difficult for you to un- 
derstand this, and if you do not acquiesce in 
these statements, I may at all events try to make 
them good by adducing illustrations. Contem- 
plate man as a kind of temple, according to the 
similitude of Scripture:? the spirit that is in 
man may thus be likened to the image that 
dwells in the temple. Well, then, a temple can- 
not be constituted unless first an occupant is 
acknowledged for the temple ; and, on the other 
hand, an occupant cannot be settled in the tem- 
ple unless the structure has been erected. Now, 
since these two objects, the occupant and the 
structure, are both consecrated together, how can 
any antagonism or contrariety be found between 
them, and how should it not rather appear that 
they have both been the products of subjects 
that are in amity and of one mind? And that 
you may know that this is the case, and that 
these subjects are truly at one both in fellowship 
and in lineage, He who knows and hears; a// 
has made this response, “Let us make man,” 
and so forth. For he who constructs‘ the tem- 
ple interrogates him who fashions the image, and 
inquires carefully about the measurements of 
magnitude, and breadth, and bulk, in order that 
he may mark off the space for the foundations 
in accordance with these dimensions; and no 
one sets about the vain task of building a temple 
without first making himself acquainted with 
the measurements needed for the placing of the 
image. In like manner, therefore, the mode and 
the measure of the body are made the subject 
of inquiry, in order that the soul may be appro- 
priately lodged in it by God, the Artificer of all 
things. But if any one say that he who has 
moulded the body is an enemy to the God who 
is the Creator of my soul,5 then how is it that, 
while regarding each other with a hostile eye, 
these two parties have not brought disrepute 
upon the work, by bringing it about either that 
he who constructs the temple should make it of 
such narrow dimensions as to render it incapa- 


3 x Cor. xii. 18. 

3 x Cor. iii. 17; 2 Cor, vi. 16. 

3 The reading is sczt ef aud#t. Routh somewhat needlessly sug- 
gests sctte audit =he who hears intelligently. : 

4 The codex gives “hic enim quiexstruis.” It is proposed to read 
* sic enim qui exstruit”” = For in this very way he who constructs. _ 

$ The text gives ‘quod si dicat quis inimicum esse eum qui 
plasmaverit corpus; Deus qui Creator,” etc. The Codex Casinensis 
reads Dew. We adopt the emendation Deo and the altered punc- 
tuation, thus: ‘ quod si dicat quis inimicum esse eum qui plasmaverit 
corpus Deo qui creator est animz,” etc. 





193 
ble of accommodating what is placed within it, 
or that he who fashions the image should come 
with something so massive and ponderous, that, 
on its introduction into the temple, the edifice 
would at once collapse? If such is not the case, 
then, with these things, let us contemplate them 
in the light of what we know to be the objects 
and intents of antagonists. But if it is right for 
all to be disposed with the same measures and 
the same equity, and to be displayed with like 
glory, what doubt should we still entertain on 
this subject? We add, if it please you, this one 
illustration more. Man appears to resemble a 
ship which has been constructed by the builder 
and launched into the deep, which, however, it 
is impossible to navigate without the rudder, by 
which it can be kept under command, and turned 
in whatsoever direction its steersman may wish 
to sail. Also, that the rudder and the whole 
body of the ship require the same artificer, is 
a matter admitting no doubt; for without the 
rudder the whole structure of the ship, that huge 
body, will be an inert mass. And thus, then, we 
say that the soul is the rudder of the body; 
that both these, moreover, are ruled by that 
liberty of judgment and sentiment which we 
possess, and which corresponds to the steers- 
man; and that when these two are made one 
by union,° and thus possess a unison of function 
applicable to all kinds of work, whatever may 
be the products of their own operation, they 
bear a testimony to the fact that they have both 
one and the same author and maker. 

20. On hearing these argumentations, the mul- 
titudes who were present were exceedingly de- 
lighted; so much so, indeed, that they were 
almost laying hands on Manes; and it was with 
difficulty that Archelaus restrained them, and 
kept them back, and made them quiet again. 
The judges said: .Archelaus has given us proof 
sufficient of the fact that the body and soul of 
man are the works of one hand; because an 
object cannot subsist in any proper consonance 
and unison as the work of one hand, if there is 
any want of harmony in the design and plan. 
But if it is alleged that one could not possi- 
bly have sufficed to develop both these objects, 
namely, body and soul, this is simply to exhibit 
the incapacity of the artificer. For thus, even 
though one should grant that the soul is the 
creation of a good deity, it will be found to 
be but an idle work so far as the man is con- 
cerned, unless it also takes to itself the body. 
And if, again, the body is held to be the forma- 
tion of an evil deity, the work will also none 
the less be idle unless it receives the soul; and, 
in truth, unless the soul be in unison with the 
body by commixture and due introduction, so 





6 Reading “‘ fer conjunctionem”’ for the simple conjunctionem 


194 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 





that the two are in mutual connections, the man 
will not exist, neither can we speak of him. 
Hence we are of opinion that Archelaus has 
proved by a variety of illustrations that there is 
but one and the same maker for the whole man. 
Archelaus said: 1 doubt not, Manes, that you 
understand this, namely, that one who is born 
and created ! is called the son of him who begets 
or creates. But if the wicked one made man, 
then he ought to be his father, according to na- 
ture. And to whom, then, did the Lord Jesus 
address Himself, when in these terms He taught 
men to pray: “When ye pray, say, Our Father 
which art in heaven;”? and again, “ Pray to 
your Father which is in secret?’’3 But it was of 
Satan that He spake when He said, that He “be- 
held him as lightning fall from heaven ;’’+ so 
that no one dare say that He taught us to pray 
to him. And surely Jesus did not come down 
from heaven with the purpose of bringing men 
together, and reconciling them to Satan ; but, on 
the contrary, He gave him over to be bruised 
beneath the feet of His faithful ones. However, 
for my part, I would say that those Gentiles are 
the more blessed who do indeed bring in a 
multitude of deities, but at least hold them all 
to be of one mind, and in amity with each other ; 
whereas this man, though he brings in but two 
gods, does not blush to posit enmities and 
discordant sentiments between them. And, in 
sooth, if these Gentiles were to bring in‘ their 
counterfeit deities under conditions of that kind, 
we would verily have it in our power to witness 
something like a gladiatorial contest proceeding 
between them, with their innumerable natures 
and diverse sentiments. 

21. But now, what it is necessary for me to 
say on the subject of the inner and the outer 
man, may be expressed in the words of the 
Saviour to those who swallow a camel, and wear 
the outward garb of the hypocrite, begirt with 
blandishments and flatteries. It is to them that 
Jesus addresses Himself when He says: “Woe 
unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for 
ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the 
platter, but within they are full of uncleanness. 
Or know you not, that He that made that which 
is without, made that which is within also?’’® 
Now why did He speak of the cup and of the 
platter? Was He who uttered these words a 
glassworker, or a potter who made vessels of 
clay? Did He not speak most manifestly of the 
body and the soul? For the Pharisees truly 
looked to the “tithing of anise and cummin, and 


1 Reading “‘natus est et creatus.” The Codex Casinensis has 
“* natus est creatus.” 

2 Matt. vi. 9; Luke xi. 2, 

3 Matt. vi. 6. 

4 Luke x. 18. 

5 Codex Casinensis gives zntroduceret ; but, retaining the refer- 
ence to the Gentiles, we read zntroducerent. 

6 Matt. xxiii. 25; Luke xi. 39, 





left undone the weightier matters of the law ;’’7 
and while devoting great care to the things which 
were external, they overlooked those which bore 
upon the salvation of the soul. For they also 
had respect to “greetings in the market-place,”’ ® 
and “to the uppermost seats at feasts:’’9 and 
to them the Lord Jesus, knowing their perdition, 
made this declaration, that they attended to those 
things only which were without, and despised as 
strange things those which were within, and under- 
stood not that He who made the body made also 
the soul. And who is so unimpressible and stolid 
in intellect, as not to see that those sayings of ows 
Lord may suffice him for all cases? Moreover, 
it is in perfect harmony with these sayings that 
Paul speaks, when he interprets to the following 
intent certain things written in the law: “Thou 
shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that tread- 
eth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen ? 
Or saith He it altogether for our sakes?” 7° But 
why should we waste further time upon this sub- 
ject? Nevertheless I shall add a few things out 
of many that might be offered. Suppose now 
that there are two unbegotten principles, and 
that we determine fixed localities for these: it 
follows then that God is separated," if He is sw- 
posed to be within a certain location, and not 
diffused everywhere ; and He will consequently 
be represented as much inferior to the locality in 
which He is understood to be for the object 
which contains is always greater’ than the object 
which is contained in it: and thus God is made 
to be of that magnitude which corresponds with 
the magnitude of the locality in which He is 
contained, just as is the case with a man in a 
house.'3 Then, further, reason asks who it is that 
has divided between them, or who has appointed 
for them their determinate limits ; and thus both 
would be made out to be the decided inferiors 
of man’s own power.'* For Lysimachus and 
Alexander held the empire of the whole world, 
and were able to subdue all foreign nations, and 
the whole race of men; so that throughout that 
period there was no other in possession of empire 
besides themselves under heaven. And how wiil 
any one be rash enough to say that God, who is 
the true light that never suffers eclipse, and whose 
is also the kingdom that is holy and everlasting, 
is not everywhere present, as‘5 is the way with 
this most depraved man, who, in his impiety, 


7 Luke xi. 42. 

8 Matt. xxili. 6; Mark xii. 38; Luke xx. 46. 

9 The Codex Casinensis gives a strangely corrupt reading here: 
‘* primos discipulos subitos in coenis, quod scientes Bomisus It is 
restored thus: ‘‘ primos discubitus in coenis, quos sciens Dominus,” 
etc. 

10 Cor. ix. 9. 

I Dividitur. 

12 Reading mayus for the inept #alus of the Codex Casinensis, 

13 Routh refers us here to Maximus, De Natura, §2. See Relt. 
quia Sacr@, ii. 89-91. 

14 The text is ‘‘ multo inferior virtutis humanz,” which is probably 
a Grecism, 

15 Reading cex for the ez of the Codex Casinensis. 





THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 


195 





refuses to ascribe to the Omnipotent God even 
equal power with men?! 

22. Lhe judges said: We know that a light 
shines through the whole house, and not in some 
single part of it; as Jesus also intimates when 
He says, that “no man lighting a candle puts it 
under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that it may 


give light unto all that are in the house.’’? If, 
then, God is a light, it must needs be that that 
light (if Jesus is to be credited) shall shine on 
the whole world, and not on any portions of it 
merely. And if,3 then, that light holds posses- 
sion of the whole world, where now can there be 
any ungenerated darkness? or how can darkness 
be understood to exist at all, unless it is some- 
thing simply accidental? Archelaus said: For- 
asmuch, indeed, as the word of the Gospel is 
understood much better by you than by this per- 
son who puts himself forward as the Paraclete, 
although I could call him rather parasite than 
paraclete, I shall tell you how it has happened 
that there is darkness. When the light had been 
diffused everywhere, God began to constitute the 
universe, and commenced with the heaven and 
the earth ; in which process this issue appeared, 
to wit, that the midst, which is the locality of 
earth covered with shadow, as a consequence 
of the interposition 5 of the creatures which were 
called into being, was found to be obscure, in 
such wise that circumstances required light to 
be introduced into that place, which was thus 
situated in the midst. Hence in Genesis, where 
Moses gives an account of the construction of 
the world, he makes no mention of the darkness 
either as made or as not made. But he keeps 
silence on that subject, and leaves the explana- 
tion of it to be discovered by those who may be 
able to give proper attention to it. Neither, in- 
deed, is that a very arduous and difficult task. 
For to whom may it not be made plain that this 
sun of ours is visible, when it has risen in the 
east, and taken its course toward the west, but 
that when it has gone beneath the earth, and 
been carried farther within that formation which 
among the Greeks is called the sphere, it then 
ceases to appear, being overshadowed in dark- 
ness in consequence of the interposition of the 
bodies?® When it is thus covered, and when 
the body of the earth stands opposite it, a shadow 
is superinduced, which produces from itself the 

1 The Codex Casinensis gives ‘‘ nec que vellem quidem,” for 
which “‘ nec equalem quidem,” etc., is suggested, as in the translation. 

2 Matt. v. 16. 

3 The text gives a guo st, etc. 

4 Medietas. 

5 Reading objectu . 
in Codex Casinensis. 

© The text of this sentence stands thus in Migne and Routh: 
“cui enim non fiat manifestum, solem istum visibilem, cum ab oriente 
fuerit exortus, et tetenderit iter suum ad occidentem, cum sub terram 
ierit, et interior effectus fuerit ea que apud Grecos sphera vocatur, 
quod tunc objectu corporum obumbratus non appareat?” The Codex 
Casinensis reads guod nunc oblectu, etc. We should add that it was 


held by Anaximander and others that there was a species of globe or 
sphere (opaipa) which surrounded the universe. [Vol. ii. p. 136, n. 2. ] 


Routh suggests atguz s#, etc. 


. creaturarum, instead of odtectu, etc., 








darkness ; and it continues so until again, after 
the course of the inferior space has been trav- 
ersed in the night, it rolls towards the east, and 
is seen to rise once more in its wonted seats. 
Thus, then, the cause of the shadow and the 
night is discovered in the solidity of the body 
of the earth,—a thing, indeed, which a man 
may understand from the fact of the shadow cast 
by his own body.? For before the heaven and 
the earth and all those corporeal creatures ap- 
peared, the light remained always constant, with- 
out waning or eclipse, as there existed no body 
which might produce shadow by its opposition 
or intervention ; and consequently one must say 
that nowhere was there darkness then, and no- 
where night. For if, to take an illustration, it 
should please Him who has the power of all 
things to do away with the quarter ® which lies to 
the west, then, as the sun would not direct its 
course toward that region, there would nowhere 
emerge either evening or darkness, but the sun 
would be on its course always, and would never 
set, but would almost always hold the centre tract 
of heaven, and would never cease to appear ; 
and by this the whole world would be illumined 
with the clearest light, in virtue of which no part 
of it would suffer obscuration, but the equal 
power of one light would remain everywhere. 
But on the other hand, while the western quarter 
keeps its position, and the sun executes 9? its 
course in three parts of the world, then those 
who are under the sun will be seen to be illu- 
minated more brightly ; so that I might almost 
say, that while the people who belong to the 
diverse tract are still asleep, those former are in 
possession of the day’s beginning. But just '° as 
those Orientals have the light rising on them 
earlier than the people who live in the west, so 
they have it also more quickly obscured, and 
they only who are settled in the middle of the 
globe see always an equality of light. For when 
the sun occupies the middle of the heavens, there 
is no place that can appear to be either brighter 
or darker (than another), but all parts of the 
world are illuminated equally and impartially by 
the sun’s effulgence."' If, then, as we have said 
above, that portion of the western tract were 
done away with, the part which is adjacent to it 
would now no more suffer obscuration, And 
these things I could indeed set forth somewhat 
more simply, as I might also describe the zodiacal 
circle ; but I have not thought of looking into 
these matters at present.'? I shall therefore say 


7 Reading ex sutmet tpstus umbra for exuet tpstus umbra, 
which is given in the Codex Casinensis. 

8 Plagam, 

9 Ministrante. 

to The text is ‘‘Sicut autem ante,” etc. 
adeunte, etc. 

It Reading “‘ ex zequo et justo, solis fulgore,’’ etc. 
Casinensis has ‘‘ ex ea quo solis fulgure.” 

12 The text is altogether corrupt — sed non intuthunc fiert ratus 
sum, so that the sense can only be guessed at. Routh suggests 
tstud for éntue. 





Routh suggests, Sol 
The Codex 


196 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 





nothing of these, but shall revert to that capital 
objection urged by my adversary, in his affirming 
so strenuously ' that the darkness is ungenerated ; 
which position, however, has also been confuted 
already, as far as that could have been done by 
us. 
23. Zhe judges said: If we consider that the 
light existed before the estate of the creatures was 
introduced, and that there was no object in an 
opposite position which might generate shadow, 
it must follow that the light was then diffused 
everywhere, and that all places were illuminated 
with its effulgence, as has been shown by what 
you have stated just now; and as we perceive 
that the true explanation is given in that, we as- 
sign the palm to the affirmations of Archelaus. 
For if the universe is clearly divided, as if some 
wall had been drawn through the centre of it, 
and if on the one side the light dwells, and on 
the other side the darkness, it is yet to be under- 
stood that this darkness has been brought acci- 
dentally about through the shadow generated in 
consequence of the objects which have been set 
up in the world ; and hence again we must ask 
who it is that has built this wall between the two 
divisions, provided you indeed admit the exist- 
ence of such a construction, O Manichzeus. But 
if we have to take account of this matter on the 
supposition that no such wall has been built, then 
again it comes to be understood that the universe 
forms but one locality, without any exception, 
and is placed under one power ; and if so, then 
the darkness can in no way have an ungenerated 
nature. Archelaus said: Let him also explain 
the following subject with a view to what has 
been propounded. If God is seated in His 
kingdom, and if the wicked one in like manner 
is seated in his kingdom, who can have con- 
structed the wall between them? For no object 
can divide two substances except one that is 
greater than either,? even as it is said3 in the 
book of Genesis, that “God divided the light 
from the darkness.” Consequently the con- 
structor of this wall must also be some one of 
a capacity like that: for the wall marks the 
boundaries of these two parties, just as among 
people who dwell in the rural parts a stone is 
usually taken to mark off the portion of each 
several party; which custom, however, would 
afford a better apprehension of the case were 
we to.take the division to refer specially to the 
marking out of an inheritance falling to brothers. 
But for the present I have not to speak of mat- 
ters like these, however essential they ‘may ap- 
pear. For what we are in quest of is an answer 


_ ! Codex Casinensis gives ‘‘ omni nisi,” for which we adopt omni 
nisu.” 

2 Reading wtriusque majus, The Codex Casinensis has u¢run- 
que majus. — i 

3 The text is drcst, for which di¢itys may be adopted. 

4 Gen, i. 4. 





to the question, Who can have constructed the 
wall required for the designation of the limits 
of the kingdom of each of these twain? No 
answer has been given. Let not this perfidious 
fellow hesitate, but let him now acknowlege that 
the substance of his duality has been reduced 
again to a unity. Let him mention any one who 
can have constructed that middle wall. What 
could the one of these two parties have been 
engaged in when the other was building? Was 
he asleep? or was he ignorant of the fact? or 
was he unable to withstand the attempt? or was 
he bought over with a price? Tell us what he 
was about, or tell us who in all the universe was 
the person that raised the construction. I ad- 
dress my appeal to you, O judges, whom God 
has sent to us with the fullest plenitude of in- 
telligence ; judge ye which of these two could 
have erected the structure, or what the one could 
have been doing all the while that the other was 
engaged in the building. 

24. The judges said: Tell us, O Manes, who 
designated the boundaries for the kingdom of 
each, and who made the middle wall?. For Ar- | 
chelaus begs that due importance be attached to 
the practice of interrogation in this discussion. 
Manes said: The God who is good, and who 
has nothing in common with evil, placed the fir- 
mamentiin the midst, in order to make it plain 5 
that the wicked one is an alien to Him. <Arche- 
laus said: How fearfully you belie the dignity 
of that name! You do indeed call Him God, 
but you do so in name only, and you make His 
deity resemble man’s infirmities. At one time 
out of the non-existent, and at another time out 
of underlying matter, which indeed thus existed 
before Himself, you assert that He did build the 
structure, as builders among men are wont to do. 
Sometimes also you speak of Him as -apprehen- 
sive, and sometimes as variable. It is, however, 
the part of God to do what is proper to God, 
and it is the part of man to do what is proper 
to man. If, then, God, as you say, has con- 
structed a wall, this is a God who marks Him- 
self out as apprehensive, and as possessed of no 
fortitude. For we know that it is always the case 
that those who are suspicious of the preparation 
of secret perils against them by strangers, and 
who are afraid of the plots of enemies, are ac- 
customed to surround their cities with walls, by 
which procedure they at once secure themselves 
in their ignorance, and display their feeble ca- 
pacity. But here, too, we have something which 
ought not to be passed over by us in silence, 
but rather brought prominently forward ; so that 
even by the great abundance of our declarations 
on the subject our adversary’s manifold craftiness 
may be brought to nought, with the help of the 





S Reading ‘‘ patefaceret” for the “partum faceret” of Codex 
Casinensis. 


ye 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 197 


j 








truth on our side. We may grant, then, that the|self? Or was it that He lusted after some of the 
_ structure of the wall has been made with the pur- | possessions of the wicked one? But if none of 
_ pose of serving to distinguish between the two| these things formed the real cause that led God 
_ kingdoms; for without this one division’ it is| to destroy those very things which He had con- 
impossible for either of them to have his own|structed a long time before with the view of 
proper kingdom. But granting this, then it fol-| estranging and separating the wicked one from 
lows further that in the same manner it will also| Him, then it must needs be considered no matter 
be impossible for the wicked one to pass without | of surprise if God should also have become de- 
_ his own proper limits and invade the territories | lighted with his society ;5 for, on your supposi- 
of the good Xing, inasmuch as the wall stands| tion, the munition which had been set up with 
there as an obstacle, unless it should chance first|the purpose of securing God against trouble 
to be cast down, for we have heard that such/| from him, will appear to have been removed just 
things have been done by enemies, and indeed | because now he is to be regarded no more as an 
with our own eyes we have quite recently seen | enemy, but as a friend. And, on the other hand, 
an achievement of that nature successfully carried | if you aver that the wall was destroyed by the 
out.2, And when a king attacks a citadel sur- | wicked one, tell us then how it can be possible 
rounded by a strong wall, he uses first of all the | for the works of the good God to be mastered 
ballista 3 and projectiles ; then he endeavours to| by the wicked one. For if that is possible, then 
cut through the gates with axes, and to demolish | the evil nature will be proved to be stronger than 
the walls by the battering-rams ; and when he at|God. Furthermore, how can that being, seeing 
last obtains an entrance, and gains possession of| that he is pure and total darkness, surprise the 
the place, he does whatever he listeth, whether | light and apprehend it, while the evangelist gives 
it be his pleasure to carry off the citizens into| us the testimony that “the light shineth in dark- 
captivity, or to make a complete destruction of| ness, and the darkness comprehended it not?” ® 
the fortress and its contents, or whether, on the! How is this blind one armed? How does the 
other hand, it may be his will to grant indulgence | darkness fight against the kingdom of light? 
to the captured stronghold on the humble suit| For even as the creatures of God? here cannot 
of the conquered. What, then, does my oppo-| take in the rays of the sun with uninjured eye,® 
nent here say to this analogy? Did no adversary |so neither can that being bear the clear vision 
substantially — which is as much as to say,|of the kingdom of light, but he remains for ever 
designedly — overthrow the muniment cast up|a stranger to it, and an alien. 
between the two?4 For in his former state-| 25. Manes said: Not all receive the word of 
ments he has avouched that the darkness passed | God, but only those to whom it is given to know 
without its own limits, and supervened upon the | the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.2 And 
kingdom of the good God. Who, then, over- | even now '° I know who are ours ; for “my sheep,”’ 
threw that munition before the one could thus} He says, “hear my voice.” *! For the sake of 
have crossed over to the other? For it was| those who belong to us, and to whom is given 
impossible for the evil one to find any entrance | the understanding of the truth, I shall speak in 
while the munition stood fast. Why are you|similitudes. The wicked one is like a lion that 
silent? Why do you hesitate, Manichzeus? Yet, | sought to steal upon the flock of the good shep- 
although you may hold back, I shall proceed | herd; and when the shepherd saw this, he dug 
with the task of my own accord. For if we sup-|a huge pit, and took one kid out of the flock 
pose you to say that God destroyed it, then Ij and cast it into the pit. Then the lion, hunger- 
have to ask what moved Him in this way to| ing to get at it, and bursting with passion to 
demolish the very thing which He had Himself; devour it, ran up to the pit and fell in, and dis- 
previously constructed on account of the impor- | covered no strength sufficient to bring him out 
tunity of the wicked one, and for the purpose | again. And thereupon the shepherd seized him 
of preserving the separation between them? In|and shut him up carefully in a den, and at the 
what fit of passion, or under what sense of injury, |same time secured the safety of the kid which 
did He thus set about contending against Him- | had been with him in the pit. And it is in this 
1 The text gives szze hoc uno. But perhaps Routh is right in We, that the wicked one has been enfeebled, 
suggesting muro for zno = without this wall. : —the lion, so to speak, possessing no more 
by the Persians in the tne of Valorianus Augustus, or to fe recapture | Capacity for doing aught injurious; and so all 
and restoration to the Roman power by the Eastern king Odenathus ; 
during the empire of Gallienus. E Y 5 The Codex Casinensis has ‘‘ nec mirum putandum est consortio,” 
3 The ballista was a large engine fitted with cords somewhat like | etc. We read with Routh and others, sz e7us consort :, or guod gus 


a bow, by which large masses of stone and other missiles were hurled | consortzo, etc. 
to a great distance. 6 John i. 5. 





4 The sense is obscure here. The text gives, “‘non substantia id 7 The text gives simply, szeut enim hac. Routh suggests ha. 
est proposito adversarius quis dejecit,” etc. Migne edits the sentence 8 Reading ¢lests oculis for the 22zxs ocudis of Codex Casinensis. 
without an interrogation. We adopt the interrogative form with 9 Matt. xix. 11. 


Routh. The idea perhaps is, Did no adversary with materials such | 1° The text gives ef jam quidem for the etiam quidem of the Cod. 


as the kings of earth use, and that is as much as to say also with a | Casin. 
determinate plan, overthrow, etc, ? | 3£ John x. 27, 





198 





the race of souls will be saved, and what once 
perished will yet be restored to its proper flock. 
Archelaus said: If you compare the wicked one 
to the lion, and God to the true shepherd, tell 
us, whereunto shall we liken the sheep and the 
kid? Manes said: The sheep and the kid 
seem to me to be of one nature: and they are 
taken as figures of souls. Archelaus said: 
Well, then, God gave a soul over to perdition 
when He set it before the lion in the pit. A/anes 
said: By no means; far from it. But He was 
moved by a particular disposition,’ and in the 
future He will save that other, she soul. Arche- 
laus said; Now, surely it would be an absurd 
procedure, my hearers, if a shepherd who dreaded 
the inroad of a lion were to expose to the beast’s 
devouring fury a lamb that he was wont to carry 
in his bosom, and if it were then to be said that 
he meant to save the creature hereafter. Is not 
this something supremely ridiculous? Yea, there 
is no kind of sense in this. For on the suppost- 
tion implied in your similitude God thus handed 
over to Satan a soul that he might seize and ruin. 
But when did the shepherd ever do anything like 
that?? Did not David deliver a sheep out of 
the mouth of a lion or of a bear? And we 
mention this on account of the expression, ous 
of the mouth of the tion, for, on your theory, 
this would imply that the shepherd can bring 
forth out of the mouth of the lion, or out of the 
belly of the same, the very object which it has 
devoured.3 But you will perhaps make this 
answer, that it is of God we speak, and that He 
is able to do all things. Hear, however, what I 
have to say to that: Why then do you not rather 
assert His real capacity, and affirm simply His 
ability to overcome the lion in His own might, 
or with the pure power of God, and without the 
help of any sort of cunning devices, or by con- 
signing a kid or a lamb to a pit?+ Tell me 
this, too, if the lion were to be supposed to come 
upon the shepherd at a time when he has no 
sheep, what would the consequence be? For 
he who is here called the shepherd is supposed 
to be unbegotten, and he who is here the lion is 
also unbegotten. Wherefore, when man did not 
yet exist — in other words, before the shepherd 
had a flock — if the lion had then come upon the 
shepherd, what would have followed, seeing that 
there could have been nothing for the lion to eat 
before the kid was in existence? Manes said: 
The lion certainly had nothing to devour, but yet 





l Apprehensus est hoc ingento. For hoc here, Routh suggests 
Arc in reference to the /eo ; so that the sense might be = But by this 
plan the lion was caught, and hereafter He will save the soul. 

2 The text is, ‘‘ Quando enim pastor, nonne David de ore leonis,” 
etc. We adopt the amended reading, “‘ Quando enim pastor hoc fecit? 
Nonne David,” etc. 

3 Routh would put this interrogatively = Can he bring out of the 
mouth or the belly of the lion what it has once devoured? 

4 This seems to be the sense intended. The text in the Codex 
Casinensis runs thus: 
quod poterit propria virtute vincere leonem, si et pura Dei potentia,” 
etc. For si et pura we may read szve pura, or si est pura, etc. 


“* Cur igitur quod possit non illud potius asseris ' 





THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES, 


he exercised his wickedness on whatever he was 
able to light upon as he coursed over the peaks 
of the mountains ; and if at any time food was a 
matter of necessity with him, he seized some of 
the beasts which were under his own kingdom. 
Archelaus said: Are these two objects, then, of 
one substance — the beasts which are under the 
kingdom of the wicked one, and the kids which 
are in the kingdom of the good God?s Manes 
said: Far from it; not at all: they have noth- 
ing in common either between themselves or 
between the properties which pertain to them 
severally. <Archelaus said: There is but one 
and the same use made of the food in the lion’s 
eating. And though he sometimes got that food 
from the beasts belonging to himself, and some- 
times from those belonging to the good God, 
there is still no difference between them as far 
as regards the meats furnished ; and from this it 
is apparent that those are of but one substance. 
On the other hand, if we say that there is a great 
difference between the two, we do but ascribe 
ignorance to the shepherd,° in so far as he did 
not present or set before the lion food adapted 
to his use, but rather alien meats. Or perchance 
again, in your desire to dissemble your real posi- 
tion, you will say to me that that lion ate noth- 
ing. Well, supposing that to be the case, did 
God then in this way challenge that being to 
devour a soul while he knew not how to devour 
aught? and was the pit not the only thing which 
God sought to employ with the view of cheating 
him ? —if indeed it is at all worthy of God to 
do that sort of thing, or to contrive deceitful 
schemes. And that would be to act like a king 
who, when war is made upon him, puts no kind 
of confidence in his own strength, but gets 
paralyzed with the fears of his own feebleness, 
and shuts himself up within the walls of his city, 
and erects around him a rampart and other for- 
tifications, and gets them all equipped, and trusts 
nothing to his own hand and prowess ; whereas, 
if he is a brave man, the king so placed will 
march a great distance from his own territories 
to meet the enemy there, and will put forth 
every possible exertion until he conquers and 
brings his adversary into his power. 

26. The judges said: If you allege that the 
shepherd exposed the kid or the lamb to the 
lion, when the said lion was meditating an as- 
sault7 on the unbegotten, the case is closed. 
For seeing that the shepherd of the kids and 
lambs is himself proved to be in fault to them, 
on what creature can he pronounce judgment, 
if it happens that the lamb which has been given 





5 Routh takes it as a direct assertion = It follows, then, that these 
two objects are of one substance, etc, 

6 The text runs, “ sed aliud alio longe differre ignorantiam pastori 
ascribimus; ” for which we adopt the emendation, *‘ sed alium ab alio 
longe differre si dicamus, ignorantiam pastori ascribimus.” 

7 Migne reads trrueret, Routh gives zrruervat, had made an 
assault. 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES, 


199 





up ' through the shepherd’s weakness has proved 
unable to withstand the lion, and if the conse- 
quence is that the lamb has had to do whatever 
has been the lion’s pleasure? Or, to take an- 
other instance, that would be just as if a master 
were to drive out of his house, or deliver over in 
terror to his adversary, one of his slaves, whom 
he is unable afterwards to recover by his own 
strength. Or supposing that by any chance it 
were to come about that the slave was recovered, 
on what reasonable ground could the master in- 
flict the torture on him, if it should turn out that 
the man yielded obedience to all that the enemy 
laid upon him, seeing that it was the master 
himself? who gave him up to the enemy, just as 
the kid was given up to the lion? You affirm, 
too, that the shepherd understood the whole 
case beforehand. Surely, then, the lamb, when 
under the lash, and interrogated by the shepherd 
as to the reason why it had submitted to the 
lion in these matters, would make some such 
answer as this: “Thou didst thyself deliver me 
over to the lion, and thou didst offer no resist- 
ance to him, although thou didst know and fore- 
see what would be my lot, when it was necessary 
for me to yield myself to his commandments.” 
And, not to dilate on this at greater length, we 
may say that dy such an illustration neither is God 
exhibited as a perfect shepherd, nor is the lion 
shown to have tasted alien meats; and conse- 
quently, under the instruction of the truth itself, 
it has been made clear that we ought to give the 
palm to the reasonings adduced by Archelaus. 
Archelaus said: Considering that, on all the 
points which we have hitherto discussed, the 
thoughtfulness of the judges has assigned us 
the amplest scope, it will be well for us to pass 
over other subjects in silence, and reserve them 
for another period. For just as, if$ a person 
once crushes the head of a serpent, he will not 
need to lop off any of the other members of its 
body ; so, if we once dispose ¢ of this question of 
the duality, as we have endeavoured to do to the 
best of our ability, other matters which have been 
maintained in connection with it may be held to 
be exploded along with it. Nevertheless I shall 
yet address myself, at least in a few sentences, 
to the assertor of these opinions himself, who is 
now in our presence; so that it may be thor- 
oughly understood by all who he is, and whence 
he comes, and what manner of person he proves 
himself to be. For he has given out that he is 
that Paraclete whom Jesus on His departure 
promised to send to the race of man for the 





1 The text gives sf causa traditus, etc. Routh suggests sive 
causa. Traditus, etc.; so that the sense would be, Fort on what 
creature can the shepherd of the kids and lambs pronounce judgment, 
seeing that he is himself proved to be in fault to them, or to be the 
cause of their position? For the lamb, having been given up, etc. 

2 Reading eum tpse for eum ipsum. p : 

3 Reading sz gxzs for the simple quis of Codex Casinensis. : 

4 Reading ‘‘quastione rejecta” for the relecta of Codex Casi- 
nensis. 





salvation of the souls of the faithful; and this 
profession he makes as if he were somewhat 
superior even to Paul,5 who was an elect vessel 
and a called apostle, and who on that ground, 
while preaching the true doctrine, said:° “Or 
seek ye a proof of that Christ who speaks in 
me?’’?7 What I have to say, however, may be- 
come clearer by such an illustration as the fol- 
lowing :° —A certain man gathered into his store 
a very large quantity of corn, so that the place 
was perfectly full. This place he shut and sealed 
in a thoroughly satisfactory fashion, and gave di- 
rections to keep careful watch over it. And the 
master himself then departed. However, after 
a lengthened lapse of time another person came 
to the store, and affirmed that he had been 
despatched by the individual who had locked up 
and sealed the place with a commission also to 
collect and lay up a quantity of wheat in the 
same. And when the keepers of the store saw 
him, they demanded of him his credentials, in 
the production of the signet, in order that they 
might assure themselves of their liberty to open 
the store to him, and to render their obedience 
to him as to one sent by the person who had 
sealed the place. And when he could? neither 
exhibit the keys nor produce the credentials of 
the signet, for indeed he had no right, he was 
thrust out by the keepers, and compelled to flee. 
For, instead of being what he professed to be, 
he was detected to be a thief and a robber by 
them, and was convicted and found out '° through 
the circumstance that, although, as it seemed, 
he had taken it into his head to make his ap- 
pearance a long time after the period that had 
been determined on beforehand, he yet could 
neither produce keys, or signet, or any token 
whatsoever to the keepers, nor display any knowl- 
edge of the quantity of corn that was in store : all 
which things were so many unmistakeable proofs 
that he had not been sent across by the proper 
owner ; and accordingly, as was matter of course,"! 
he was forbidden admittance by the keepers. 


5 This seems to be the general sense of the corrupt text here, e¢# 
non longe posstt et Paulus, etc.,in which we must either suppose 
something to have been lost, or correct it in some such way as this: 
“ut non longe post sit ei Paulus.” Compare what Manes says also 
of Paul and himself in ch. xiii, above. It should be added, however, 
that another idea of the passage is thrown out in Routh. According 
to this, the ez refers to ¥esus, and the text being emended thus, efs# 
non longe post stt et, the sense would be: although not long after His 
departure He had Paul as an elect vessel, etc. The allusion thus 
would be to the circumstance that Manes made such a claim as he 
did, in spite of the fact that after Christ’s departure Peul was gifted 
with the Spirit in so eminent a measure for the buildtag up of the 
faithful. 

6 Reading arebat for the agebat of Codex Casinensis. 

7 2 Cor. xiii. 3. The reading here is, “‘ Aut documentum queri- 
tis,” etc. The Vulgate also gives An experimentunt, for the Greek 
éret, etc. 

8 The text is, ‘‘et quidem quod dico tali exemplo sed clarius.” 
For sed it is proposed to read fit, or szt, or est. 

9 Codex Casinensis has guzcungue. We adopt the correction, 
Qui cum nec. 

10 Reading confutatus for confugatus. 

Il The text gives ‘et ideo ut consequenter erat,” etc. Codex Casi- 
nensis omits the x7. Routh proposes, ‘‘ et ideo consequenter thesau- 
rus,” etc. = and thus, of course, the treasure was preserved, etc. 
Comp. ch. xxvii and xxxiv. 


200 





27. We may give yet another illustration, if it 


seems good to you. A certain man, the head 
of a household, and possessed of great riches, 
was minded to journey abroad for a time, and 
promised to his sons that he would send them 
some one who would take his place, and divide 
among them equally the substance falling to 
them. And, in truth, not long after that, he did 
despatch to them a certain trustworthy and right- 
eous and true man. And on his arrival, this 
man took charge of the whole substance, and 
first of all exerted himself to arrange it and ad- 
minister it, giving himself great labour in journey- 
ing, and even’ working diligently with his own 
hands, and toiling like a servant for the good of 
the estate. Afterwards feeling that his end was 
at hand,? the man wrote out a will, demitting the 
inheritance to the relations and all the next of 
kin; and he gave them his seals, and called 
them together one by one by name, and charged 
them to preserve the inheritance, and to take 
care of the substance, and to administer it rightly, 
even as they had received it, and to take their 
use of its goods and fruits, as they were them- 
selves left its owners and heirs. If, moreover, 
any person were to ask to be allowed to benefit 
by the fruits of this field, they were to show 
themselves indulgent to such. But if, on the 
other hand, any one were to declare himself 
partner in the heirship with them, and were to 
make his demands on that ground,3 they were 
to keep aloof from him, and pronounce him an 
alien ; and further, “hey were to hold that the in- 
dividual who desired to be received among them 
ought all the more on that account to do work.4 
Well, then, granting that all these things have 
been well and rightly disposed of and settled, 
and that they have continued in that condition 
for a very long time, how shall we deal with one 
who presents himself well-nigh three hundred 
years after, and sets up his claim to the heirship? 
Shall we not cast him off from us? Shall we not 
justly pronounce such a one an alien — one who 
cannot prove himself to have belonged to those 
related fo our Master, who never was with our 
departed Lord in the hour of His sickness, who 
never walked in the funeral procession of the 
Crucified, who never stood by the sepulchre, 
who has no knowledge whatsoever of the manner 
or the character of His departure, and who, in 
fine, is now desirous of getting access to the 
storehouse of corn without presenting any token 


1 The text has, “‘sedens ipse per se,” etc.; for which we adopt, 
“ sed et ipse,”’ etc. 

2 The Codex Casinensis gives, ‘‘deinde die moriturus,” which 
may be either a mistake for ‘‘ deinde moriturus,”’ or a contraction for 
“‘ deinde die qua moriturus ” — then on the day that he was about to 
die, etc. 

3 The codex has, ‘‘Sin autem conderem se dicens, exposceret, 
devitarent persequi,” etc.; which is corrected to, ‘‘ Sin autem cohzre- 
dem se dicens exposceret, devitarent atque,” etc., whic. emendation 
is followed in the translation. 

4 Opus autem magts facere debere. 





a Ae 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 


from him who placed it under lock and seal? 
Shall we not cast him off from us like a robber 
and a thief, and thrust him out of our number 
by all possible means? Yet this man. is now in 
our presence, and fails to produce any of the 
credentials which we have summarized in what 
we have already said, and declares that he is 
the Paraclete whose mission was presignified by 
Jesus. And by this assertion, in his ignorance 
perchance, he will make out Jesus Himself to be 
a liar;5 for thus He who once said that He 
would send the Paraclete no long time after, will 
be proved only to have sent this person, if we 
accept the testimony which he bears to himself, 
after an interval of three hundred years and 
more.° In the day of judgment, then, what will 
those say to Jesus who have departed this life 
from that time on to the present period? Will 
they not meet Him with words like these: ‘“ Do 
not punish us rigorously if we have failed to do 
Thy works. For why, when Thou didst promise 
to send the Paraclete under Tiberius Cesar, to 
convince us of sin and of righteousness,’ didst 
Thou send Him only under Probus the Roman 
emperor, and didst leave us orphaned, notwith- 

standing that Thou didst say, ‘I will not leave 

you comfortless (orphaned),’* and after Thou 

hadst also assured us that Thou wouldest send 

the Paraclete presently after Thy departure? 

What could we orphans do, having no guardian? 

We have committed no fault; it is Thou that 

hast deceived us.” But away with such a sup- 

position in the case of our Lord Jesus Christ, 

the Saviour of every soul.2 For He did not con- 

fine Himself to mere promises ;*° but when He 

had once said, “I go to my Father, and I send 

the Paraclete to you,”' straightway He sent 

(that gift of the Paraclete), dividing and impart- 

ing the same to His disciples, — bestowing it, 

however, in greater fulness upon, Paul.’? 

28. Manes said:'3 You are caught in the 


5 The same sort of argument is employed against the Montanists 
by Theodorus of Heracleia on John’s Gospel, ch. xiv. 17. 

6 It is remarked in Migne, that it is only in the heat of his con- 
tention that this statement is made by Archelaus as to the date of the 
appearance of Manes; for from the death of Christ on to the time of 
this discussion there are only some 249 years. [Is it not probable 
that here is a token of the spurious character of not a little of this 
work? 

7 John xvi. 8. 

8 John xiv. 18. 

9 Reading “‘ sed absit hoc a Domino nostro Jesu Christo Salvatore 
omnis anime,” instead of the codex’s ‘‘ sed absit hanc a Domino Jesu 
Christo Salvatore omne anime.” 

1o If the reference, however, is to 2 Pet. iii. 9, as Routh suggests, 
it may rather be = He was not slack concerning His promises. The 
text is, ‘‘non enim moratus est in promissionibus suis.” [A note- 
worthy reference to the second Epistle of St. Peter. For, if this work 
be a mere romance, yet its undoubted antiquity makes it useful, not 
only in this, but in many other critical mata | 

11 John xiv. 12, xvi, 28. 

12 Reading “‘ abundantius vero conferens Paulo,” instead of the 
corrupt text in the Codex Casinensis, ‘‘abundantibus vero confitens 
Paulo.” 

13 The opening sentences of this chapter are given in a very cor- 
rupt form in our Codex Casinensis. its text stands thus: ‘‘ Tuum et 
ipsius indicio comprehensus es; hasc enim versum te locutus, ignorans, 
qui dum, me vis probra conjicere majori culpz se succumbit. Dic 
age mihi studias qua ‘Tiberio usque ad Probum defuncti sunt, dicent 


” 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 


201 





charge you yourself bring forward. For you 
have been speaking now against yourself, and 
have not perceived that, in trying to cast re- 
proaches in my teeth, you lay yourself under 
the greater fault. Tell me this now, I pray you: 
if, as you allege, those who have died from the 
time of Tiberius on to the days of Probus are 
to say to Jesus, “Do not judge us if we have 
failed to do Thy works, for Thou didst not send 
the Paraclete to us, although Thou didst promise 
to send Him ;”' will not those much more use 
such an address who have departed this life from 
the time of Moses on to the advent of Christ 
Himself? And will not those with still greater 
right express themselves in terms like these: 
“Do not deliver us over to torments,? seeing 
that we had no knowledge of Thee imparted to 
us?” And will it only be those that have died 
thus far previously to His advent who may be 
seen making such a charge with right? Will 
not those also do the same who have passed 
away from Adam’s time on to Christ’s advent? 
For none of these either obtained any knowl- 
edge of the Paraclete, or received instruction in 
the doctrine of Jesus. But only this latest gen- 
eration of men, which has run its course from 
Tiberius onward, as you make it out,3 is to be 
saved: for it is Christ Himself that “has re- 
deemed them from the curse of the law;’’4 as 
Paul, too, has given these further testimonies, 
that “the letter killeth, and quickeneth no 
man,’’5 and that “the law is the ministration 
of death,” ° and “ the strength of sin.”7 Arche- 
laus said: You err, not knowing the Scriptures, 
neither the power of God.’ For many have also 
perished after the period of Christ’s advent on 
to this present period, and many are still perish- 
ing, — those, to wit, who have not chosen to 
devote themselves to works of righteousness ; 
whereas only those who have received Him, and 
yet receive Him, “have obtained power to be- 
come the sons of God.’’9 For the evangelist 
has not said all have obtained that power; 
neither, on the other hand, however, has he put 
any limit on the time. But this is his expres- 
sion: “ As many as received Him.’”’ Moreover, 
from the creation of the world He has ever been 
with righteous men, and has never ceased to 
require their blood at the hands of the wicked, 
from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood 





ad Jesum nolite nos judicare,” etc. We have adopted these emenda- 
tions: tuzmet for tuum et; adversum for versum; ignoras for 
ignorans ; tn me for me; succumbts for se succumbit ; st, ut ats, 
gu? a, for studias gua ; and nolz for nolzte. 

1 Supplying zssurum, which is not in the codex. ! 

2 Reading “ noli nos tradere tormentis,” instead of the meaning- 
less “‘ noli nostra de tormentis” of the codex. 

3 Reading x? az's instead of ut eas. 

4 Gal. iii. 13. it 

8 Nec quemquam vivificat. 2 Cor. ili. 6, 

© 2 Cor. iii. 7. 

7 x Cor. xv. 56. 

8 Matt. xxii. 29. 

9 John + xa, 





of Zacharias.‘° And whence, then, did righteous 
Abel and all those succeeding worthies,"! who are 
enrolled among the righteous, derive their right- 
eousness, when as yet there was no law of Moses, 
and when as yet the prophets had not arisen and 
discharged the functions of prophecy? Were 
they not constituted righteous in virtue of their 
fulfilling the law, ‘‘every one of them showing 
the work of the law written in their hearts, their 
conscience also bearing them witness?” For 
when a man “who has not the law does natu- 
rally the things contained in the law, he, not hav- 
ing the law, is a law unto himself.”"3 And 
consider now the multitude of laws thus existing 
among the several righteous men who lived a 
life of uprightness, at one time discovering for 
themselves the law of God implanted in their 
hearts, at another learning of it from their 
parents, and yet again being instructed in it 
further by the ancients and the elders. But in- 
asmuch as only few were able to rise by this 
medium * to the height of righteousness, that is 
to say, by means of the traditions of parents, 
when as yet there was no law embodied in writ- 
ing, God had compassion on the race of man, 
and was pleased to give through Moses a written 
law to men, since verily the equity of the natural 
law failed to be retained in all its perfection in 
their hearts. In consonance, therefore, with 
man’s first creation, a written legislation was 
prepared which was given through Moses in 
behoof of the salvation of very many. For if 
we reckon that man is justified without the 
works of the law, and if Abraham was counted 
righteous, how much more shall those obtain 
righteousness who have fulfilled the law which 
contains the things that are expedient for men? 
And seeing that you have made mention only 
of three several scriptures, in terms of which 
the apostle has declared that “the law is a 
ministration of death,” ‘5 and that “ Christ has 
redeemed us from the curse of the law,’’'° and 
that “the law is the strength of sin,” ‘7 you may 
now advance others of like tenor, and bring for- 
ward any passages which may seem to you to be 
written against the law, to any extent you please. 

29. Manes said: Is not that word also to the 
same effect which Jesus spake to the disciples, 
when He was demonstrating those men to be 
unbelieving : “Ye are of your father the devil, 
and the lusts of your father ye will do?” 8 By 
this He means, in sooth, that whatever the 





to Matt. xiii. 35. 

Il Reading religul per ordinem for the gui fer ordinem of the 
codex. 

12 Rom. ii. 15. 

13 Rom. ii. 14. 

14 Reading ‘‘ per hunc modum.” But the Codex Casinensis gives 
“per hunc mundum ” — through this world. 

1S 2 Cor. iil. 7. 

16 Gal. iii. 13. 

17 : Cor. xv. 56. 

18 John viii. 44. 


202 





wicked prince of this world desired, and what- 
ever. he lusted after, he committed to writing 
through Moses, and by that medium gave it to 
men for their doing. For ‘“‘he was a murderer 
from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, 
because there is no truth in him. When he 
speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he 
is a liar, and the father of it.”* <Archelaus 
said: Are you satisfied? with what you have 
already adduced, or have you other statements 
still to make? Manes said: I have, indeed, 
many things to say, and things of greater weight 
even than these. But with these I shall content 
myself. Avrchelaus said: By all means. Now 
let us select some instance from among those 
statements which you allege to be on your side ; 
so that if these be once found to have been 
preperly dealt with, other questions may also be 
held to rank with them; and if the case goes 
otherwise, I shall come under the condemna- 
tion of the judges, that is to say, I shall have 
to bear the shame of defeat.3 . You say, then, 
that the law is a ministration of death, and you 
admit that ‘death, the prince of this world, 
reigned from Adam even to Moses;” 4 for the 
word of Scripture is this: ‘‘even over them that 
did not sin.’4 Manes said: Without doubt 
death did reign thus, for there is a duality, and 
these two antagonistic powers were nothing else 
than both unbegotten.s <Archelaus said: Tell 
me this then, — how can an unbegotten death 
take a beginning at a certain time? For “ from 
Adam” is the word of Scripture, and not “be- 
fore Adam.” Manes said: But tell me, I ask 
you in turn, how it obtained its kingdom over 
both the righteous and the sinful. <Archelaus 
said; When you have first admitted that it has 
had that kingdom from a determinate time and 
not from eternity, I shall tell you that. Janes 
said: It is written, that “death reigned from 
Adam to Moses.” Archelaus said: And conse- 
quently it has an end, because it has had a 
beginning in time.® And this saying is also 
true, that “death is swallowed up in victory.” 7 
It is apparent, then, that death cannot be unbe- 
gotten, seeing that it is shown to have both a 
beginning and an end. Manes said: But in 
that way it would also follow that God was its 
maker. <Archelaus said: By no means; away 
with such a supposition! ‘ For God made not 
death ; neither hath He pleasure in the destruc- 





I John viii. 44. 

2 The text is “‘ sufficit tibi hac sunt an habes et alia.” Routh 
proposes ‘‘ sufficientia tibi haec sunt,” etc. 

3 Routh would make it = Yox will come under the condemnation 
. . . you will have to bear: he suggests erzs ergo for ero ego, and 
Jeras for feram. 

4 Rom. v. 14. 

S Nec aliter nist essent tngentta. Routh, however, would read 
esset for essent, making it = and that death could be nothing else 
than unbegotten. 

6 Reading ex temtpore for the corrupt exermsplo re of the codex. 

7 x Cor. xv. 54. 





“erry 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 


eee 


tion of the living.”® Manes said: God made 
it not; nevertheless it was made, as you admit. 
Tell us, therefore, from whom it received its 
empire, or by whom it was created. Archelaus 
said: If I give the most ample proof of the 
fact that death cannot have the substance of an 
unbegotten nature, will you not confess that 
there is but one God, and that an unbegotten 
God? Manes said: Continue your discourse, 
for your aim is to speak with subtlety. Avche- 
laus said: Nay, but you have put forward those 
allegations in such a manner, as if they were to 
serve you for a demonstration of an unbegotten 
root. Nevertheless the positions which we have 
discussed above may suffice us, for by these we 
have shown most fully that it is impossible for 
the substances of two unbegotten natures to 
exist together. 

30. Lhe judges said: Speak to those points, 
Archelaus, which he has just now propounded. 
Archelaus said: By the prince of the world, 
and the wicked one, and darkness, and death, 
he means one and the same thing, and alleges 
that the law has been given by that being, on 
the ground of the scriptural statement that it is 
“the ministration of death,” as well as on the 
ground of other things which he has urged 
against it. Well, then, I say ’° that since, as we 
have explained above, the law which was written 
naturally on men’s hearts did not keep carefully 
by the memory of evil things, and since there 
was not a sufficiently established tradition among 
the elders, inasmuch as hostile oblivion always 
attached itself to the memory,'! and one man 
was instructed zz the knowledge of that law by 
a master, and another by himself, it easily came 
about that transgressions of the law engraved by 
nature did take place, and that through the vio- 
lation of the commandments death obtained its 
kingship among men. For the race of men is 
of such a nature, that it needs to be ruled by 
God with a rod of iron. And so death tri- 
umphed and reigned with all its power on to 
Moses, even over those who had not sinned, in 
the way which we have explained: over sinners 
indeed, as these were its proper objects, and 
under subjection to it, —men after the type of 
Cain and Judas ;'? but also over the righteous, 
because they refused to consent to it, and rather 
withstood it, by putting away from themselves 
the vices and concupiscence of lusts, — men 
like those who have arisen at times from Abel 








8 Wisd. i. 13. 

9 The text gives dzscere, to learn; but dzcere seems the probable 
reading. 

10 Reading zxguam for the zuzguant of the Codex Casinensis. 
But Routh suggests zzigu@, in reference to what has been said 
towards the close of ch. xxviii. 

11 The codex gives, ‘“‘cum eas inimica semper memorize ineresis 


‘ sed oblivio; ” which is co.rected thus, ‘‘ cum eis inimica semper ms 


moriz inhzesisset oblivio.” 
12 The text writes it ada, 


| THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 


203 





on to Zacharias ;— death thus always passing, 
up to the time of Moses, upon those after that 
similitude.? 

But after Moses had made his appearance, 
and had given the law to the children of Israel, 
and had brought into their memory all the re- 
quirements of the law, and all that it behoved 
men to observe and do under it, and when he 
delivered over to death only those who should 
transgress the law, then death was cut off from 
reigning over all men; for it reigned then over 
sinners alone, as the law said to it, “Touch not 
those that keep my precepts.”3 Moses there- 
fore served the ministration of this word upon 
death, while he delivered up to destruction? all 
others who were transgressors of the law; for it 
was not with the intent that death might not 
reign in any territory at all that Moses came, in- 
asmuch as multitudes were assuredly held under 
the power of death even after Moses. And the 
law was called a “ministration of death” from 
the fact that then only transgressors of the law 
were punished, and not those who kept it, and 
who obeyed and observed the things which are 


in the law, as Abel did, whom Cain, who was} 


made a vessel of the wicked one, slew. How- 
ever, even after these things death wished to 
break the covenant which had been made by 


the instrumentality of Moses, and to reign again | 


over the righteous ; and with this object it did 
indeed assail the prophets, killing and stoning 
those who had been sent by God, on to Zacha- 
rias. But my Lord Jesus, as maintaining the 
righteousness of the law of Moses, was wroth 
with death for its transgression of the covenant 5 
and of that whole ministration, and condescended 
to appear in the body of man, with the view of 
avenging not Himself, but Moses, and those who 
in a continuous succession after him had been op- 
pressed by the violence of death. That wicked 
one, however, in ignorance of “le meaning of a 
dispensation of this kind, entered into Judas, 
thinking to slay Him by that man’s means, as 
before he had put righteous Abel to death. But 
when he had entered into Judas, he was over- 
come with penitence, and hanged himself; for 
which reason also the divine word says: “O 
death, where is thy victory? O death,° where 
is thy sting?’”’? And again: ‘ Death is swallowed 
up of victory.”7 It is for this reason, therefore, 
that the law is called a “ ministration of death,” 
because it delivered sinners and transgressors 











I Matt xxiii. 35. : 

2 This would appear to be the meaning of these words, “ trans- 
ferens semper usque ad tempus in similes illius,” if we suppose the 
speaker still to be keeping Rom. v. 12-14 in view. Routh suggests 
transiens. 

3 Referring perhaps to Ps. cv. 15. 3 4 

4 Reading zxteritut tradens for the tnterit ut tradens of the 
codex. 

5 Reading fact? for the actz of the codex. 

‘6 Mors. 

7 1 Cor. xv. 54, 55+ 





over to death; but those who observed it, it 
defended from death; and these it also estab- 
lished in glory, by the help and aid of our Lord 
Jesus Christ. 

31. Listen also to what I have to say on this 
other expression which has been adduced, viz., 
“Christ, who redeemed us from the curse of the 
law.” ° My view of this passage is that Moses, 
that illustrious servant of God, committed to 
those who wished to have the right vision,? an 
emblematic '° law, and also a real law. ‘Thus, to 
take an example, after God had made the world, 
and all things that are in it, in the space of six 
days, He rested on the seventh day from all His 
works ; by which statement I do not mean to 
affirm that He rested because He was fatigued, 
but that He did so as having brought to its per- 
fection every creature which He had resolved to 
introduce. And yet in the sequel it, che new 
law, says: “ My Father worketh hitherto, and I 
work.’”’*! Does that mean, then, that He is 
still making heaven, or sun, or man, or animals, 
or trees, or any such thing? Nay; but the 
meaning is, that when these visible objects were 
perfectly finished, He rested from that kind of 
work ; while, however, He still continues to work 
at objects invisible with an inward mode of 
action,’ and saves men. In like manner, then, 
the legislator desires also that every individual 
amongst us should be devoted unceasingly. to 
this kind of work, even as God Himself is; and 
he enjoins us consequently to rest continuously 
from secular things, and to engage in no worldly 
sort of work whatsoever ; and this is called our 
Sabbath. This also he added in the law, that 
nothing senseless '3 should be done, but that we 
should be careful and direct our life in accord- 
ance with what is just and righteous. Now this 
law was suspended over men, discharging most 
sharply its curse against those who might trans- 
gress it. But because its subjects, too, were but 
men, and because, as happens also frequently 
with us, controversies arose and injuries were 
inflicted, the law likewise at once, and with the 
severest equity, made any wrong that was done 








SiGalo iiss. 

9 Recte videre. 
lead a righteous life. 

10 The phrase is zmaginartam legem. On this expression there 
is a note in Migne, which is worth quoting, to this effect: Archelaus 
calls the Old Testament an emblematic or tmaginary law, because 
it was the type or image of a future new law. So, too, Petrus de 
Vineis, more than once in his Epistles, calls a messenger or legate a 
homo imaginartus, as Du Cange observes in his Glossary, because 
he represents the person by whom he is sent, and, as it were, reflects 
his image. This word is also used in a similar manner by the old in- 
terpreter of Evagrius the monk, in the Dzsputation between The 
ophilus, bishop of Alexandria, and Simon the Few, ch. 13, where 
the Sabbath is called the ~eguzes zmaginaria of that seventh day on 
which God rested. Hence Archelaus, in his answer to the presbyte? 
Diodorus, ch. xli. beneath, devotes himself to proving that the Old 
Testament is not to be rejected, because, like a mirror, it gives us a 
true image of the new law. 

Ir john v. 17. 

12 Reading “‘invisibilia autem et intrinsecus.” 
nensis has ‘‘ invisibili autem et trinsecus.” 

13 Absurdum, standing probably for aromov, which may also be = 
flagitious. 


But perhaps we should read “‘ recte vzvere,” to 


The Codex Casi- 


204 


return upon the head of the wrong-doer ;' so 
that, for instance, if a poor man was minded 
to gather a bundle of wood upon the Sabbath, 
he was placed under the curse of the law, and 
exposed to the penality of instant death.2 The 
men, therefore, who had been brought up with 
the Egyptians were thus severely pressed by the 
restrictive power of the law, and they were un- 
able to bear the penalties and the curses of the 
law. But, again, He who is ever the Saviour, 
our Lord Jesus Christ, came and delivered those 
men from these pains and curses of the law, for- 
giving them their offences. And He indeed did 
not deal with them as Moses did, putting the 
severities of the law in force, and granting in- 
dulgence to no man for any offence; but He 
declared that if any man suffered an injury at 
the hands of his neighbour, he was to forgive 
him not once only, nor even twice or thrice, nor 
only seven times, but even unto seventy times 
seven ;3 but that, on the other hand, if after all 
this the offender still continued to do such wrong, 
he ought then, as the last resource, to be brought 
under the law of Moses, and that no further 
pardon should be granted to the man who would 
thus persist in wrong-doing, even after having 
been forgiven unto seventy times seven. And 
He bestowed His forgiveness not only on a 
transgressor of such a character as that, but even 
on one who did offence to the Son of man. But 
if a man dealt thus with the Holy Spirit, He 
made him subject to two curses, — namely, to 
that of the law of Moses, and to that of His own 
law ; to the law of Moses in truth in this present 
life, but to His own law at the time of the judg- 
ment: for His word is this: “It shall not be 
forgiven hin, neither in this world, neither in the 
world to come.’’4 ‘There is the law of Moses, 
thus, that in this world gives pardon to no such 
person ; and there is the law of Christ that pun- 
ishes in the future world. From this, therefore, 
mark how He confirms the law, not only not 
destroying it, but fulfilling it. Thus, then, He 
redeemed them from that curse of the law which 
belongs to the present life; and from this fact 
has come the appellation “the curse of the 
law.” ‘This is the whole account which needs be 
given of that mode of speech. But, again, why 
the law is called the “strength of sin,” we shall 
at once explain in brief to the best of our ability. 
Now it is written that “the law is not made for 
a righteous man, but for the lawless and dis- 
obedient, for the ungodly and for sinners.” 5 
In these times, then, before Moses, there was 
mo written law for transgressors; whence also 





1 The codex reads, “‘ultionem fecerat retorquebat.” We adopt 
either “‘ultionem quam fecerat retorquebat,” or “ultionem fecit 
vetorqueri.” 

2 Num. xv. 32. 

3 Matt. xviii. 21. 

4 Matt. xii. 32. 

5x Tim. i. 9. 





THE: DISPUTATION WITH MANES: 


Pharaoh, not knowing the strength of sin, trans- 
gressed in the way of afflicting the children of 
Israel with unrighteous burdens, and_ despised 
the Godhead, not only himself, but also all who 
were with him. But, not to make any round- 
about statement, I shall explain the matter briefly 
as follows. There were certain persons of the 
Egyptian race mingling with the people of Moses, 
when that people was under his rule in the 
desert ; and when Moses had taken his position 
on the rnount, with the purpose of receiving the 
law, the impatient people, I do not mean those 
who were the true Israel, but those who had 
been intermixed with the Egyptians,° set up a 
calf as their god, in accordance with their 
ancient custom of worshipping idols, with the 
notion that by such means they might secure 
themselves against ever having to pay the proper 
penalties for their iniquities.?7 Thus were they 
altogether ignorant of the strength of their sin. 
But when Moses returned (from the mount) and 
found that out, he issued orders that those men 
should be put to death with the sword. From 
that occasion a beginning was made in the cor- 
rect perception of the strength of sin on the 
part of these persons through the instrumentality 
of the law of Moses, and for that reason the law 
has been called the “strength of sin.” 

32. Moreover, as to this word which is writ- 
ten in the Gospel, “Ye are of your father the 
devil,” ® and so forth, we say in brief that there 
is a devil working in us, whose aim it has been, 
in the strength of his own will, to make us like 
himself. For all the creatures that God made, 
He made very good; and He gave to every in- 
dividual the sense of free-will, in accordance 
with which standard He also instituted the law 
of judgment. To sin is ours, and that we sin 
not is God’s gift, as our will is constituted to 
choose either to sin or not to sin. And this 
you doubtless understand well enough yourself, 
Manes; for you know that, although you were 
to bring together all your disciples and admonish 9 
them not to commit any transgression or do any 
unrighteousness, every one of them might still 
pass by the law of judgment. And certainly 
whosoever will, may keep the commandments ; 
and whosoever shall despise them, and turn aside 
to what is contrary to them, shall yet without 
doubt have to face this law of judgment. Hence 
also certain of the angels, refusing to submit 





6 This is one of those passages in which we detect the tendency 
of many of the early fathers to adopt the peculiar opinions of the 
Jewish rabbis on difficult points of Scripture. See also the Déspzu- 
tation between Theophilus of Alexandria and the Few Stmon, 
ch. 13. _ In accordance with the opinion propounded here by Arche- 
laus, we find, for instance, in the Scesoth Rabba, p. 157, col. 1, that 
the making of the golden calf is ascribed to the Egyptian proselytes. 
See the note in Migne. [The passage is a note of antiquity and 
in so far of authenticity. ] 

7 The text is zx guo nec scelerum panas aliguando rependeret. 

8 John viii. 44. 

9 Reading commonens for communis ne. 
suggested. 


Communiens is also 





THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. ° 


205 





themselves to the commandment of God, re- 
sisted His will; and one of them indeed fell like 
a flash of lightning‘ upon the earth, while others,’ 
harassed by the dragon, sought their felicity in 
intercourse with the daughters of men,3 and thus 
brought on themselves the merited award of the 
punishment of eternal fire. And that angel who 
was cast down to earth, finding no further ad- 
mittance into any of the regions of heaven, now 
flaunts about among men, deceiving them, and 
luring them to become transgressors like himself, 
and even to this day he is an adversary to the 
commandments of God. The example of his 
fall and ruin, however, will not be followed by 
all, inasmuch as to each is given liberty of will. 
For this reason also has he obtained the name 
of devil, because he has passed over from the 
heavenly places, and appeared on earth as the 
disparager of God’s commandment.* But be- 
cause it was God who first gave the command- 
ment, the Lord Jesus Himself said to the devil, 
“Get thee behind me, Satan;”5 and, without 
doubt, to go behind God is the sign of being His 
servant. And again He says, “Thou shalt wor- 
ship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou 
serve.”5 Wherefore, as certain men were in- 
clined to yield obedience to his wishes, they 
were addressed in these terms by the Saviour: 
“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts 
of your father ye will do.”® And, in fine, when 
they are found to be actually doing his will, they 
are thus addressed: “O generation of vipers, 
who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to 
come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for re- 
pentance.”7 From all this, then, you ought to 
see how weighty a matter it is for man to have 
freedom of will. However, let my antagonist 
here say whether there is a judgment for the 
godly and the ungodly, or not. Manes said: 
There is a judgment. Archelaus said: I think 
that what we® have said concerning the devil 
contains no small measure of reason as well as 
of piety. For every creature, moreover, has its 
own order ; and there is one order for the human 
race, and another for animals, and another for 





1 Luke x. 18. 

2 We have another instance here of a characteristic opinion of the 
Jewish rabbis adopted by a Christian father. This notion as to the 
intercourse of the angels with the daughters of men was a current in- 
terpretation among the Jews from the times of Philo and Josephus, 
and was followed in whole or in part by Tertullian, Justin, Irenzeus, 
Clemens Alexandrinus, Athenagoras, Methodius, Cyprian, Lactantius, 
etc. Consult the note in Migne; [also p. 131, note 2, supra|. 

3 We give the above as a Zosstble rendering. Routh, however, 
understands the matter otherwise. The text is, “‘ alii vero in felicitate 
hominum filiabus admisti a dracone afflicti,” etc. Routh takes the 
phrase zm felicttate as — “‘ adhuc in statu felici existentes:” so that 
the sense would be, ‘‘ others, while they still abode in the blessed 
estate, had intercourse,” etc. [Routh, X. S., vol. v. pp. 118-122. ] 

4 Aichelaus seems here to assign a twofold etymology for the 
name devz/, deriving the Greek d:aBoAos, accuser, from dcaBaddAw, 
in its two senses of trajsicere and traducere, to cross over and to 
slander. 

5S Matt. iv. ro, 

© John viii. 44. 

7 Matt. iii. 7, 8. 

8 Reading a nobis for the a vobrs of the codex. 


juuicii ratione ut quis nostrum fallat appareat.” 





angels. Furthermore, there is but one only in- 
convertible substance, the divine substance, eter- 
nal and invisible, as is known to all, and as is 
also borne out by this scripture: ‘No man hath 
seen God at any time, save the only begotten 
Son, which isin the bosom of the Father.”9 All 
the other creatures, consequently, are of neces- 
sity visible, — such as heaven, earth, sea, men, 
angels, archangels. Butif God has not been seen 
by any man at any time, what consubstantiality 
can there be between Him and those creatures? 
Hence we hold that all things whatsoever have, 
in their several positions, their own proper sub- 
stances, according to their proper order. You, 
on the other hand, allege that every living thing 
which moves is made of one,‘°® and you say that 
every object has received like substance from 
God, and that this substance is capable of sin- 
ning and of being brought under the judgment ; 
and you are unwilling to accept the word which 
declares that the devil was an angel, and that he 
fell in transgression, and that he is not of the 
same substance with God. Logically, you ought 
to do away with any allowance of the doctrine of 
a judgment, and that would make it clear which 
of us is in error.’ If, indeed, the angel that has 
been created by God is incapable of falling in 
transgression, how can the soul, as a part of God, 
be capable of sinning? But, again, if you say 
that there is a judgment for sinning souls, and if 
you hold also that these are of one substance 
with God ; and if still, even although you main- 
tain that they are of the divine nature, you affirm 
that, notwithstanding that fact, they do not keep? 
the commandments of God, then, even on such 
grounds, my argument will pass very well,'3 which 
avers that the devil fell first, on account of his 
failure to keep the commandments of God. He 
was not indeed of the substance of God. And 
he fell, not so much to do hurt to the race of 
man, as rather to be set at nought "+ by the same. 
For He “gave unto us power to tread on serpents 
and scorpions, and over all the strength of the 
enemy.” *5 





9 John i, 18, 
10 Ex uno. 
Il The sense is obscure here. The text runs, ‘‘ Interimere debes 
Migne proposes to 
read vatzonem, as if the idea intended was this: That, consistently 
with his reasonings, Manes ought not to admit the fact of a judgment, 
because the notions he has propounded on the subject of men and 
angels are not reconcilable with such a belief. —If this can be ac- 
cepted as the probable meaning, then it would seem that the use of 
the verb zzterzmere may be due to the fact that the Greek text gave 
ava.pecv, between the two senses of which— viz. to kill and to remove 
—the translator did not correctly distinguish. Routh, however, pro- 
poses to read ¢nterziz’, taking it as equivalent to condemnari, so 
that the idea might be = on all principles of sound judgment you 
ought to be condemned, etc. 

12 The codex reads simply, De? servare mandata, We may 
adopt either Dez non servare mandata, as above, or, Det servare 


vel non servare mandata, in reference to the freedom oi will, and 
so = they may or may not keep the commandments 

13 The codex has precedzt. for which proced tt is proposed. 

M4 Reading ‘ laderet — illuderetur.” But might it not rather be 


* leederet — 2lirderetur,” not to bruise, but rather to be bruised, etc.? 
1S Luke x. 19. 


206 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 





33. The judges said; He has given demon- 
stration enough of the origin of the devil. And 
as both sides admit that there will be a judgment, 
it is necessarily involved in that admission that 
every individual is shown to have free-will ; and 
since this is brought clearly out, there can be no 
doubt that every individual, in the exercise of his 
own proper power of will, may shape his course 
in whatever direction he pleases.'. Manes said: 
If (only) the good is from (your) God, as you 
allege, then you make Jesus Himself a liar. 
Archelaus said: In the first place, admit that 
the account of what we have adduced is true, 
and then I will give you proof about the “ father 
of him.”3 Manes said: If you prove to me 
that his father is a liar, and yet show me that for 
all that you ascribe no such (evil) notion to 
God, then credit will be given you on all points. 
Archelaus said: Surely when a full account of 
the devil has once been presented, and the dis- 
pensation set forth, any one now, with an ordi- 
narily vigorous understanding, might simply, by 
turning the matter carefully over in his own 
mind, get an idea of who this is that is here 
called the father of the devil. But though you 
give yourself out to be the Paraclete, you come 
very far short of the ordinary sagacity of men. 
Wherefore, as you have betrayed your ignorance, 
I shall tell you what is meant by this expression, 
the ‘father of the devil.” Manes said: I say 
so*... ; and he added: Every one who is 
the founder or maker of anything may be called 


the father, parent, of that which he has made. | 


Archelaus said: Well, 1 am verily astonished 
that you have made so correct an admission in 
reply to what I have said, and have not concealed 
either your intelligent apprehension of the affir- 
mation, or the real nature of the same. Now, 
from this learn who is this father of the devil. 
When he fell from the kingdom of heaven; he 
came to dwell upon earth, and there he remained, 
ever watching and seeking out some one to whom 
he might attach himself, and whom, through an 





1 This appears to be the general sense of the very corrupt pas- 
sage, ‘‘ Quo videntur ostenso nulli dubium est unusquisque in quam- 
cunque elegerit partem propria usus arbitrii potestate.” In Migne it 
is amended thus: ‘‘ Quo evidenter ostenso, nulli dubium est, quod 
unusquisque in quamcunque elegerit partem, propria usus fuerit 
arbitrii potestate.’ 

2 Adopting the emendation, “si a Deo bonus, ut asseris, menda- 
cein esse dixisti Jesum,”” In the Codex Casinensis it stands thus: 
‘*sic a Deo bonus ut as mendacem esse dixisti Jesus.” But Routh 
would substitute “‘ si a Deo dzadolus” = if the devil is from God. 

3 The argumentation throughout this passage seems to rest on 
the fact that, in support of the dogma of the evil deity, Manes per- 
verted, among other passages, our Lord’s words in John viii. 44, as 
if they were not only “ Ye are of your father the devil,” but possibly 
also, *“ Ye are of the father of the devil; ’”’ and again, ‘‘ He is a liar, 
and the father of him zs the same.” Thus what Manes urges 
against Archelaus is this: If only what is good proceeds from the 
Deity, and if He is the Supreme Good Himself, 
to have spoken falsely, when in John’s Gospel 
which imply that the devil’s father is a liar, and also the Creator of 
the lyre devil. 

4 There are some words deficient in this sentence. The text 
reads, ‘“‘ Manes dixit: . . . dico: et adjecit, Omnis qui conditor-est 
vel Creator aliquorum pater eorum . . . condiderit appellatur.” It 
is proposed to supply 7a7 before dco, and gue before condiderit, 


ou make out Jesus | 
€ uses expressions | 





alliance with himself, he might also make a part- 
ner in his own wickedness. Now as long, indeed, 
as man was not yet existent, the devil was never 
called either a murderer or a liar together with 
his father. But subsequently, when man had 
once been made, and when further he had been 
deceived by the devil’s lies and craftiness, and 
when the devil had also introduced himself into 
the body of the serpent, which was the most 
sagacious of all the beasts, then from that time 
the devil was called a liar together with his father, 
and then5 also the curse was made to rest not 
only on himself, but also on his father. Accord- 
ingly, when the serpent had received him, and 
had indeed admitted him wholly into its own 
being, it was, as it were, rendered pregnant, for 
it bore the burden of the devil’s vast wickedness ; 
and it was like one with child, and under the 
strain of parturition, as it sought to eject the 
agitations® of his malignant suggestions. For 
the serpent, grudging the glory of the first man, 
made its way into paradise; and harbouring 
these pains of parturition in itself,” it began to 
produce mendacious addresses, and to generate 
death for the men who had been fashioned bv 
God, and who had received the gift of life. The 
devil, however, was not able to manifest himself 
completely through the serpent ; but he reserved 
his perfection for a time, in order that he might 
demonstrate it through Cain, by whom he was 
generated completely. And thus through the 
serpent, on the one hand, he displayed his hy- 
pocrisies and deceits to Eve; while through 
Cain, on the other hand, he effected the begin- 
ning of murder, introducing himself into the 
firstlings of the “ fruits,” which that man admin- 
istered so badly. From this the devil has been 
called a murderer from the beginning, and also 
a liar, because he deceived the parties to whom 
he said, “ Ye shall be as gods ;””® for those very 
persons whom he falsely declared destined to 
be gods were afterwards cast out of paradise. 
Wherefore the serpent which conceived him in 
its womb, and bore him, and brought him forth 
to the light of day, is constituted the devil’s first 
father ; and Cain is made his second father, whe 
through the conception of iniquities produced 
pains and parricide: for truly the taking of life 
was the perpetrating of iniquity, unrighteousness, 
and impiety all together. Furthermore, all who 
receive him, and do his lusts, are constituted his 
brothers. Pharaoh is his father in perfection. 
Every impious man is made his father. Judas be- 
came his father, since he conceived him indeed, 
though he miscarried: for he did not present a 
perfect parturition there, since it was really a 





S Reading ef effectum for the ut effectum of the codex. 

6 Or it may be “ cogitations,” reading cogztata for agitata, 

7 Conceptis in se doioribus, oa 
8 Gen. li, 5. 





= 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 


207 





greater person who was assailed through Judas ; 
and consequently, as ! say, it proved an abortion. 
For just as the woman receives the man’s seed, 
and thereby also becomes sensible of a daily 
growth within her, so also did Judas make daily 
advances in evil, the occasions for that being 
furnished him like seed by the wicked one. And 
the first seed of evil in him, indeed, was the lust 
of money ; and its increment was theft, for he 
purloined the moneys which were deposited in 
the bag. Its offspring, moreover, consisted of 
less vexations, and compacts with the Pharisees, 
and the scandalous bargain for a price; yet it 
was the abortion, and not the birth, that was wit- 
nessed in the horrid noose by which he met his 
death. And exactly in the same way shall it 
stand also with you: if you bring the wicked one 
to light in your own deeds, and do his lusts, you 
have conceived him, and will be called his father ; 
but, on the other hand, if you cherish penitence, 
and deliver yourself of your burden, you will be 
like one that brings to the birth.t. For, as in 
school exercises, if one gets the subject-matter 
from the master, and then creates and produces 
the whole body of an oration by himself, he is 
said to be the author of the compositions to 
which he has thus given birth; so he who has 
taken in any little leaven of evil from the prime 
evil, is of necessity called the father and pro- 
creator of that wicked one, who from the begin- 
ning has resisted the truth. The case may be 
the same, indeed, with those who devote them- 
selves to virtue; for I have heard the most 
valiant men say to God, “ For Thy fear, O Lord, 

we have conceived in the womb, and we have 
been in pain, and have brought forth the spirit 
of salvation.”3 And so those, too, who conceive 
in respect of the fear of the wicked one, and 
bring forth the spirit of iniquity, must needs be 
called the fathers of the same. Thus, on the 
one hand, they are called sons of that wicked 
one, so long as they are still yielding obedience 
to his service ; but, on the other hand, they are 
called fathers if they have attained to the perfec- 
tion of iniquity. For it is with this view that 
our Lord says to the Pharisees, “‘ Ye are of your 
father the devil,” + thereby making them his sons, 
as long as they appeared still to be perturbed 5 
by him, and meditated in their hearts evil for 
good toward the righteous. Accordingly, while 
they deliberated in such a spirit with their own 
hearts, and while their wicked devices were made 
chargeable upon® themselves, Judas, as the head 
of all the evil, and as the person who carried out 





I The text gives parturtes. Routh suggests parturzens. The 
sense then right be, But if you repent, you will also deliver yourself 
of your burden like one who brings to the birth. _ ‘ 

2 Reading Domine for Dominum, which is given in the text. 

3 The quotation may refer to Isa, xxvi, 18, TA curious version. ] 

4 John viii. 44 

5 Conturbari. 

® Translatis in se. 





their iniquitous counsels to their consummation, 
was constituted the father of the crime, having 
received at their hands the recompense of thirty 
pieces of silver for his impious cruelty. For 
“after the sop Satan entered into him” 7 com- 
pletely. But, as we have said, when his womb 
was enlarged, and the time of his travail came 
on, he delivered himself only of an abortive bur- 
den in the conception of unrighteousness, and 
consequently he could not be called the father 
in perfection, except only at that very time when 
the conception was still in the womb ; and after- 
wards, when he betook himself to the hangman’s 
rope, he showed that he had not brought it to a 
complete birth, because remorse ® followed. 

34. I think that you cannot fail to understand 
this too, that the word “father” is but a single 
term indeed, and yet one admitting of being 
understood in various ways. For one is called 
father, as being the parent of those children 
whom he has begotten in a natural way ; another 
is called father, as being the guardian of chil- 
dren whom he has but brought up; and some, 
again, are called fathers in respect of the privi- 
leged standing accruing through time or age. 
Hence our Lord Jesus Christ Himself is said to 
have a variety of fathers: for David was called 
His father, and Joseph was reckoned to be His 
father, while neither of these two was His father 
in respect of the actuality of nature. For David 
is called His father as touching the prerogative 
of time and age,? and Joseph is designated His 
father as concerning the law of upbringing ; but 
God Himself is His only Father by nature, who 
was pleased to make all things manifest in short 
space *° to us by His word. And our Lord Jesus 
Christ, making no tarrying,’’ in the space of one 
year restored multitudes of the sick to health, 
and gave back the dead to the light of life; and 
He did indeed embrace all things in the power 
of His own word.'3 And wherein, forsooth, did 
He make any tarrying, so that we should have 
to believe Him to have waited so long, even so 
these days, before He actually sent the Para- 
clete?'4 Nay, rather, as has been already said 
above, He gave proof of His presence with us 
forthwith, and did most abundantly impart Him- 
self to Paul, whose testimony we also believe 
when he says, “Unto me only is this grace 
given.” "5 For this is he who formerly was a 
persecutor of the Church of God, but who 


7 John xiii. 27. 

8 Penitentia, [2 Cor. vii. 10.] 

9 Atatis ac temporis privilegio. 

10 Velociter. 

Il Nec in aliquo remoratus. 

12 The text gives, ‘‘inter unius anni spatium,” for which zz¢ra, 
étc., is proposed. With certain others of the fathers, Archelaus 
seems to assign but one year to the preaching of Christ and to His 
working of miracles. See ch. xlix. [Vol. i. p. 391, this series. ] 

13 Referring probably to Heb. i. 3. 

14 Migne gives this sentence as a direct statement. 
interrogative form with Routh, 

15 Eph, ili. 8. Mzhz autem solz, etc. 


We adopt the 


208 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 





afterwards appeared openly before all men as a 
faithful minister of the Paraclete ; by whose in- 
strumentality His singular clemency was made 
known to all men, in such wise that even to us 
who some time were without hope the largess 
of His gifts has come. For which of us could 
have hoped that Paul, the persecutor and enemy 
of the Church, would prove its defender and 
guardian? Yea, and not that alone, but that he 
would become also its ruler, the founder and 
architect of the churches? Wherefore after 
him, and after those who were with Himself — 
that is, the disciples — we are not to look for 
the advent of any other (such), according to 
the Scriptures ; for our Lord Jesus Christ says 
of this Paraclete, ‘“ He shall receive of mine.’ ! 
Him therefore He selected as an acceptable ves- 
sel; and He sent this Paul to us in the Spirit. 
Into him the Spirit was poured ;? and as that 
Spirit could not abide upon all men, but only 
on Him who was born of Mary the mother of 
God, so that Spirit, the Paraclete, could not 
come into any other, but could only come upon 
the apostles and the sainted Paul. “ For he is 
a chosen vessel,’ He says, “unto me, to bear 
my name before kings and the Gentiles.” 3 The 
apostle himself, too, states the same thing in his 
first epistle, where he says: “ According to the 
grace that is given to me of God, that I should 
be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, 
ministering 4 the Gospel of God.”5 “TI say the 
truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also 
bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost.”® And 
again: “ For I will not dare to speak of any of 
those things which Christ hath not wrought by 
me by word and deed.”’7 “I am the last of all 
the apostles, that am not meet to be called an 
apostle. But by the grace of God I am what I 
am.”® And it is his wish to have to deal with 9 
those who sought the proof of that Christ who 
spake in him, for this reason, that the Paraclete 
was in him: and as having obtained His gift of 
grace, and as being enriched with magnificent 
honour,’° he says: “For this thing I besought 
the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. 
And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for 
thee; for strength is made perfect in weak- 
ness.” *% Again, that it was the Paraclete Him- 





2 eg Xvi. 14. 

2 'The text reads, ‘‘ quem misit ad nos Paulum in Spiritus influxit 
Spiritus,’ etc. We adopt the emendation, “quem misit ad nos 
Paulum in Spiritu. Influxit Spiritus,” etc. Routh suggests, ‘‘ Paul- 
um cujus in spiritum influxit Spiritus” =this Paul, into whose spirit 
the Spirit was poured. 

3 In conspectu regum et genttum. Acts ix. 15. 

4 Consecrans. (Vol. ¥. p. 290, note 8; also p. 409.] 

5 Rom. xv. 15, 16. 

© Rom. ix. 1. 

7 Rom, xv. 18. 

8 x Cor. xv. 9, 10. Archelaus here gives “‘ zovzsstmus omnium 
apostolorum”’ for the éAdxtatos of the Greek, and the “‘ minimus” 
of the Vulgate, [‘‘ The last” instead of /east.] 

9 Vult habere. 

30 Reading ‘‘ magnifico honxexe” for the “‘ magnifico hoc ore” of 
the codex. 

33 2 Cor. xii. 8, 9. 








self who was in Paul, is indicated by our Lord 
Jesus Christ in the Gospel, when He says: “ If 
ye love me, keep my commandments. And I 
will pray my Father, and He shall give you 
another Comforter.” '? In these words He points 
to the Paraclete Himself, for He speaks of 
“another”? Comforter. And hence we have 
given credit to Paul, and have hearkened to him 
when he says, “ Or "3 seek ye a proof of Christ 
speaking in me?’’"* and when he expresses him- 
self in similar terms, of which we have already 
spoken above. Thus, too, he seals his testa- 
ment for us as for his faithful heirs, and like a 
father he addresses us in these words in his 
Epistle to the Corinthians: “I delivered unto 
you first of all that which I also received, how 
that Christ died for our sins according to the 
Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that 
He rose again the third day according to the 
Scriptures; and that He was seen of Cephas, 
then of the eleven apostles : ‘5 after that He was 
seen of above five hundred brethren at once; 
of whom the greater part remain unto this pres- 
ent, but some are fallen asleep. After that He 
was seen of James; then of all the apostles. 
And last of all He was seen of me also, as of 
one born out of due time. For I am the last 
of the apostles.” © “Therefore, whether it were 
I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed.” ‘7 
And again, in delivering over to his heirs that 
inheritance which he gained first himself, he 
says: “But I fear, lest by any means, as the 
serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so 
your minds should be corrupted from the sim- 
plicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh 
preacheth another Christ,*? whom we have not 
preached, or if ye receive another Spirit, which 
ye have not received, or another gospel, which 
ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with 
him. For I suppose that I did nothing less for 
you than the other apostles.” '9 

35. These things, moreover, he has said with 
the view of showing us that all others who may 
come after him will be false apostles, deceitful 
workers, transforming themselves into the apos- 
tles ot Christ. And no marvel; for Satan him- 
self is transformed, like an angel of light. What 
great thing therefore is it, if his ministers also 
be transformed into the ministers of nghteous- 
ness ?— whose end shall be according to their 
works.?° He indicates, further, what manner of 
men these were, and points out by whom they 


12 John xiv. 15, 16. 
13 Aut. 
™4 2 Cor. xiii. 3. 
18 Undecim apostolzs. 
16 x Cor. xv. 3-9. [Note 8, supva.] 
17 x Cor, xv. 11. 
18 Christum. 
19 Nihil minus fect vobis a ceteris apostolis. 2 Cor. xi. 3-5. 
20 2 Cor. ix. 14,15. The text gives “‘ ve/w¢ angelum Jucis,” as if 
the Greek had read &s. So also Cyprian, in the beginning of his 
book on The Unity of the Church. (Vol. v. p. 422, sec. 3.) 


VS ares 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 








were being circumvented. And when the Gala- 
Mans are minded to turn away from the Gospel, 
he says to them: “I marvel that ye are so soon 
removed from Him that called you unto another 
gospel: which is not another; but there be 
some that trouble you, and would turn you 
away from the Gospel of Christ. But though 
we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other 
gospel unto you than that which has been de- 
livered to you, let him be accursed.”? And 
again he says: “To me, who am the least of 
all the apostles,3 is this grace given ;”’4 and, “I 
fill up that which was behind of the afflictions 
of Christ in my flesh.’’5 And once more, in 
another place, he declares of himself that he 
was a minister of Christ more than all others,® 
as though after him none other was to be looked 
for at all; for he enjoins that not even an angel 
from heaven is thus to be received. And how, 
then, shall we credit the professions of this 
Manes, who comes from Persis,? and declares 
himself to be the Paraclete? By this very thing, 
indeed, I rather recognise in him one of those 
men who transform themselves, and of whom the 
Apostle Paul, that elect vessel, has given us very 
clear indication when he says: “ Now in the 
last times some shall depart from the faith, 
giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines 
of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having 
their conscience seared with a hot iron; for- 
bidding to marry, and commanding to abstain 
from meats, which God hath created to be re- 
ceived ® with thanksgiving of them which believe 
and know the truth. For every creature of God 
is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be re- 
ceived with thanksgiving.” 9 The Spirit in the 
evangelist Matthew is also careful to give note 
of these words of our Lord Jesus Christ: ‘Take 
heed that no man deceive you: for many shall 
come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and 
shall deceive many. But if any man shall say 
_unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe 
it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and 
false apostles,'° and false prophets, and shall show 
great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it 
were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. 
Behold, I have told you before. If they shall 
say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go 
not forth: if they shall say, Behold, he is in the 
secret chambers; believe it not.” And yet, 

I Avertere vos. 

2 Gal. i. 6-8. 

3 Infimo omntum apostolorum. 

4 Eph. iii. 8. 

5 Col. i, 24. 

© 2 Cor. xi. 23. 

7 The Codex Casinensis gives, ‘‘ de Persida venientem monet; ” 
for which corrupt reading it is proposed to substitute ‘‘ de Perside 
yenientem Manem,” etc. 

8 Reading perciprendum with the Vulgate. But the Codex 
Casinensis has perjictendum. 

9 1 Tim. iv. 1-4. 

10 These words falsz apostolz seem to be added by way of explana- 


tion, as they are not found either in the Greek or the Vulgate. - 
11 Matt. xxiv. 4, 5, 23-20. 








209 


after all these directions, this man, who has 
neither sign nor portent of any kind to show, 
who has no affinity to exhibit, who never even 
had a place among the number of the disciples, 
who never was a follower of our departed Lord, 
in whose inheritance we rejoice, —this man, I 
say, although he never stood by our Lord in His 
weakness, and although he never came forward as 
a witness of His testament, yea rather, although 
he never came even within the acquaintance of 
those who ministered to Him in His sickness, 
and, in fine, although he obtains the testimony 
of no person whatsoever, desires us to believe 
this profession which he makes of being the 
Paraclete ; whereas, even were you to do signs 
and wonders, we would still have to reckon you 
a false Christ, and a false prophet, according to 
the Scriptures. And therefore it is well for us 
to act with the greater caution, in accordance 
with the warning which the sainted apostle gives 
us, when, in the epistle which he wrote to the 
Colossians, he speaks in the following terms: 
“ Continue in the faith grounded and rooted,’ 
and not to be moved away "3 from the hope of 
the Gospel, which we have heard,'* and which 
was preached to every creature which is under 
heaven.” '5 And again: “ As ye have therefore 
received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in 
Him; rooted and built up in Him, and stab- 
lished in the faith, as ye have been taught, 
abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware 
lest any one spoil you through philosophy and 
vain deceit, after the rudiments of the world, 
and not after Christ. For in Him dwelleth all 
the fulness of the Godhead.” '® And after all 
these matters have been thus carefully set forth, 
the blessed apostle, like a father speaking to his 
children, adds the following words, which serve 
as a sort of seal to his testament: “ I have fought 
a good fight, I have finished my course,'? I have 
kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for 
me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, 
the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; 
and not to me only, but unto all them also that 
love His appearing.” *® 

36. None of your party,'? O Manes, will you 
make a Galatian ; neither will you in this fashion 
divert us?° from the faith of Christ. Yea, even 
although you were to work signs and wonders, 
although you were to raise the dead, although 
you were to present to us the very image of Paul 


2 Radicatz. 

13 [pmobiles. 

14 Audivimus. 

15 Col. 1.23. 

16 Col ii. 6-9. 

17 The text gives ‘c¢vcu cucurri,” perhaps for 
curri.” The Vulgate has ‘‘ cursum consummavyl,” 

Aare lam Avi 75S 

19 The text gives ‘‘ex vobis.” But perhaps we should read ‘‘ ex 


“Cursum cus 


nobis” = none of us. 


20 The Codex Casinensis has ‘‘Galatain facies vicit, o nostras 
feras,” for which we adopt the correction, ‘*Galatam facies, nec ite 
nos.” 


210 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 





himself, you would remain accursed still.1 For 
we have been instructed beforehand with regard 
to you: we have been both warned and armed 
against you by the Holy Scriptures. You are a 
vessel of Antichrist; and no vessel of honour, 
in sooth, but a mean and base one, used by him 
as any barbarian or tyrant may do, who, in at- 
tempting to make an inroad on a people living 
under the righteousness of the laws,? sends some 
select vessel on beforehand, as it were destined 
to death, with the view of finding out the exact 
magnitude and character of the strength pos- 
sessed by the legitimate king and his nation: for 
the man is too much afraid to make the inroad 
himself wholly at unawares, and he also lacks 
the daring to despatch any person belonging to 
his own immediate circle on such a task, through 
fear that he may sustain some harm. And so it 
is that your king, Antichrist, has despatched you 
in a similar character, and as it were destined to 
death, to us who are a people placed under the 
administration of the good and holy King. And 
this I do not say inconsiderately or without due 
inquiry ; but from the fact that I see you per- 
form no miracle, I hold myself entitled to enter- 
tain such sentiments concerning you. For we 
are given to understand beforehand that the devil 
himself is to be transformed into an angel of 
light, and that nis servants are to make their 
appearance in similar guise, and that they are to 
work signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it 
were possible, the very elect should be deceived.3 
But who, pray, are you then, to whose lot no 
such position of kinship has been assigned by 
your father Satan? + For whom have you raised 
from the dead? What issue of blood do you 
ever staunch? WhatS eyes of the blind do you 
ever anoint with clay, and thus cause them to 
have vision? When do you ever refresh a hun- 


gering multitude with a few loaves? Where do) 


you ever walk upon the water, or who of those 
who dwell in Jerusalem has ever seen you? O 


Persian barbarian, you have never been able to, 


have a knowledge of the language of the Greeks, 
or of the Egyptians, or of the Romans, or of 
any other nation ; but the Chaldean tongue alone 
has been known to you, which verily is not a 
language prevalent among any great number of 
people,° and you are not capable of understand- 
ing any one of another nationality when he 
speaks. Not thus is it with the Holy Spirit: 








1 O Satan! The Codex Casinensis gives ‘“‘ anathema esse axa,” 
which may be an error, either for ‘‘ anathema es, Satana,’’ or for 
“anathema es et maranatha.” [‘‘O Satan” is less ‘probable. J 

2 The text is Jegum,; for which regumt, kings, is also suggested. 

3 Matt. xxiv. 24. 

4 The text gives, ‘ * qui neque necessarium aliquem locum sortitus 
es,” etc. Routh proposes “ necessarii.’ 
Manes had nothing to prove any connection between him and Christ. 

4 Reading “‘ gzos luto,” etc., for the ‘* guod luto”’ of the codex. 

6 [Note, against Canon Farrar and moderns, the persuasion of 
antiquity as to the miraculous gift of tongues; the charismata of 
others, also, besides the Apostles. The text is, “‘ qua ne in numerum 
quidem aliquem ducitur,”’ 


The sense seems to be that | 
| two words. 





—— 


God forbid; but He divides to all, and knows 
all kinds of tongues, and has understanding of 
all things, and is made all things to all men, so 
that the very thoughts of the heart cannot escape 
His cognizance. For what says the Scripture? 
“That every man heard the apostles speak in 
his own language through the Spirit, the Para- 
clete.”7 But why should I say more on this 
subject?® Barbarian? priest and crafty coad- 
jutor of Mithras, you will only be a worshipper 
of the sun-god Mithras, who is the illuminator 
of places of mystic import, as you opine, and 
the self-conscious deity ;’’!° that is, you will sport 
as his worshippers do, and you will celebrate, 
though with less elegance as it were, his mys- 
teries.*" But why should I take all this so indig- 
nantly? Is it not accordant with all that is 
fitting, that you should multiply yourself like the 
tares, until that same mighty father of yours 
comes, raising the dead, as he will profess to do, 
and persecuting almost to hell itself all those 
who refuse to yield to his bidding, keeping mul- 
titudes in check by that terror of arrogance in 
which he entrenches himself, and employing 
threatenings against others, and making sport of 
them by the changing of his countenance and 
his deceitful dealing ?'? And yet beyond that he 
shall proceed no further; for his folly shall be 
made manifest to all men, as was the case with 
Jamnes and Mambres."%3 Zhe judges said: As 
we have heard now from you, as Paul himself 
also seems to tell us, and, further, as we have 
learned likewise from the earlier account given 
in the Gospel, an introduction to preaching, or 
teaching, or evangelizing, or prophesying, is not, 
in this life at least, held out on the same terms to 
any person in times subsequent ¢o0 the apostles :*4 
and if the opposite appears ever to be the case, 
the person can only be held to be a false prophet 
or a false Christ. Now, since you have alleged 
that the Paraclete was in Paul, and that He 
attested all things in him, how is it that Paul 
himself said, ‘“‘ We know in part, and we prophesy 





7 Acts ii, 6. | f 
8 The text gives “ Quid dicabo,” which may stand for ‘quid 
dicam;” or perhaps the translator intends to use ‘‘dicare” in the 


sense of urge. 

9 Reading dardare, for which the text offers darba. 

10 Consctum. [For Mithras, see vol. ili, p. 475. ] 

11 In this sentence the sense is somewhat obscure, in consequence 
of the corruptions of the text in the codex. We adopt the emenda- 
tions “‘locorum mysticorum” for mystertorum, and “‘apud eos 
ludes”” for ludis. In the end of the clause Migne gives as in the 
translation, ‘et tanquam mznxxus elegans,” etc. But Routh reads 
mimaus = and like an elegant pantomimist, etc. 

12 The Codex Casinensis gives the sentence thus: ‘‘. . . adveniat? 
suscitans mortuos? pene usque ad gehennam omnes persequens, qui 
si ut obtemperare noluerit, plurimos deterrens arrogantiza metu, Quod 
est ipse circumdatus, aliis adhibet minas vultus sui conversione cir- 
cumdatio ludificat.” The emendations adopted by Migne and Routh 
consist in removing these two interrogative marks, and in reading guz 
stbifor gat st ut, noluerint for noluerit, guo est for Quod est, ad. 
hibens for adhibet, and et ctrcumductione ludificans for the last 


13 2 Tim. iii 8, 9. 

14 The sense is again obscure throughout this sentence, owing to 
the state of the text. The codex gives us this clause, ‘‘ nulli alio 
atque posterum,” etc,, for which ‘‘nulli li: aque in vosterum”’ it 
proposed. 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 


211 





in part ; but when that which is perfect is come, 
then that which is in part shall be done away?” ! 
What other one did he look for, when he uttered 
‘these words? For if he professes himself to be 
looking for some perfect one, and if some one 
must needs come, show us who it is of whom he 
‘speaks ; lest that word of his perchance appear 
to. carry us back to this man, Manes, or to him 
who has serit him, that is to say, Satan, ac- 
cording to your affirmation. But if you admit 
that that which is perfect is yet to come, then 
this excludes Satan; and if you look for the 
coming of Satan, then that excludes the per- 
fect. 

37- Archelaus said: Those sayings which are 
put forth by the blessed Paul were not uttered 
without the direction of God, and therefore it is 
certain that what he has declared to us is that 
we are to look for our Lord Jesus Christ as the 
‘perfect one, who? is the only one that knows the 
Father, with the sole exception of him to whom 
He has chosen also to reveal Him,3 as I am able 
to demonstrate from His own words. But let it 
be observed, that it is said that when that which 
is perfect is come, then that which is in part 
shall. be done away. Now this man (Manes) 
asserts that he is the perfect one. Let him show 
us, then, what he has done away with; for what 
is to be done away with is the ignorance which 
isin us. Let him therefore tell us what he has 
done away with, and what he has brought into 
the sphere of our knowledge. If he is able to 
do anything of this nature, let him do it now, 
‘In order that he may be believed. These very 
words of Paul’s, if one can but understand them 
in the full power of their meaning, will only se- 
cure entire credit to the statements made by me. 
For in that first Epistle to the Corinthians, Paul 
speaks in the following terms of the perfection 
‘that is to come: ‘“‘ Whether there be prophecies, 
they ‘shall fail; whether there be tongues, they 
shall cease ; whether there be knowledge, it shall 
be destroyed: for we know in part, and we 
prophesy in part; but when that which is per- 
fect is come, then that which is in part shall be 
done away.” + Observe now what virtue that 
which is perfect possesses in itself, and of what 
order that perfection is. And let this man, then, 
tell us what prophecy of the Jews or Hebrews 
he has done away with; or what tongues he has 
caused to cease, whether of the Greeks or of 
others who worship idols ; or what alien dogmas 
he has destroyed, whether of a Valentinian, or a 
Marcion, or a Tatian, or a Sabellius, or any others 
of those. who have constructed for themselves 
their peculiar systems of knowledge. Let him 








I x Cor. xiti, 9,1 

2 Reading “ guz’ iakiee for the sed, etc., of the codex. 
Luke x. 22. : 

3 Matt, xi. 27. 

4 1 Cor. xiii, 8-10. 


See: also 





tell us which of all these he has already dune 

away with, or when he is yet to do away with any 
one of them, in this character of the perfect one. 
Perchance he seeks some sort of truce — does 
he?5 But not thus inconsiderable, not thus ob- 
scure® and ignoble, will be the manner of the 
advent of Him who is the truly perfect one, that 
is to say, our Lord Jesus Christ. Nay, but as a 
king, when he draws near to his city, does first 
of all send on before him his life-guardsmen,’ his 
ensigns and standards and banners,’ his generals 
and chiefs and prefects,.and then forthwith all 
objects are roused and excited in different fash- 
ions, while some become inspired with terror and 
others with exultation at the prospect of the king’s 
advent ; so also my Lord Jesus Christ, who is the 
truly perfect one, at His coming will first send 
on before Him His glory, amd the consecrated 
heralds of an unstained and untainted kingdom: 
and then the universal creation will be moved 
and perturbed, uttering prayers and supplications, 
until He delivers it from its bondage.? And it 
must needs be that the race of man shall then 
be in fear and in vehement agitation on account 
of the many offences it has committed. Then 
the righteous alone will rejoice, as they look for 
the things which have been promised them; 
and the subsistence of the affairs of this world 
will no longer be maintained, but all things shall 
be destroyed: and whether they be prophecies 
or the books of prophets, ¢hey shall fail, whether 
they be the tongues of the whole race, they 
shall cease ; for men will no longer need to feel 
anxiety or to think solicitously about those things 
which are necessary for life ; whether it be knowl- 
edge, by what teachers soever it be possessed, it 
shall also be destroyed: for none of all these 
things will be able to endure the advent of that 
mighty King. For just as a little spark, if'° taken 
and put up against the splendour of the sun, at 
once perishes from the view, so the whole crea- 
tion, all prophecy, all knowledge, all tongues, as 
we have said above, shall be destroyed. But 
since the capacities of common human nature 
are all insufficient to set forth in a few words, and 
these so weak and so extremely poor, the coming 
of this heavenly King, —so much so, indeed, 
that perchance it should be the privilege only 
of the saintly and the highly worthy to attempt 
any statement on such a subject, — it may yet be 
enough for me to de able to say that I have ad- 
vanced what I have now advanced on that theme 
on the ground of simple necessity, — compelled, 
as I have been, to do thus much by this person’s 





5 Iuducias for tassts alignas quertt. 

6 Reading non plane, non tam obscure,” etc., instead of the 
‘non plane nota,’ etc., of the Codex Casinensis. 

Zs Protectores,” on which term consult Ducangius in his Glossary. 

8 Sigua, aracones, labaros. 

9 Rom vili. 21, 22. 

10 The'text gives simply, sicut entm parwa. 


r We inay adopt, witb 
Routh, “‘ sicut enim cw parva,” etc, 


i 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 





importunity, and simply with the view of show- 
ing you what kind of character he is. 

38. And, in good truth, I hold Marcion, and 
Valentinian, and Basilides, and other heretics, to 
be sainted men when compared ' with this person. 
For they did display a certain kind of intellect, 
and they did, indeed, think themselves capable 
of understanding all Scripture, and did thus con- 
stitute themselves leaders? for those who were 
willing to listen to them. But notwithstanding 
this, not one of these dared to proclaim himself 
to be either God, or Christ, or the Paraclete, as 
this fellow has done, who is ever disputing, on 
some occasions about the ages,3 and on others 
about the sun, and how these objects were made, 
as though he were superior to them himself; 
for every person who offers an exposition of the 
method in which any object has been made, 
puts himself forward as superior to and older 
than the subject of his discussion. But who 
may venture to speak of the substance of God, 
unless, it may be, our Lord Jesus Christ alone? 
And, indeed, I do not make this statement on 
the bare authority of my own words, but I con- 
firm it by the authority of that Scripture which 
has been our instructor. For the apostle ad- 
dresses the following words to us: “That ye may 
be lights in this world, holding + the word of life 
for my glory against the day of Christ, seeing 
that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in 
vain.” 5 We ought to understand what is the 
force and meaning of this saying; for the word 
may suit the leader, but the effectual work suits 
the king.© And accordingly, as one who looks 
for the arrival of his king, strives to be able to 
present all who are under his charge as obedient, 
and ready, and estimable, and lovely, and faith- 
ful, and not less also as blameless, and abound- 
ing in all that is good, so that he may himself 
get commendation from the king, and be deemed 
by him to be worthy of greater honours, as hav- 
ing rightly governed the province which was en- 
trusted to his administration; so also does the 
blessed Paul give us to understand our position 
when he uses these words: “That ye may be as 
lights in this world, holding the word of life for 
my glory against the day of Christ.” For the 
meaning of this saying is, that our Lord Jesus 
Christ, when He comes, will see that his doctrine 

has proved profitable in us, and that, finding 
that he, “he apostle, has not run in vain, neither 
laboured in vain, He will bestow on him the 





1 Reading ‘“‘sic ut istius comparatione,” for the “‘sicat istius 
paratione” of the codex. 

2 Reading se ductores, for the seductores, etc., of the codex. 

3 Seculrs. 

4 Continentes. 

5S Phil, ti, 13. 

6 The precise meaning and connection are somewhat obscure here. 
‘The text gives, ‘‘ verbum enim ducis obtinet locum, opera vero regis.” 
And the idea is taken to be, that the actual work of thoroughly doing 
away with the ignorance of men was something that suited only the 

— King who was expected, and that had not been accomplished 
anes. 





crown of recompense. And again, in the same 
epistle, he also warns us not to mind earthly 
things, and tells us that we ought to have our 
conversation in heaven ; from which also we look 
for the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ.?7_ And as 
the knowledge of the date of the last day is no 
secure position for us, he has given us, to that 
effect, a declaration on the subject in the epistle 
which he wrote to the Thessalonians, thus : ‘ But 
of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have 
no need that I write unto you; for yourselves 
know perfectly that the day of the Lord so 
cometh as a thief in the night.”*® How, then, 
does this man stand up and try to persuade us 
to embrace his opinions, importuning every in- 
dividual whom he meets to become a Manichzan, 
and going about and creeping into houses, and 
endeavouring to deceive minds laden with sins ? 9 
But we do not hold such sentiments. Nay, 
rather, we should be disposed to present the 
things themselves before you all, and bring them 
into comparison, if it please you, with what we 
know of the perfect Paraclete. For you observe 
that ‘© sometimes he uses the interrogative style, 
and sometimes the deprecatory. But in the 
Gospel of our Saviour it is written that those who 
stand on the left hand of the King will say: 
“Lord, when saw we Thee an hungered, or 
athirst, or naked, or a stranger, or in prison, and 
did not minister unto Thee?” Thus they will 
implore Him to be indulgent with them. But 
what reply is that righteous Judge and King rep- 
resented as making to them? “Depart from 
me into everlasting fire, ye workers of iniquity.” '? 
He casts them into everlasting fire, although they 
cease not to direct their entreaties to Him. Do 
you see, then, O AZanes, what manner of event 
that advent of the perfect King is destined to be? 
Do you not perceive that it will not be such a 
perfection, or consummation, as you allege? But 
if the great day of judgment is to be looked for 
after that King, surely this man is greatly inferior 
to Him. But if he is inferior, he cannot be per- 
fect. And if he is not to be perfect, it is not 
of him that the apostle speaks. But if it is not 
of him that the apostle speaks, while he still 
makes the mendacious statement that it is of 
himself that the said word of “he apostle was 
spoken, then surely he is to be judged a false 
prophet. Much more, too, might be said to the 
same effect. But if we were to think of going 
over in detail all that might thus be adduced, 
time would fail us for the accomplishment of so 
large a task. Hence I have deemed it abun- 
dantly sufficient thus to have brought under your 





7 Phil. iii. 19. 

8 x Thess. v. 1, 2. 

9 Alluding to 2 Tim. iii. 6. 

lo Routh inserts ‘uterdum panttet = sometimes he uses the pené 
tential style, which Migne omits. 

Il Matt. xxv. 44. 

12 Matt, xxv. 46; Luke xiii. 27. 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 


213 





notice only a few things out of many, leaving the 
yet remaining portions of such a discussion to 
those who have the inclination to go through 
with them. 

39- On hearing these matters, those who were 
present gave great glory to God, and ascribed to 
Him such praise as it is meet for Him to re- 
ceive. And on Archelaus himself they bestowed 
many tokens of honour. Then Marcellus rose 
up ; and casting off his cloak, he threw his arms 
round Archelaus, and kissed him, and embraced 
him, and clung to him. Then, too, the children 
who had chanced to gather about the place 
began and set the example of pelting Manes and 
driving him off ;? and the rest of the crowd fol- 
lowed them, and moved excitedly about, with 
the intention of compelling Manes to take to 
flight. But when Archelaus observed this, he 
raised his voice like a trumpet above the din, in 
his anxiety to restrain the multitude, and ad- 
dressed them thus: “Stop, my beloved breth- 
ren, lest mayhap we be found to have the guilt 
of blood on us at the day of judgment; for it 
is written of men like this, that ‘there must be 
also heresies among you, that they which are 
approved may be made manifest among you.’ ”’3 
And when he had uttered these words, the 
crowds of people were quieted again.* — Now, 
because it was the pleasure of Marcellus that 
this disputation should have a place given it,5 
and that it should also be described, I could not 
gainsay his wish, but trusted to the kind consid- 
eration of the readers, believing that they would 
pardon me if my discourse should sound some- 
what inartistic or boorish: for the great thing 
which we have had in view has been, that the 
means of knowing what took place on this occa- 
sion should not fail to be brought within the 
reach of all who desired to understand the sub- 
ject. Thereafter, it must be added, when Manes 
had once taken to flight, he made his appearance 
nowhere “here again. His attendant Turbo, 
however, was handed over by Marcellus to Arche- 
laus ; and on Archelaus ordaining him as a dea- 
con, he remained in the suite of Marcellus. 
Manes in his flight came to a certain village 
which was at a considerable distance from the 
city, and bore the name of Diodorus. Now in 
that place there was also a presbyter whose name 
likewise was Diodorus,° a man of quiet and 
gentle disposition, and well reputed both for his 
faith and for the excellence of his general char- 
acter. Now when, on a certain day, Manes had 





1 The text gives the plural form sto/as, perhaps for stolam. 

2 The text gives fugerc, apparently in the sense of /ugare. 

3 x Cor, xi. 19. 

4 [Note the testimony against the persecution of heretics, —a 
characteristic of early Christians which too soon began to disappear, 
notably in Alexandria under Cyril.] 

5 Excipi. 

6 This Diodorus appears to be called Trypho by Epiphanius, on 
this Manichzan heresy, n. 11. 


But | 





gathered a crowd of auditors around him, and 
was haranguing’” them, and putting before the 
people who were present certain outlandish asser- 
tions altogether foreign to the tradition of the 
fathers, and in no way apprehending any opposi- 
tion that might be made to him on the part of 
any of these, Diodorus perceived that he was 
producing some effect by his wickedness, and 
resolved then to send to Archelaus a letter 
couched in the following terms : — 

Diodorus sends greeting to Bishop Archelaus.* 

40. I wish you to know, most pious father, 
that in these days there has arrived in our parts 
a certain person named Manes, who gives out 
that he is to complete the doctrine of the New 
Testament. And in the statements which he 
has made there have been some things, indeed, 
which may harmonize with our faith ; but there 
have been also certain affirmations of his which 
seem very far removed from what has come 
down to us by the tradition of our fathers. For 
he: has interpreted some doctrines in a strange 
fashion, imposing on them certain notions of his 
own, which have appeared to me to be altogether 
foreign and opposed to the faith. On the ground 
of these facts I have now been induced to write 
this letter to you, knowing the completeness and 
fulness of your intelligence in doctrine, and being 
assured that none of these things can escape 
your cognizance. Accordingly, I have also in- 
dulged the confident hope that you cannot be 
kept back by any grudge ® from explaining these 
matters to us. As to myself, indeed, it is not 
possible that I shall be drawn away into any 
novel doctrine ; nevertheless, in behalf of all the 
less instructed, I have been led to ask a word 
with your authority. For, in truth, the man shows 
himself to be a person of extraordinary force of 
character, both in speech and in action; and 
indeed his very aspect and attire also bear that 
out. But I shall here write down for your infor- 
mation some few points which I have been able 
to retain in my memory out of all the topics 
which have been expounded by him: for I know 
that even by these few you will have an idea of 
the rest. You well understand, no doubt, that 


ithose who seek to set up any new dogma have 


the habit of very readily perverting into a con- 
formity with their own notions any proofs they 
desire to take from the Scriptures.’° In anticipa- 
tion, however, of this, the apostolic word marks 
out the case thus: “If any one preach any other 
gospel unto you than that which you have re- 
ceived, let him be accursed.” 1! And conse- 
quently, in addition to what has been once 





7 Reading conctonaretur for continuaretur. 

8 This epistle is also mentioned, and its argument noticed, by 
Epiphanius, Herves., 1. 

9 Lnzidia, 

Io diy aa vol. iii. p. 251, this series. | 

It Gal. i. 8. 


214 


committed to us by the apostles, a disciple of 
Christ ought to receive nothing new as doctrine.’ 
But not to make what I have got to say too long, 
I return to the subject directly in view. This 
man then maintained that the law of Moses, to 
speak shortly, does not proceed from the good 
God, but from the prince of evil; and that it 
has no kinship with the new law of Christ, but 
is contrary and hostile to it, the one being the 
direct antagonist of the other. When I heard 
' such a sentiment propounded, I repeated to the 
people that sentence of the Gospel in which our 
Lord Jesus Christ said of Himself: “I am not 
come to destroy the law, but to fulfil it.’2 The 
man, however, averred that He did not utter this 
saying at all; for he held that when we find that 
He did abrogate 3 that same law, we are bound 
to give heed, above all other considerations, to 
the thing which He actually did. Then he began 
to cite a great variety of passages from the law, 
and also many from the Gospel and from the 
Apostle Paul, which have the appearance of con- 
tradicting each other. All this he gave forth at 
the same time with perfect confidence, and with- 
out any hesitation or fear ; so that I verily believe 
he has that serpent as his helper, who is ever our 
adversary. Well, he declared that there 27 the 
law God said, “I make the rich man and the 
poor man;’’* while here zz the Gospel Jesus 
called the poor blessed,5 and added, that no man 
could be His disciple unless he gave up all that 
he had.® Again, he maintained that there Moses 
took silver and gold from the Egyptians when 
the people? fled out of Egypt ;® whereas Jesus 
delivered the precept that we should lust after 
nothing belonging to our neighbour. Then he 
affirmed that Moses had provided in the law, 
that an eye should be given in penalty for an 
eye, and a tooth for a tooth ;9 but that our Lord 
bade us offer the other cheek also to him who 
smote the one.’?° He told us, too, that there 
Moses commanded the man to be punished and 
stoned who did any work on the Sabbath, and 
who failed to continue in all things that were 
written in the law,'! as in fact was done to that 
person who, yet being ignorant, had gathered a 
bundle of sticks on the Sabbath-day ; whereas 
Jesus cured a cripple on the Sabbath, and ordered 
him then also to take up his bed.’ And further, 


1 [Against Scripture and the torrent of patristic testimony, the 
men ef this generation have seen new dogmas imposed upon a great 
portion of Christendom by the voice of a single bishop, and without 
synodical deliberation or consent. The whole claim to “‘ Catholicity” 
perishes wherever such dogmas are accepted. ] 

2 Matt. v. 17. 

3 Resolvisse. 

4 Prov. xxii. 2. 

S$ Matt. v. 3. 

6 Luke xiv. 33. 

7 Reading cum populus for the cum populo of the text. 

8 Ex. xii. 35. 

9 Ex, xxi. 24. 

to Luke vi. 29. 

11 Num. xv. 32. 

12 Mark ii. rr. 








THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 


He did not restrain His disciples from plucking 
the ears of corn and rubbing them with their 
hands on the Sabbath-day,"3 which yet was a thing 
which it was unlawful to do on the Sabbaths. 
And why should I mention other instances? For 
with many different assertions of a similar nature 
these dogmas of his were propounded with the 
utmost energy and the most fervid zeal. Thus, 
too, on the authority of an apostle, he endeav- 
oured to establish the position that the law of 
Moses is the law of death, and that the law of 
Jesus, on the contrary, is the law of life. For 
he based that assertion on the passage which 
runs thus: “In which also may God make us ‘4 
able ministers of the New Testament; not of 
the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, 
but the spirit giveth life. But if the ministra- 
tion of death, engraven in letters on the stones,'5 
was made in glory, so that the children of Israel 
could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses 
for the glory of his countenance; which glory 
was to be done away; how shall not the minis- 
tration of the Spirit be rather glorious? For if 
the ministration of condemnation be glory, mucl. 
more doth the ministration of righteousness 
exceed in glory. For even that which was made 
glorious had no glory in this respect, by reasor. . 
of the glory that excelleth. For if that whic! 
shall be done away is glorious, much more tha 
which remaineth is glorious.”’?° And this passage. 
as you are also well aware, occurs in the second 
Epistle to the Corinthians. Besides, he added 
to this another passage out of the first epistle, 
on which he based his affirmation that the dis- 
ciples of the Old Testament were earthly and 
natural; and in accordance with this, that flesh 
and blood could not possess thi €’ kingdom of 
God.'7. He also maintained that® Paul himself 
spake in his own proper person when he said: 
“Tf I build again the things which I destroyed, 
I make myself a transgressor.”*® Further, he 
averred that the same apostle made this state- 
ment most obviously on the subject of the resur- 
rection of the flesh, when he also said that “he 
is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that 
circumcision which is outward in the flesh,’’'9 and 
that according to the letter the law has in it no 
advantage.2° And again he adduced the state- 
ment, that “Abraham has glory, but not before 
God ;”’?' and that “ by the law there comes only 
the knowledge of sin.” ??, And many other things 
did he introduce, with the view of detracting 
from the honour of the law, on the ground that 










13 Luke vi. 1. 

14 Factat Deus. 

13 In litteris formatum tn lapidibus. 
16 2 Cor. iit. 6-11. 

17 1 Cor, xv. 46-50. 

18 Gal. ii. 18. 

19 Rom, ii. 28. 

20 Rom. iv. 1. 

21 Rom. iv, 2. 

22 Rom. iii. 20. 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 





the law itself is sin; by which statements the 
simpler people were somewhat influenced, as he 
continued to bring them forward; and in ac- 
cordance with all this, he also made use of the 
affirmation, that ‘the law and the prophets were 
until John.” * He declared, however, that John 
preached the ¢vwe kingdom of heaven ; for verily 
he held, that by the cutting off of his head it was 
signified that all who went before him, and who 
had precedence over him, were to be cut off, and 
that what was to come after him was alone to be 
maintained. With reference to all these things, 
therefore, O most pious Archelaus, send us back 
a short reply in writing: for I have heard that 
you have studied such matters in no ordinary 
degree ; and that capacity which you possess is 
God’s gift, inasmuch as God bestows these gifts 
upon those who are worthy of them, and who are 
His friends, and who show themselves allied to 
Him in community of purpose and life. For it 
is our part to prepare ourselves, and to approach 
the gracious and liberal mind,? and forthwith we 
receive from it the most bountiful gifts. Accord- 
ingly, since the learning which I possess for the 
discussion of themes like these does not meet 
the requirements of my desire and purpose, for 
I confess myself to be an unlearned man, I have 
sent to you, as I have already said more than 
once, in the. hope of obtaining from your hand 
the amplest solution to this question. May it be 
well with you, incomparable and honourable 
father ! 

41. On receiving this epistle, Archelaus was 
astonished at the man’s boldness. But in the 
meantime, as the case called for the transmis- 
sion of a speedy reply, he immediately sent off 
a letter with reference to the statements made 
by Diodorus. That epistle ran in the following 
terms 2—— 

Archelaus sends greeting to the presbyter 
Diodorus, his honourable son. 

The receipt of your letter has rejoiced me 
exceedingly, my dearly beloved friend. I have 
been given to understand, moreover, that this 
man, who made his way to me before these days, 
and sought to introduce a novel kind of knowl- 
edge here, different from what is apostolic and 
ecclesiastical, has also come to you. To that 
person, indeed, I gave no place: for presently, 
when we held a disputation together, he was 
confuted. And I could wish now to transcribe 
for your behoof all the arguments of which I 
made use on that occasion, so that by means of 





1 Luke xvi. 16. 

2 Reading “‘ preparare et proximos fieri benignz ac diviti menti” 
for ‘‘ preeparet proximus fieri benignze hac,” etc., as it stands in the 
Codex Casinensis. Routh suggests “‘ preeparare proximos fieri be- 
nignz ac diviti menti et continuo . . . consequemur”’ = to take care 
to draw near to the gracious and liberal mind, and then we shall forth- | 
with receive steadily from it, etc. 

3 This epistle is edited not only from the Codex Casinensis,, but 
also by Valesius from the Codex Bobiensis. The most important 
varieties of reading shall therefore be noted. 


215 





these you might get an idea of what that man’s 
faith is. But as that could be done only with 
leisure at my disposal, I have deemed it requisite, 
in view of the immediate exigency, to write a 
short reply to you with reference to what. you 
have written me on the subject of the statements 
advanced by him. I understand, then, that his 
chief* effort was directed to prove that the law 
of Moses is not consonant with the law of Christ ; 
and this position he attempted to found on the 
authority of our Scriptures. Well, on the other 
hand, not only did we establish the law of Moses, 
and all things which are written in it, by the 
same Scripture; but we also proved that the 
whole Old Testament agrees with the New Tes- 
tament, and is in perfect harmony with the same, 
and that they form really one texture, just as 4 
person may see one and the same robe made 
up of weft and warp togethers For the truth 
is simply this, that just as we trace the purple 
in a robe, so, if we may thus express it, we can 
discern the New Testament in the texture of the 
Old Testament; for we see the glory of the 
Lord mirrored in the same.® We are not there- 
fore to cast aside the mirror,” seeing that it 
shows us the genuine image of the things them- 
selves, faithfully and truly ; but, on the contrary, 
we ought to honour it all the more. Think you, 
indeed, that the boy who is brought by his pzeda- 
gogue to the teachers of learning® when he is 
yet a very little fellow, ought to hold that pzeda- 
gogue in no honour? after he has grown up to 
manhood, simply because he needs his services '° 
no longer, but can make his course without any 
assistance from that attendant to the schools, 
and quickly find his way to the lecture-rooms? 
Or, to take another instance, would it be right 
for the child who has been nourished on milk at 
first, after he has grown to be capable of receiv- 
ing stronger meats, then injuriously to spurn the 
breasts of his nurse, and conceive a horror of 
them? Nay, rather he should honour and cher- 
ish them, and confess himself a debtor to their 
good services. We may also make use, if it 
please you, of another illustration. A certain 
man on one occasion having noticed an infant 





4 Summum studium. But the Codex Bobiensis reads suum 
studium. 

5 Reading ‘‘ ex subtegmine atque stamine,” etc., with the Codex 
Bobiensis, instead of ‘‘ subtemine et, qua: stamine,” etc., as it is given 
in the Codex Casinensis. [A beautiful anticipation of Augustine’s 
dictum, ‘‘ The New is vezled in the Old, the Old wzvezled in the 
New.” 

© We read here ‘‘ gloriam enim Domint{ in eodem speculamur.” 
The Codex Bobiensis is vitiated here, giving glorzam ume Domini, 
which was changed by Valesius into glorzam Fesn, etc. 

7 Reading, with the Codex Bobiensis, ‘‘ speculum, cum nobis 
ipsam imagiuem,” etc., instead of ‘‘ speculum nobis per ipsam imagi- 
nem,” etc. 

® [Here is the literal use of the word ‘‘ padagogue,” with which 
Clement took liberties. Vol. ii. p. 209, note 3, this series.] Adopt- 
ing “‘qui ad doctores a pedagogo,” instead of “qui a doctore iis a 
pedagogo.” 

9 ** Dehonorare,” or, as in the Codex Bobiensis, ‘‘ dehonestare.” 

19 Reading “‘ opera cjus non indiget.” But the Codex Casinensis 
gives ‘‘ ore ejus,” etc. 


“ec 





216 





exposed on the ground and already suffering ex- 
cessively, picked it up, and undertook to rear it 
in his own house until it should reach the age 
of youth, and sustained all the toils and anxie- 
ties which are wont to fall to the lot of those 
who have to bring up children. After a time, 
however, it happened that he who was the child’s 
natural father came seeking the boy, and found 
him with this person who had brought him up.‘ 
What ought this boy to do on learning that this 
is his real father? For I speak, of course, of a 
boy of the right type. Would he not see to it, 
that he who had brought him up should be rec- 
ompensed with liberal gifts; and would he not 
then follow his natural father, having his proper 
inheritance in view?? Even so, then, I think 
we must suppose that that distinguished servant 
of God, Moses, in a manner something like this, 
found 3 a people afflicted by the Egyptians ; and 
he took this people to himself, and nurtured 
them in the desert like a father, and instructed 
them like a teacher, and ruled them as a magis- 
trate. This people he also preserved against the 
coming of him whose people they were. And 
after a considerable period the father ¢ did come, 
and did receive his sheep. Now will not that 
guardian be honoured in all things by him to 
whom he delivered that flock ; and will he not 
be glorified by those who have been preserved by 
him? Who, then, can be so senseless, my 
dearly beloved Diodorus, as to say that those are 
aliens to each other who have been allied with 
each other, who have prophesied in turn for 
each other, and who have shown signs and won- 
ders which are equal and similar, the one to the 
other, and of like nature with each other ;5 or 
rather, to speak in truth, which belong wholly to 
the same stock the one with the other? For, in- 
deed, Moses first said to the people : “A Prophet 
will the Lord our God raise up unto you, like unto 
me.” ® And Jesus afterwards said: ‘“ For Moses 
spake of me.”7? You see ® how these twain give 
the right hand to each other, although 9 the one 
was the prophet and the other was the beloved 
Son,’° and although in the one we are to recog- 
nise the faithful servant, but in the other the 
Lord Himself. Now, on the other hand, I might 
refer to the fact, that one who of old was minded 
to make his way to the schools without the 
pedagogue was not taken in by the master. 








1 The Codex Bobiensis reads here, “‘ accidit vero post tempus ut 
is qui. . . requireret,” etc. The other codex has, ‘‘ accedit vero 
post tempus is qui. . . requirere.’ 

2 Reading pro respectu with Codex Bobiensis. 
gives prospectu. 

3 Reading znvenzsse, The Codex Casinensis gives venzsse. 

4 Routh suggests pastor, the shepherd, for pater. 

: Reading cognata, with Codex Bobiensis, instead of cognzta. 

5 Deut xviii. 18. 
ohn v. 46. 

3 e adopt the reading vides, instead of the faulty unde of the 
Codex Casinensis. 

9 Reading guameuts for guum. 


to See Heb. iii. 5,6 


The other codex 





THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 


For the master said: “I will not receive him 
unless he accepts the pzedagogue.” And who 


the person is, who is spoken of under that figure, 
I shall briefly explain. There was a certain rich 
man,'! who lived after the manner of the Gen- 
tiles, and passed his time in great luxury every 
day ; and there was also another man, a poor 
man, who was his neighbour, and who was una- 
ble to procure even his daily bread. It hap- 
pened that both these men departed this life, 
that they both descended into the grave,'? and 
that the poor man was conveyed into the place 
of rest, and so forth, as is known to you. But, 
furthermore, that rich man had also five brothers, 
living as he too had lived, and disturbed by no 
doubt as to lessons which they had learned at 
home from such a master. The rich man then 
entreated that these should be instructed in the 
superior doctrine together and at once.'3 But 
Abraham, knowing that they still stood in need 
of the pedagogue, said to him: “ They have 
Moses and the prophets.” For if they received 
not these, so as to have their course directed by 
him, 1.e., AZoses, as by a pedagogue, they would 
not be capable of accepting the doctrine of the 
superior master. 

42. But I shall also offer, to the best of my 
ability, some expositions of the other words re- 
ferred to; that is to say, I shall show that Jesus 
neither said nor did aught that was contrary to 
Moses. And first, as to the word, “An eye for 
an eye, and a taoth for a tooth,”  —that is the 
expression of justice. And as to His injunction, 
that a man, when struck on the one cheek, 
should offer the other also, that is “he expres- 
ston of goodness. Well, then, are justice and 
goodness opposed to each other? Far from it! 
There has only been an advance from simple 
justice to positive goodness. And again, we 
have the saying, “The workman is worthy of 
his hire.” "5 But if a person seeks to practise 
any fraud therein, it is surely most just ‘© that 
what he has got possession of by fraud should 
be required of him, most especially when the hire 
is large. Now this I say, that when the Egyp- 
tians afflicted the children of Israel by the task- 
masters who were set over them in the process 
of making bricks, Moses required and exacted 
the whole at once, with penalties, within one 
moment of time. But is this, then, to be called 
iniquity? Far from it! Surely it is the absti- 





It Luke xvi. 19, etc. 

12 Infernum. [Sheol, rather, or Hades. | 

13 The reading of the Codex Casinensis is, ‘ ‘rogavit dives simu) 
uno tempore ut edisceret majorem doctrinam.” But the other codex 
gives, ‘“uno tempore discere majorem doctrinam ab Abraham” = 
entreated that he might learn the superior doctrine of Abraham. 
For edisceret we may read with Routh ediscerent. 

14 Matt. v. 32. 

1s Matt. x. 10. 

16 The Codex Casinensis gives, “ exige ab eo illa que fraudem in- 
terceperat;” the other codex gives, “et exigi ab eo illa que fraude 
interceperat.” The correct reading probably would be, ‘‘exigi ab 
eo illa que per fraudem interceperat.’ 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 


217 





nence* of goodness, indeed, when one makes 
but a moderate use of what. is really necessary, 
and gives up all that goes beyond that. Let us 
look, again, at the fact that in the Old Testa- 
ment we find the words, “I make the rich man 
and the poor man,”? whereas Jesus calls the 
poor blessed.3 Well, in that saying Jesus did 
not refer to those who are poor simply in worldly 
substance, but to those who are poor in spirit, 
that is to say, who are not inflamed ¢ with pride, 
but have the gentle and lowly dispositions of 
humility, not thinking of themselves more than 
they ought to think. This question, however, 
is one which our adversary has not propounded 
correctly. For here I perceive that Jesus also 
looks on willingly at the gifts of the rich men, 
when they are put into the treasury.® All too 
little, at the same time, is it7 if gifts are cast 
into* the treasury by the rich alone; and so 
there are the two mites of the poor widow which 
are also received with gladness; and in that 
offering verily something is exhibited that goes 
beyond what Moses prescribed on the subject 
of the receipt of moneys. For he received 
gifts from those who had; but Jesus receives 
them even from those who have not. But this 
man says, further, that it is written, that “ except 
a man shall forsake all that he hath, he cannot 
be my disciple.”9 Well, I observe again, that 
the centurion, a man exceedingly wealthy and 
well dowered with worldly influence, possessed 
a faith surpassing that of all Israel ;'° so that, 
even if there was any one who had forsaken all, 
that man was surpassed in faith by this centu- 
rion. But some one may now reason with us 
thus: It is not a good thing, consequently, to 
give up riches. Well, I reply that it is a good 
thing for those who are capable of it; but, at the 
game time, to employ" riches for the work of 
righteousness and mercy, is a thing as accepta- 
ble as though one were to give up the whole at 
once. Again, as to the assertion that the Sab- 
bath has been abolished, we deny that He has 
abolished it plainly ;'? for He was Himself also 
Lord of the Sabbath."3_ And this, the daw’s rela- 
tion to the Sabbath, was like the servant who has 


1 We adopt the conjecture of Valesius, viz., adstinentia. The 
Codex Bobiensis gives absentia. 

2 Prov. xxii. 2. 

3 Matt. v. 3. 

4 Reading znflammantur. 
puffed up. 

5 Rom. xii. 3. 

6 Mark xii. gx. 

7 Reading ef farum hoc est, with Codex Bobiensis, instead of 
the ef Jauperum hoc est of Codex Casinensis. We may also render 
it as = “ but it is far from being the case that gifts are cast,” etc. 

8 The Codex Bobiensis reads znferuntur ; the other codex gives 
offeruntur, offered. 

9 Luke xiv. 33. 

10 Matt. viii. 10. 

II The text gives sed abuti, and the Codex Bobiensis has sed et 
abuzz. But the reading ought probably to be sed et utz, or sed etiam 
«tz. Routh, however, notices that aéutor is found with the sense of 
utor. 

12 Plane. | 

33 Matt. xii. 8, 


It may perhaps be zxflantur = 





charge of the bridegroom’s chamber, and who 
prepares the same with all carefulness, and does 
not suffer it to be disturbed or touched by any 
stranger, but keeps it intact against the time of 
the bridegroom’s arrival; so that when he is 
come, the same may be used as it pleases him- 
self, or as it is granted to those to use it whom 
he has bidden enter along with him. And the- 
Lord Jesus Christ Himself gave His testimony 
to what we affirm, when He said with His heav- 
enly voice, “Can ye make the children of the 
bride-chamber fast so long as the bridegroom is 
with them?” 4 And again, He did not actually 
reject circumcision ; but we should rather say 
that He received in Himself and in our stead 
the cause of circumcision,'s relieving us by what 
He Himself endured, and not permitting us to 
have to suffer any pain to no purpose.’® For what, 
indeed, can it profit a man to circumcise himself, 
if nevertheless he cherishes the worst of thoughts 
against his neighbour? He desired, according- 
ly, rather to open up to us the ways of the fullest 
life by a brief path,’7 lest perchance, after we had 
traversed lengthened courses of our own, we 
should find our day prematurely closing upon us 
in night, and lest, while outwardly indeed we 
might appear splendid to men’s view, we should 
inwardly be comparable only to ravening wolves,'® 
or be likened to whited sepulchres.'9 For far 
above any person of that type of character is to 
be placed the man who, although clad only in 
squalid and threadbare attire, keeps no evil hid- 
den in his heart against his neighbour. For it 
is only the circumcision of the heart that brings 
salvation ; and that merely carnal circumcision 
can be of no advantage to men, unless they 
happen also to be fortified with the spiritual cir- 
cumcision. Listen also to what Scripture has to 
say on this subject: “ Blessed are the pure in 
heart, for they shall see God.’’?? What need, 
therefore, is there for me to labour and suffer, 
seeing that I have been made acquainted with 
the compendious way of life,?* and know that it 
shall be mine if only I can be pure in heart? 
And that is quite in accordance with the truth 
which we have learned now, to wit, that if one 
prevails in the keeping of the two command- 
ments, he fulfils the whole law and the prophets.?? 
Moreover Paul, the chief of the apostles, after 
all these sayings, gives us yet clearer instruction 
on the subject, when he says, “Or seek ye a 





14 Mark ii. r9. [I have slightly accommodated the translation to 
this text.] 

1s Jn semetipsum causam circumctsionis excepit. 

16 [From Job (ii. 10) to St. Paul (Heb. iv. 15 and vi. to 8) Scrip- 
ture abounds in this teaching. Comp. Lam. iii. 33.] 

17 The Codex Bobiensis gives, ‘‘ viz compendiosum nobis tramitem 
demonstrare.” We adopt the reading, “‘ vie spatia compendioso nobis 
tramite demonstrare,” 

18 Matt. vil. 15. 

19 Matt. xxiii. 27. 

20 Matt. v. 8. 

21 Compendia via. 

22 Matt, vii. 12, 


218 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 





proof of that Christ who speaketh in me?” 
What have I then to do with circumcision, see- 
ing that I may be justified in uncircumcision ? 
For it is written: “Is any man circumcised? let 
him not become uncircumcised. Or is any in 
uncircumcision? let him not be circumcised. 
For neither of these is anything, but only the 
keeping of the commandments of God.” ? Con- 
sequently, as circumcision is incompetent to 
save any, it is not greatly to be required, espe- 
cially when we see that if a man has been called 
in uncircumcision, and wishes then to be cir- 
cumcised, he is made forthwith a transgressor 3 
of the law. For if I am circumcised, I also ful- 
fil the commandments of the law with the view 
of being in a position to be saved; but if I am 
uncircumcised, and remain in uncircumcision, 
much more in keeping the commandments shall 
I have life. For I have received the circum- 
cision of the heart, in the spirit, and not that of 
the letter in the mere ink,* in which former there 
is praise, not of men, but of God.5 Wherefore 
let no charge of this kind be brought against 
me. For just as the man of wealth, who pos- 
sesses great treasures of gold and silver, so that 
he gets everything which is necessary for the 
uses of his house made of these precious metals, 
has no need to display any vessel of earthen- 
ware in anything belonging to his family, and 
yet it does not follow from this circumstance that 
the productions of the potter, or the art of mak- 
ing vessels of pottery,° are to be held in abhor- 
rence by him; so also I, who have been made 
rich by the grace of God, and who have ob- 
tained the circumcision of the heart, cannot by 
any means? stand in need of that most profit- 
less fleshdy circumcision, and yet, for all that, it 
does not follow that I should call it evil. Far be 
it from me to do so!- If, however, any one 
desires to receive still more exact instruction on 
these matters, he will find them discussed with 
the greatest fulness in the apostle’s first epistle.® 
43. I shall speak now with the utmost brevity 
of the veil of Moses and the ministration of 
death. For I do not think that these things at 
least can introduce very much to the disparage- 
ment of the law. The text in question,? then, 
proceeds thus: “ But if the ministration of death, 


1 2 Cor. xiii. 3. 

2 x Cor, vii. 18, 19. 

3 Reading ‘‘ prevaricator” instead of ‘‘ predicator.” The sense 
would seem strictly to require, a debtor to the law. 

4 Atramentum. 

$ Rom. ii. 29. 

6 The Codex Bobiensis gives, “‘ figuli opus aufers aut fictilium.” 
The Codex Casinensis has, “figuli opus et ars aut fictijium.” We 
adopt “‘ figuli opus aut ars fictilium.” 

7 Adopting ‘‘ nequaquam ” for ‘‘ nec quemquam.” 

8 By this he means the Epistle to the Romans, to which the first 


place among the epistles of Paul was assigned from the most ancient | 


times. In Epiphanius, under heresy 42, it is alleged as an offence 
against Marcion, that he put the Epistle to the Romans in the fourth 
place among Paul's epistles. See a note in Migne. |[Again, this 
expression is a note of genuine antiquity. ] 

9 Reading “‘ propositus”’ for ‘‘ propheticus.” 





engraven *° in letters on the stones, was made in 
glory, so that the children of Israel could not 
stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory 
of his countenance ; which glory was to be done 
away;’’"' and soon. Well, this passage at any 
rate acknowledges the existence of a glory on the 
countenance of Moses, and that surely is a fact 
favourable to our position. And even although 
it is to be done away, and although there is a 
veil in the reading of the same, that does not 
annoy me or disturb me, provided there be glory 
in it still. . Neither is it the case, that whatever 
is to be done away is reduced thereby under all 
manner of circumstances to a condition of dis- 
honour.’ For when the Scripture speaks of glory, 
it shows us also that it had cognizance’ of dif- 
ferences in glory. Thus it says: “There is one 
glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, 
and another glory of the stars: for one star dif- 
fereth from another star in glory.” "4 Although, 
then, the sun has a greater glory than the moon, 
it does not follow that the moon is thereby re- 
duced to a condition of dishonour. And even 
thus, too, although my Lord Jesus Christ excelleth 
Moses in glory, as the lord excelleth the servant, 
it does not follow from this that the glory of 
Moses is to be scorned. For in this way, too, 
we are able to satisfy our hearers, as the nature 
of the word itself carries the conviction "5 with it, 
in that we affirm what we allege on the authority 
of the Scriptures themselves, or verily make the 
proof of our statements all the clearer also by 
illustrations taken from them. Thus, although 
a person kindles a lamp in the night-time, after 
the sun has once risen he has no further need of 
the paltry light of his lamp, on account of that 
effulgence of the sun which sends forth its rays 
all the world over ; and yet, for all that, the man 
does not throw his lamp contemptuously away, 
as if it were something absolutely antagonistic to 
the sun ; but rather, when he has once found out 
its use, he will keep it with all the greater care- 
fulness. Precisely in this way, then, the law of 
Moses served as a sort of guardian to the people, 
like the lamp, until the true Sun, who is our 
Saviour, should arise, even as the apostle also 
says to us: “ And Christ shall give thee light.” 
We must look, however, to what is said further 
on: “ Their minds were blinded: for until this 
day remaineth the same veil in the reading of 
the Old Testament ; it is untaken away, because 





10 The Codex Casinensis has formatum , the other codex gives 
Jirmatum., — 
Il 2 Cor. iii. 7. 


12 The text gives, ‘‘neque vero omnigene in ignobilitatem redigi- 
tur,” etc. The Codex Bobiensis has, ‘‘ neque vero omni genere in 
nobilitate.” 


13 Reading “‘ scisse se differentias gloriz,” etc. Codex Bobiensis 
gives sct's esse, etc. = you know that there are differences. 

14 x Cor. xv. 21. 

IS Srent et ver bir tpsius natura persuadet. Reading “ natura 
persuadet.” But the Codex Bobiensis gives demonstrat, demon- 
strates. 


16 Eph. v. 14, 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 


it is done away in Christ.' For even unto this 
day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their 
heart. Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the 
Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Now the 
Lord is that Spirit.”’? What, then, is meant by 
this? Is Moses present with us even unto this 
day? Is it the case that he has never slept, that 
he has never gone to his rest, that he has never 
departed this life? How is it that this phrase 
“unto this day” is used here? Well, only mark 
the veil, which is placed, where he says it is 
placed, on their hearts in their reading. This, 
therefore, is the word of censure upon the chil- 
dren of Israel, because they read Moses and yet 
do not understand him, and refuse to turn to the 
Lord ; for it is He that was prophesied of by 
Moses as about to come. This, then, is the veil 
which was placed upon the face of Moses,3 and 
this also is his testament ;+ for he says in the 
law:5 “A prince shall not be wanting from 
Judah, nor a leader from his thighs,° until He 
come whose he is ;7 and He will be the expecta- 
tion of the nations: who shall bind® His foal 
unto the vine, and His ass’s colt unto the choice 
vine ; He shall wash His garments in wine, and 
His clothes in the blood of grapes; His eyes 
shall be suffused 9 with wine, and His teeth white 
with milk ;’? and so on. Moreover, he indicated 
who He was, and whence He was to come. For 
he said: “The Lord God will raise up unto you 
a Prophet from among your brethren, like unto 
me: unto Him hearken ye.” '° Now it is plain 
that this cannot be understood to have been said 
of Jesus the son of Nun." For there is nothing 
of this circumcision * found in him. After him, 
too, there have still been kings from Judah ; and 
consequently this prophecy is far from being 
applicable to him. And this is the veil which is 
on Moses ; for it was not, as some among the un- 
learned perhaps fancy, any piece of linen cloth, 
or any skin that covered his face. But the 


1 Non revelatur quia in Christo destruztur. 

2 2 Cor. iii. 14-17. 

3 Ex, xxxiv, 33; 2 Cor. iii, 13. 

4 The text is, ‘‘ hoc est velamen, quod erat positum super faciem 
Moysi, quod est testamentum ejus,” etc. 

Gen, xlix, 10-12. 

6 The reading in the text is, “‘ non deficiet princeps ex Juda, neque 
dux de femoribus ejus usquequo veniat,” etc. Codex Bobiensis coin- 
cides, only giving ‘de femore ejus.” On the whole quotation, which 
is given in forms so diverse among the old versions and fathers, see 
Novatian, De Trzuz., ch. g [vol. v. p. 618], and Cyprian, Adv. 
Fuda@os, i. 21 [vol. v. p. 513]. 

7 The text gives, ‘ veniat, cujus est,” etc. Prudentius Maranus 
on Justin’s Apology, i. § 32 [vol i. p. 173, this series], thinks this was 
originally an error of transcription for cuz jus est, which reading 
would correspond very much with the @ amdxevrat of some of the most 
ancient authorities. See Cotelerius on the Constitut. Afostol., i. 1, 
and the note in Migne. 

8 Qui alligabit. But Codex Casinensis has 
Codex Bobiensis ‘‘ qui alligavit.” 

9 Suffusi oculi. Codex Bobiensis gives “‘ effusi oculi.” See, on 
the whole, Grabe’s Dissert. De variis vitiis LX.X, interpret., 19, 

. 36. 

1o Deut. xviii, 15. Lagies 

11 We adopt the reading “‘ Jesu Mave.” But the Codex Bobiensis 
gives “‘ Jesu Mane.” See a discussion on this name by Cotelerius on 
the Epistle of Barnabas, ch. r2._ [Vol. i. p. 145, this series. } : 

12 For czrcumctstonzs Routh suggests czrcumstationts, which 
might perhaps be taken as = these surroundings do not suit him. 


‘ 


‘quia alligabit,” and 


“ 








219 


apostle also takes care to make this plain to us, 
when he tells us that the veil is put on in the 
reading of the Old Testament, inasmuch as they 
who are called Israel from olden time still look 
for the coming of Christ, and perceive not that 
the princes have been wanting from Judah, and 
the leaders from his thighs ; as even at present 
we see them in subjection to kings and princes, 
and paying tribute to these, without having any 
power left to them either of judgment or of pun- 
ishment, such as Judah certainly had, for after 
he had condemned Thamar, he was able also to 
justify her.%3 “ But you will also see your life 
hang (in doubt) before your eyes.” "4 

44. Now this word also has the veil. For up 
to the time of Herod they did appear to retain 
a kingdom in some sort ; and it was by Augustus 
that the first enrolment took place among them 
and that they began to pay tribute, and to bs 
rated.’5 Now it was also from the time wnen 
our Lord Jesus Christ began to be prephesied 
of and looked for that there began to be princes 
from Judah and leaders of the people; and 
these, again, failed just at the approach of His 
advent. If, then, the veil is taken away which 
is put on in that reading of theirs, they will un- 
derstand the true virtue of the circumcision ; 
and they will also discover that the generation 
of Him whom we preach, and His cross, and all 
the things that have happened in the history of 
our Lord, are those very matters which had been 
predicted of that Prophet. And I could wish, 
indeed, to examine every such passage of Scrip- 
ture by itself, and to point out its import, as it is 
meet that it should be understood.'® But as it 
is another subject that is now urgent, these pas- 
sages shall be discussed by us at some season of 
leisure. For at present, what I have already 
said may be sufficient for the purpose of show- 
ing, that it is not without reason tnat the veil 
is (said to be) put upon tne heart of certain 
persons in the reading of the Old Testament. 
But those who turn to the Lordsh all have the 
veil taken away from them. What precise force 
all these things, however, may possess, I leave to 
the apprehension of those who have sound in- 
telligence. Let us come now again to that word 
of Moses, in which he says: “The Lord your 
God shall raise up a Prophet unto you, of your 
brethren, like unto me.” In this saying I per- 
ceive a great prophecy delivered by the servant 
Moses, as by one cognizant ‘7 that He who is to 





13 Gen. xxxvill. 26. We read “‘justificare.” But the Codex Casi- 
nensis gives “‘justificari” = Ae (or she) could be justified. 

14 The text is, ‘‘sed et videbitis vitam vestram pendentem ante 
oculos vestros.” The reference is apparently to Deut. xxviii, 66. 

Is Ceusum dare. 

16 Reading ‘‘ sermonem, et ostendere ut intelligi dignumest.” The 
Codex Bobiensis gives a mutilated version: ‘* sermonem, ut intelligi, 
dignum est ” 

17 Reading ‘* Moysiscientis,” which is the emendation of Valesius. 
But Codex Casinensis gives “ scientibus,” and Codex Bobiensis has 

scient¢s, ’ 


220 





come is indeed to be possessed of greater au- 
thority than himself, and nevertheless is to suffer 
like things with him, and to show like signs and 
wonders. For there, Moses after his birth was 
placed by his mother in an ark, and exposed be- 
side the banks of the river;* here, our Lord 
Jesus Christ, after His birth by Mary His mother, 
was sent off in flight into Egypt through the 
instrumentality of an angel? ‘There, Moses led 
forth his people from the midst of the Egyptians, 
and saved them ;3 and here, Jesus, leading forth 
His people from the midst of the Pharisees, 
transferred them to an eternal salvation. ‘There, 
Moses sought bread by prayer, and received it 
from heaven, in order that he might feed the 
people with it in the wilderness ; 5 here, my Lord 


Jesus by His own power satisfied® with five | 


loaves five thousand men in the wilderness,’ 
There, Moses when he was tried was set upon 
the mountain and fasted forty days ;* and here, 
my Lord Jesus was led by the Spirit into the 
wilderness when He was tempted of the devil, 
and fasted in like manner forty days.? There, 
before the sight of Moses, all the first-born 
of the Egyptians perished on account of the 
treachery of Pharaoh ; '° and here,. at the time 
of the birth of Jesus, every male among the Jews 
suddenly perished by reason of the treachery of 
Herod.'* There, Moses prayed that Pharaoh and 
his people might be spared the plagues ;‘? and 
here, our Lord Jesus prayed that the Pharisees 
might be pardoned, when He said, “ Father, for- 
give them, for they know not what they do.” 3 
There, the countenance of Moses shone with the 
glory of the Lord, so that the children of Israel 
could not stedfastly look upon his face, on ac- 
count of the glory of his countenance ;'4 and 
here, the Lord Jesus Christ shone like the sun,'5 
and His disciples were not able to look upon 
His face by reason of the glory of His counte- 
nance and the intense splendour of the light. 
There, Moses smote down with the sword those 
who had set up the calf;*® and here, the Lord 
Jesus said, “I came to send a sword upon the 
earth, and to set a man at variance with his 
neighbour,” ‘7 and so on. There, Moses went 
without fear into the darkness of the clouds that 
carry water ;‘® and here, the Lord Jesus walked 





1 Ex. ii. 

2 Matt. ii. 13. 

3 Ex. xiv. 

4 Mark viii. x5. 
S Ex. xvi. 

6 Adopting “ satiavit.” The Codex Bobiensis gives ‘‘ saturavit.” 
7 Matt. xiv. 

8 Ex. xxxiv. 

9 Matt. iv. 2. 

10 Ex, xii, 

11 Matt ii. 16, 

1. Ex. viii. 

13 Luke xxiii. 34. 
14 Ex, xxxiv. 35. 
1s Matt. xvii. 2. 
36 Ex, xxxii, 

17 Matt. x. 34. 

18 Ex, xxiv, 18, 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 





—_——- 


with all power upon the waters.'9 There, Moses 
gave his commands to the sea ;7° and here, the 
Lord Jesus, when he was on the sea,?‘ rose and 
gave His commands to the winds and the sea.?? 
There, Moses, when he was assailed, stretched 
forth his hands and fought against Amalek ; 23 
and here, the Lord Jesus, when we were assailed 
and were perishing by the violence of that erring 
spirit who works now in the just,”4 stretched forth 
His hands upon the cross, and gave us salvation. 
But there are indeed many other matters of this 
kind which I must pass by, my dearly beloved 
Diodorus, as I am in haste to send you this little 
book with all convenient speed ; and these omis- 
sions of mine you will be able yourself to supply 
very easily by your own intelligence. Write me, 
however, an account of all that this servant of 
the adversary’s cause may do hereafter. May 
the Omnipotent?5 God preserve you whole in 
soul and in spirit ! 

45. On receipt of this letter, Diodorus made 
himself master of its contents, and then entered 
the lists against Manes. This he did too with 
such spirit, that he was commended greatly by 
all for the careful and satisfactory demonstration 
which he gave of the fact that there is a mutual 
relationship between the two testaments, and 
also between the two laws.?° Discovering also 
more arguments for himself, he was able to bring 
forward many points of great pertinency and 
power against the man, and in defence of the 
truth. He also reasoned in a conclusive manner 
against his opponent on verbal grounds.??7_ For 
example, he argued with him in the following 
manner : — Did you say that the testaments are 
two? Well, then, say either that there are two 
old testaments, or that there are two new testa- 
ments. For you assert that there are two un- 
begottens *° belonging to the same time, or rather 
eternity ; and if there are in this way two, there 
should be either two old testaments or two new 
testaments. If, however, you do not allow this, 
but affirm, on the contrary, that there is one old 
testament and that there is also another new 
testament, that will only prove again that there 
is but one author for both ; and the very sequence 
will show that the Old Testament belongs to Him 
to whom also the New Testament pertains. We 
may illustrate this by the case of a man who 


19 Matt. xiv. 25. 
20 Ex, xiv. 


21 Reading ‘‘in mari.” But the Codex Bobiensis has zz navi =o 
a ship. 

22 Matt. viii. 26. 

23 Ex. xvii. 


24 The text gives zz justzs. But the Codex Bobiensis has z# ¢stzs 
=in those men. The true reading may be zx zujust?s = in the 
unrighteous. See Eph ii. 2. 

25 But the Codex Casinensis gives “‘ Deus omnium” =the God of 
all. 

26 [See p. 215, supra.] 

27 Ex nominibus. The Codex Bobiensis offers the extraordinary 
reading, ex navibus. 

28 Ingenita, 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 


De) 





says to some other individual, Lease me your 
old house. For by such a mode of address does 
he not pronounce the man to be also the owner 
of a new house? Or, on the other hand, if he 
says to him, Show me? your new house; does 
he not by that very word designate him also as 
the possessor of an old house? Then, again, 
this also is to be considered, that since there are 
two beings, having an unbegotten nature, it is 
also necessary from that to suppose each of them 
to have (what must be called) an old testament, 
and thus there will appear to be two old testa- 
ments ; if indeed you affirm that both these beings 
are ancient, and both indeed without a beginning.3 
But I have not learned doctrine like that ; neither 
do the Scriptures contain it. You, however, who 
allege that the law of Moses comes from the 
prince of evil, and not from the good God, tell 
me who those were who withstood Moses to the 
face—_I mean Jamnes and Mambres?+ For 
every object that withstands, withstands not itself, 
but some other one, either better or worse ; as 
Paul also gives us to understand when he writes 
in the following terms in his second Epistle to 
Timothy: “As Jamnes and Mambres withstood 
Moses, so have these also resisted the truth: 
men of corrupt mind, reprobate concerning the 
faith. But they shall proceed no further: for 
their folly is manifest unto all men, as theirs 
also was.” 5 Do you observe how he compares 
Jamnes and Mambres to men of corrupt mind, 
and reprobate concerning the faith; while he 
likens Moses, on the other hand, to the truth? 
But the holy John, the greatest of the evangelists, 
also tells us of the giving and diffusing of grace 
for grace ;° for he indicates, indeed, that we 
have received the law of Moses out of the ful- 
ness of Christ, and he means that for that one 
grace this other grace has been made perfect in 
us through Jesus Christ. It was also to show 
this to be the case that our Lord Jesus Christ 
Himself spake in these terms: “Do not think 
that I will accuse you to the Father: there is 
one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye 
hope. For had ye believed Moses, ye would 
indeed have believed me: for he wrote of me. 
But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye 
believe my words?”’? And besides all these 
words, there are still many other passages that 
might be adduced both from the Apostle Paul 
and from the Gospels, by which we are able to 


t We read, with the Codex Bobiensis, “‘ dicat homini, Loca mihi,” 
etc. The Codex Casinensis has the meaningless reading, ‘‘ homini 
diviti,” etc. 

2 Presta. 

3 The text of this obscure passage runs thus: “ Quia ex quo duo 
sunt, ingenitam habentes naturam, ex eo necesse est etiam habere 
unumquemque ipsorum vetus Testamentum, et fient duo vetera Testa- 
menta; sitamen ambos antiquos et sine initio esse dicis.” The Codex 
Bobiensis gives a briefer but evidently corrupt reading: ‘‘ex quo duo 
sunt ingenita habentes naturam ipsorum Testamentum, et fient,” etc. 

4 Famnem dicoet Mambrem. [So in Vulg., except ‘‘ Jannes.”] 

5 2 Tim. iii. 8, 9. , 

6 Gratiam gratia prestare et differre. Johni, 16. 

? John v. 45-47. 








prove that the old law belongs to no other one 
than that Lord to whom also the new testament 
appertains, and which it would suit us very well 
to set forth, and to make use of in a satisfactory 
manner.’ Now, however, the evening prevents 
us from doing so; for the day is drawing to its 
close, and it is right that we should now bring 
our disputation to an end. But an opportunity 
will be given you to-morrow to put questions to 
us on any points you are pleased to take up. 
And after these words they went their way.? 

46. Next morning, however, Archelaus sud- 
denly made his appearance at this residence '° in 
which Diodorus was staying, before any one was 
yet stirring abroad. Manes accordingly, all un- 
conscious of the fact that Archelaus was now on 
the spot again, challenged Diodorus publicly to 
engage in a disputation with him; his intention 
being to crush him with a verbal display, because 
he perceived that he was a man of a simple na- 
ture, and not very deeply learned in questions 
concerning the Scriptures. For he had now had 
a taste of the doctrine of Archelaus. When, 
therefore, the multitudes had again collected in 
the place usually set apart for the disputation, 
and when Manes had just begun to reason, all 
on a sudden Archelaus appeared among them, 
and embraced Diodorus, and saluted him with 
an holy kiss. Then truly were Diodorus, and all 
those who were present, filled with wonder at the 
dispensation of divine providence which thus 
provided that Archelaus should arrive among 
them at the very time when the question was 
Just raised ; for in reality, as must be confessed, 
Diodorus, with all his religiousness, had been 
somewhat afraid of the conflict. But when Manes 
caught sight of Archelaus, he at once drew back 
from his insulting attitude ; and with his pride 
cast down not a little, he made it quite plain that 
he would gladly flee from the contest. The 
multitude of hearers, however, looked upon the 
arrival of Archelaus as something like the advent 
of an apostle, because he had shown himself so 
thoroughly furnished, and so prompt and ready 
for a defence of the truth by speech. Accord- 


| ingly, after demanding silence from the people by 


a wave of his right hand, — for no inconsiderable 
tumult had arisen, —Archelaus began an address 
in the following terms : — Although some amongst 
us have gained the honour of wisdom and the 
meed of glory, yet this I beg of you, that you 
retain in your minds the testimony of those 
things which have been said before my arrival." 





8 The Codex Bohiensis gives, ‘‘ exponere et a Patre ut convenit ” 
For these meaningless words Valesius proposed to read, “‘ exponere 
et aperire ut convenit.”” The Codex Casinensis, however, offers the 
satisfactory reading, ‘‘ exponere et aptare convenit.” 

9 Here ends the section edited by Valesius. 

10 Castellum. [Note, infra, the ‘ holy kiss.” ] 

11 The text runs: ‘ tametsi prudentiam, gloriam etiam, nostrorum 
nonnulli assecuti sunt, tamen hoc vos deprecor ut eorum quz ante 
me dicta sunt, testimonium reservetis.” Routh suggests prudentia 
= Although by their prudence some have gained glory, etc, 


222 


ee 
q 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 





For I know and am certain, brethren, that I now 
take the place of Diodorus, not on account of 
any impossibilities attaching to him,’ but because 
I came to know this person here at a previous 
time, when he made his way with his wicked de- 
signs into the parts where I reside, by the favour 
of Marcellus,? that man of illustrious name, whom 
he endeavoured to turn aside from our doctrine 
and faith, with the object, to wit, of making him 
an effective supporter of this impious teaching. 
Nevertheless, in spite of all his plausible ad- 
dresses, he failed to move him or turn him aside 
from the faith in any one particular. For this 
most devout Marcellus was only found to be like 
the rock on which the house was built with the 
most solid foundations; and when the rain de- 
scended, and the floods and the winds burst in 
and beat upon that house, it stood firm: for it 
had been built on the most solid and immove- 
able foundations.3 And the attempt thus made 
by this person who is now before you, brought 
dishonour rather than glory upon himself. More- 
over, it does not seem to me that he can be very 
excusable if he proves to be ignorant of what is 
in the future ; for surely he ought to know before- 
hand those who are on his own side: certainly 
he should have this measure of knowledge, if it 
be true indeed that the Spirit of the Paraclete 
dwells in him. But inasmuch as he is really a 
person blinded with the darkness of ignorance, 
he ran in vain when he journeyed to Marcellus, 
and he did but show himself to be like the star- 
gazer,* who busies himself with describing things 
celestial, while all the time he is ignorant of what 
is passing in his own home. But lest it should 
appear as if I were setting aside the question in 
hand by speaking in this strain, I shall now re- 
frain from such discourse. And I shall also give 
this man the privilege of taking up any point 
which may suit him best as a commencement to 
any treatment of the subject and the question. 
And to you, as I have said already, I only address 
the request that ye be impartial judges, so as to 
give to him who speaks the truth the proper 
honour and the palm. 

47. Then Manes, after silence had been se- 
cured among all, thus began his address: Like 
others, Archelaus, you too smite me with the 
most injurious words, notwithstanding that my 
sentiments on the subject of God are correct, 
and that I hold also a proper conception of 
Christ; and yet the family of the apostles is 
rather of the character that bears all things and 
endures all things, even although a man may 





l Pro tpstus tmposstbilitate, But Routh suggests that the z- 
posstbtittate 1s just an inexact translation of the advvatia = ztpo- 
tentia, incapacity, which may have stood in the Greek text. 

2 Reading ‘‘ Marcelli viri illustris gratia.” 
has, “‘ viri in legis gratia.” 

3 Matt. vii. 24. 


The Codex Casinensis 


4 The text gives “‘ similis facere astrologo,” for which Routh pro- | 


poses “‘ similis factus est,” etc. 


| 





assail them with revilings and curses. If it is 
your intention to persecute me, I am prepared 
for it; and if you wish to involve me in punish- 
ment, I shall not shrink from it; yea, if you 
mean even to put me to death, I am not afraid : 
‘For we ought to fear Him only who is able to 
destroy both soul and body in hell.”5 Arche- 
laus said: Far be that from me! Not such is 
my intention. For what have you ever had to 
suffer at my hands, or at the hands of those who 
think with us, even when you were disparaging 
us and doing us injury, and when you were speak- 
ing in detraction of the traditions of our fathers, 
and when it was your aim to work the death of 
the souls of men that were well established in 
the truth, and that were kept with the most con- 
scientious carefulness ; for which, in truth, the 
whole wealth of the world would not serve as a 
sufficient compensation?® Nevertheless, what 
ground have you for assuming this position? 
What have you to show? Tell us this, — what 
signs of salvation have you to bring before us? 
For the bare bravado of words will not avail to 
satisfy the multitude here present, neither will it 
be enough to qualify them for recognising which 
of us holds the knowledge of the truth the more 
correctly. Wherefore, as you have got the op- 
portunity of speaking first, tell us first to what 
particular head of the subject you wish us to 
direct the disputation. JAZanes said: If you do 
not offer a second time an unfair resistance to 
the positions which shall be stated with all due 
propriety by us, I shall speak with you; but if 
you mean to show yourself still in the character 
which on a former occasion I perceived you to 
take up, I shall address myself to Diodorus, and 
shall keep clear of your turbulence. Archelaus 
said: I have already expressed my opinion that 
we shall be simply abusing the occasion by the 
mere bandying of empty words. If any one on 
our side is found to offer an unfair resistance, 
leave that to the decision of the judges. But 
now, tell us what you have got to advance. 
Manes said: If you do not mean a second time 
merely to gainsay the positions which are stated 
with all due correctness. by me, I shall begin. 
Archelaus said: “Tf not this,” and “if not that,” 
are ways of speaking which mark out an ignorant 
man. You are ignorant, therefore, of what is in 
the future. But as to this particular thing which 
you do declare to be still future, to gainsay or 
not to gainsay is a matter in my own power. 
How, then, will that argument about the two 
trees stand, in which you place your trust as in a 
buckler of the most approved strength? For if 
I am of the contrary side, how do you require 
my obedience? And if, on the other hand, there 





S Matt, x. 28. 


6 The text is, ‘‘ quibus utique vefensarz non possunt,” etc 


| Routh proposes vefensare. 


sat i ‘yee 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 


ee -—- te 





is in me the disposition of obedience, how are 
you so greatly alarmed lest I should gainsay you? 
For you maintain that evil remains evil always, 
and that good remains good always, in utter 
ignorance of the force of your words. Manes 


said: Have I employed you as the advocate of} 


my words, so that you may determine also the 
intelligence that may suit my knowledge? And 
how will you be able to explain what belongs to 
another person, when you cannot make what 
pertains to yourself clear? But if Diodorus 
now admits himself to be vanquished, my rea- 
sonings will then be addressed to you. If, how- 
ever, he still stands out, and is prepared to speak, 
I beg you to give over and cease from interfering 
with the substantiating of the truth. For you 
are a strange sheep; nevertheless hereafter you 
will be introduced into the number of the same 
flock, as the voice of Jesus‘ also intimates, — 
that Jesus, namely, who appeared in the form of 
man indeed, and yet was nota man. Archelaus 
said; Are you not, then, of opinion that He 
was born of the Virgin Mary? Manes said: 
God forbid that I should admit that our Lord 
Jesus Christ came down to us through the natu- 
ral womb of a woman! For He gives us His 
own testimony that He came down from the 
Father’s bosom ;? and again He says, “ He that 
receiveth me, receiveth Him that sent me;” 3 
and, “I came not to do mine own will, but the 
will of Him that sent me;’* and once more, 
“Tam not sent but unto the lost sheep of the 
house of Israel.”5 And there are also innu- 
merable other passages of a similar import, which 
point Him out as one that came, and not as one 
that was dorn. But if you are greater than He, 
and if you know better than He what is true, 
how do we yet believe Him? <Archelaus said: 
Neither am I greater than He, for I am His ser- 
vant ; nor can I be even the equal of my Lord, 
for I am His unprofitable servant; I am a dis- 
ciple of His words, and I believe those things 
which have been spoken by Him, and I affirm 
that they are unchangeable. Manes said: A 
certain person somewhat like you once said to 
Him, “Mary Thy mother, and Thy brethren, 
stand without ;’’® and He took not the word 
kindly, but rebuked the person who had uttered 
it, saying, “ Who is my mother, and who are my 
brethren?” And He showed that those who 
did His will were both His mothers and His 
brethren. If you, however, mean to say that 
Mary was actually His mother, you place your- 
self in a position of considerable peril. For, 
without any doubt, it would be proved on the 





1 Reading “‘ sicut vox Jesu.” The Codex Casinensis gives, “‘ sicut 
vos Jesu.” Routh suggests servator. 
2 John i. 18, iti, 13. 
3 Matt, x. 40. 
4 i eee vi. 38. 
5 Matt. xv. 24, 
6 Matt. xil. 47. 





223 





same principles that He had brethren also by 
her. Now tell me whether these brethren were 
begotten by Joseph or by the same Holy Spirit. 
For if you say that they were begotten by the 
same Holy Spirit, it will follow that we have had 
many Christs. And if you say that these were 
not begotten by the same Holy Spirit, and yet 
aver that He had brethren, then without doubt 
we shall be under the necessity of understanding 
that, in succession to the Spirit and after Gabriel, 
the most pure and spotless virgin? formed an 
actual marriage connection with Joseph. But if 
this is also a thing altogether absurd —I mean 
the supposition that she had any manner of inter- 
course with Joseph —tell me whether then He’ 
had brethren. Are you thus to fix the crime of 
adultery also on her, most sagacious Marcellus ?§ 
But if none of these suppositions suits the posi- 
tion of the Virgin undefiled, how will you make 
it out that He had brothers? And if you are un- 
able to prove clearly to us that He had brethren, 
will it be any the easier for you to prove Mary to 
be His mother, in accordance with the saying 
of him who ventured to write,? “ Behold, Thy 
mother and Thy brethren stand without?” Yet, 
although that man was bold enough to address 
Him thus, no one can be mightier or greater 
than this same person Himself who shows us His 
mother or His brethren. Nay, He does not deign 
even to hear it said that He is David’s son.'*° The 
Apostle Peter, however, the most eminent of all 
the disciples, was able to acknowledge Him on 
that occasion, when all were putting forth the 
several opinions which they entertained respect- 
ing Him: for he said, “ Thou art the Christ, the 
Son of the living God ;”’"" and immediately He 
names him blessed, addressing him thus: “ For 
my heavenly Father hath revealed it unto thee.” 
Observe what a difference there is between these 
two words which were spoken by Jesus. For to 
him who had said, ‘“ Behold, Thy mother stands 
without,” He replied, “Who is my mother, or 
who are my brethren?” But to him who said, 
“Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,” 
He makes the return of a beatitude and bene- 
diction. Consequently, if you will have it that 
He was born of Mary, then it follows that no less 
than Peter, He is Himself thus proved to have 
spoken falsely. But if, on the other hand, Peter 
states what is true, then without doubt that for- 
mer person was in error. And if the former was 
in error, the matter is to be referred back to the 





7 The text gives, ‘‘ Virgo castissima et immaculata ecclesia,” = 
the most pure virgin and spotless church. But the word “ecclesia” 
is probably an erroneous addition by the hand of the scribe. Or, as 
Routh hints, there may be an allusion, in the word ecclesza, to the 
beginning of the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse. [See Pearson, 
On the Creed, art. iii. p. 290.] 

8 From this it may perhaps be gathered that Marcellus had now 
come along with Archelaus to the residence of Diodorus. 

9 Scrthere ausus est. Compare (note 1) p. 224, infra. 

10 Matt. xxii. 42, We read Davidzs esse for David Fesse, 

11 Matt. xvi. 16. 


224 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 





writer.’ We know, therefore, that there is one 
Christ, according to the Apostle Paul, whose 
words, as in consonance at least? with His ad- 
vent, we believe. 

48, On hearing these statements, the multi- 
tudes assembled were greatly moved, as if they 
felt that these reasonings gave the correct ac- 
count of the truth, and that Archelaus could 
have nothing to urge against them ; for this was 
indicated by the commotion which arose among 
them. But when the crowd of auditors became 
quiet again, Archelaus made answer in the fol- 
lowing manner: No one, truly, shall ever be able 
to prove himself mightier than the voice of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, neither is there found any 
name equal to His, as it is written: “ Wherefore 
God hath exalted Him, and given Him a name 
which is above every name.”3 Nor, again, in 
the matter of testimony can any one ever be 
equal to Him; and accordingly I shall simply 
adduce the testimonies of His own voice in an- 
swer to you, — first of all, indeed, with the view 
of solving those difficulties which have been 
enunciated by you, so that you may not say, as 
is your wont to do, that these are matters which 
-are not in harmony with the Person Himself. 
Now, you maintain that the man who brought 
the word to Jesus about His mother and His 
‘brethren was rebuked by Him as if he was in 
-error, as the writer was in error.’ Well, I affirm 
‘that neither was this person rebuked who brought 
Him the message about His mother and His 
brethren, nor was Peter only named _ blessed 
above him; but each of these two parties re- 
ceived from Him the answer that was properly 
called forth by their several utterances, as the 
discourse will demonstrate in what follows. When 
one is a child, he thinks as a child, he speaks as 
a child ; but when he becomes a mature man, 
those things are to be done away which are 
proper for a child:® in other words, when one 
reaches forth unto those things which are before, 
he will forget those which are behind.? Hence, 
when our Lord Jesus Christ was engaged in 
teaching and healing the race of men, so that all 
pertaining to it might not utterly perish together, 
and when the minds of all those who were_-listen- 
ing to Him were intently occupied with these 
interests, it made an interruption altogether in- 

opportune when this messenger came in and put 
-Him in. mind of His mother and His brethren. 
What then? Ought He, now,® yourself being 


1 The text gives, “‘ Quod si prior fefellit, causa ad scriptorem reji- 
cienda est.” [1.e., to the copyist; in this case the corrupter.] 

2 Consonantibus duntaxat. 

3 Phil. ii. 9. 

4 Stbs tpsz. 

S$ Secundum td guod scriptorem fefellit. 
position. 

© x Cor. xiii. rr. 

7 Phil. iii, 13. . 

8 Reading “ debuitne. etiam” for the bad version of the Codex 
Casinensis, ‘‘ debuit et etiam,” 


[i.e., on that sup- 





judge,? to have left those whom He was healing 
and instructing, and gone to speak with His 
mother and His brethren? Would you not by 
such a supposition at once lower the character 
of the Person Himself? When, again, He chose 
certain men who were laden and burdened with 
sins for the honour of discipleship,’° to the num- 
ber of twelve, whom He also named His apostles, 
He gave them this injunction, Leave father and 
mother, that you may le made worthy of me ; "! 
intending by this that thenceforward the memory 
of father or mother should no more impair the 
stedfastness of their heart. And on another 
occasion, when a different individual chose to 
say to Him, “I will go and bury my father,” He 
answered, “Let the dead bury their dead.” *? 
Behold, then, how my Lord Jesus Christ edifies 
His disciples unto all things necessary, and de- 
livers His sacred words to every one, in due 
accordance with what is meet for him. And just 
in the same way, too, on this other occasion, 
when a certain person came in with the incon- 
siderate message about His mother, He did not 
embrace the occurrence as an opportunity for 
leaving His Father’s commission unattended to 
even for the sake of having His mother with 
Him. But in order to show you still more clearly 
that this is the real account of the matter, let me 
remind you that Peter, on a certain season, sub- 
sequent to the time of his receiving that declara- 
tion of blessedness from Him, said to Jesus, 
“ Be it far from Thee, Lord: '3 this shall not be 
unto Thee.” "4 This he said after Jesus had an- 
nounced to him that the Son of man must go up 
to Jerusalem, and be killed, and rise again the 
third day.'5 And in answer then to Peter He 
said: ‘Get thee behind me, Satan; for thou 
savourest not the things that be of God, but 
those that be of men.” !® Now, since it is your 
opinion that the man who brought the message 
about His mother and His brethren was rebuked 
by Jesus, and that he who said a little before, 
“Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,” 
obtained the word of blessing, mark you that 
Jesus (may be said to have) rather preferred 
that person to whom He condescended to give 
the more gracious and indulgent answer ; where- 
as Peter, even after that benediction, now got 
no appellation expressive of indulgence addressed 
to him, by reason of his having failed carefully 
to observe the nature of the announcement that 





9 The text gives, “‘ se ipso judicante,” for which “‘ fe ipso,” etc., 
may be substituted. 

to In the Codex Casinensis the sentence stands in this evidently 
corrupt form: ‘‘ cum enim peccatis bonus et gravatus ad discipulatum 
diligit.” We adopt the emendation given in Migne: “cum enim 
peccatis onustos et gravatos ad discipulatum delegit.” 

It Matt. x. 37. 

12 Luke ix. 59, 60. 

13 Propitius esto, Domine. 

14 Matt. xvi. 22. [Possibly the first words by which Satan fell.] 

1S Matt. xvi. 21. 

16 Matt, xvi. 23. 


[Satan seems to have rebelled against man’s 
creation. | 





THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 





was made to him. For the error of that mes- 
senger was at once corrected by the tenor of the 
reply ; but the dulness of this apostle’s appre- 
hension was condemned with a severer rebuke. 
And from this you may perceive that the Lord 
Jesus, observing what was proper and opportune 
with regard to the interrogations thus addressed 
to Him, gave to each the reply that was worthy 
of it, and suited to it. But supposing that, as 
you say, Peter was pronounced blessed on the 
ground of his having said what was true, and 
that that messenger was reproved on account of 
the error he committed, tell me then why it is, 
that when the devils confessed Him, and said, 
“We know Thee, who Thou art, the holy God,”’! 
He rebuked them, and commanded them to be 
silent?? Why was it not the case, if He does 
indeed take pleasure in the testimonies borne to 
Him by those who confess Him, that He recom- 
pensed them also with benedictions, as He did 
to Peter when he gave utterance to the truth? 
But if that would be an absurd supposition, it 
only remains that we must understand the words 
spoken by Him always in accordance with the 
place, the time, the persons, the subjects, and 
the due consideration of the circumstances.3 For 
only this method will save us from falling into 
the error of pronouncing rashly on His sayings, 
aiid thus making ourselves liable to merited 
chastisement: and this will also help me to 
make it more and more intelligible to you, that 
the man who brought the tidings of His mother 
was much rather the person honoured. How- 
ever, in forgetfulness of the subject which was 
proposed to us for discussion, you have turned 
off to a different theme. Nevertheless listen to 
me for a brief space. For if you choose, indeed, 
to consider those words somewhat more care- 
fully, we shall find that the Lord Jesus displayed 
great clemency in the case of the former of these 
two parties; and this I shall prove to you by 
illustrations suited to your capacity. A certain 
king who had taken up arms, and gone forth to 
meet an enemy, was earnestly considering and 
planning how he might subdue those hostile and 
foreign forces. And when his mind was oc- 
cupied with many cares and anxieties, after he 
had forced his way among his adversaries, and 
when, further, as he began afterwards to make 
captives of them, the anxious thought was now 
also pressing upon him as to how he might secure 
the safety and interests of those who had toiled 
with him, and borne the burden of the war,5 a 


T Luke iv. 34, reading sanctus Deus. [i.e., not the received text. ] 

2 Reading szlere. The Codex Casinensis gives szzzre, which may 
be meant for s7xere = give over. 

3 Pro accidentium salute. 

4 We have adopted Migne’s arrangement of these clauses. Routh, 
however, puts them thus: And that it may be made more tntellt- 
gtble to you,etc.,.. . (for in forgetfulness, etc., you have turned 
off, etc.), listen to me now for a brief space. 

S Reading ‘“‘pondus belli toleraverant,” instead of the 
bellico tolerarant” of the Codex Casinensis. 


“ 


pondus 





228 





certain messenger broke inopportunely in upon 
him, and began to remind him of domestic mat- 
ters. But he was astonished at the man’s bold- 
ness, and at his unseasonable suggestions, and 
thought of delivering such a fellow over to death. 
And had that messenger not been one who was 
able to appeal to his tenderest affections in bring- 
ing the news that it was well with those at home, 
and that all went on prosperously and success- 
fully there, that punishment might have been his 
instant and well-merited doom. For what else 
should be a king’s care, so long as the time of 
war endures, than to provide for the safety of 
the people of his province, and to look after 
military matters? And even thus it also was that 
that messenger came inopportunely in upon my 
Lord Jesus Christ, and brought the report about 
His mother and His brethren unseasonably, just 
when He was fighting against ills which had 
assailed the very citadel of the heart, and when 
He was healing those who for a long time had 
been under the power of diverse infirmities, and 
when He had now put forth His utmost effort to 
secure the salvation of all. And truly that man 
might have met with a sentence like that pro- 
nounced on Peter, or even one severer still. But 
the hearing of the name of His mother and His 
brethren drew forth His clemency. 

49. But in addition to all that has been said 
already, I wish to adduce still further proof, so 
that all may understand what impiety is contained 
in this assertion of yours. For if your allegation 
is true, that He was not born, then it will follow 
undoubtedly that He did not suffer ; for it is not 
possible for one to suffer who was not also born. 
But if He did not suffer, then the name of the 
cross is done away with. And if the cross was 
not endured, then Jesus did not rise from the 
dead. And if Jesus rose not from the dead, then 
no other person will rise again. And if no one 
shall rise again, then there will be no judgment. 
For it is certain that, if Iam not to rise again, 
I cannot be judged. But if there is to be no 
judgment, then the keeping of God’s command- 
ments will be to no purpose, and there will be no 
occasion for abstinence: nay, we may say, “ Let 
us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die.” ® 
For all these consequences follow when you deny 
that He was born of Mary. But if you acknowl- 
edge that He was born of Mary, then His pas- 
sion will necessarily follow, and His resurrection 
will be consequent on His passion, and the judg- 
ment on His resurrection: and thus the injunc- 
tions of Scripture will have their proper value7 
for us. This is not therefore an idle question, 
but there are the mightiest issues involved in this 
word. For just as all the law and the prophets 
are summed up in two words, so also all our hope 





6 1 Cor. xv. 32. 
7 Salva. 


226 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 





is made to depend on the birth by the blessed 
Mary. Give me therefore an answer to these 
several questions which I shall address to you. 
How shall we get rid of these many words of 
the apostle, so important and so precise, which 
are expressed in terms like the following: “ But 
when the good pleasure of God was with us, He 
sent His Son, made of a woman;”’' and again, 
“ Christ our passover is sacrificed for us ;””? and 
once more, “ God hath both raised up the Lord, 
and will raise up us together with Him by His 
own power?”3 And there are many other pas- 
sages of a similar import; as, for example, this 
which follows: “How say some among you,‘ 
that there is no resurrection of the dead? For 
if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is 
not Christ risen: and if Christ be not risen, then 
is our preaching vain. Yea, and we shall be 


found false witnesses of God ; who have testified - 


against God that He raised up Christ: whom He 
raised not up. For if the dead rise not, then is 
not Christ risen: and if Christ be not raised, 
yourS faith is vain ; ye are yet in yoursins. Then 
they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are 
perished. If in this life only we have hope in 
Christ, we are more miserable than all men. But 
now is Christ risen from the dead, the beginning® 
of them that sleep;”7 and so on. Who, then, 
I ask, can be found so rash and audacious as 
not to make his faith fit in with these sacred 
words, in which there is no qualification® nor 
any dubiety? Who, I ask you, O foolish Gala- 
tian, has bewitched you, as those were bewitched 
“before whose eyes Jesus Christ was evidently 
set forth, crucified?”9 From all this I think 
that these testimonies should suffice in proof of 
the judgment, and the resurrection, and the pas- 
sion ; and the birth by Mary is also shown to be 
involved naturally and at once in these facts. 
And what matters it though you refuse to acqui- 


esce in this, when the Scripture proclaims the fact | 


most unmistakeably? Nevertheless I shall again 
put a question to you, and let it please you to 
give me an answer. When Jesus gave His testi- 
mony concerning John, and said, “ Among them 
that are born of women there hath not risen a 
greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding, 


1 Gal. iv. 4. The reading is, ‘‘cum autem fuit Dei voluntas in 
nobis.” The Vulgate, following the ordinary Greek text, gives, ‘‘ at 
ubi venit plenitudo temporis.””. And so Irenzus, Tertullian, Cyprian, 
etc. ie should have been in the margin of the Revised Version. ] 

2 x Cor. v. 7. 

3 1 Cor. vi. 14. The text here inserts the words cum zilo, which 
are found neither in the Greek, nor in the Vulgate, nor in Irenzus, 
Adv. Hares.,v. 6, 7 [vol. i. pp. 530, 532, this series], nor in Ter- 
tullian, ddv. Marc., v. 7, etc. [vol. iil. p. 443, this series]. Accord- 
ing to Sabatier, however, they are found in Derone Ep. ad Amand. 

4 Reading z% vodis. But the Codex Casinensis seems to give 
in nobis, amongst us. 

* Ret the Codex Casinensis seems to make it fides nostra, our 
fait. 

6 Inttium. 

7 x Cor. xv. 12-20. 

8 Distinctio. 

9 Gal. iii. x. 
gate gives Jrescriptus est. 


The word in the text 1s rss: iftus est. The Vul- 
The Vetus .a@ © = 4rascriftus est. 





he that is less'° in the kingdom of heaven is 
greater than he,” ™ tell me what is meant by there 
being a greater than he in the kingdom of heaven. 
Was Jesus less in the kingdom of heaven than 
John? I say, God forbid! Tell me, then, how 
this is to be explained, and you will certainly 
surpass yourself. Without doubt “he meaning 
ts, that Jesus was less than John among those 
that are born of woman ; but in the kingdom of 
heaven He is greater than he.'?_ Wherefore tell 
me this too,O Manichzeus: If you say that Christ 
was not born of Mary, but that He only appeared’ 
like a man, while yet He was not really a man, 
the appearance being effected and produced by 
the power that is in Him, tell me, I repeat, on 
whom then was it that the Spirit descended like 
a dove? Who is this that was baptized by John? 
If He was perfect, if He was the Son, if He was 
the Power, the Spirit could not have entered into 
Him; 73 just as a kingdom cannot enter within a 
kingdom. And whose, too, was that voice which 
was sent forth out of heaven, and which gave 
Him this testimony, “This is my beloved Son, in 
whom I am well pleased?” *4 Come, tell me; 
make no delay; who is this that acquires *5 all 
these things, that does all these things? Answer 
me: Will you thus audaciously adduce blasphemy 
for reason, and will you attempt to find a place 
for it?*° 

50. Manes said: No one, certainly, who may 
be able to give a reply to what has just been 
alleged by you need fear incurring the guilt of 
blasphemy, but should rather be deemed thor- 
oughly worthy of all commendation. Fora true 
master of his art,17 when any matters are brought 
under his notice, ought to prepare his reply with 
due care, and make all clearly to understand the 
points that are in question or under doubt; and 
most especially ought he to do so to uninstructed 
persons. Now since the account of our doc- 
trine does not satisfy you, be pleased, like a 
thorough master of your art, to solve this ques- 
tion also for me in a reasonable manner. For 
to me it seems but pious to say that the Son of 
God stood in need of nothing whatsoever in the 

10 Minor. 

Il Matt. xi. rz. 

12 It would seem that Archelaus read the passage in Matthew as 
meaning, notwithstanding, he that ts less, ts in the kingdom of 
heaven, greater than he. Thus, he that zs less is understood to be 
Sesus in His natural relations. [A very lean and hungry procul- 
dubzo of the author. | 

13 Routh appends a note here which may be given. It is to this 
effect: I am afraid that Archelaus has not expressed with sufficient 
correctness the mystery of the Divine Incarnation, in this passage as 
well as in what follows; although elsewhere he has taught that the 
Lord Jesus was conceived by divine power, and in ch, xxxiv. has 
called the Virgin Mary Dez genetrix, Oeordxos. For at the time of 
the Saviour’s baptism the Holy Spirit was not given in His first com- 
munication with the Word of God (which Word, indeed, had been 
united with the human nature from the time of the conception itself), 
but was only received by the Christ av@pwmivws and oixovopixas, 
and for the sake of men. See Cyril of Alexandria, De Recté Fide, 
xxxiv. vol, v. 2, p. 153, editio Aubert#. [Routh, &.S., vol. v. p. 178.] 

14 Matt. iii, 17. 

1s Parat. 


16 Inferre coneris. 
7 Artifex, 





THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 





22” 





way of making good His advent upon earth; 
and that He in no sense required either the dove, 
or baptism, or mother, or brethren, or even may 
hap a father, — which father, however, according 
to your view, was Joseph; but that He de- 
scended altogether by Himself alone, and trans- 
formed Himself, according to His own good 
pleasure, into the semblance of a man, in accord- 
ance with that word of Paul which tells us that 
“He was found in fashion as a man.’’?' Show 
me, therefore, what thing He could possibly 
need who was able to transform Himself into 
all manner of appearances. For when He chose 
to do so, He again transformed this human fash- 
ion? and mien into the likeness of the sun. But 
if you gainsay me once more, and decline to 
acknowledge that I state the faith correctly, 
listen to my definition of the position in which 
you stand. For if you say that He was only 
man as born of Mary,3 and that He received 
the Spirit at His baptism, it will follow that He 
will be made out to be Son by increase + and not 
by nature. If, however, I grant you to say that 
He is Son according to increase,5 and that He 
was made as a man, your opinion is that He is 
really a man, that is to say, one who is flesh and 
blood.® But then it will necessarily follow that 
the Spirit also who appeared like a dove was 
nothing else than a natural dove. For the two 
expressions are the same, —namely, “as a man” 
and “like7 a dove ;”’ and consequently whatever 
may be the view you take of the one passage 
which uses the phrase ‘‘ as a man,’’ you ought to 
hold that same view® also of this other passage 
in which the expression “like a dove” is used. It 
is a clear matter of necessity to take these things 
in the same way, for only thus can we find out 
the real sense of what is written concerning Him 
in the Scriptures. <Avchelaus said: As you 
cannot do so much for yourself, like a thorough 
master of your art, so neither should I care to 
put this question right and with all patience to 
make it clear, and to give the evident solution 
of the difficulty,? were it not for the sake of 
those who are present with us, and who listen to 
us. For this reason, therefore, I shall also ex- 
plain the answer that ought to be given to this 
question as it may be done most appropriately. 
It does not seem to you, then, to be a pious 
thing to say that Jesus had a mother in Mary; 
t Phil. ii. 7. 
2 Hominem. 
3 Hominem eum tantummodo ex Maria. 
4 Or, effect, per profectum. 
S Effect. [i.e,, progressively. ] , Ae 
6 Routh puts this interrogatively = Is it then your position that 
He really is a man, that is to say, one who is flesh and blood? Well, 
but if so, then it will follow, etc. 
7 Or, as. 
8 Reading “‘ sicut homo, hac opinione,” for the “sicut homo ac 
opinione”’ of the Codex Casinensis. 3 : 
9 The Codex Casinensis reads, ‘‘ hanc questionem diffigenter 
aptare tam manifestarem atque manifeste dissolverem.” We follow 


the emendation, ‘‘ hanc questionem diligenter aptatam manifestarem,” 
etc. 





and you hold a similar view on certain other 
positions which you have now been discussing 
in terms which I, for my part, altogether shrink 
from repeating." Now, sometimes a master of 
any art happens to be compelled by the igno- 
rance of an opponent both to say and to do 
things which time would make him decline ;** 
and accordingly, because the necessity is laid 
upon me, by consideration for the multitude 
present, I may give a brief answer to those 
statements which have been made so erroneously 
by you. Let us suppose, now, your allegation 
to be, that if we understand Jesus to be a man 
made of Mary after the course of nature, and 
regard him consequently as having flesh and 
blood, it will be necessary also to hold that the 
Holy Spirit was a real dove, and not a spirit. 
Well, then, how can a real dove enter into a real 
man, and abide in him? For flesh cannot enter 
into flesh. Nay rather, it is only when we ac- 
knowledge Jesus to be a true man, and also hold 
him who is there said to be like a dove to be 
the Holy Spirit, that we shall give the correct 
account according to reason on both sides, For, 
according to right reason, z¢ may be said that the 
Spirit dwells in a man, and descends upon him, 
and abides in him; and these, indeed, are things 
which have happened already in all due compe- 
tence, and the occurrence of which is always 
possible still, as even you yourself admit, inas- 
much as you did aforetime profess to be the 
Paraclete of God, you flint,’? as I may call you, 
and no man, so often forgetful of the very things 
which you assert. For you declared that the 
Spirit whom Jesus promised to send has come 
upon you; and whence can He come but by 
descending from Heaven? And if the Spirit 
descends thus on the man worthy of Him, then 
verily must we fancy that real doves descended 
upon you? Then truly should we rather dis- 
cover in you the thieving dove-merchant,'3 who 
lays snares and lines for the birds. For surely 
you well deserve to be made a jest of with words 
of ridicule. However, I spare you, lest per- 
chance I appear to offend the auditors by such 
expressions, and also most especially because it 
is beside my purpose to throw out against you 
all that you deserve to hear said about you. But 
let me return to the proper subject. For I am 
mindful of that transformation of thine,’4 in vir- 
tue of which you say that God has transformed 





lo [A signuim verecundie which rebukes the awful inquisitive- 
ness concerning the conception of Mary which disgraced the late 
pontiff, Pius IX. To what blasphemous pruriency of thought and 
expression has not such an invasion of decency given rise! See St. 
Bernard, Off., tom. i. p. 392. He rebukes the heresy as profane. ] 

Il The text gives zempus recusat, Routh proposes tempus re- 
gutrit = which the occasion requires. ; 

12 This is a purely conjectural reading, “‘ ut dicam silex,” etc. The 
Codex Casinensis gives, “‘ ut dicam dilerenon homo.” But Routh, in 
reference to ch, xv., throws out the idea that we should read delire= 
thou dotard, or, lunatic. [P. 190, supra, as if Manes = pavixds,] 

13 Columbarium furem. 

14 The text gives sv@, Routh suggests tue, 


228 





THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 





Himself into she fashion of a man or into shat\ like the sun? Was it not by reason of that tab- 


of the sun, by which position you think to prove 
that our Jesus was made man only in fashion and 
in appearance ; which assertion may God save 
any of the faithful from making. Now, for the 
rest, that opinion of yours would reduce the 
whole matter to a dream, so far as we are con- 
cerned, and to mere figures ; and not that only,' 
but the very name of an advent would be done 
away: for He might have done what He desired 
to do, though still seated in heaven, if He is, 
as you say, a spirit, and not a true man. But it 
is not thus that “He humbled Himself, and 
took the form of a servant ;”? and I say this of 
Him who was made man of Mary. For what? 
Might not we, too, have set forth things like 
those with which you have been dealing, and 
that, too, all the more easily and the more 
broadly? But far be it from us to swerve one 
jot or one tittle from the truth. For He who 
was born of Mary is the Son, who chose of His 
own accord to sustain this} mighty conflict, — 
namely, Jesus. This is the Christ of God, who 
descended upon him who is of Mary. If, how- 
ever, you refuse to believe even the voice that 
was heard from heaven, all that you can bring 
forward in place of the same is but some rash- 
ness of your own; and though you were to 
declare yourself on that, no one would believe 
you. For forthwith Jesus was led by the Spirit 
into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil ; 
and as the devil had no correct knowledge of 
Him, he said to Him, “If thou be the Son of 
God.”’4 Besides, he did not understand the 
reason of this bearing of the Son of God éy 
Mary, who preached the kingdom of heaven, 
whose was also indeed a great tabernacle,5 and 
one that could not have been prepared by any 
other :® whence, too, He who was nailed to the 
cross, on rising again from the dead, was taken 
up thither where Christ the Son of God reigned ; 
so that when He begins to conduct His judg- 
ment, those who have been ignorant of Him 
shall look on Him whom they pierced.7_ But in 
order to secure your credence, I propose this 
question to you: Why was it, that although His 
disciples sojourned a whole year with Him, not 
one of them fell prostrate on his face before 
Him, as you were saying a little ago, save only 
in that one hour when His countenance shone 
1 The text is, ‘‘ non solum autem, sed adventus nomen delebitur.” 
It may Reriiaps be = and not the foundation, but the name, of an 
advent would be done away. 
2 Phil. ii. 7. 
3 The text gives “‘ guo magnum,” etc., for which we adopt “ guod 
magnum,” etc. 
4 Matt. iv. 3. 
5 Or perhaps, = which was also, guod erat tabernaculum, etc. 
6 The Codex Casinensis gives, ‘‘Ignorabat autem propter qui 
enuisset Filium Dei predicabat regnum ccelorum, qui erat,” etc. 
We follow generally the emendations adopted in Migne: “ Ignorabat 
autem propter quid genuisset Filium Dei, qui predicabat regnum 
ccelorum, quod erat habitaculum magnum,” etc. Routh would read 


“ genitus esset Filius Dei,” etc. 
7 John xix. 37. 





ernacle which had been made for Him of Mary? 
For just as no other had the capacity sufficient 
for sustaining the burden of the Paraclete except 
only the disciples and the blessed Paul, so also 
no other was able to bear the Spirit who de- 
scended from heaven, and through whom that 
voice of the Father gave its testimony in these 
terms, “This is my beloved Son,’’* save only 
He who was born of Mary, and who is above all 
the saints, — namely, Jesus. But now give us 
your answer to those matters which I bring for- 
ward against you. If you hold that He is man 
only in mien and form, how could He have been 
laid hold of and dragged off to judgment by 
those who were born of man and woman — to 
wit, the Pharisees — seeing that a spiritual body 
cannot be grasped by bodies of grosser capaci- 
ties? But if you, who as yet have made no 
reply to the arguments brought before you, have 
now any kind of answer to offer to the word and 
proposition I have adduced, proceed, I pray 
you, and fetch me at least a handful or some 
fair modicum of your sunlight. But that very 
sun, indeed, inasmuch as it is possessed of a 
more subtle body, is capable of covering and 

enveloping you; while you, on the other hand, 

can do it no injury, even although you were to 

trample it under foot. My Lord Jesus, how- 

ever, if He was laid hold of, was laid hold of as 

a man by men. If He is not a man, neither 

was He laid hold of. If He was not laid hold 

of, neither did He suffer, nor was He baptized. 

If He was not baptized, neither is any of us bap- 

tized. But if there is no baptism, neither will 

there be any remission of sins, but every man 

will die in his own sins. Manes said: Is bap- 

tism, then, given on account of the remission of 

sins? Archelaus said; Certainly. Manes said: 

Does it not follow, then, that Christ has sinned, 

seeing that He has been baptized? <Archelaus 

said: God forbid! Nay, rather, He was made 

sin for us, taking on Him our sins.'° For this 

reason He was born of a woman, and for this 

reason also He approached the rite of baptism, in 

order that He might receive the purification of this 

part," and that thus the body which He had taken 

to Himself might be capable of bearing the Spirit, 

who had descended in the form of a dove. 

51. When Archelaus had finished this speech, 
the crowds of people marvelled at the truth of 
his doctrine, and expressed their vehement com- 
mendations of the man with loud outcries, so that 
they exerted themselves most energetically, and 
would have kept him from his return.’ There- 





8 Matt. iii. 17. 

9 Pugillum plenum solis mihi afer aut modtum plenum. 

10 2 Cor. v. 21. 

1 Partis. 

12 The text is, “et ultra ei non sinerent ad propria vemeare.” 
Routh suggests x/tro for ultra, 


i 


ens 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 





after, however, they withdrew. After some time, 
again, when they were gathered together, Arche- 
laus persuaded them to accede to his desire, and 
listen quietly to the word. And among his audi- 
tors were not only those who were with Diodorus, 
but also all who were present from his province 
and from the neighbouring districts. When si- 
lence, then, was secured, Archelaus proceeded 
to speak to them of Manes in the following 
manner: You have heard, indeed, what is the 
character of the doctrine which we teach, and 
you have got some proof of our faith; for I 
have expounded the Scriptures before you all, 
precisely in accordance with the views which I 
myself have been able to reach in studying them. 
But I entreat you now to listen to me in all silence, 
while I speak with the utmost possible brevity, 
with the view of giving you to understand who 
this person is who has made his appearance 
among us, and whence he comes, and what 
character he has, exactly as a certain man of the 
name of Sisinius, one' of his comrades, has indi- 
cated the facts to me; which individual? I am 
also prepared, if it please you, to summon in 
evidence of the statements I am about to make. 
And, in truth, this person did not decline to 
affirm the very same facts which we now adduce,3 
even when Manes was present; for the above- 
mentioned individual became a believer of our 
doctrine, as did also another person who was 
with me, named Turbo. Accordingly, all that 
these parties have conveyed in their testimony 
to me, and also all that we ourselves have dis- 
covered in the man, I shall not suffer to be kept 
back from your cognizance. 

Then, indeed, the multitudes became all the 
more excited, and crowded together to listen to 
Archelaus ; for, in good sooth, the statements 
which were made by him offered them the great- 
est enjoyment. Accordingly, they earnestly urged 
him to tell them all that he pleased, and all that 
he had on his mind; and they declared them- 
selves ready to listen to him there and then, 
and engaged to stay on even to the evening, 
and until the lights should be lit. 

Stimulated therefore by their heartiness, Arche- 
laus began his address with all confidence in the 
following terms : — My brethren, you have heard, 
indeed, the primary causes * relating to my Lord 
Jesus, —I mean those which are decided out of 
the law and the prophets ; and of the subsidiary 
causes also relating to my Lord Jesus Christ, our 
Saviour, you are not ignorant. And why should 
I say more? From the loving desire for the 
Saviour we have been called Christians, as the 





1 Reading wus, instead vof “* vos, comitibus,”” etc. 

3 Reading ‘‘ quem etiam’ ’ instead of ‘‘quz etiam.’ 

3 The Codex Casinensis gives, ‘‘ ipse quidem me oe recusavit,” 
etc. We adopt the correction in Migne, ‘‘ sed ne ipse quidem dicere 
recusavit,” etc, 

4 Supertores quidem causas Domint, etc. 


229 


whole world itself attests, and as the apostles 
also plainly declare. Yea, further, that best 
master-builder of His, Paul himself,5 has laid 
our foundation,® that is, the foundation of the 
Church, and has put us in trust of the law, or 
daining ministers, and presbyters,”? and bishops 
in the same, and describing in the places severally 
assigned to that purpose, in what manner and 
with what character the ministers of God ought 
to conduct themselves, of what repute the pres- 
byters ought to be possessed, and how they 
should be constituted, and what manner of per- 
sons those also ought to be who desire the office 
of bishop.’ And all these institutions, which 
were once settled well and rightly for us, preserve 
their proper standing and order with us to this 
day, and the regular administration of these rules 
abides amongst us still. But as to this fellow, 
Manes by name, who has at present burst boast- 
fully forth upon us from the province of Persia, 
and between whom and me a disputation has 
now for the second time been stirred, I shall tell 
you about his lineage, and that, too, in all ful- 
ness ; and I shall also show you most lucidly the 
source from which his doctrine has descended. 
This man is neither the first nor the only origi- 
nator of this type of doctrine. But a certain 
person belonging to Scythia, bearing the name 
Scythianus,? and living in the time of the apostles, 
was the founder and leader of this sect, just as 
many other apostates have constituted themselves 
founders and leaders, who from time to time, 
through the ambitious desire of arrogating posi- 
tions of superior importance to themselves, have 
given out falsehoods for the truth, and have per- 
verted the simpler class of people to their own 
lustful appetencies, on whose names and treach- 
erles, however, time does not permit us at pres- 
ent to descant. This Scythianus, then, was the 
person who introduced this self-contradictory 
dualism; and for that, too, he was himself 
indebted to. Pythagoras, as also all the other 
followers of this dogma have been, who all up- 
hold the notion of a dualism, and turn aside from 
the direct course of Scripture: but they shall not 
gain any further success therein. 

52. No one, however, has ever made such 
an unblushing advance in the promulgation of 
these tenets as this Scythianus. For he intro- 
duced the notion of a feud between the two 
unbegottens, and all those other fancies which 
are the consequences of a position of that kind. 
This Scythianus himself belonged to the stock of 





5 Reading ‘ 
The Codex Casinensis has the corrupt lection, 
tectos ci fundamentum,” etc. [Had this been said of Peter ? 1] 

6 Cf. 1 Cor. iii. 10. [Had this been said of Peter, what then?] 

7 Cf. Acts xiv. 23, 

8 Cf. 1 Tim. iii. 1, [Clement, cap. xliv., vol. 1. p. 17, this series. | 

9 Various other forms are found for this name Scythianus, Thus 
we find Scutianus and Excutianus,— forms which may have arisen 
through mere clerical errors. The Codex Reg Alex. Vat. gives 
| Stutianus. | But see Routh, X.S., vol. v. p. 186.] 


sed et optimus architectus ejus, fundamentum,” etc. 
“sed et optimos ’archi- 





230 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 





the Saracens, and took as his wife a certain cap- 
tive from the Upper Thebaid, who persuaded 
him to dwell in Egypt rather than in the deserts. 
And would that he had never been received by 
that province, in which, as he dwelt in it fora 
period, he found the opportunity for learning 
the wisdom of the Egyptians!? for, to speak 
truth, he was a person of very decided talent, 
and also of very liberal means, as those who 
knew him have likewise testified in accounts 
transmitted to us. Moreover, he had a certain 
disciple named Terebinthus,2 who wrote four 
books for him. ‘To the first of these books he 
gave the title of the A/yszeries, to the second 
that of the Heads,3 to the third that of the Gos- 
peé, and to the last of all that of the Zyeasury.4 
He had these four books, and this one disciple 
whose name was Terebinthus. As, then, these 
two persons had determined to reside alone by 
themselves for a considerable period, Scythianus 
thought of making an excursion into Judea, 
with the purpose of meeting with all those who 
had a reputation there as teachers ; but it came 
to pass that he suddenly departed this life soon 
after that, without having been able to accom- 
plish anything. That disciple, moreover, who 
had sojourned with him had to flee,5 and made 
his way toward Babylonia, a province which at 
present is held® by the Persians, and which is 
distant now a journey of about six days and 
nights from our parts. On arriving there, Tere- 
binthus succeeded in giving currency to a won- 
derful account of himself, declaring that he was 
replete with all the wisdom of the Egyptians, 
and that he was really named now, not Terebin- 
thus, but another Buddas,” and that this desig- 
nation had been put upon him. He asserted 
further that he was the son of a certain virgin, 
and that he had been brought up by an angel? 





1 This seems the general idea meant to be conveyed. The text, 
which is evidently corrupt, runs thus: ‘fin qua cum eum habitaret, 
cum /€gyptiorum sapientiam didicisset.” The Codex Reg. Alex. 
Vat. reads, ‘‘ in quacum habitaret et A°gyptiorum,” etc. In Migne it 
is proposed to fill up the lacune thus: ‘in 
depravatus est, cum A°gyptiorum sapientiam didicisset.”” Routh sug- 
gests, “in qua cum ea Pe pitaret” etc, 

2 The Codex Casinensis reads Terbonem for Terebinthum. But 
in Cyril of Jerusalem, in his Catecheszs, 6, as well as in others, we 
regularly find Tep8uvOov, Terdinthum, or Terebinthum, given as 
the name of the disciple of Scythianus. The form J7ereventus is 
also given; and the Cotles Reg. Alex. Vat. has Terybeneus. The 
statement made here as to these books being written by Terebinthus 
is not in accordance with statements made by Cyril and others, who 
seem to recognise Scythianus alone as the author. As to the name 
Terebinthus itself, C. Ritter, in his Dze Stufa’s, etc., p. 29, thinks 
that it is a Grecized form of a predicate of Buddha, viz., Tere-Aintn, 
Lord of the Hindoos. Others take it simply to be a translation of 


the Hebrew me, the terebinth. See a note on this subject in 


Neander’s Church Hist., ii, 166 (Bohn). [Routh, wt supra, p. 187.] 

3 Capituborum. 

4 Thesaurus. 

S The Codex Reg. Alex. Vat. inserts here, ‘‘ omnibus quecunque 
ejus fuerant congregatis”” = gathering together all that was his. 

6 Reading ‘“‘habetur.” But Codex Reg. Alex. Vat. gives Aadz- 
tatur, is inhabited. 

7 The Codex Casinensis gives, ‘‘sed aliud cujusdam homine.” 
We adopt “‘ sed alium Buddam nomine,” with which the narratives of 
Cyn, Epiphanius, and others agree. Routh proposes “ alio Buddam 
nomine ” = by another name, Buddas. [Buddha is a Zz#/e, not aname. ] 

8 The text gives ‘‘ natum esse, simul et ab angelo.” The Codex 
Reg. Alex. Vat, reads, ‘‘ natum se esse simylabat et ab angelo,” 


qua cum diu_habitaret, | 





on the mountains. A certain prophet, however, 
of the name of Parcus, and Labdacus the son 
of Mithras,? charged '° him with falsehood, and 
day after day unceasingly they had keen and 
elevated contentions"! on this subject. But why 
should I speak of that at length? Although he 
was often reproved, he continued, nevertheless, 
to make declarations to them on matters which 
were antecedent to the world,’ and on the sphere, 
and the two luminaries ; and also on the ques- 
tion whither and in what manner the souls de- 
part, and in what mode they return again into 
the bodies ; and he made many other assertions 
of this nature, and others even worse than these, 
—as, for instance, that war was raised with God 
among the elements,'3 that the prophet himself 
might be believed. However, as he was hard 
pressed for assertions like these, he betook him- 
self to a certain widow, along with his four books : 
for he had attached to himself no disciple in 
that same locality, with the single exception of 
an old woman who became an intimate of his." 
Then,'5 on a subsequent occasion, at the earliest 
dawn one morning, he went up to the top’® of a 
certain house, and there began to invoke certain 
names, which Turbo has told us only the seven 
elect have learned. He ascended to the house- 
top, then, with the purpose of engaging in some 
religious ceremony, or some art of his own ; and 
he went up alone, so as not to be detected by 
any one: '7 for he considered that, if he was 
convicted of playing false with, or holding of 
little account, the religious beliefs of the people, 
he would be liable to be punished by the real 
princes of the country. And as he was revolv- 
ing these things then in his mind, God in His 
perfect justice decreed that he should be thrust 
beneath earth by a spirit ;‘8 and forthwith he was 
cast down from the roof of the house ; and his 
body, being precipitated lifeless to the ground, 
was taken up in pity by the old woman men- 
tioned above, and was buried in the wonted 
place of sepulture. 

53- After this event all the effects which he 


|had brought with him from Egypt remained in 


her possession. And she rejoiced greatly over his 
death, and that for two reasons: first, because 
she did not regard his arts with satisfaction ; and 
secondly, because she had obtained such an in- 





9 On these Persian priests, see Epiphanius on this heresy, num. 3. 

10 Reading argucbant, with Routh, for arguebat. 

Il Animosa exaggeratio. 

12 Ante seculum. 

13 Or, in the origins of things, 2 princzpzis. 

14 Particeps ejus. 

1S Reading tunc for nunc. 

16 Solarium quoddam excelsum. 

17 The Codex Casinensis gives, ‘‘ ut inde ab aliquo convinci pos- 
sit.” But the Codex Reg. Alex. Vat. reads, “‘ ut ne ab aliquo,” etc. 
We adopt, therefore, ‘‘ ne ab aliquo,” etc., taking the idea to be, as is 
suggested in Migne, that Manes went up alone, because he feared 
that, if observed by Parcus and Labdacus, the priests of Mithras, he 
might expose himself to punishment at the hands of the Persian rulers 
for an offence against their religion. [Zanes here seems put fot 
Terebinthus. ] 

18 Sub terras eum detrudt per spiritum, 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 


heritance, for it was one of great value.' But as 
she was all alone, she bethought herself of hav- 
ing some one to attend her; and she got for 
that purpose a boy of about seven years of age, 
named Corbicius,? to whom she at once gave his 
freedom, and whom she also instructed in letters. 
When this boy had reached his twelfth year the 
old woman died, and left to him all her posses- 
sions, and among other things those four books 
which Scythianus had written, each of them con- 
sisting of a moderate number of lines.3 When 
his mistress was once buried, Corbicius began to 
make his own use of all the property that had 
been left him. Abandoning the old locality, he 
took up his abode in the middle of the city, 
where the king of Persia had his residence ; and 
there altering his name, he called himself Manes 
instead of Corbicius, or, to speak more correctly, 
not Manes, but Mani:4 for that is the kind of 
inflection employed in the Persian language. 
Now, when this boy had grown to be a man of 
well-nigh sixty years of age,5 he had acquired 
great erudition in all the branches of learning 
taught in those parts, and I might almost say 
that in these he surpassed all others. Neverthe- 
less he had been a still more diligent student of 
the doctrines contained in these four books ; and 
he had also gained three disciples, whose names 
were Thomas, Addas, and Hermas. Then, too, 
he took these books, and transcribed ® them in 
such wise that he introduced into them much 
new matter which was simply his own, and which 
can be likened only to old wives’ fables. Those 
three disciples, then, he thus had attached to 
him as conscious participants in his evil coun- 
sels; and he gave,’moreover, his own name to 
the books, and deleted the name of their former 
owner, as if he had composed them all by him- 
self. Then it seemed good to him to send his 
disciples, with the doctrines which he had com- 
mitted to writing in the books, into the upper 
districts of that province, and through various 
cities and villages, with the view of securing fol- 
lowers. Thomas accordingly determined to take 
possession of the regions of Egypt, and Addas 
those of Scythia, while Hermas alone chose to 
remain with the man himself. When these, 
then, had set out on their course, the king’s son 
was seized with a certain sickness; and as the 
king was very anxious to see him cured, he pub- 
lished a decree offering a large reward, and en- 
gaging to bestow it upon any one who should 


' But the Codex Reg. Alex. Vat. reads, ‘‘erat enim multum pe- 


cuniz arida” — for she had a great greed for ae : 
2 But Cyril, Epiphanius, and others, make the name Cubricus 
(KovBptxos). 


3 Versuum. 3 

4 This may express with sufficient nearness the original, ‘‘ nec 
Manem sed Manes,” 

5 The Codex Casinensis gives sexvaginta regularly _The Codex 
Reg. Alex. Vat. reads septuaginta, seventy. 

© Transfert eos, It may be also “ translated them.” 





233 


prove himself capable of restoring the prince.7 
On the report of this, a// at haphazard, like the 
men who are accustomed to play the game of 
cubes, which is another name for the dice,’ Manes 
presented himself before the king, declaring that 
he would cure the boy. And when the king 
heard that, he received him courteously, and 
welcomed him heartily. But not utterly to weary 
my hearers with the recital of the many things 
which he did, let me simply say that the boy 
died, or rather was bereft of life, in his hands. 
Then the king ordered Manes to be thrust into 
prison, and to be loaded with chains of iron 
weighing halfa hundredweight.9 Moreover, those 
two disciples of his who had been sent to incul- 
cate his doctrine among the different cities were 
also sought for with a view to punishment. But 
they took to flight, without ever ceasing,’° how- 
ever, to introduce into the various localities 
which they visited that teaching of theirs which 
is so alien to the faith, and which has been in- 
spired only by Antichrist. 

54. But after these events they returned to 
their master, and reported what had befallen 
them ; and at the same time they got an account 
of the numerous ills which had overtaken him. 
When, therefore, they got access to him, as I 
was saying,'' they called his attention to all the 
sufferings they had had to endure in each several 
region ; and as for the rest, they urged it upon 
him that regard ought now to be had to the 
question of safety ;'? for they had been in great 
terror lest any of the miseries which were in- 
flicted on him should fall to their own lot. But 
he counselled them to fear nothing, and rose to 
harangue them. And then, while he lay in 
prison, he ordered them to procure copies of the 
books of the law of the Christians ; for these dis- 
ciples who had been despatched by him through 
the different communities were held in execra- 
tion by all men, and most of all by those with 
whom the name of Christians was an object of 
honour. Accordingly, on receiving a small sup- 
ply of money, they took their departure for those 
districts in which the books of the Christians 
were published ;"3 and pretending that they were 
Christian messengers,’4 they requested that the 
books might be shown them, with a view to their 


7 The text gives, ‘‘edictum proposuit in vita,” etc. For z# uta 
it is proposed to read zavztans ; and that is confirmed by the Codex 
Reg. Alex. Vat. 

We adopt the reading, ‘‘ qui cubum, quod nomen est tali, ludere 
solent.” The text gives, qui cibum quod nomen est tale eludere 
solent.” The Codex Reg. Alex Vat. seems to read, ‘qui cubum 
quod nomen est alez ludere solent.” 

9 Ferri talento. 

10 The text gives, ‘‘quique fugientes licet nunquam cessarunt,” etc, 


Codex Reg. Alex. Vat. has, “‘licet nunquam cessarent ”’ etc. : 
1I Reading ‘“‘dicebam.” But the Codex Casinensis gives “ dice- 
bant,” and the Codex Reg. Alex. Vat. has ‘‘decebat””— as became 


them. 
12 Reading “ converti ad salutem,” for ‘‘ conventi,” etc., as it is 
given in the Codex Casinensis. 
13 Conscribebantur. [Note this concerning the Christian books. } 
14 Nuntios. But.Codex Reg. Alex. Vat. gives “ uuvitios,” novices, 


232 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 





acquiring copies. And, not to make a lengthened 
narrative of this, they thus got possession of all 
the books of our Scriptures, and brought them 
back with them to their master, who was still in 
prison. On receiving these copies, that astute 
personage set himself to seek out all the state- 
ments in our books that seemed to favour his 
notion of a dualism; which, however, was not 
really his notion, but rather that of Scythianus, 
who had promulgated it a long time before him. 
And just as he did in disputing with me, so then 
too, by rejecting some things and altering others 
in our Scriptures, he tried to make out that they 
advanced his own doctrines, only that the name 
of Christ was attached to them there. That 
name, therefore, he pretended on this account 
to assume to himself, in order that the people in 
the various communities, hearing the holy and 
divine name of Christ, might have no temptation 
to execrate and harass' those disciples of his. 
Moreover, when they? came upon the word 
which is given us in our Scriptures touching the 
Paraclete, he took it into his head that he him- 
self might be that Paraclete; for he had not 
read with sufficient care to observe that the Para- 
clete had come already, — namely, at the time 
when the apostles were still upon earth. Ac- 
cordingly, when he had made up these impious 
inventions, he sent his disciples also to proclaim 
these fictions and errors with all boldness, and 
to make these false and novel words known in 
every quarter. But when the king of Persia 
learned this fact, he prepared to inflict condign 
punishment upon him. Manes, however, re- 
ceived information of the king’s intention, having 
been warned of it in sleep, and made his escape 
out of prison, and succeeding in taking to flight, 
for he had bribed his keepers with a very large 
sum of money. Afterwards he took up his resi- 
dence in the castle of Arabion; and from that 
place he sent by the hand of Turbo the letter 
which he wrote to our Marcellus, in which letter 
he intimated his intention of visiting him. On 
his arrival there, a contest took place between 
him and me, resembling the disputation which 
you have observed and listened to here; in 
which discussion we sought to show, as far as it 
was in our power, that he was a false prophet. 
I may add, that the keeper of the prison who 
had let him escape was punished, and that the 
king gave orders that the man should be sought 
for and apprehended wherever he might be found. 
And as these things have come under my own 
cognizance, it was needful that I should also 
make the fact known to you, that search is be- 
ing made for this fellow even to the present day 
by the king of Persia. 





1 The text gives ‘‘ fatigarent.”” 
“ fugarent ” — expel. 

2 The text gives ‘‘invenientes.” The Codex Reg. Alex. Vat. 
more correctly has ‘‘ inveniens ”— when he came upon, 


But Codex Reg. Alex. Vat. gives 


‘ 





55- On hearing this, the multitude wished to 
seize Manes and hand him over to the power of 
those foreigners who were their neighbours, and 
who dwelt beyond the river Stranga,3 especially 
as also some time before this certain parties had 
come to seek him out; who, however, had to 
take their leave again without finding any trace 
of him, for at that time he was in flight. How- 
ever, when Archelaus made this declaration, 
Manes at once took to flight, and succeeded in 
making his escape good before any one followed 
in pursuit of him. For the people were detained 
by the narrative which was given by Archelaus, 
whom they heard with great pleasure ;+ never- 
theless some of them did follow in close pursuit 
after him. But he made again for the roads by 
which he had come, and crossed the river, and 
effected his return to the castle of Arabion.5 
There, however, he was afterwards apprehended 
and brought before the king, who, being inflamed 
with the strongest indignation against him, and 
fired with the desire of avenging two deaths upon 
him, — namely, the death of his own son, and 
the death of the keeper of the prison, — gave 
orders that he should be flayed and hung before 
the gate of the city, and that his skin should 
be dipped in certain medicaments and inflated ; 
his flesh, too, he commanded to be given as a 
prey to the birds.© When these things came 
under the knowledge of Archelaus at a later 
period, he added ax account of them to the for- 
mer discussion, so that all the facts might be 
made known to all, even as I, who have writ- 
ten7 the narrrative of® these matters, have ex- 
plained the circumstances in what precedes. And 
all the Christians, therefore, having assembled, 
resolved that the decision should be given against 
him, transmitting that as a sort of epilogue to 
his death which would be in proper consonance 
with the other circumstances of his life. Be- 
sides that, Archelaus added words to the follow- 
ing effect: — My brethren, let none of you be 
incredulous in regard to the statements made by 
me: I refer to the assertion that Manes was not 
himself the first author of this impious dogma, 
but that it was only made public by him in cer- 
tain regions of the earth. For assuredly that 
man is not at once to be reckoned the author 
of anything who has simply been the bearer of 
it to some quarter or other, but only he has a 
right to that credit who has been the discoverer 
of it. For as the helmsman who receives the 





3 But Codex Reg. Alex. Vat. reads * Stracum fluvium.” 

4 The text gives, ‘‘evadere potuit dum nemo eum insequeretur. 
Sed populus, cum Archelai quem libenter audiebant relatione tenere- 
tur,” etc. The Codex Reg. Alex. Vat. reads, ‘‘evadere potuit dum 
ne eum insequeretur is populus, et Archelai quem libenter audiebant 
relatione tenerentur.” Routh suggests, ‘‘dum eum nemo insequere- 
tur, sed populus Archelai,” etc. 

S The same Codex Vat. reads Adrabion here. 

6 The Codex Reg. Alex. Vat. ends with these words. 

7 [See p. 177, supra, A fair discussion as to authenticity. | 

8 (uscripst, Y 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 





ship which another has built, may convey it to 
any countries he pleases, and yet he remains one 
who has had nothing to do with the construction 
of the vessel, so also is this man’s position to be 
understood. For he did not impart its origin to 
this matter really from the beginning; but he 
was only the means of transmitting to men what 
had been discovered by another, as we know on 
the evidence of trustworthy testimonies, on the 
ground of which it has been our purpose to 
prove to you that the invention of this wicked- 
ness did not come from Manes,’ but that it ori- 
ginated with another, and that other indeed a 
foreigner, who appeared a long time before him. 
And further, that the dogma remained unpub- 
lished for a time, until at length the doctrines 
which had thus been lying in obscurity for a cer- 
tain period were brought forward publicly by him 
as if they were his own, the title of the writer 
having been deleted, as I have shown above. 
Among the Persians there was also a certain 
promulgator of similar tenets, one Basilides,? of 
more ancient date, who lived no long time after 
the period of our apostles. This man was of a 
shrewd disposition himself, and as he observed 
that at that time all other subjects were pre- 
occupied, he determined to affirm that same 
dualism which was maintained also by Scythianus. 
And as, in fine, he had nothing to advance which 
was properly his own, he brought the sayings of 
others before his adversaries.3 And all his books 
contain some matters at once difficult and ex- 
tremely harsh. The thirteenth book of his Zrac- 
tates, however, is still extant, which begins in the 
following manner: “In writing the thirteenth 


t Codex Casinensis reads, “‘ non ex Manen originem mali hujus 
Manes esse.” We adopt the conjecture, ‘non ex Mane originem. 
mali hujus manasse.” 

2 The following note on this Basilides may be given from Migne: 
— Although Eusebius (Ast. Eccles., iv. 7) tels us that the Basilides 
who taught heresy shortly after the times of the apostles was an Alex- 
andrian, and opened schools of error in Egypt, the Basilides men- 
tioned here by Archelaus may still be one and the same person with 
that Alexandrian, notwithstanding that it is said that he taught his 
heresy among the Persians. For it may very well be the case that 
Basélides left Alexandria, and made an attempt to infect the Persians 
also with his heretical dogmas. At the same time, there is no mention 
among ancient authorities, so far as I know, of a Persian Basilides. 
The Alexandrian Basilides also wrote twenty-four books on the Gos- 
pel, as the same Eusebius testifies; and these do not appear to be 
different from those books of 7vactates which Archelaus cites, and 
from the E.regetics, from the twenty-third book of which certain pas- 
sages are given by Clement of Alexandria in the fourth book of his 
Stromatets. Itis not clear, however, whether that Gospel on which 
Basilides wrote was the Gospel of the Apostles, or another which he 
made up for himself, and of which mention is made in Origen’s first 
Homily on Luke, in Jerome’s prologue to his Commentary on Mat- 
thew, and in Ambrose’s prologue to the Gospel of Luke,” We may 
add that Gieseler (Studien und Kritiken, i. 1830, p. 397) denies 
that the person meant here is Basilides the Gnostic, specially on ac- 
count of the peculiar designation, Basilides guidam antiqutor. 
But his objections are combated by Baur_and Neander. See the 
Church Hestory of the latter, ii. p. 50, ed. Bohn, 

3 The text is, “‘aliis dictis proposuit adversariis.” Perhaps we 
may read, “‘aliorum dicta,” etc. 





233 





book of our Zractazes, the wholesome word fur- 


nished us with the necessary and fruitful word.”’ 4 
Then he illustrates how it, the antagonism be- 
tween good and evil, is produced under the figures 
of a rich principle and a poor principle, of which 
the latter is by nature without root and without 
place, and only supervenes upon things.5 This 
is the only topic® which the book contains. 
Does it not then contain a strange 7 word ; ® and, 
as certain parties have been thus minded, will 
ye not also all be offended with the book itself, 
which has such a beginning as this? But Basil- 
ides, returning to the subject after an introduc- 
tion of some five hundred lines,? more or less, 
proceeds thus: “Give up this vain and curious 
variation,’® and let us rather find out what in- 
quiries the foreigners'' have instituted on the 
subject of good and evil, and what opinions they 
have been led to adopt on all these subjects. 


|For certain among them have maintained that 


there are for all things two beginnings,’ to which 
they have referred good and evil, holding that 
these beginnings are without beginning and un- 
generate ; that is to say, that in the origins of 
things there were light and darkness, which ex- 
isted of themselves, and which were not merely 
declared to exist.'3 While these subsisted by 
themselves, they led each its own proper mode 
of life, such as it was its will to lead, and such as 
was competent to it ; for in the case of all things, 
what is proper to any one is also in amity with 
the same, and nothing seems evil to itself. But 
after they came to know each other, and after: 
the darkness began to contemplate the light, 
then, as if fired with a passion for something 
superior to itself, the darkness pressed on to 
have intercourse with the light.” 





4 The text is, ‘“‘ necessarium sermonem uberemque salutaris sermo 
prestavit,” May it be= the word of salvation furnished the word 
which was requisite, etc.? 

5 The text is, ‘‘ per parvulam divitis et pauperis naturam sine ra- 
dice et sine loco rebus supervenientem unde pullulaverit indicat.” 
The reading seems defective. But the general intention of this very 
obscure and fragmentary sentence appears to be as given above. So 
Neander understands it as conveying a figurative description of the 
two principles of light and darkness, expressed in the Zoroastrian 
doctrine immediately cited, — the rich being the good principle, and 
the poor the evil. He also supposes the phrase “ without root and 
without place” to indicate the “‘absoluteness of the principle, that 
springs up all at once, and mixes itself up with the development of 
existence.” —See Church Hrstory, ii. 51 (Bohn). Routh confesses 
his inability to understand what can be meant by the term pJarvulam, 
and suggests Jarabolam. 

6 Caput. 

7 Alium. 

8 Routh adopts the interrogative form here, so as to make the con- 
nection stand thus: But is this the only topic which the book con- 
tains? Does it not also contain another discussion, etc.? 

9 Verstbus, 

10 Vartetate. 

II By the daréarz here are evidently meant the Persians. 

12 Principles. 

13 The text is, ‘‘non quz esse dicebantur.” Routh proposes, 
‘non que facte, or genitz, esse dicebantur,” = which were not de+ 
clared to have been made, 


' 


234. 


THE DISPUTATION WITH MANES. 





A FRAGMENT OF THE SAME DISPUTATION.’ 


The fragment ts introduced by Cyril in the. 


following terms : — He, i.e., Manes, fled from 
prison and came into Mesopotamia ; but there 
he was met by that buckler of righteousness,” 
Bishop Archelaus. And in order to bring him 
to the test in the presence of philosophical 
judges, this person convened an assembly of 
Grecian auditors, so as to preclude the possi- 
bility of its being alleged that the judges were 
partial, as might have been the case had they 
been Christians. Zhen the matter proceeded as 
we shall now indicate : — 

1. Archelaus said to Manes: Give us a state- 
ment now of the doctrines you promulgate. — 
Thereupon the man, whose mouth was like an 
open .sepulchre,3 began at once with a word 
of blasphemy against the Maker of all things, 
saying: The God of the Old Testament is the 
inventor of evil, who speaks thus of Himself: 
“Tam a consuming fire.”4— But the sagacious 
Archelaus completely undid this blasphemy. 
For he said: If the God of the Old Testament, 
according to your allegation, calls Himself a fire, 
whose son is He who says, “ I am come to send 
fire upon the earth?” 5 If you find fault with 
one who says, “The Lord killeth and maketh 
alive,” ° why do you honour Peter, who raised 
Tabitha to life,” but also put Sapphira to death ?§ 
And if, again, you find fault with the one be- 
cause He has prepared a fire,? why do you not 
find fault with the other, who says, ‘ Depart from 
me into everlasting fire?’”’'° If you find fault 
with Him who says, “I, God, make peace, and 
create evil,’ ‘' explain to us how Jesus says, “I 
came not to send peace, but a sword.” '?_ Since 
both persons speak in the same terms, one or 
other of these two things must follow: namely, 
either they are both good '3 because they use the 
same language ; or, if Jesus passes without cen- 
sure though He speaks in such terms, you must 
tell us why you reprehend Him who employs a 
similar mode of address in the Old Testament. 

_ 2. Then Manes made the following reply to 
him: And what manner of God now is it that 


1 From Cyril of Jerusalem, Catecheses, vi. § 27-29. [And see 
the Introductory Notice, p. 175.] 
2 Reading omAov dixacocvyns. Others read omAw = Archelaus 


met him with the buckler of righteousness. 


Ps. v. 9. 
4 Deut. iv. 24. 
S Luke xii. 49. 


6 ‘x Sam. ii. 6. 

7 Acts ix. 40. 

8 Acts v. 10. 

9 Deut. xxxii. 22. 

To Matt. xxv. 41. 

II Tsa. xlv. 7. 

12 Matt. x. 34. 
earth, 

%3 The text gives xaAoi. 


Various of the mss. add, émi rhv yhv, upon the 


Routh seems to prefer caxoé, evil. 








blinds one? For it is Paul who uses these 
words: “In whom the God of this world hath 
blinded the minds of them which believe not, 
lest the light of the Gospel should shine in 
them.” ‘4 But Archelaus broke in and refuted 
this very well, saying: Read, however, a word 
or two of what precedes that sentence, namely, 
“ But if our Gospel be hid, it is hid in them that 
are lost.” You see that it is hid in them that 
are lost. “For it is not meet to give the holy © 
things to dogs.” "5 And furthermore, is it only 
the God of the Old Testament that has blinded 
the minds of them who believe not? Nay, has 
not Jesus Himself also said: “Therefore speak 
I to them in parables: that seeing, they may not. 
see?’ 1° Ts it then because He hated them that 
He desired them not to see? Oris it sof on 
account of their unworthiness, since they closed 
their own eyes? For wherever wickedness is a 
matter self-chosen, there too there is the absence 
of grace. “For unto him that hath shall be 
given, but from him that hath not shall be taken 
away even that which he seemeth to have.” *7 

3. But even although ** we should be under 
the necessity of accepting the exegesis advo- 
cated by some,—for the subject is not alto- 
gether unworthy of notice, — and of saying thus, 
that He hath actually blinded the minds '9 of 
them that believe not, we should still have to 
affirm that He hath blinded them for good, in 
order that they may recover their sight to behold 
things that are holy. For it is not said that He 
hath blinded: their soul,?° but only that He hath 
blinded the minds of them that believe not. 
And that mode of expression means something 
like this: Blind the whorish mind of the whore- 
monger, and the man is saved ; blind the rapa- 
cious and thievish mind of the thief, and the 
man is saved. But do you decline to under- 
stand the sentence thus? ‘Well, there is still 
another interpretation. For the sun blinds those 
who have bad sight ; and those who have watery 
eyes are also blinded when they are smitten by 
the light: not, however, because it is of the na- 
ture of the sun to blind, but because the eye’s 
own constitution 7‘ is not one of correct vision. 
And in like manner, those whose hearts aré 
afflicted with the ailment of unbelief are not 
capable of looking upon the rays of the glory} 





14 2 Cor, iv. 4. 
1S Matt. vii. 6. 
16 Matt. xiii. 13. 
17 Matt. xxv. 29. 
13 For ei 6€ de! Kat ws, etc., various codices read ei 5¢ dixaiws, etc 
19 vorjyara, thoughts. 

29 Wuxyv. 

2l uxdgracts. 


The text is, tva BAémovres phy BAerwce, 


_ELUCIDATIONS. 


235 





of the Godhead. And again, it is not said, “ He 
hath blinded their minds lest they should hear 
the Gospel,” but rather “lest the light of the 
glory of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ 
should shine unto them.” For to hear the Gos- 
pel is a thing committed" to all; but the glory 
of the Gospel of Christ is imparted only to the 
sincere and genuine. For this reason the Lord 
‘spake in parables to those who were incapable 
of hearing, but to His disciples He explained 
these parables in private. For the illumination 


of the glory is for those who have been enlight- 


1 épierat, j 





ened, while the blinding is for them who believe 
not. These mysteries, which the Church now 
declares to you who are transferred from the 
lists of the catechumens, it is not her custom to 
declare to the Gentiles. For we do not declare 
the mysteries touching the Father, and the Son, 
and the Holy Spirit to a Gentile ; neither do we 
speak of the mysteries plainly in presence of 
the catechumens; but many a time we express 
ourselves in an occult manner, so that the faith- 
ful who have intelligence may apprehend the 
truths referred to, while those who have not that 
intelligence may receive no hurt. 


m0 Cl bias bons. 


I 
(Spotless virgin, etc., p. 223 and note 7.) 


OH that “ foolish and unlearned questions ”’ had been avoided, as the Scripture' bids! Surely, 
we should be as decent about the conjugal relations of the Blessed Virgin as we are socially in all 
such matters. Pearson, as in the note, says all that should be said on such a subject. Photius, 
in his thirtieth epistle, expounds the text Matt. i. 25. But it did not rest there. Let it rest here. 


II. 
(Get thee behind me, Satan, p. 224 and note 13.) 


I adopt the views of those who reverently suppose that when it was said, “Let us make man,” 
etc., Lucifer conceived rebellion, and said, “This be far from Thee, Lord;” fearing the creature 
made in God’s own image might outshine himself. Hence our Lord applies the epithet “Satan” 
to Peter when he ventures to use similar language. Possibly there lurks a reference to this in 
such language as Job iv. 18. I have previously referred to the Messias and Anti-Messias of 
the Rev. Charles Ingham Black (London, 1854), in which this view is singularly well argued. It 
is well to halt, however, with a confession, that, while it seems intimated in Holy Scripture, 
it cannot be proved as revealed. Hence let us reverently say what is said by the Psalmist in 
Ps, cxxxi. 1, and confess what is written in Deut. xxix. 29. I go so far, only because the words 
on which this note is a comment seem to authorize inquiry as to the force of “Satan” just there. 
I state what seems the reference, but go no farther. Compare Dan. iv. 35. 


‘ 


III. 


(I shrink from repeating, p. 227 and note Io.) 


The delicacy of feeling here expressed is most honourable to the sentiment of the Church at 
this period. Not till St. Bernard’s day was it hinted,3 even in the West, that the Blessed Virgin 
was conceived without taint of original sin ; and he rebukes the innovators with a holy indignation.’ 
It shocks him that questions were thus raised as to her parents, their amplexus maritales, etc. 

t 2 Tim. ii. 23; Tit. ili. 9. 

2 St. Bernard, Off., tom. i. Compare note 10, p. 227, supra. 


editor of this series, ed. Baltimore, 1855. 
3 Save only by Mohammed. 


See the Abbé Laborde on the /mfosstbrlity, etc., translated by the 


236 ELUCIDATIONS,. 





TV) 
( In presence se the catechumens, p. 235-) 


Heres is eeniincny to the catechumen system of the primitive Church which priests to me not 
inconsistent with the period to which it is assigned. No doubt this gradual instruction of the 
disciple is based upon the example of our Lord Himself, who spoke in parables,’ and taught “as 
they were able to hear it.” But the discipiina arcani was designed chiefly to protect the Church 
from the profaneness of the heathen, and it fell into desuetude after the Council of Nice. 


\ 





GENERAL NOTE. 


As I have not infrequently treated the rise of the great Alexandrian school as an outcrop from 
the learinng and piety of Apollos, I take this space to record my reasons: 1. Apart from the 
question in formal shape, I hold that the character and influence of this brilliant Alexandrian 
must have operated upon Alexandrian converts. 2. But the frequent employment by the Alex- 
andrians of the expressions (Acts xviii. 24) used concerning him by St. Luke, almost textually, 
confirms my suspicion that they had his high example always before them. 3. The catechetical 
school was certainly established in Alexandria from apostolic times. By whom more probably 
than by Apollos? 4. St. Mark’s connection with Alexandria rests on no scriptural evidence, yet 
it is credited. 5. That of Apollos is narrated in Scripture, and I can conceive of nothing so 
probable as that, remembering his own instruction by Aquila and Priscilla (Acts xviii. 26), he 
should have founded catechetical schools for others. 6. All this is conjectural, indeed, but 
it agrees with known facts. 7. The silence of Clement and the rest is an objection quite as fatal 
to the claims of St. Mark. 8. The unanimity of the Alexandrians, from Panteenus downward, in 
assigning to St. Paul the authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews, while it was so much debated 
elsewhere, suggests that they had early evidence on this point. 9. Clement’s testimony about 
St. Luke convinces me that Apollos had no claim to it, but had testified to the Alexandrians that 
the Apostle was the author, and St. Luke his izsfired amanuensis, by whom the words were not 
servilely taken down, but reported in idioms of his own: whether out of St. Paul’s “ Hebrew” 
or not, is another question. 10. Apollos disappears from history about a.D. 64, on his way home- 
ward, bearing the Epistle to Titus, and (who can doubt?) a copy of that to the Hebrews, written 
the previous year. All these facts agree with my conjectures that Apollos closed his labours in 
his native city. 





3 Matt. xiii. 34; Mark iv. 33. 
2 See vol. ii. p. 342, Elucidation II., this series. Note also, in the same volume, what is said, pp. 166-167.: "'- 
3 Lewin, St, Paxi, vol. ii. p. 349. 





INTRODUCTORY NOTICE 


TO 


ALEXANDER, BISHOP OF LYCOPOLIS.' 


[a.D. 301.] To the following account, translated from Galland, I prefix only the general date 
of Alexander’s episcopate. He was succeeded in the bishopric of Lycopolis by the turbulent 
Meletius, of whose schism we need not say anything here. But his early relations with the heresy 
of Manes, and his subsequent orthodoxy (in all which he was a foreshadowing of Augustine), 
render his treatise on the Manichzan opinions especially valuable. 


ComBEFIs conjectured that Alexander was called AvxozoXérns, as having been born at Lycus, 
a city of the Thebaid, and so by race an Egyptian, and to his opinion both Cave and Fabricius 
are inclined. But this conjecture is plainly uncertain, if we are to trust Photius, in his Epitome 
De Manicheis, which Montfaucon has edited.2_ For in this work Photius, whilst speaking of the 
authors who wrote against those heretics, makes mention also of Alexander as bishop of the city 
of Lycus, ére ris wéAews Avxwy ’AA€~EavSpos rods apxteparixods vopous éyKeyetocuevos.s So that it 
is no easy matter to state whether our author was called AvxoroXirns, because he was born either 
at Lycopolis in the Thebaid, or at another Lycopolis in Lower Egypt, which Stephanus places 
close to the sea in the Sebennytic nome, or whether he was not rather called AvxoroAirys, as 
having held the bishopric of Lycopolis. The unwonted manner of speaking employed by Photius 
need not delay the attention of any one, when he makes Alexander to have been Archbishop of 
Lycopolis ; for it is established that the Bishop of Alexandria alone was Archbishop and Patriarch 
of the whole Egyptian diocese. Epiphanius‘ certainly says, when speaking of Meletius,5 the 
schismatical Bishop of Lycopolis, édéxe. d@ 6 MeAnjrios trav xara thy Alyurroy mpojkwy, Kal deure- 
pevov 7@ Ilerpw tO trys ‘AXeavSpeias Kara tiv dpyerurxoryv. And to the same purpose he says 
elsewhere, MeArrios, 6 rs Aiyvrrov ard OnBaidos Soxdv elvat kat airds dpyiericxoros. But however 
these matters are understood, it is admitted that Alexander came just before Meletius in the See 
of Lycopolis, and we know that he occupied the episcopal chair of that city in the beginning of 
the fourth century, in which order Le Quien places him among the Lycopolitan prelates, on the 
authority of Photius. 


3 Translated from Gallandi, Vet. Paty. Biblioth. The reverend translator is styled in the Edinburgh edition, ‘‘ Curate of Ilminster, 
Somerset.” 

2 Cf. Combef., Auctar. Noviss., part ii. p. 2; Cav., Dissert. de. Script. Eccl., incert. xtat. p. 2; Fabricius, Bz6/. Gr., tom. v. 
p. 287; Montfaucon, 325/. Cozs?., p. 349, segg. 

3 Photius, Epist. de Mantch., Bibliotheca Cotsliniana, p. 354. 

4 Epiph., Her., Ixviii. n. 1, Ixix. n. 2; Le Quien, Oriens Christianus, tom. ii. p. 597. 

$ Meletius of Lycopolis, a schismatical bishop of the third and fourth centuries. Athanasius tells us that Meletius, who was Bishop 
of Lycopolis in Upper Egypt at the time of the persecution under Diocletian and his successors, yielded to fear and sacrificed to idols; and 
being subsequently deposed, on this and other charges, in a Synod over which Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, presided, determined to separate 
from the Church, and to constitute with his followers a separate community. Epiphanius, on the other hand, relates that both Peter and 
Meletius, being in confinement for the faith, differed concerning the treatment to be used toward those who, after renouncing their Christian 
profession, became penitent, and wished to be restored to the communion of the Church, The Meletians afterwards co-operated with the 
Arians in their hostility to Athanasius. — See Art. Meletius, in Smith's Biograph. Dict.—Tr. 

239 


240 INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 





In the time of Constantine, the Eastern and Western Empire were each divided into seven 
districts, called dioceses,t which comprised about one hundred and eighteen provinces ;? each 
province contained several cities, each of which had a district 3 attached to it. The ecclesiastical 
rulers of the dioceses were called patriarchs, exarchs, or archbishops, of whom there were four- 
teen; the rulers of the provinces were styled metropolitans, i.e., governors of the pyrpdroAts or 
mother city, and those of each city and its districts were called bishops. So that the division 
which we now call a diocese, was in ancient times a union of dioceses, and a parish was a com- 
bination of modern parishes,‘ : 

But however it be, whether Alexander was called AvkoroAirys from his birthplace, or from his 
episcopal See, this is certain and acknowledged, that he of good right claims for himself a place 
among ecclesiastical writers, for he has given us an elaborate treatise against the Manichzan 
tenets; and he is therefore styled by Allatius auctor eruditissimus et ptXocoguxdraros, and his 
work dibedlus aureus, Allatius wrote out and brought to light two passages from it, while as yet 
it was lying hid in the libraries. From the inscription of the work, we learn that Alexander was 
first a pagan ; and afterwards, having given up the religion of the Greeks, became an adherent of 
the Manichzan doctrines, which he says that he learnt from those who were on terms of familiar 
intercourse with the heresiarch, dd rév yvwpimwv rod dvdpds ;5 so that he would seem to be not 
far wrong in his conjecture who would place our author at no very distant date from the times 
of Manes himself. From the errors of this sect he was divinely reclaimed, and, taking refuge in 
the Church, he exposed the scandals attaching to the heresiarch, and solidly refuted his unwhole- 
some dogmas. From having been an adherent of the sect himself, he has given us more informa- 
tion concerning their tenets than it was in the power of others to give, and on that account his 
treatise seems to be held in much estimation.® 








an Scornjcecs. 

2 émapxia. 

3 raporxia, 

4 [More simply, the Church’s system naturally kept to the lines of the civil divisions. A d#ecese was, in fact, a patriarchate; a 
province was presided over by a metropolitan; a partsh was what we call a diocese. Before Constantine’s time these arrangements 
existed for convenience, but were not invested with worldly consequence. Neale adopts this twofold spelling (d¢ecese and didcese) in his 
Alexandra, vol. i. p. xiv. 

5 Cf. Alex., De Manich. plactt., cap. 2. 

6 This treatise of Alexander was first published by Combefis, with a Latin version, in the Auctartum novissimum, Bibl. S. Ss. 
Patrum, Ps, ii. p. 3. It is published also by Gallandi, 252, Patrum, vol. iv. p. 73. 


OF THE MANICHAANS:,' 


CHAP, I.—THE EXCELLENCE OF THE CHRISTIAN 
PHILOSOPHY ; THE ORIGIN OF HERESIES AMONGST 
CHRISTIANS. 


Tue philosophy of the Christians is termed 
simple. But it bestows very great attention to 
the formation of manners, enigmatically insinu- 
ating words of more certain truth respecting 
God; the principal of which, so far as any 
earnest serious purpose in those matters is con- 
cerned, all will have received when they assume 
an efficient cause, very noble and very ancient, 
as the originator of all things that have existence. 
For Christians leaving to ethical students matters 
more toilsome and difficult, as, for instance, what 
is virtue, moral and intellectual; and to those 
who employ their time in forming hypotheses 
respecting morals, and the passions and affec- 
tions, without marking out any element by which 
each virtue is to be attained, and heaping up, as 
it were, at random precepts less subtle — the 
common people, hearing these, even as we learn 
by experience, make great progress in modesty, 
and a character of piety is imprinted on their 
manners, quickening the moral disposition which 
from such usages is formed, and leading them 
by degrees to the desire of what is honourable 
and good.,? 

But this being divided into many questions by 
the number of those who come after, there arise 
many, just as is the case with those who are 
devoted to dialectics,3 some more skilful than 
others, and, so to speak, more sagacious in han- 
dling nice and subtle questions; so that now 
they come forward as parents and originators of 
sects and heresies. And by these the formation 
of morals is hindered and rendered obscure ; 
for those do not attain unto certain verity of 
discourse who wish to become the heads of the 
sects, and the common people is to a greater 
degree excited to strife and contention. And 


there being no rule nor law by which a solution 
may be obtained of the things which are called 
in question, but, as in other matters, this ambi- 
tious rivalry running out into excess, there is 
nothing to which it does not cause damage and 
injury. 


CHAP. Il.— THE AGE OF MANICHAUS, OR MANES 5 
HIS FIRST DISCIPLES; THE TWO PRINCIPLES ; 
MANICHAAN MATTER. 


So in these matters also, whilst in novelty of 
opinion each endeavours to show himself first 
and superior, they brought this philosophy, which 
is simple, almost to a nullity. Such was he whom 
they call Manichzeus,* a Persian by race, my in- 
structor in whose doctrine was one Papus by 
name, and after him Thomas, and some others 
followed them. They say that the man lived 
when Valerian was emperor, and that he served 
under Sapor, the king of the Persians, and having 
offended him in some way, was put to death. 
Some such report of his character and reputation 
has come to me from those who were intimately 
acquainted with him. He laid down two prin- 
ciples, God and Matter. God he called good, 
and matter he affirmed to be evil. But God 
excelled more in good than matter in evil. But 
he calls matter not that which Plato calls it,5 
which becomes everything when it has received 
quality and figure, whence he terms it all-embra- 
cing —the mother and nurse of all things ; nor 
what Aristotle® calls an element, with which 
form and privation have to do, but something 
beside these. For the motion which in individ- 
ual things is incomposite, this he calls matter. 
On the side of God are ranged powers, like 
handmaids, all good ; and likewise, on the side 
of matter are ranged other powers, all evil. 
Moreover, the bright shining, the light, and the 
superior, all these are with God; while the 





1 A treatise on their tenets by Alexander of Lycopolis, who first 
turned from paganism to the Manichzan opinions. 
2 [Note the Jractical character of Christian ethics, which he so 
gusty contrasts with the ethical philosophy of the heathen. ‘This has 
en finely pointed out by the truly illustrious William Wilberforce 
in his Practical View, cap. ii. (Latin note), p. 25, ed. London, 1815.] 
3 éy tots eptotixois. The philosophers of the Megarean school, 
who were devoted to dialectics, were nicknamed oi 'Eprotixot, See 
Diog. Laertius. 


4 Manes, or Manichzus, lived about A.D. 240. He was a Persian 
by birth, and this accounts for the Parseeism which can be detected 
in his teaching. He was probably ordained a priest, but was after- 
wards expelled from the Christian community, and put to death by 
the Persian government. His tenets spread considerably, and were 
in early youth embraced by St. Augustine. [See Coz/fess., iii. 6.] 

5 Plato, Times. 51. 

6 In substance, but not in words, Aristotle, MZe¢., Book A 4 
(1070 b). 

241 


242 





obscure, and the darkness, and the inferior are 
with matter. God, too, has desires, but they 
are all good ; and matter, likewise, which are all 
evil. 


CHAP. III.— THE FANCIES OF MANICHAUS CON- 
CERNING MATTER. 


It came to pass on a time that matter con- 
ceived a desire to attain to the superior region ; 
and when it had arrived there, it admired the 
brightness and the light which was with God. 
And, indeed, it wished to seize on for itself the 
place of pre-eminence, and to remove God from 
His position. God, moreover, deliberated how 
to avenge Himself upon matter, but was desti- 
tute of the evil necessary to do so, for evil does 
not exist in the house and abode of God. He 
sent, therefore, the power which we call the soul 
into matter, to permeate it entirely. For it will 
be the death of matter, when at length hereafter 
this power is separated from it. So, therefore, by 
the providence of God, the soul was commingled 
with matter, an unlike thing with an unlike. Now 
by this commingling the soul has contracted evil, 
and labours under the same infirmity as matter. 
For, just as in a corrupted vessel, the contents 
are oftentimes vitiated in quality, so, also the 
soul that is in matter suffers some such change, 
and is deteriorated from its own nature so as to 
participate in the evil of matter. But God had 
compassion upon the soul, and sent forth an- 
other power, which we call Demiurge' that is, 
the Creator of all things ; and when this power 
had arrived, and taken in hand the creation of 
the world, it separated from matter as much 
power as from the commingling had contracted | 
no vice and stain, and hence the sun and moon 
were first formed ; but that which had contracted 
some slight and moderate stain, this became the 
stars and the expanse of heaven. Of the matter 
from which the sun and the moon was separated, 
part was cast entirely out of the world, and is| 
that fire in which, indeed, there is the power of 
burning, although in itself it is dark and void of 
light, being closely similar to night. But in the 
rest of the elements, both animal and vegetable, 
in those the divine power is unequally mingled. | 
And therefore the world was made, and in it the 
sun and moon who preside over the birth and 

death of things, by separating the divine virtue 
from matter, and transmitting it to God. 


CHAP. I1V.—THE MOON’S INCREASE AND WANE ; 
THE MANICHAAN TRIFLING RESPECTING IT} 
THEIR DREAMS ABOUT MAN AND CHRIST ; THEIR 
FOOLISH SYSTEM OF ABSTINENCE. 


He ordained this, forsooth, to supply to the 
Demiurge,s or Creator, another power which 








¢ Snproupydos. | 


OF THE MANICHAANS. 





might attract to the splendour of the sun; and 
the thing is manifest, as one might say, even to 
a blind person. For the moon in its increase 
receives the virtue which is separated from mat- 
ter, and during the time of its augmentation 
comes forth full of it. But when it is full, in its 
wanings, it remits it to the sun, and the sun goes 
back to God. And when it has done this, it 
waits again to receive from another full moon a 
migration of the soul to itself, and receiving this 
in the same way, it suffers it to pass on to God. 
And this is its work continually, and in every 
age. And in the sun some such image is seen, 
as is the form of man. And matter ambitiously 
strove to make man from itself by mingling to- 
gether all its virtue, so that it might have some 
portion of soul. But his form contributed much 
to man’s obtaining a greater share, and one be- 
yond all other animals, in the divine virtue. For 
he is the image of the divine virtue, but Christ is 
the intelligence. Who, when He had at length 
come from the superior region, dismissed a very 
great part of this virtue to God. And at length 
being crucified, in this way He furnished knowl- 
edge, and fitted the divine virtue to be crucitied 

in matter. Because, therefore, it is the Divine 

will and decree that matter should perish, they 
abstain from those things which have life, and 
feed upon vegetables, and everything which is 

void of sense. They abstain also from marriage 

and the rites of Venus, and the procreation of 

children, that virtue may not strike its root 

deeper in matter by the succession of race ; nor 

do they go abroad, seeking to purify themselves 

from the stain which virtue has contracted from 

its admixture with matter. 


CHAP. V. — THE WORSHIP OF THE SUN AND MOON 
UNDER GOD; SUPPORT SOUGHT FOR THE MAN- 
ICHANS IN THE GRECIAN FABLES; THE AU- 
THORITY OF THE SCRIPTURES AND FAITH 
DESPISED BY THE MANICH/EANS, 


These things are the principal of what they 
say and think. And they honour very especially 
the sun and moon, not as gods, but as the way 
by which it is possible to attain unto God. But 
when the divine virtue has been entirely sepa- 
rated off, they say that the exterior fire will fall, 
and burn up both itself and all else that is left 
of matter. Those of them who are better edu- 
cated, and not unacquainted with Greek liter- 
ature, instruct us from their own resources. 
From the ceremonies and mysteries, for in- 
stance: by Bacchus, who was cut out from the 
womb, is signified that the divine virtue is di- 
vided into matter by the Titans, as they say ; 


|from the poet’s fable of the battle with the 


Giants, is indicated that not even they were 
ignorant of the rebellion of matter against God. 
I indeed will not deny, that these thing: are not 





OF THE MANICHAANS. 


243 





i Wc 3 


sufficient to lead away the minds of those who 
receive words without examining them, since the 
deception caused by discourse of this sort has 
drawn over to itself some of those who have pur- 
sued the study of philosophy with me; but in 
what manner. I should approach the thing to 
examine into it, I am at. a loss indeed. For 
their hypotheses do not proceed by any legiti- 
mate method, so that. one might institute an 
examination in accordance with these; neither 
- are there any principles of demonstrations, so 
that. we may see what follows on these; but 
theirs is. the rare discovery of those who are 
simply said to philosophize. These men, taking 
to themselves the Old and New Scriptures, though 
they lay it down that these are divinely inspired, 
draw their own opinions from thence ; and then 
- only think they are refuted, when it happens 
that anything not in accordance with these is 
said or done by them.. And what to those who 
- philosophize after the manner of the Greeks, as 
respects principles of demonstration, are inter- 
mediate propositions; this, with them, is the 
voice of the prophets. But here, all these things 
being eliminated, and since those matters, which 
I before mentioned, are put forward without any 
..demonstration, and since it is necessary to give 
. an answer in a rational way, and not to put for- 
.ward other things more plausible, and which 
might prove more enticing, my attempt is rather 
troublesome, and on this account the more ardu- 
ous, because it is necessary to bring forward 
_arguments of a varied nature. For the more 
- accurate arguments will escape the observation 
of those who have been convinced beforehand 
by these men without proof, if, when it comes | 
to persuasion, they fall into the same hands. 
For they imagine that they proceed from like 
sources. There is, therefore, need of much and | 
great diligence, and truly of God, to be the guide | 
« of our argument. 


CHAP. VI.—THE TWO PRINCIPLES OF THE MANI- 
CHAEANS ; THEMSELVES CONTROVERTED ; THE 
PYTHAGOREAN OPINION RESPECTING FIRST’ PRIN- 
CIPLES ; GOOD AND EVIL CONTRARY; THE, VIC- 

- TORY ON THE SIDE OF GOOD, 


They lay down two principles, God and Mat-. 
ter. If he (Manes) separates that which comes 
into being from that which really exists, the sup- 
position is not so faulty in this, that neither does 
matter create itself, nor does it admit two con- 
trary qualities, in being both active and passive ; 
-nor, again, are other such theories proposed con- 
cerning the creative cause as it is not lawful to 
- speak of. _And yet God does not stand in need 
of matter in order to make things, since in His 
mind all things substantially exist, so far as the 
possibility of their coming. into being is.con- 
cerned. But if, as he seems rather to mean, the | 





unordered motion of things really existent under 
Him is matter, first, then, he unconsciously sets 
up another creative cause (and yet an evil one), 
nor does he perceive what follows from this, 
namely, that if it is necessary that God and mat- 
ter should be supposed, some other matter must 
be supposed to God; so that to each of the 
creative causes there should be the subject mat- 
ter. Therefore, instead of two, he will be shown 
to give us four first principles. Wonderful, too, 
is the distinction. For if he thinks this to be 
God, which is good, and wishes to conceive of 
something opposite to Him, why does he not, as 
some of the Pythagoreans, set evil over against 
Him? It is more tolerable, indeed, that two 
principles should be spoken of by them, the 
good and the evil, and that these are continually 
striving, but the good prevails. For if the evil 
were to prevail, all things would perish. Where- 
fore matter, by itself, is neither body, nor is it 
exactly incorporeal, nor simply any particular 
thing ; but it is something indefinite, which, by 
the addition of form, comes to be defined ; as, 
for instance, fire is a pyramid, air an octahedron, 
water an eikosahedron, and earth a cube; how, 
then, is matter the unordered motion of the ele- 
ments? By itself, indeed, it does not subsist, 
for if it is motion, it is in that which is moved ; 
but matter does not seem to be of such a nature, 
but rather the first subject, and unorganized, from 
which other things proceed. Since, therefore, 
matter is unordered motion, was it always con- 
joined with that which is moved, or was it ever 
separate from it? For, if it were ever by itself, 
it would not be in existence; for there is no 
motion without something moved. But if it was 
always in that which is moved, then, again, there 
will be two principles — that which moves, and 
that which is moved. To which of these two, 
then, will it be granted that it subsists as a pri- 
mary cause along with God ? 


CHAP. VII. — MOTION VINDICATED FROM THE CHARGE 
OF IRREGULARITY ; CIRCULAR ; STRAIGHT ; OF GEN- 
ERATION AND CORRUPTION ; OF ALTERATION, AND 
QUALITY AFFECTING SENSE. 


There is added to the discourse an appendix 
quite foreign to it. For you may reasonably 
speak of motion not existing. And what, also, 
is the matter of motion? Is it straight or cir- 
cular? Or does it take place by a process of 
change, or by a process of generation and cor- 
ruption? The circular motion, indeed, is so or- 
derly and composite, that it is ascribed to the 
order of all created things ; nor does this, in the 
Manichean system, appear worthy to be im- 
pugned, in which move the sun and the moon, 
whom alone, of the gods, they say that they 








I 70 ataxTor, 


244 


OF THE MANICHAANS, 





venerate. But as regards that which is straight : 
to this, also, there is a bound when it reaches 
its own place, For that which is earthly ceases 
entirely from motion, as soon as it has touched 
the earth. And every animal and vegetable 
makes an end of increasing when it has reached 
its limit. Therefore the stoppage of these things 
would be more properly the death of matter, 
than that endless death, which is, as it were, 
woven for it by them. But the motion which 
arises by a process of generation and corruption 
it is impossible to think of as in harmony with 
this hypothesis, for, according to them, matter is 
unbegotten. But if they ascribe to it the motion 
of alteration, as they term it, and that by which 
we suffer change by a quality affecting the sense, 
it is worth while to consider how they come to 
say this. For this seems to be the principal 
thing that they assert, since by matter it comes to 
pass, as they say, that manners are changed, and 
that vice arises in the soul. For in altering, it 
will always begin from the beginning ; and, pro- 
ceeding onwards, it will reach the middle, and 
thus will it attain unto the end. But when it 
has reached the end, it will not stand still, at 
least if alteration is its essence. But it will again, 
by the same route, return to the beginning, and 
from thence in like manner to the end; nor will 
it ever cease from doing this. As, for instance, 
if a and y suffer alteration, and the middle is ~, 
a by being changed, will arrive at 8, and from 
thence will go on to y. Again returning from 
the extreme y to £, it will at some time or other 
arrive at a; and this goes on continuously. As 
in the change from black, the middle is dun, and 
the extreme, white. Again, in the contrary di- 
rection, from white to dun, and in like manner 
to black ; and again from white the change be- 
gins, and goes the same round. 


CHAP. VIII.— IS MATTER WICKED? OF GOD AND 
MATTER, 


Is matter, in respect of alteration, an evil 
cause? It is thus proved that it is not more 
evil than good. For iet the beginning of the 
change be from evil. Thus the change is from 
this to good through that which is indifferent. 
But let the alteration be from good. Again the 
beginning goes on through that which is indiffer- 
ent. Whether the motion be to one extreme or 
to the other, the method is the same, and this is 
abundantly set forth. All motion has to do with 
quantity ; but quality is the guide in virtue and 
vice. Now we know that these two are generi- 
cally distinguished. But are God and matter 
alone principles, or does there remain anything 
else which is the mean between these two? For 
if there is nothing, these things remain uninter- 
mingled one with another. And it is well said, 
that if the extremes are intermingled, there is a 





necessity for some thing intermediate to connect 
them. But if something else exists, it is neces- 


‘sary that that something be either body or incor- 


poreal, and thus a third adventitious principle 
makes its appearance. First, therefore, if we 
suppose God and matter to be both entirely in- 
corporeal, so that neither is'in the other, except 
as the science of grammar is in the soul; to un- 
derstand this of God and matter is absurd. But 
if, as in a vacuum, as some say, the vacuum is 
surrounded by this universe ; the other, again, is 
without substance, for the substance of a vacuum 
is nothing. But if as accidents, first, indeed, 
this is impossible ; for the thing that wants sub- 
stance cannot be in any place; for substance is, 
as it were, the vehicle underlying the accident. 
But if both are bodies, it is necessary for both 
to be either heavy or light, or middle; or one 
heavy, and another light, or intermediate. If, 
then, both are heavy, it is plainly necessary that 
these should be the same, both among light 
things and those things which are of the middle 
sort; or if they alternate, the one will be alto- 
gether separate from the other. For that which 
is heavy has one place, and that which is middle 
another, and the light another. To one belongs 
the superior, to the other the inferior, and to the 
third the middle. Now in every spherical figure 
the inferior part is the middle; for from this to 
all the higher parts, even to the topmost super- 

ficies, the distance is every way equal, and, again, 

all heavy bodies are borne from all sides to it. 

Wherefore, also, it occurs to me to laugh when I 

hear that matter moving without order, — for this 

belongs to it by nature, — came to the region of 

God, or to light and brightness, and such-like. 

But if one be body, and the other incorporeal, 

first, indeed, that which is body is alone capable 

of motion And then if they are not inter- 

mingled, each is separate from the other accord- 

ing to its proper nature. But if one be mixed 

up with the other, they will be either mind or 

soul or accident. For so only it happens that 

things incorporeal are mixed up with bodies. 


CHAP. IX.—- THE RIDICULOUS FANCIES OF THE MANI- 
CHAANS ABOUT THE MOTION OF MATTER TOWARDS 
GOD ; GOD THE AUTHOR OF THE REBELLION’ OF 
MATTER IN THE MANICHEAN SENSE ; THE LONG- 
ING OF MATTER FOR LIGHT AND BRIGHTNESS 
GOOD ; DIVINE GOOD NONE THE LESS FOR BEING 
COMMUNICATED. 


But in what manner, and from what cause, was 
matter brought to the region of God? for to it 
by nature belong the lower place and darkness, 
as they say; and the upper region and light are 
contrary to its nature. Wherefore there is then 
attributed to ita supernatural motion ; and some- 
thing of the same sort happens to it, as if a man 
were to throw a stone or a lump of earth up- 


OF THE MANICHEANS. 


- 


wards ; in this way, the thing being raised a 
little by the force of the person throwing, when 
it has reached the upper regions, falls back again 
into the same place. Who, then, hath raised 
matter to the upper region? Of itself, indeed, 
and from itself, it would not be moved by that 
motion which belongs to it. It is necessary, 
then, that some force should be applied to it for 
it to be borne aloft, as with the stone and the 
lump of earth. But they leave nothing else to 
it but God. It is manifest, therefore, what fol- 
lows from their argument. That God, according 
to them, by force and necessity, raised matter 
aloft to Himself. But if matter be evil, its 
desires are altogether evil. Now the desire of 
evil is evil, but the desire of good is altogether 
good. Since, then, matter has desired brightness 
and light, its desire is not a bad one; just as it 
is not bad for a man living in vice, afterwards to 
come to desire virtue. On the contrary, he is 
not guiltless who, being good, comes to desire 
what is evil. As if any one should say that God 
desires the evils which are attaching to matter. 
For the good things of God are not to be so 
esteemed as great wealth and large estates, and 
a large quantity of gold, a lesser portion of 
which remain with the owner, if one effect a 
transfer of them to another. But if an image 
of these things must be formed in the mind, I 
think one would adduce as examples wisdom and 
the sciences. As, therefore, neither wisdom suf- 
fers diminution nor science, and he who is en- 
dowed with these experiences no loss if another 
be made partaker of them ; so, in the same way, 
it is contrary to reason to think that God grudges 
matter the desire of what is good; if, indeed, 
with them we allow that it desires it. 


CHAP, X.—- THE MYTHOLOGY RESPECTING THE 
GODS ; THE DOGMAS OF THE MANICHAEANS RE- 
SEMBLE THIS: THE HOMERIC ALLEGORY OF THE 
BATTLE OF THE GODS; ENVY AND EMULATION 
EXISTING IN GOD ACCORDING TO THE MANI- 
CHAEAN OPINION; THESE VICES ARE TO BE 
FOUND IN NO GOOD MAN, AND ARE TO BE 
ACCOUNTED DISGRACEFUL. 


Moreover, they far surpass the mythologists in 
fables, those, namely, who either make Coelus 
suffer mutilation, or idly tell of the plots laid for 
Saturn by his son, in order that that son might 
attain the sovereignty ; or those again who make 
Saturn devour his sons, and to have been cheated 
of his purpose by the image of a stone that was 
picsented to him. For how are these things 
which they put forward dissimilar to those? 
When they speak openly of the war between 
God and matter, and say not these things either 
in a mythological sense, as Homer in the ad; 


2 Hom., 77., xx. 23-54. 





245 





when he makes Jupiter to rejoice in the. strife 
and war of the gods with each other, thus ob- 
scurely signifying that the world is formed of 
unequal elements, fitted one into another, and 
either conquering or submitting to a conqueror. 
And this has been advanced by me, because I 
know that people of this sort, when they are at 
a loss for demonstration, bring together from all 
sides passages from poems, and seek from them 
a support for their own opinions. Which would 
not be the case with them if they had only read 
what they fell in with with some reflection. But 
when all evil is banished from the company of 
the gods, surely emulation and envy ought es- 
pecially to have been got rid of. Yet these men 
leave these things with God, when they say that 
God formed designs against matter, because it 
felt a desire for good. But with which of those 
things which God possessed could He have 
wished to take vengeance on matter? In truth, 
I think it to be more accurate doctrine to say 
that God is of a simple nature, than what they 
advance. Nor, indeed, as in the other things, is 
the enunciation of this fancy easy. For neither 
is it possible to demonstrate it simply and with 
words merely, but with much instruction and 
labour. But we all know this, that anger and 
rage, and the desire of revenge upon matter, are 
passions in him who is so agitated. And of such 
a sort, indeed, as it could never happen to a 
good man to be harassed by them, much less 
then can it be that they are connected with the 
Absolute Good. 


CHAP. XI.—THE TRANSMITTED VIRTUE: OF THE 
MANICHAEANS ; THE VIRTUES OF MATTER MIXED 
WITH EQUAL OR LESS AMOUNT OF EVIL. 5 


To other things, therefore, our discourse has 
come round about again. For, because they 
say that God sent virtue into matter, it is worth 
our while to consider whether this virtue, so far 
as it pertains to good, in respect of God is less, 
or whether it is on equal terms with Him. For 
if it is less, what is the cause? For the things 
which are with God admit of no fellowship with 
matter. But good alone is the characteristic of 
God, and evil alone of matter. But if it is on 
equal terms with Him, what is the reason that 
He, as a king, issues His commands, and it in- 
voluntarily undertakes this labour? Moreover, 
with regard to matter, it shall be inquired 
whether, with respect to evil, the virtues are alike 
or less. For if they are less, they are altogether 
of less evil. By fellowship therefore with the 
good it is that they become so. For there being 
two evils, the less has plainly by its fellowship 
with the good attained to be what it is, But 
they leave nothing good around matter. Again, 
therefore, another question arises. For if some 
other virtue, in respect of evil, excels the matter 


246 


OF THE MANICHAANS. 





which is prevailing, it becomes itself the presid- 
ing principle. For that which is more evil will 
hold the sway in its own dominion. 


CHAP, XII.—THE DESTRUCTION OF EVIL BY THE 
IMMISSION OF VIRTUE REJECTED ; BECAUSE FROM 
IT ARISES NO DIMINUTION OF EVIL; ZENO’S 
OPINION DISCARDED, THAT THE WORLD WILL BE 
BURNT UP BY FIRE FROM THE SUN. 


But that God sent virtue into matter is asserted 
without any proof, and it altogether wants prob- 
ability. Yet it is right that this should have its 
own explanation. The reason of this they assert, 
indeed, to be that there might be no more evil, 
but that all things should become good. It was 
necessary for virtue to be intermingled with evil, 
after the manner of the athletes, who, clasped 
in a firm embrace, overcome their adversaries, in 
order that, by conquering evil, it might make it 
to cease to exist. But I think it far more digni- 
fied and worthy of the excellence of God, at 
the first conception of things existent, to have 
abolished matter. But I think they could not 
allow this, because that something evil is found 
existing, which they call matter. But it is not 
any the more possible that things should cease 
to’ be such as they are, in order that one should 
admit that some things are changed into that 
which is worse. And it is necessary that there 
should be some percepticn of this, because these 
present ‘things have in some manner or other 
suffered diminution, in order that we might have 
better hopes for the future. For well has it been 
answered to the opinion of Zeno of Citium, who 
thus argued that the world would be destroyed 
by fire: “‘ Everything which has anything to burn 
will not cease from burning until it has consumed 
the whole ; and the sun is a fire, and will it not 
burn what it has?’? Whence he made out, as 
he imagined, that the universe would be de- 
stroyed by fire. But to him a facetious fellow is 
reported to have said, “ But I indeed yesterday, 
and the year before, and a long time ago, have 
seen, and now in like manner do I see, that no 
injury has been experienced by the sun ; and it 
is reasonable that this should happen in time 
and by degrees, so that we may believe that at 
some time or other the whole will be burnt up. 
And to the doctrine of Manichzeus, although it 
rests upon no proof, I think that the same answer 
is apposite, namely, that there has been no dim- 
inution in the present condition of things, but 
what was before in the time of the first man, 
when brother killed brother, even now continues 

to be ; the same wars, and more diverse desires. 
Now it would be reasonable that these things, if 
they did not altogether cease, should at least be 
diminished, if we are to imagine that they are 
at some time to cease. But while the same 


next in order examine. 





things come from them, what is our expectation - 
of them for the future? He 


CHAP. XIII. EVIL BY NO MEANS FOUND IN THE 
STARS AND’ CONSTELLATIONS ; ALL THE EVILS 
OF LIFE VAIN IN THE MANICHZAN OPINION, 
WHICH BRING ON THE EXTINCTION OF LIFE, 
THEIR -FANCY HAVING BEEN ABOVE EXPLAINED 
CONCERNING THE TRANSPORTATION OF SOULS 
FROM THE MOON TO THE SUN. 


But what things does he call evil? As for 
the sun and moon, indeed, there is nothing lack- 
ing; but with respect to the heavens and the 
stars, whether he says that there is some such 
thing, and what it is, it is right that we should 
But irregularity is ac- 
cording to them evil, and unordered motion, but 
these things are always the same, and in the same 
manner ; nor will any one have to biame any of 
the planets for venturing to delay at any time in 
the zodiac beyond the fixed period ; nor again 
any of the fixed stars, as if it did not abide in 
the same seat and position, and did not by cir- 
cumvolution revolve equally around the world, 
moving as it were one step backward in a hun- 
dred years. But on the earth, if he accuses the 
roughness of some spots, or if pilots are offended 
at the storms on the sea; first, indeed, as they 
think, these things have a share of good in them. 
For should nothing germinate upon earth, all the 
animals must presently perish. But this result 
will send on much of the virtue which is inter- 
mingled with matter to God, and there will be a 
necessity for many moons, to accommodate the 
great multitude that suddenly approaches. And 
the same language they hold with respect to the 
sea. For it is a piece of unlooked-for luck to 
perish, in order that those things which perish 
may pursue the road which leads most quickly 
to God. And the wars which are upon the earth, 
and the famines, and everything which tends, to 
the destruction of life, are held in very great 
honour by them. For everything which is the 
cause of good is to be hadin honour. But these 
things are the cause of good, because of the 
destruction which accompanies them, if they 
transmit to God the virtue which is separated 
from those who perish. 


CHAP. XIV. — NOXIOUS ANIMALS WORSHIPPED BY 
THE EGYPTIANS ; MAN BY ARTS AN EVIL-DOER ; 
LUST AND INJUSTICE CORRECTED BY LAWS AND 
DISCIPLINE ; CONTINGENT AND NECESSARY THINGS 
IN WHICH THERE IS NO STAIN. 


And, as it seems, we have been ignorant that 
the Egyptians rightly worship the crocodile and 
the lion and the wolf, because these animals 
being stronger than the others devour their prey, 
and entirely destroy it; the eagle also and the 


. OF THE MANICHAANS. 


247 





hawk, because they slaughter the weaker ani- 


mals both in the air and upon the earth. But 
perhaps also, according to them, man is for this 
reason held in especial honour, because most of 
all, by his subtle inventions and arts, he is wont 
to subdue most of the animals. And lest he 
himself should have no portion in this good, he 
becomes the food of others. Again, therefore, 
those generations are, in their opinion, absurd, 
which from a small and common seed produce 
what is great; and it is much more becoming, 
as they think, that these should be destroyed by 
God, in order that the divine virtue may be 
quickly liberated from the troubles incident to 
living in this world. But what shall we say with 
respect to lust, and injustice, and things of this 
sort, Manichzeus will ask. Surely against these 
things discipline and law come to the rescue. 
Discipline, indeed, using careful forethought that 
nothing of this sort may have place amongst 
men ; but law inflicting punishment upon any 
one who has been caught in the commission of 
anything unjust. But, then, why should it be 
imputed to the earth as a fault, if the husband- 
man has neglected to subdue it? because the 
sovereignty of God, which is according to right, 
suffers diminution, when some parts of it are 
productive of fruits, and others not so; or when 
it has happened that when the winds are sweep- 
ing, according to another cause, some derive 
benefit therefrom, whilst others against their will 


have to sustain injuries? Surely they must neces- 


sarily be ignorant of the character of the things 
that are contingent, and of those that are neces- 
sary. For they would not else thus account 
such things as prodigies. 


CHAP. XV.—THE LUST AND DESIRE OF SENTIENT 
THINGS ; DEMONS ; ANIMALS SENTIENT ; SO ALSO 
THE SUN AND THE MOON AND STARS; THE 
PLATONIC DOCTRINE, NOT THE CHRISTIAN. 


Whence, then, come pleasure and desire? 
For these are the principal evils that they talk 
of and hate. Nor does matter appear to be 
anything else. That these things, indeed, only 
belong to animals which are endowed with sense, 
and that nothing else but that which has sense 
perceives desire and pleasure, is manifest. For 


what perception of pleasure and pain is there in} 


a plant? What in the earth, water, orair? And 
the demons, if indeed they are living beings 
endowed with sense, for this reason, perhaps, 
are delighted with what has been instituted in 
regard to sacrifices, and take it ill when these 
are wanting to them; but nothing of this sort 
can be imagined with respect to God. There- 
fore those who say, “ Why are animals affected 
by pleasure and pain?” should first make the 
complaint, ““Why are these animals endowed 





food?”’ For if animals were immortal, they 
would have been set free from corruption and 
increase ; such as the sun and moon and stars, 
although they are endowed with sense. They are, 
however, beyond the power of these, and of such 
acomplaint. But man, being able to perceive and 
to judge, and being potentially wise, — for he has 
the power to become so,—when he has received 
what is peculiar to himself, treads it under foot. 


CHAP. XVI. — BECAUSE SOME ARE WISE, NOTHING 
PREVENTS OTHERS FROM BEING SO; VIRTUE IS 
TO BE ACQUIRED BY DILIGENCE AND STUDY ; 
By A SOUNDER PHILOSOPHY MEN ARE TO BE 
CARRIED ONWARDS TO THE GOOD; THE COM- 
MON STUDY OF VIRTUE HAS BY CHRIST BEEN 
OPENED UP TO ALL. 


In general, it is worth while to inquire of these 
men, “Is it possible for no man to become good, 
or is it in the power of any one?” For if no 
man is wise, what of Manichzeus himself? I pass 
over the fact that he not only calls others good, 
but he also says that they are able to make others 
such. But if one individual is entirely good, 
what prevents all from becoming good? For 
what is possible for one is possible also for all. 
And by the means by which one has become vir- 
tuous, by the same all may become so, unless they 
assert that the larger share of this virtue is inter- 
cepted by such. Again, therefore, first, What 
necessity is there for labour in submitting to dis- 
cipline (for even whilst sleeping we may become 
virtuous), or what cause is there for these men 
rousing their hearers to hopes of good? For 
even though wallowing in the mire with harlots, 
they can obtain their proper good. But if dis- 
cipline, and better instruction and diligence in 
acquiring virtue, make a man to become virtuous, 
let all become so, and that oft-repeated phrase 
of theirs, the unordered motion of matter, is 
made void. But it would be much better for 
them to say that wisdom is an instrument given 
by God to man, in order that by bringing round 
by degrees to good that which arises to them, 
from the fact of their being endowed with sense, 
out of desire or pleasure, it might remove from 
them the absurdities that flow from them. For 
thus they themselves who profess to be teachers 
of virtue would be objects of emulation for their 
purpose, and for their mode of life, and there 
would be great hopes that one day evils will 
cease, when all men have become wise. And 
this it seems to me that Jesus took into consid- 
eration ; and in order that husbandmen, carpen- 
ters, builders, and other artisans, might not be 
driven away from good, He convened a common 
council of them altogether, and by simple and 
easy conversations He both raised them to a 


|sense of God, and brought them to desire what 


with sense, or why do they stand in need of! was good. 


248 


OF THE MANICHAANS. 





CHAP. XVII.— THE MANICHEHAN IDEA OF VIRTUE 
IN MATTER SCOUTED ; IF ONE VIRTUE HAS BEEN 
CREATED IMMATERIAL, THE REST ARE ALSO 
IMMATERIAL ; MATERIAL VIRTUE AN EXPLODED 
NOTION. 


Moreover, how do they say, did God send 
divine virtue into matter? For if it always was, 
and neither is God to be understood as existing 
prior to it, nor matter either, then again, accord- 
ing to Manicheeus, there are three first principles. 
Perhaps also, a little further on, there will appear 
to be many more. But if it be adventitious, and 
something which has come into existence after- 
wards, how is it void of matter? And if they 
make it to be a part of God, first, indeed, by 
this conception, they assert that God is compos- 
ite and corporeal. But this is absurd, and im- 
possible. And if He fashioned it, and is without 
matter, I wonder that they have not considered, 
neither the man himself, nor his disciples, that if 
(as the orthodox say, the things that come next 
in order subsist while God remains) God created 
this virtue of His own free-will, how is it that He 
is not the author of all other things that are made 
without the necessity of any pre-existent matter ? 
The consequences, in truth, of this opinion are 
evidently absurd ; but what does follow is put 
down next inorder. Was it, then, the nature of 
this virtue to diffuse itself into matter? If it was 
contrary to its nature, in what manner is it inter- 
mingled with it? But if this was in accordance 
with its nature, it was altogether surely and always 
with matter. But if this be so, how is it that 
they call matter evil, which, from the beginning, 
was intermingled with the divine virtue? In 
what manner, too, will it be destroyed, the divine 
virtue which was mingled with it at some time 

or other seceding to itself? For that it pre- 
serves safely what is good, and likely to be pro- 
ductive of some other good to those to whom it 
is present, is more reasonable than that it should 
bring destruction or some other evil upon them. 


CHAP. XVIII.— DISSOLUTION AND INHERENCE AC- 
CORDING TO THE MANICHEANS ; THIS IS WELL 
PUT, AD HOMINEM, WITH RESPECT TO MANES, 
WHO IS HIMSELF IN MATTER. 


This then is the wise assertion which is made 
by them — namely, that as we see that the body 
perishes when the soul is separated from it, so 
also, when virtue has left matter, that which is 
left, which is matter, will be dissolved and _per- 
ish. First, indeed, they do not perceive that 
nothing existent can be destroyed into a non- 
existent. For that which is non-existent does 
not exist. But when bodies are disintegrated, 
and experience a change, a dissolution of them 
takes place; so that a part of them goes to 
earth, a part to air, and a part to something else. 





Besides, they do not remember that their doc- 
trine is, that matter is unordered motion. But 
that which moves of itself, and of which motion 
is the essence, and not a thing accidentally be- 
longing to it— how is it reasonable to say that 
when virtue departs, that which was, even before 
virtue descended into it, should cease to be? 
Nor do they see the difference, that every body 
which is devoid of soul is immoveable. For 
plants also have a vegetable soul. But motion 
itself, and yet unordered motion, they assert to 
be the essence of matter. But it were better, 
that just as in a lyre which sounds out of tune, 
by the addition of harmony, everything is brought 
into concord; so the divine virtue when inter- 
mixed with that unordered motion, which, ac- 
cording to them, is matter, should add a certain 
order to it in the place. of its innate disorder, 
and should always add it suitably to the divine . 
time. For I ask, how was it that Manichzeus 
himself became fitted to treat of these matters, 
and when at length did he enunciate them? 
For they allow that he himself was an admixture 
of matter, and of the virtue received into it. 
Whether therefore being so, he said these things 
in unordered motion, surely the opinion is faulty ; 
or whether he said them by means of the divine 
virtue, the dogma is dubious and uncertain ; for 
on the one side, that of the divine virtue, he 
participates in the truth ; whilst on the side of 
unordered motion, he is a partaker in the other 
part, and changes to falsehood. 


‘CHAP. XIX. —THE SECOND VIRTUE OF THE MANI- 


CHAANS BESET WITH THE FORMER, AND WITH 
NEW ABSURDITIES ; VIRTUE, ACTIVE AND PASSIVE, 
THE FASHIONER OF MATTER, AND CONCRETE 
WITH IT; BODIES DIVIDED BY MANICHAUS INTO 
THREE PARTS. 


But if it had been said that divine virtue both 
hath adorned and does adorn matter, it would 
have been far more wisely said, and in a manner 
more conducing to conciliate faith in the doc- 
trine and discourses of Manichzeus. But God 
hath sent down another virtue. What has been 
already said with respect to the former virtue, 
may be equally said with respect to this, and all 
the absurdities which follow on the teaching 
about their first virtue, the same may be brought 
forward in the present case. But another, who 
will tolerate? For why did not God send some 
one virtue’ which could effect everything? If 
the human mind is so various towards all things, 
so that the same man is endowed with a knowl- 
edge of geometry, of astronomy, of the carpen- 
ter’s art, and the like, is it then impossible for 
God to find one such virtue which should be 
sufficient for him in all respects, so as not to 
stand in need of a first and second? And why 


' 


OF THE MANICHAEANS. 


249 





has one virtue the force rather of a creator, 
and another that of the patient and recipient, 
so as to be well fitted for admixture with matter. 
For I do not again see here the cause of good 
order, and of that excess which is contrary to it. 
If it was evil, it was not in the house of God. 
For since God is the only good, and matter the 
only evil, we must necessarily say that the other 
things are of a middle nature, and placed as it 
were in the middle. But there is found to be a 
different framer of those things which are of a 
middle nature, when they say that one cause is 
creative, and another admixed with matter? Per- 
haps, therefore, it is that primary antecedent 
cause which more recent writers speak of in the 
book zrepi rav S:ahopov. But when the creative 
virtue took in hand the making of the world, 
then they say that there was separated from mat- 
ter that which, even in the admixture, remained 
in its own virtue, and from this the sun and the 
moon had their beginning. But that which to a 
moderate and slight degree had contracted vice 
and evil, this formed the heaven and the con- 
stellations. Lastly came the rest encompassed 
within these, just as they might happen, which 
are admixtures of the divine virtue and of 
matter. 


CHAP. XX.— THE DIVINE VIRTUE IN THE VIEW OF 
THE SAME MANICHEZUS CORPOREAL AND DIVISI- 
BLE ; THE DIVINE VIRTUE ITSELF MATTER WHICH 
BECOMES EVERYTHING ; THIS IS NOT FITTING. 


I, indeed, besides all these things, wonder 
that they do not perceive that they are making 
the divine virtue to be corporeal, and dividing 
it, as it were, into parts. For why, as in the 
case of matter, is not the divine virtue also passi- 
ble and divisible throughout, and from one of 
its parts the sun made, and from another the 
moon? For clearly this is what they assert to 
belong to the divine virtue ; and this is what we 
said was the property of matter, which by itself 
is nothing, but when it has received form and 
qualities, everything is made which is divided 
and distinct. If, therefore, as from one subject, 
the divine virtue, only the sun and the moon 
have their beginning, and these things are differ- 
ent, why was anything else made? But if all 
things are made, what follows is manifest, that 
divine virtue is matter, and that, too, such as is 
made into forms. But if nothing else but the 
sun and moon are what was created by the divine 
virtue, then what is intermixed with all things is 
the sun and moon; and each of the stars is the 
sun and moon, and each individual animal of 
those who live on land, and of fowls, and of 
creatures amphibious. But this, not even those 
who exhibit juggling tricks would admit, as, I 
think, is evident to every one. 








CHAP XXI.— SOME PORTIONS OF THE VIRTUE HAVE 
GOOD IN THEM, OTHERS MORE GOOD; IN THE 
SUN AND THE MOON IT IS INCORRUPT, IN OTHER 
THINGS DEPRAVED ; AN IMPROBABLE OPINION. 


But if any one were to apply his mind to what 
follows, the road would not appear to be plain 
and straightforward, but more arduous even than 
that which has been passed. For they say that 
the sun and moon have contracted no stain from 
their admixture with matter. And now they can- 
not say how other things have become deterio- 
rated contrary to their own proper nature. For 
if, when it was absolute and by itself, the divine 
virtue was so constituted that one portion of it 
was good, and another had a greater amount of 
goodness in it, according to the old tale of the 
centaurs, who as far as the breast were men, and 
in the lower part horses, which are both good 
animals, but the man is the better of the two; 
so also, in the divine virtue, it is to be under- 
stood that the one portion of it is the better and 
the more excellent, and the other will occupy the 
second and inferior place. And in the same way, 
with respect to matter, the one portion possesses, 
as it were, an excess of evil; while others again 
are different, and about that other the language 
will be different. For it is possible to conceive 
that from the beginning the sun and moon, by a 
more skilful and prudent judgment, chose for 
themselves the parts of matter that were less evil 
for the purposes of admixture, that they might 
remain in their own perfection and virtue ; but 
in the lapse of time, when the evils lost their 
force and became old, they brought out so much 
of the excess in the good, while the rest of its 
parts fell away, not, indeed, without foresight, 
and yet not with the same foresight, did each 
object share according to its quantity in the evil 
that was in matter. But since, with respect to 
this virtue, nothing of a different kind is asserted 
by them, but it is to be understood throughout 
to be alike and of the same nature, their argu- 
ment is improbable ; because in the admixture 
part remains pure and incorrupt, while the other 
has contracted some share of evil. 


CHAP. XXII.—THE LIGHT OF THE MOON FROM 
THE SUN; THE INCONVENIENCE OF THE OPIN- 
ION THAT SOULS ARE RECEIVED IN IT; THE 
TWO DELUGES OF THE GREEKS, 


Now, they say that the sun and the moon hav- 
ing by degrees separated the divine virtue from 
matter, transmit it to God. But if they had only 
to a slight degree frequented the schools of the 
astronomers, it would not have happened to 
them to fall into these fancies, nor would they 








1 This passage and the following sentences are corrupt, Possibly 
something is wanting. — TR. 


250 


OF THE MANICHAANS. 





have been ignorant that the moon, which, ac- 
cording to the opinion of some, is itself without 
light, receives its light from the sun, and that its 
configurations are just in proportion to its dis- 
tance from the sun, and that it is then full moon 
when it is distant from the sun one hundred and 
eighty degrees. It is in conjunction when it is 
in the same degree with the sun. Then, is it 
not wonderful how it comes to pass that there 
should be so many souls, and from such diverse 
creatures? For there is the soul of the world 
itself, and of the animals, of plants, of nymphs, 
and demons, and amongst these are distinguished 
by appearance those of fowls, of land animals, 
and animals amphibious ; but in the moon one 
like body is always seen by us. And what of 
the continuity of this body? When the moon 
is half-full, it appears a semicircle, and when it 
is in its third quarter, the same again. How 
then, and with what figure, are they assumed 
into the moon? For if it be light as fire, it is 
probable that they would not only ascend as far 
as the moon, but even higher, continually ; but 
if it be heavy, it would not be possible for them 
at all to reach the moon. And what is the rea- 
son that that which first arrives at the moon is 


not immediately transmitted to the sun, but waits | 


for the full moon until the rest of the souls ar- 
rive? When then the moon, from having been 
full, decreases, where does the virtue remain dur- 
ing that time? until the moon, which has been 
emptied of the former souls, just as a desolated 
city, shall receive again a fresh colony. Fora 
treasure-house should have been marked out in 
some part of the earth, or of the clouds, or in 
some other place, where the congregated souls 
might stand ready for emigration to the moon. 
But, again, a second question arises. What then 
is the cause that it is not full immediately? or 
why does it again wait fifteen days? Nor is this 
less to be wondered at than that which has been 
said, that never within the memory of man has 
the moon become full after the fifteen days. 
Nay, not even in the time of the deluge of Deu- 
calion, nor in that of Phoroneus, when all things, 
so to speak, which were upon the face of the 
earth perished, and it happened that a great 
quantity of virtue was separated from matter. 
And, besides these things, one must consider the 
productiveness of generations, and their barren- 
ness, and also the destruction of them ; and since 
these things do not happen in order, neither 
ought the order of the full moon, nor the times 
of the waning moon, to be so carefully ob- 
served. 


CHAP. XXIII. — THE IMAGE OF MATTER IN THE SUN, 
AFTER WHICH MAN IS FORMED; TRIFLING FAN- 


CIES; IT IS A MERE FANCY, TOO, THAT MAN, 
IS FORMED FROM MATTER; MAN IS EITHER I) 





COMPOSITE BEING, OR A SOUL, OR MIND AND 
UNDERSTANDING. 


Neither is this to be regarded with slight at- 
tention. For if the divine virtue which is in 
matter be infinite, those things cannot diminish 
it which the sun and moon fashion. For that 
which remains from that finite thing which has 
been assumed is infinite. But if it is finite, it 
would be perceived by the senses in intervals 
proportionate to the amount of its virtue that 
had been subtracted from the world. But all 
things remain as they were. Now what under- 
standing do these things not transcend in their 
incredibleness, when they assert that man was 
created and formed after the image of matter 
that is seen in the sun? For images are the 
forms of their archetypes. But if they include 
man’s image in the sun, where is the exemplar 
after which his image is formed? For, indeed, 
they are not going to say that man is really man, 
or divine virtue ; for this, indeed, they mix up 
with matter, and they say that the image is seen 
in the sun, which, as they think, was formed 
afterwards from the secretion of matter. Neither 
can they bring forward the creative cause of all 
things, for this they say was sent to preserve 
safety to the divine virtue ; so that, in their opin- 
ion, this must be altogether ascribed to the sun ; 
for this reason, doubtless, that it happens by his 
arrival and presence that the sun and moon are 
separated from matter. 

Moreover, they assert that the image is seen 
in the sun; but they say that matter fashioned 
man. In what manner, and by what means? 
For it is not possible that this should fashion 
him. For besides that, thus according to them, 
man is the empty form of an empty form, and 
having no real existence, it has not as yet been 
possible to conceive how man can be the product 
of matter. For the use of reason and sense be- 
longs not to that matter which they assume. 
Now what, according to them, is man? Is he 
a mixture of soul and body? Or another thing, 
or that which is superior to the entire soul, the 
mind? But if he is mind, how can the more 
perfect and the better part be the product of 
that which is worse; or if he be soul (for this 
they say is divine virtue), how can they, when 
they have taken away from God the divine virtue, 
subject this to the creating workmanship of mat- 
ter? But if they leave to him body alone, let 
them remember again that it is by itself. immov- 
able, and that they say that the essence of matter 
is motion. Neither do they think that anything 
of itself, and its own genius, is attracted to mat- 
ter. Nor is it reasonable to lay it down, that 
what is composed of these things is the product 
of this. To think, indeed, that that which is 
fashioned by any one is inferior to its fashioncr 


OF THE MANICHAANS. 


251 





~ seems to be beyond controversy. For thus the 
world is inferior to its Creator or Fashioner, and 
the works of art inferior to the artificer. If then 
man be the product of matter, he must surely be 
inferior to it. Now, men leave nothing inferior 
to matter; and it is not reasonable that the 
divine virtue should be commingled with matter, 
and with that which is inferior to it. But the 
things which they assert out of indulgence, as it 
were, and by way of dispensation, these they do 
not seem to understand. For what is the reason 
of their thinking that matter has bound the image 
of God to the substance of man? Or, why is not 
the image sufficient, as in a mirror, that man 
should appear? Or, as the sun himself is suf- 
ficient for the origination and destruction of all 
things that are made, hath he imitated an image 
in the work of their creation? With which of 
those things which he possessed? Was it with 
the divine virtue which was mingled with it, so 
that the divine virtue should have the office of 
an instrument in respect of matter? Is it by 
unordered motion that he will thus give matter 
a form? But all like things, in exquisite and 
accurate order, by imitating, attain their end. 
For they do not suppose that a house, or a ship, 
or any other product of art, is effected by dis- 
order ; nor a statue which art has fashioned to 
imitate man. 


CHAP. XXIV.— CHRIST IS MIND, ACCORDING TO 
THE MANICHAEANS ; WHAT IS HE IN THE VIEW 
OF THE CHURCH? INCONGRUITY IN THEIR IDEA 
OF CHRIST ; THAT HE SUFFERED ONLY IN APPEAR- 
ANCE, A DREAM OF THE MANICHANS ; NOTHING 
IS ATTRIBUTED TO THE WORD BY WAY OF FICTION. 


Christ, too, they do not acknowledge; yet 
they speak of Christ, but they take some other 
element, and giving to the Word, designating 
His sacred person, some other signification than 
that in which it is nightly received, they say that 
He is mind. But if, when they speak of Him as 
that which is known, and that which knows, and 
wisdom as having the same meaning, they are 
found to agree with those things which the 
Church doctors say of Him, how comes it then 
that they reject all that is called ancient history ? 
But let us see whether they make Him to be 
something adventitious and new, and which has 
come on from without, and by accident, as the 
opinion of some is. For they who hold this 
opinion say, as seems very plausible, that about 
the seventh year, when the powers of perception 
became distinct, He made His entrance into the 
body. But if Christ be mind, as they imagine, 
then will He be both Christ and not Christ. For 
before that mind and sense entered, He was not. 
But if Christ, as they will have it, be mind, then | 
into Him already existing does the mind make 
its entrance, and thus, again, according to their | 





opinion, will it be mind. Christ, therefore, is 
and is not at the same time. But if, according 
to the more approved sect of them, mind is all 
things which are, since they assume matter to 
be not produced, and coeval so to speak with 
God, this first mind and matter they hold to be 
Christ ; if, indeed, Christ be the mind, which is 
all things, and matter is one of those things 
which are, and is itself not produced. 

They say it was by way of appearance, and in 
this manner, that the divine virtue in matter was 
affixed to the cross; and that He Himself did 
not undergo this punishment, since it was impos- 
sible that He should suffer this ; which assertion 
Manichzeus himself has taken in hand to teach 
in a book written upon the subject, that the 
divine virtue was enclosed in matter, and again — 
departs from it. The mode of this they invent. 
That it should be said, indeed, in the doctrine 
of the Church, that He gave Himself up for the 
remission of sins, obtains credit from the vulgar, 
and appears likewise in the Greek histories, 
which say that some “surrendered themselves to 
death in order to ensure safety to their country- 
men.” And of this doctrine the Jewish history 
has an example, which prepares the son of Abra- 
ham as a sacrifice to God.t But to subject 
Christ to His passion merely for the sake of dis- 
play, betrays great ignorance, for the Word is 
God’s representative, to teach and inform us of 
actual verities. 


CHAP. XXV.— THE MANICHAZAN ABSTINENCE FROM 
LIVING THINGS RIDICULOUS ; THEIR MADNESS IN 
ABHORRING MARRIAGE ; THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE 
GIANTS ; TOO ALLEGORICAL AN EXPOSITION. 


They abstain also from living things. If, in- 
deed, the reason of their abstinence were other 
than it is, it ought not to be too curiously inves- 
tigated. But if they do so for this reason, that 
the divine virtue is more or less absent or pres- 
ent to them, this their meaning is ridiculous. 
For if plants be more material, how is it in 
accordance with reason to use that which is 
inferior for food and sustenance? or, if there be 
more of the divine virtue in them, how are things 
of this sort useful as food, when the soul’s faculty 
of nourishing and making increase is more cor- 
poreal? Now in that they abstain from marriage 
and the rites of Venus, fearing lest by the suc- 
cession of the race the divine virtue should dwell 
more in matter, I wonder how in thinking so 
they allow of themselves? For if neither the 
providence of God suffices, both by generations 
and by those things which are always and in the 
same manner existent, to separate off the divine 
virtue from matter, what can the cunning and 
subtlety of Manichzeus effect for that purpose ? 





SS Sa ee 


t Gen. xxii, 1, 


252 


eels me 


ELUCIDATION. 





For assuredly by no giant’s co-operation does 
assistance come to God, in order by the re- 
moval of generations to make the retreat of the 
divine virtue from matter quick and speedy. 
But what the poets say about the giants is mani- 
festly a fable. For those who lay it down about 
these, bring forward such matters in allegories, 
by a species of fable hiding the majesty of their 
discourse ; as, for instance, when the Jewish his- 
tory relates that angels came down to hold: in- 
tercourse with the daughters of men; for this 
saying signifies that the ‘nutritive powers of the 
soul descended from heaven to earth. But the 
poets who say that they, when they had emerged 
in full armour from the earth, perished immedi- 
ately after they stirred up rebellion against the 
gods, in order that they might insinuate the frail 
and quickly-perishing constitution of the body, 
adorn their poetry in this way for the sake of 
refreshing the soul ‘by the strangeness of the 
occurrence. But these, understanding nothing 
of all this, wheresoever they can get hold of a 
paralogism from whatsoever quarter it comes, 
greedily seize on it as a God-send, and strive 
with all their arts to overturn truth by any means. 


CHAP. XXVI.— THE MUCH-TALKED-OF FIRE OF 
THE MANICHAANS ; THAT FIRE MATTER ITSELF. 


That fire, endowed indeed with the power of 
burning, yet possessing no light, which is out- 
side the world, in what region has it place? 
For if it is in the world, why does the world 
hitherto continue safe? For if at some time or 
other it is to destroy it, by approaching it, now 
also it is conjoined with it. But if it be apart 
from it, as it were on high in its own region, 
what will hereafter happen to make it descend 
upon the world? Or in what way will it leave 
its own place, and by what necessity and vio- 
lence? And what substance of fire can be con- 
ceived without fuel, and how can what is moist 
serve as fuel to it, unless what is rather physio- 
logically said about this does not fall within the 
province of our present disquisition? But this 


1 Gen. vir 2 





is quite manifest from what has been said. For 
the fire existing outside the world is just that 
which they call matter, since the sun and the 
moon, being the purest of the pure, by their 
divine virtue, are separate and distinct from that 
fire, no part of them being left in it. This fire 
is matter itself, absolutely and fer se, entirely re- 
moved from all admixture with the divine virtue. 
Wherefore when the world has been emptied of 
all the divine virtue which is opposed to it, and 
again a fire of this sort shall be left remaining, 
how then shall the fire either destroy anything, 
or be consumed by it? For, from that which is 
like, I do not see in what way corruption is to 
take place. For what matter will become when 
the divine virtue has been separated from it, 
this it was before that the divine virtue was com- 
mingled with it. If indeed matter is to perish 
when it is bereft of the divine virtue, why did it 
not perish before it came in contact with the 
divine virtue, or any creative energy? Was it 
in order that matter might successively perish, 
and do this ad infinitum? And what is the use 
of this? For that which had not place from the 
first volition, how shall this have place from one 
following? or what reason is there for God to 
put off things which, not even in the case of a 
man, appears to be well? For as regards those 
who deliberate about what is impossible, this is 
said to happen to them, that they do not wish 

for that which is possible. But if nothing else, 

they speak of God transcending substance, and 

bring Him forward as some new material, and 

that not such as intelligent men always think to 

be joined with Him, but that which investigation 

discovers either to be not existing at all, or to 

be the extreme of all things, and which can with 

difficulty be conceived of by the human mind. 

For this fire, devoid of light, is it of more force 

than matter, which is to be left desolate by divine 

virtue, or is it of less? And if it is of less, how 

will it overcome that which is of more? but if 

it is of more, it will be able to bring it back to 

itself, being of the same nature ; yet will it not 

destroy it, as neither does the Nile swallow up 

the streams that are divided off from it. 


E-L:OCTD AWatGuNne 


Ir anything could be more dreary than the Manichzan heresy itself, it may be questioned 


whether it be not the various views that have been entertained concerning our author. 


I 


have often remarked the condensation of valuable information given by Dr. Murdock in his notes 


upon Mosheim, but he fails to get in the half that needs to be noted.' 
ander of Lycopolis: flourished probably about a.p. 350.” 





He tells us that “ Alex- 
He adds, “ Fabricius supposes that he 





1 Mosheim, £. #4, vol. i. p 383, note 5, Murdock’s edition, New York, 1844. . His references to Lardner in this case do not accord 


with my copy. 


Pathe eg 
" 


ELUCIDATION. 253 





was first a Pagan and a Manichee, and afterwards a Catholic Christian. Cave is of the same 


opinion. Beausobre thinks he was a mere pagan.’ Lardner thinks. he was a Gentile, but well 
acquainted with the Manichees and other Christians,? and that he had some knowledge of the 
Old and New Testaments, to which he occasionally refers. He speaks with respect of Christ and 
the Christian philosophy, and appears to have been “a learned and candid man.” Of an eminent 
Christian bishop, all this seems very puzzling ; and I feel it a sort of duty to the youthful student 
to give the statements of the learned Lardner in an abridged form, with such references to the 
preceding pages as may serve in place of a series of elucidations. 

According to this invaluable critic, the learned are not able to agree concerning Alexander. 
Some think he was a Christian, others believe that he was a heathen. Fabricius, who places him 
in the fourth century, holds to this latter opinion ;3 all which agrees with our Cave.‘ Photius 
makes him Archbishop of Nicopolis.5 Tillemont thinks® he was a pagan philosopher, who wrote 
to persuade his friends to prefer “the doctrine of the churches” to that of Manes. Combefis, 
his editor,” thinks him very ancient, because he appears to have learned the principles of this 
heresy from the immediate disciples of the heretic. Beausobre,® the standard authority, is of 
like opinion, and Mosheim approves his reasoning. 

Nothing in his work, according to Lardner, proves that our author wrote near the beginning 
of the fourth century, and he decides upon the middle of that century as his epoch, 

Alexander gives a very honourable character to the genuine Christian philosophy, and asserts 
its adaptation to the common people, and, indeed, to all sorts of men.2 He certainly is not mute 
as to Christ. His tribute to the Saviour is, if not affectionate, yet a just award to Him.’° By the 
“ council of all together,” he intends the College of the Apostles,'" made up of fishermen and publi- 
cans and tent-makers, in which he sees a design of the blessed Jesus to meet this class, and, in 
short, all classes. It is clear enough that Alexander has some knowledge of Christ, some knowl- 
edge of the received doctrine of the churches,” or orthodox Christians : and he appears to blame 
the Manichees for not receiving the Scripture of the Old Testament.«« 

He argues against their absurd opinion that Christ was “ Mind ;” ' also that, though crucified, 
He did not suffer:'? and he affirms that it would be more reasonable to say, agreeably to the 
ecclesiastical doctrine, that “ He gave Himself for the remission of sins.’ He refers to the sacri- 
fice of Isaac,'? and to the story of Cain and Abel ; '3 also to the mysterious subject of the angels and 
the daughters of men."* Like an Alexandrian theologian, he expounds this, however, against the 
literal sense, as an allegory. 

My reader will be somewhat amused with the terse summing-up of Lardner: “I am rather 
inclined to think he was a Gentile. . . . He was evidently a learned and rational man. His ob- 
servations concerning the Christian philosophy deserve particular notice. To me this work of 
Alexander appears very curious.” 





I Histoire des Manichéens (Lardner’s reference), pp. 236-237. 

2 Credtb., vol. vii. p. 574, ed. London, 1829. 

3 Lardner’s reference is: 813. G., lib, v. c. 1, tom. 5, p. 290. 

4 Long extract from Cave ubi supra. He quotes the Latin of Cave’s Diss. on Writers of Uncertain Date. 

5 Lardner’s reference is to Photius, Contra Mantch., i. cap. 11. 

6 Lardner quotes from the Hist. des Mantch., art. 16., Mémotres, etc., tom. iv. 

7 Reference defective. See Lardner, Cred7d., vol. iii. 269. Here will be found (p. 252) a learned examination of Archelaus, and 
what amounts to a treatise on these Manichzans, 

8 For Beausobre’s summary of Alexander's deficiencies, see condensed statement in Lardner, vol. iii. p. 575. 

9 Cap. i. p. 241, sugra. A beautiful exordium. A recent writer, speaking of Potamizna and Herais, virgin martyrs, and catechu- 
mens of Origen, remarks, that “ the number of young women of high character who appreciated the teachings of this great master, many 
of whom were employed as copytsts of his works, is creditable to the state of Christian society at that period” (Mahan, Church Hist., 
p- 237). It was to avoid scandal as well as temptation in his relations with these that he fell into his heroic mistake. 

t0 Cap, xxiv. p. 251, sugra. Who can imagine that the author of this chapter is not a Christian? Observe what he says of ‘‘ the 
Word.” 

3! Cap. xvi. p. 247. 

§2 Cap. xxiv. p. 251. 

13 Note the reference to the Old and New Testaments entire, p, 243, supra. 

44 Cap. xxv. p. 252, sugra, 





Y THE REV. JAMES B. H. HAWKINS, MA) 





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INTRODUCTORY NOTICE 


TO 


PETER, BISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA. 


[a.D. 260 '-300~311.] Entering upon the fourth century, we may well pause to reflect upon 
what Alexandria has been to the Church of Christ, — the mother of churches, the mother of saints, 
maintaining always the intellectual and even the ecclesiastical primacy of Christendom. “Ye are 
the light of the world,” said the great Enlightener to the Galileans of an obscure and despised 
Roman province. But who could have prophesied that Egypt should again be the pharos of the 
world, as it was in Moses? Who could have foreseen the “ men of Galilee” taking possession of 
the Alexandrian Library, and demonstrating the ways of Providence in creating the Bible of the 
Seventy, and in the formation of the Hellenistic Greek, for their ultimate use? Who could have 
imagined the Evangelist Mark and the eloquent Apollos to be the destined instruments for found- 
ing the schools of Christendom, and shaping scientific theology? Who would not have looked 
for all this in some other way, and preferably in Athens or in Rome? But who would have ex- 
pected the visit of God Incarnate to Nazareth, and not to Alexandria? 

In Peter’s day Antioch was coming to be a school under the influence of Malchion’s genius 
and that of the bishops who withstood Paulus of Samosata. Malchion had taught there in the 
“School of Sciences,” and learning was once more to be made the handmaid of true religion. 
But Alexandria was still the seat of Christian illumination and the fountain of orthodoxy ; its very 
ferment always clarifying its thought, and leaving “ wine well refined,” and pure from the lees. 

To this subject I shall have occasion to refer again in an elucidation subjoined to the works 
of Alexander (successor to Peter), in which, for a final view of the great Alexandrian school, I 
shall gather up some fragments in brief outline. Here it may be enough to remark, that, until the 
definite development of the school of Antioch (circa A.D. 350), I have regarded the whole Orient 
as dominated and formed by the brain of the grand metropolis of Egypt and the Pentapolis. I 
have considered the great Dionysius as really presiding in the Synod of Antioch, though absent in 
the body, and have regarded Malchion as his voice in that council, which we must not forget was 
presided over by Firmilian, a pupil of Origen, and a true Alexandrian disciple. 

Peter’s conflict with Meletius shall be noted in an elucidation. We shall see that the heresy 
of Paulus as well as the Meletian schism are but chapters in one prolonged history, of which the 
outcrop was Arianism. Now, as to Alexandria we owe the intrepid defenders of truth in all these 
conflicts, we must not forget that they are to be judged by the product of their united testimony, 
and not by their occasional individualisms and infirmities of mind and speech while they were 
creating the theological dialect of Christendom and the formulas of orthodoxy. 

Peter was able to maintain his canonical authority against the mischievous rebellion of Mele- 
tius ; and the history of this schism is forcibly illustrative of those dpyata €@y which the Nicene 
Synod recognised, confirming the primacy of Alexandria, and striving to suppress Meletianism by 





! This first date is conjectural, 
357 


258 INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 





firm but moderate measures based upon the primitive maxims. Peter left a pure and holy mem- 
ory to the Church, and sealed his testimony in martyrdom. 


TRANSLATOR’S INTRODUCTORY NOTICE.! 


EuseEstus alone, of the more ancient writers, speaks in terms of the highest praise of Peter, 
Bishop of Alexandria. He was, says he, a divine bishop, both for the sanctity of his life, and also 
for his diligent study and knowledge of the Holy Scriptures ;? and in another place he styles him 
“that excellent doctor of the Christian religion,” who, indeed, during the whole period of his 
episcopate, which he held for twelve years, obtained for himself the highest renown. He obtained 
the bishopric of Alexandria next in succession to Theonas. He governed that church about three 
years before the persecution broke out:3 the rest of his time he spent in the exercise of a closer 
discipline over himself, yet did he not in the meanwhile neglect to provide for the common interests 
of the Church. In the ninth year of the persecution he was beheaded, and gained the crown of 
martyrdom. So far we have the account of Eusebius, whom Dodwell 4 proves to have accurately 
distributed the years of Peter’s episcopate. After Peter had spent twelve years as bishop, and in 
the ninth year of the persecution which broke out under Maximin, he was beheaded ; so that his 
martyrdom falls in the year of our Lord 311 — as the Egyptians reckon on the zgth day of the 
month Athyr, which answers to our 25th of November, as Lequien,’ after Renaudot,° has observed. 

St. Peter wrote in the fourth year of the persecution, a.D. 306, some Canons Penitential with 
reference to those who had lapsed. They are to be met with in every collection of Canons. In 
the Pandecta Canonum of Bishop Beveridge,’ they are accompanied by the notes of Joannes 
Zonaras and Theodorus Balsamon. Upon these Penitential Canons, however, Tillemont ® should 
be consulted. Moreover, according to Renaudot,? Echmimensis, Ebnapalus, Abulfaragius, and 
other Oriental Christians of every sect, make use of the testimony of these Canons; and in the 
anonymous collections of them called Responsa, some fragments of other works of Peter are extant. 
Some of these are praised by the Jacobites, in the work which they call Fides patrum. In 
another work, entitled Unio pretiosus, occurs a homily of Peter on the baptism of Christ. 

The fragments of the other writings of this holy martyr, which have been preserved by the 
Greeks, are here appended to the Penitential Canons. For instance: (1) An extract from his 
book De Deitate, which is extant in the Acta Concithorum Ephesint et Chalcedonensis; (2) 
Another fragment from the homily De Adventu Salvatoris, cited by Leontius Byzantinus in his 

first book against Nestorius and Eutyches; (3) An epistle of the same prelate to the Alexandrine 
Church recently published, together with some other old ecclesiastical monuments by Scipio 
Maffei.t° Peter is said to have written this epistle after one addressed to Meletius, Bishop of 
Lycopolis. In it, after interdicting the Alexandrians from communion with Meletius, he says that 
he will himself come in company with some wise doctors, and will examine into his tenets ; allud- 
ing, most probably, to the synod held afterwards at Alexandria, in which Meletius was deposed 
from his office. Athanasius says,'? respecting this synod, ‘‘ Peter, who was amongst us as bishop 
betore the persecution, and who died a martyr in the persecution, deposed in common council of 
the bishops, Meletius, an Egyptian bishop, who had been convicted of many crimes.” But with 


[After Gallandi, by the translator, the Rev. James B. H. Hawkins, M.A.] 

2 Ociov émioxdrwy xpHua, Biov Te Kai aperis Evexa kal THs THY iepOv Adywv ovvacKycews. Eusebius, Hest. Eccées., lib. ix. cap. 6; 
lib. viii. cap. 13; lib. vii, cap. 32, towards the end. 

3 mpd Tod SwwyKovd Tpit ovd’ SAots HynTameEVvos THS ExxAnaias, 

4 Dodwell, Drssert. Sing. ad. Pears., cap. 6, sec. 21, p. 74. 

$ Lequien, Orzens Christ, tom. ii. p. 397. 

6 Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alex., p. 60. 

7 Suvodicxov, Vol. ii. p. 8, fol., Oxon., 1672. 

8 Tillemont, Mem., tom. v. p. 450. 

9 Renaudot, /.c., p. 61, segg. 

© Maffei, Osservazione Letterarte, tom. iii. p. 17. 

{! Athanasius, Afol. contra Arian, sec. 39, tom. i. p. 179. 


INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 259 








respect to the time in which the mournful Meletian schism commenced, Maffei: defends the opin- 
ions of Baronius,? who connects it with the year a.p. 306, against Pagius and Montfaucon, both 
from this epistle of Petrus Alexandrinus, and also from another of the four bishops, of which Peter 
makes mention in his own; (4) A passage from the Sermo in Sanctum Pascha, or from some 
other work of Peter’s on the same subject, is given in the Diatriba de Paschate, prefixed to the 
Chronicon Alexandrinum S. Paschale, and published separately in the Uranoivgion of Petavius, 
fol. Paris, 1630, p. 396. 





1 Maffei, Z.c., p. 24. 
2 Baronius, Ad Annum, 306, sec. 44. [Elucidation I.] 





— Te 


THE GENUINE ACTS OF PETER: 


Wer: all the limbs of my body to be turned 
into tongues, and all the joints of my limbs to 
utter articulate sounds, it would noways be suffi- 
cient to express who, how great and how good, 
was our most blessed Father Peter, Archbishop 
of Alexandria. Especially incongruous do I con- 
sider it to commit to paper what perils he under- 
went by tyrants, what conflicts he endured with 
Gentiles and heretics, lest I should seem to 
make these the subjects of my panegyric rather 
than that passion to which he manfully sub- 
mitted to make safe the people of God. Never- 
theless, because the office of the narrator must 
fail in narrating his inmost conversation and won- 
derful deeds, and language is noways sufficient 
for the task, I have considered it convenient to 
describe only those exploits of his by which he 
is known to have attained to the pontificate,? 
and after Arius had been cut off from the unity 
of the Church,3 to have been crowned with the 
martyr’s laurel. Yet this do I consider to be a 
glorious end, and a spectacle of a magnificent 
contest, sufficient for those who do not doubt of 
a truthful narration, which is unstained by false- 
hood. In commencing, therefore, our account 
of the episcopate of this most holy man, let us 
call to our aid his own language, in order that 
we may make it co-operate with our own style. 

Alexandria is a city of exceeding magnitude, 
which holds the first place not only among the 
Egyptians, but the Thebans also and the Libyans, 
who are at no great distance from Egypt.4 A 





1 As interpreted by Anastasius Bibliothecarius. Apud Maium, 
Spioslegrtt, tom, iii. p. 671, That Anastasius Bibliothecarius trans- 
lated from the Greek the Passion of St. Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, 
is affirmed by Anastasius himself in his prologue, dd Passionem 
Martyrum, MCCCCLXxx., published by Mabillon in the Museum 
Halicum, tom. i. part ii. p. 80: ‘* Post translatam a me ad petitionem 
sanctitatis tua (he is addressing Peter, Bishop of Gavinum), pas- 
sionem przcipui doctoris et martyris, Petri Alexandrine urbis epis- 
copi.” And then an anonymous aographier of John viii., in Mura- 
tori R. I. S., tom, iii. p. i. p. 269, confirms the same. Anastasius, 
the librarian. of the Roman church, translated from the Greek into 
Latin the Passion of St. Peter, Archbishop of Alexandria. But it is 
a matter of conjecture which of the different Passzons of St. Peter 
Anastasius translated. Of the Acts of St. Peter, there are three dif- 
ferent records: — (1) Acta Stncera, which, according to Baronius, 
are the most genuine. (2) A shorter Latin version, by Surius. 
(3) A Greek version, by Combefis. : 

2 [Significant to find this term applied from Western thought to 
this great bishopric by such a translator as Anastasius. ] } 

"[{See p. 257, supra, and p. 263, 1nfre, note 2. Not his final 
rejection after the Nicene Council.) 

4 [He is here speaking of its civil importance only. ] 


cycle of two hundred and eighty-five years from 
the incarnation of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ had rolled round, when the venerable 
Theonas, the bishop of this city, by an ethereal 
flight, mounted upwards to the celestial kingdoms. 
To him Peter, succeeding at the helm of the 
Church, was by all the clergy and the whole 
Christian community appointed bishop, the six- 
teenth in order from Mark the Evangelist, who 
was also archbishop of the city. He in truth, 
like Phosphor rising among the stars, shining 
forth with the radiance of his sacred virtues, 
most magnificently governed the citadel of the 
faith. Inferior to none who had gone before 
him in his knowledge of Holy Scripture, he nobly 
applied himself to the advantage and instruction 
of the Church ; being of singular prudence, and 
in all things perfect, a true priest and victim of 
God, he watchfully laboured night and day in 
every sacerdotal care. 

But because virtue is the mark of the zealot, 
“it is the tops of the mountains that are struck 
by lightning,’’5 he hence endured multifarious 
conflicts with rivals. Why need I say more? 
He lived in persecution almost the whole of his 
life. Meanwhile he ordained fifty-five bishops. 
Meletius lastly —in mind and name most black 
— was made the schismatical bishop of the city 
of Lycopolis, doing many things against the rule 
of the canons, and surpassing even the bloody 
soldiery in cruelty who, at the time of the Lord’s 
Passion, feared to rend His coat ; he was so hur- 
ried on by giving the rein to his madness, that, 
rending asunder the Catholic Church not only 
in the cities of Egypt, but even in its villages, 
he ordained bishops of his own party, nor cared 
he aught for Peter, nor for Christ, who was in 
the person of Peter. To him Arius, who was 
yet a laic, and not marked with the clerical ton- 
sure,° adhered, and was to him and his family 
most dear; and not without reason: every ani- 





5 Hor., Od., ii. to, 11. 

6 (Anastasius, more Romano, uses the Middle-Age terminol- 
ogy as if it had existed in the Ante-Nicene period. So all the suc- 
cessors of the apostles at Rome, including St. Peter himself, are 
transformed into ‘‘ Popes.” We owe this abuse to the ‘‘ False Decre- 
tals,” of which we treat hereafter. But why is exploded fiction and 
demonstrated untruth perpetuated by enlightened historians? See 
vol, v. p- 155.] 


261 


262 


mal, as says the Scripture, loves its like. But 
upon this coming to his knowledge, the man of 
God being affected with grief, said that this 
persecution was worse than the former. And 
although he was in hiding, yet, so far as his 
strength permitted, directing everywhere his ex- 
hortations, and preaching up the unity of the 
Church, he strengthened men to withstand the 
ignorance and nefarious temerity of Meletius. 
Whence it came to pass that not a few, being 
influenced by his salutary admonitions, departed 
from the Meletian impiety. 

Nearly about the same time Arius, armed with 
a viper’s craft, as if deserting the party of Mele- 
tius, fled for refuge to Peter, who at the request 
of the bishops raised him to the honours of the 
diaconate, being ignorant of his exceeding hypoc- 
risy. For he was even as a snake suffused with 
deadly poison. Yet neither can the imposition 
of hands upon this false one be imputed as a 
crime to this holy man, as the simulated magic 
arts of Simon is not ascribed to Philip. Mean- 
while, the detestable wickedness of the Meletians 
increased beyond measure; and the blessed 
Peter, fearing lest the plague of heresy should 
spread over the whole flock committed to his 
care, and knowing that there is no fellowship 


with light and darkness, and no concord betwixt | 


Christ and Belial, by letter separated the Mele- 
tians from the communion of the Church. And 
because an evil disposition cannot long be con- 
cealed, upon that instant the wicked Arius, when 
he saw his aiders and abettors cast down from 
the dignity of the Church, gave way to sadness 
and lamentation. This did not escape the notice 
of this holy man. For when his hypocrisy was 
laid bare, immediately using the ‘evangelical 
sword, “If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out 
and cast it from thee,’’' and cutting off Arius 
from the body of the Church as a putrid limb, 
he expelled and banished him from the com- 
munion of the faithful. 

This done, the storm of persecution suddenly 
abating, peace, although for a short time, smiled. 
Then this most choice priest of the Lord shone 
manifestly before the people, and the faithful 
began to run in crowds to keep the memory of 
the martyrs, and to assemble in congregations to 
the praise of Christ. 
divine law quickened with his holy eloquence, 
and so roused and strengthened that the multi- 
tude of believers increased continually in the 
Church. But the old enemy of salvation of man 
did not long remain quiet and look on these 
things with favouring eyes. For on a sudden the 
storm-cloud of paganism gave forth its hostile 
thunder, and like a winter shower struck against 
the serenity of the Church, and chased it away 





1 Matt. v. ag. 





Whom this priest of the | 





oa 


THE GENUINE ACTS OF PETER. 





in flight. But that this may be understood more 
clearly, we must necessarily turn back to the 
atrocities of Diocletian, that impious one, and 
rebel against God, and also to Maximian Gale- 
rius, who at that time, with his son Maximin, 
harassed the regions of the East with his tyran- 
nical sway. 

For in the time of this man the fire of Chris- 
tian persecution so raged, that not only in one 
region of the universe, but even throughout the 
whole world, both by land and by sea, the storm 
of impiety gave forth its thunder. The imperial 
edicts and most cruel decrees running hither 
and thither, the worshippers of Christ were put 
to death now openly, and now by clandestine 
snares ; no day, no night, passed off free from the 
effusion of Christian blood. Nor was the type 
of slaughter of one kind alone ; some were slain 
with diverse and most bitter tortures ; some again, 
that they might want the humanity of kinsmen, 
and burial in their own country, were transported _ 
to other climes, and by certain new machinations 
of punishment, and as yet to the age unknown, 
were driven to the goal of martyrdom. Oh, the 
horrible wickedness ! So great was their impiety 
that they even upturned from their foundations 
the sanctuaries of divine worship, and burned 
the sacred books in the fire. Diocletian of exe- 
crable memory having died, Constantinus Major 
was elected to administer the kingdom, and in 
the western parts began to hold the reins of 
government. 

In these days information was brought to Maxi- 
min about the aforesaid archbishop,? that he was 
a leader and holding chief place among the 
Christians ; and he, inflamed with his accustomed 
iniquity, on the instant ordered Peter to be ap- 
prehended and cast into prison. For which pur- 
pose he despatched to Alexandria five tribunes, 
accompanied with their bands of soldiers, who, 
coming thither as they had been commanded, 
suddenly seized the priest of Christ and com- 
mitted him to the custody of a-prison. Won- 
derful was the devotion of the faithful! When 
it was known that this holy man was shut up in 
the dungeon of the prison, an incredibly large 
number ran together, principally a band of monks 
and of virgins, and with no material arms, but 
with rivers of tears and the affection of pious 
minds, surrounded the prison’s circuit.3 And as 
good sons towards a good father, nay, rather as 
the Christian members of a most Christian head, 
adhered to him with all their bowels of com- 
passion, and were to him as walls, observing that 





2 [Post-Nicene terminology, condemned even by the Gallicans, 
as,e.g., Dupin. Alexandria, founded by St. Mark, was virtually. an 
Apostolic See, though commonly called the Evangelic See. ] 

3 Thus watched the faithful at Milan around Ambrose, their bishop, 
against whom the wrath of the Arian Empress Justina was directed, 
according to the testimony of Augustine, who was an eye-witness 
Cf. Confess., lib, ix. cap. 7. 


THE GENUINE ACTS OF PETER. 


f 


263 








no pagan might get an opportunity of access to 
him. One indeed was the vow of all, one their 
voice, and one their compassion and resolve to 
die rather than see any evil happen to this holy 
man. Now while the man of God was being 
kept for a few days in the same stocks, with his 
body thrust back, the tribunes made a suggestion 
to the king concerning him, but he, after his 
ferocious manner, gave his sentence for capitally 
punishing the most blessed patriarch. And when 
this got to the ears of the Christians, they all 
with one mind began to guard the approaches 
to the prison with groaning and lamentation, and 
persistently prevented any Gentile from obtain- 
ing access to him. And when the tribunes could 
by no means approach him to put him to death, 
they held a council, and determined that the 
soldiers should with drawn swords break in upon 
the crowd of people, and so draw him forth to 
behead him ; and if any one opposed, he should 
be put to death. 
_ Arius, in the meanwhile, having as yet been 
endowed only with the dignity of a Levite,! and 
fearing lest, after the death of so great a father, 
he should noways be able to get reconciled to 
the Church, came to those who held the chief 
place amongst the clergy, and, hypocrite that he 
was, by his sorrowful entreaties and plausible 
discourse, endeavoured to persuade the holy 
archbishop to extend to him his compassion, 
and to release him from the ban of excommuni- 
cation. But what is more deceptive than a 
feigned heart? What more simple than a holy 
composure? There was no delay; those who 
had been requested went in to the priest of 
Christ, and, after the customary oration, pros- 
trating themselves on the ground, and with 
groans and tears kissing his sacred hands, im- 
plored him, saying: “Thee, indeed, most blessed 
father, for the excellence of thy faith, the Lord 
hath called to receive the martyr’s crown, which 
we noways doubt does quickly await thee. 
Therefore do we think it night that, with thy 
accustomed piety, thou shouldest pardon Arius, 
and extend thy indulgence to his lamentations.”’ 
Upon hearing this the man of God, moved 
with indignation, put them aside, and, raising 
his hands to heaven, exclaimed: “ Do ye dare 
to supplicate me on behalf of Arius? Arius, 
both here and in the future world, will always 
remain banished and separate from the glory of 
the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord.”? He 
thus protesting, all who were present, being 
struck with terror, like men dumb, kept silence. 





1 Nie deacon; Isa. Ixvi. 2t. So Clement of Rome, cap. xl. p 
14, vol. i., this series. 

2 The Acta Combefistana add, “ quemadmodum ille Dei Filium 
a paterna gloria et substantia sequestravit,” even as he has separated 
the Son of God from the glory and substance of His Father. But 
Arius had not as yet laid bare his heresy, but had been excluded from 
the Church for joining in the Meletian schism, and a suspicious course 
of action, ' 





Moreover they suspected that he, not without 
some divine notification,3 gave forth such a sen- 
tence against Arius. But when the merciful 
father beheld them silent and sad from com- 
punction of heart, he would not persist in aus- 
terity, or leave them, as if in contempt, without 
satisfaction ; but taking Achillas and Alexander, 
who amongst the priests appeared to be the 
elders and the most holy, having one of them at 
his right hand, and the other on his left, he 
separated them a little from the rest, and at the 
end of his discourse said to them: “Do not, 
my brethren, take me fora man inhuman and 
stern ; for indeed I too am living under the law 
of sin; but believe my words. The hidden 
treachery of Arius surpasses all iniquity and 
impiety, and not asserting this of mine own self, 
have I sanctioned his excommunication. For 
in this night, whilst I was solemnly pouring forth 
my prayers to God, there stood by me a boy of 
about twelve years, the brightness of whose face 
I could not endure, for this whole cell in which 
we stand was radiant with a great light. He 
was clothed with a linen tunic + divided into two 
parts, from the neck to the feet, and holding in 
his two hands the rents of the tunic, he applied 
them to his breast -to cover his nudity. At this 
vision I was stupefied with astonishment. And 
when boldness of speech was given to me, I ex- 
claimed: Lord, who hath rent thy tunic? Then 
said he, Arius hath rent it, and by all means 
beware of receiving him into communion ; be- 
hold, to-morrow they will come to entreat you 
for him. See, therefore, that thou be not per- 
suaded to acquiesce: nay, rather lay thy com- 
mands upon Achillas and Alexander the priests, 
who after thy translation will rule my Church, 
not by any means to receive him. Thou shalt 
very quickly fulfil the lot of the martyr. Now 
there was no other cause of this vision. So now 
I have satisfied you, and I have declared unto 
you what I was ordered. But what you will do 
in consequence of this, must be your own care.” 
Thus much concerning Arius. 

Fle continued: “Ye know too, beloved, and 
ye know well, what has been the manner of my 
conversation amongst you, and what conflicts I 
have endured from the idolatrous Gentiles, who, 
being ignorant of the Lord and Saviour, do not 
cease in their madness to spread abroad the fame 





3 [‘ The dying are wont to vaticinate; ” but the prophetic charts- 
mata (x Cor. xiv. 31) were not yet extinct in the Church, in all 
probability, hence this conjecture was natural. | 

4 xodAdBtov —this is the tunicle, tunica, tunicella, dalmatica. It 
originally had no sleeves; it is said that wide sleeves were added in 
the West about the fourth century; and the garment was then called 
dalmatic, and was the deacon’s vestment when assisting at the holy 
communion; while that worn by sub-deacons, called by the Anglo- 
Saxons “‘ roc,” and ‘“‘tunicle” generally after the 13th century, was 
of the same form, but smaller and less ornamented (Palmer, Orzg. 
Liturgice, vol. ii. p. 314). The word, in its classical use, meant an 
under-garment with its sleeves curtailed (xoAoBdés} —i.e., reaching 
only half down to the elbow, or entirely without sleeves. [But the 
reference here is clearly to St John xix. 23; and the introduction of 
the medieval dalmatzc, to translate koAoBtoy, is out of place.] 


264 





of a multitude of gods who are no gods. Ye 
know likewise how, in avoiding the rage of my 
persecutors, I wandered an exile from place to 
place. For long time I lay in hiding in Meso- 
potamia, and also in Syria amongst the Phceni- 
cians ; in either Palestine also I had for a long 
time to wander ; and from thence, if I may so 
say, in another element, that is, in the islands, I 
tarried no short time. Yet in the midst of all 
these calamities I did not cease day and night 
writing to the Lord’s flock committed to my 
poor care, and confirming them in the unity of 
Christ. Foran anxious solicitude for them con- 
stantly kept urging my heart, and suffered me 
not to rest ; then only did I think it to be more 
tolerable to me when I committed them to the 
Power above. 

“ Likewise also, on account of those fortunate 
prelates, Phileus, I mean, Hesychius and The- 
odorus, who of divine grace have received a 
worthy vocation, what great tribulation agitated 
my mind. For these, as ye know, for the faith 
of Christ were with the rest of the confessors 
wasted with diverse torments. And because in 
such a conflict they were not only of the clergy 
but of the laity also the standard-bearers and 
preceptors, I on this account greatly feared lest 
they should be found wanting under their long 
affliction, and lest their defection, which is terri- 
ble to speak of, should be to many an occasion 
of stumbling and of denying the faith, for there 
were more than six hundred and sixty confined 
along with them within the precincts of a dun- 
geon. Hence, although oppressed with great 
labour and toil, I ceased not to write to them 
with reference to all those predicted passages,’ 
exhorting them to earn the martyr’s palm with 
the power of divine inspiration. But when I 
heard of their magnificent perseverance, and 
the glorious end of the passion of them all, fall- 
ing on the ground I adored the majesty of Christ, 
who had thought fit to count them amongst the 
throng of the martyrs. 

“Why should I speak to you about Meletius 
of Lycopolis? What persecutions, what treach- 
ery, he directed against me, I doubt not but that 
ye well know. Oh, the horrible wickedness ! he 
feared not to rend asunder the holy Church, 
which the Son of God redeemed with His pre- 
cious blood, and to deliver which from the 
tyranny of the devil He hesitated not to lay 
down His life. This Church, as I have begun 
to say, the wicked Meletius rending asunder, 
ceased not to imprison in dungeons, and to 
afflict holy bishops even, who have a little before 
us by martyrdom penetrated to the heavens. Be- 
ware therefore of his insidious devices. For I, 
as ye see, go bound by divine charity, preferring 





1 Of Scripture, 





THE GENUINE ACTS OF PETER. 


above all things the will of God. I know, in- 
deed, that under their breath the tribunes whis- 
per of my death with eager haste; but I will 
not from this circumstance open any communi- 
cation with them, nor will I count my life more 
precious than myself. Nay, rather, I am pre- 
pared to finish the course which my Lord Jesus 
Christ hath deigned to promise to me, and 
faithfully render up to Him the ministry which 
from Him I have received. Pray for me, my 
brothers ; you will not see me longer living in 
this life with you. Wherefore I testify before 
God and your brotherhood, that before all of 
you have I preserved a clean conscience. For 
I have not shunned to declare unto you the 
injunctions of the Lord, and I have refused not 
to make known to you the things which will 
hereafter be necessary. 

“Wherefore take heed unto yourselves, and 
the whole flock over which the Holy Ghost has 
appointed you as overseers in succession — thee 
Achillas in the first place, and next to thee Alex- 
ander. Behold with living voice I protest to 
you, that after my death men will arise in the 
Church speaking perverse things,? and will again 
divide it, like Meletius, drawing away the people 
after their madness. So I have told you before. 
But I pray you, mine own bowels, be watchful ; 
for ye must undergo many tribulations. For we 
are no better than our fathers. Are ye ignorant 
what things my father endured from the Gentiles, 
he who brought me up, the most holy bishop 
Theonas, whose pontifical 3 chair I have under- 
taken to fill? Would that I had his manners 
also! Why too should I speak of the great 
Dionysius his predecessor, who wandering from 
place to place sustained many calamities from 
the frantic Sabellius? Nor will I omit to men- 
tion you, ye most holy fathers and high priests 
of the divine law, Heraclius and Demetrius, 
for whom Origen, that framer of a perverse 
dogma, laid many temptations, who cast upon 
the Church a detestable schism, which to this 
day is throwing it into confusion. But the grace 
of God which then protected them, will, I be- 
lieve, protect you also. But why do I delay you 
longer, my very dear brethren, with the out- 
pouring of my prolix discourse. It remains, that 
with the last words of the Apostle+ who thus 
prayed I address you: ‘And now I commend 
you to God and the word of His grace, which 
is powerful to direct both you and His flock.’” 
When he had finished, falling on his knees, he 
prayed with them. And his speech ended, Achil- 
las and Alexander kissing his hands and feet 





2 Cf x Tim. tv. 1. 

3 [Another anachronism, but noteworthy as applied to the See of 
Alexandria, See p. 261, note 2, 

4 Cf. St. Paul's farewell address to the elders at Miletus, Acts xx 
28. [Acts xx. 32 ‘The whole of this affecting address 16 borrowed 
from the touching eloquence of St, Paul.] 


THE GENUINE ACTS OF PETER. 


and bursting into tears sobbed bitterly, specially 
grieving at those words of his which they heard 
when he said that they should henceforth see him 
in this life no more. Then this most gentle 
teacher going to the rest of the clergy, who, as I 
have said, had come in to him to speak in behalf 
of Arius, spake to them his last consoling words, 
and such as were necessary ; then pouring forth 
his prayers to God, and bidding them adieu, he 
dismissed them all in peace.' 

These things having thus ended, it was every- 
where published far and wide that Arius had not 
been cut off from the Catholic unity without a 
divine interposition. But that contriver of de- 
ceit, and disseminator of al} wickedness, ceased 
not to keep hidden his viper’s poison in the 
labyrinth of his bosom, hoping that he should 
be reconciled by Achillas and Alexander. This 
is that Arius the heresiarch, the divider of the 
consubstantial and indivisible Trinity. This is 
he who with rash and wicked mouth, was not 
afraid to blaspheme the Lord and Saviour, be- 
yond all other heretics; the Lord, I say, and 
Saviour, who out of pity for our human wander- 
ings, and being sorely grieved that the world 
should perish in deadly destruction and condem- 
nation, deigned for us all to suffer in the flesh. 
For it is not to be believed that the Godhead 
which is impassible was subject to the passion. 
But because the theologians and fathers have 
taken care in better style to remove from Catho- 
lic ears the blasphemies of this nature, and 
another task is ours, let us return to our sub- 
ject. 

This most sagacious pontiff? then, perceiving 
the cruel device of the. tribunes, who, in order 
to bring about his death, were willing to put to 
the sword the whole Christian multitude that 
was present, was unwilling that they should 
together with him taste the bitterness of death, 
but as a faithful servant imitating his Lord and 
Saviour, whose acts were even as his words, 
“The good Shepherd giveth His life for the 
sheep,” 3 prompted by his piety, called to him 
an elder of those who there waited on his words, 
and said to him: ‘Go to the tribunes who seek 
to kill me, and say to them, Cease ye from all 
your anxiety, lo! I am ready.and willing of mine 
own accord to give myself to them.” Bid them 
come this night to the rereward of the house of 
this prison, and in the spot in which they shall 
hear a signal given on the wall from within, there 
let them make an excavation, and take me and 
do with me as they have beencommanded. The 


1 (Acts xx. 38. The spirit of Ignatius and of Polycarp is here 
clearly to be recognised in the fourth century. ] 

2 t Another anachronism; but, as applied to the Alexandrian 
primate, it is a concession to truth, The word was already used_in 
the West, but not exclusively with respect.to the Apostolic Sees. See 
vol. v. p. 270, note t.] 

John x. 11. 








265, 


elder, obeying the commands of this most holy 
man, —for so great a father could not be con- 
tradicted, — departed to the tribunes, and made 
the intimation to them as he had been com- 
manded. They, when they had received it, were 
exceedingly rejoiced, and taking with them some 
stonemasons, came about the dawn of the day 
without their soldiers to the place which had 
been pointed out to them. The man of God 
had passed the whole night as a vigil, without 
sleep, in prayer and watchfulness. But when he 
heard their approach, whilst all who were with 
him were rapt in slumber, with a slow and gentle 
step he descended to the interior part of the 
prison, and according to the agreement made, 
made a sound on the wall; and those outside 
hearing this, forcing an aperture, received this 
athlete of Christ armed on all sides with no 
brazen breastplate, but with the virtue of the 
cross of the Lord, and fully prepared to carry 
out the Lord’s words who said, “‘ Fear not them 
which kill the body, but are not able to kill the 
soul: but rather fear Him which is able to de- 
stroy both soul and body in hell.’’* Wonderful 
was the occurrence! Such a heavy whirlwind of 
wind and rain prevailed during that night, that 
no one of those who kept the door of the prison 
could hear the sound of the excavation. This 
martyr most constant too, kept urging on his 
murderers, saying, Do what ye are about to do, 
before those are aware who are guarding me. 
But they took him up and brought him to the 
place called Bucolia, where the holy St. Mark 
underwent martyrdom for Christ. Astonishing 
is the virtue of the saints! As they carried 
him along, and beheld his great constancy and 
strength of mind when in peril of death, on a 
sudden a fear and trembling came upon them to 
such a degree, that none of them could look 
stedfastly into his face. Moreover, the blessed 
martyr entreated them to allow him to go to the 
tomb of St. Mark, for he desired to commend 
himself to his patronage.s But they from con- 
fusion, looking down on the ground, said, “Do 
as you wish, but make haste.” Therefore ap- 
proaching the burial-place of the evangelist, he 
embraced it, and speaking to him as if hé were 
yet alive in the flesh, and able to hear him, he 
prayed after this manner: “O father most hon- 
ourable, thou evangelist of the only-begotten 
Saviour, thou witness of His passion, thee did 
Christ choose, who is the Deliverer of us all, to 
be the first pontiff and pillar of this See; to 
thee did He commit the task of proclaiming the 
faith throughout the whole of Egypt and its 
boundaries. Thou, I say, hast watchfully fulfilled 
that ministry of our human salvation which was 





4 Matt. x. 28. ; : jf , 
S [Another anachronism. No such invocation of saints at this 
period. See note 6, p. 261, supra, | 


266 


OR Le AS <i Ska abit tl) 


i) 





THE GENUINE ACTS OF PETER. 





intrusted to thee; as the reward of this labour 
thou hast doubtless obtained the martyr’s palm. 
Hence, not without justice, art thou counted 
worthy to be saluted evangelist and bishop. Thy 
successor was Anianus, and the rest in descending 
series down to the most blessed Theonas, who 
disciplined my infancy, and deigned to educate 
my heart. To whom I, a sinner and unworthy, 
have been beyond my deservings appointed as 
successor by an hereditary descent. And, what 
is best of all, lo! the largeness of the divine 
bounty has granted me to become a martyr of 
His precious cross and joyful resurrection, giving 
to my devotion the sweet and pleasant odour of 
His passion, that I should be made meet to pour 
out unto Him the offering of my blood. And 
because the time of making this offering is now 
instant, pray for me that, the divine power assist- 
ing me, I may be meet to reach the goal of this 
agony with a stout heart and ready faith. I com- 
mend also to thy glorious patronage the flock of 
Christ’s worshippers which was committed to my 
pastoral care ; to thee, I say, I with prayers com- 
mend it, who are approved as the author and 
guardian of all preceding and subsequent occu- 
piers of this pontifical chair, and who, holding 
its first honours, art the successor not of man, 
but of the God-man, Christ Jesus.” Saying 
these words,’ he went back to a little distance 
from the sacred tomb, and, raising his hands to 
heaven, prayed with a loud voice, saying: “O 
thou Only-begotten, Jesus Christ, Word of the 
Eternal Father, hear me invoking Thy clemency. 
Speak peace, I beseech Thee, to the tempest 
that shakes Thy Church, and with the effusion 
of my blood, who am Thy servant, make an end 
to the persecution of Thy people.”’ Then a cer- 
tain virgin dedicated to God, who had her cell 
adjoining to the tomb of the evangelist, as she 
was spending the night in prayer, heard a voice 
from heaven, saying: “ Peter was the first of the 
apostles, Peter is the last of the martyred bishops 
of Alexandria.” 

Having ended his prayer, he kissed the tomb 
of the blessed evangelist, and of the other pon- 
tiffs who were buried there, and went forth to 
the tribunes. But they seeing his face as it had 
been the face of an angel, being terror-stricken, 
feared to speak to him of his instant agony. 
Nevertheless, because God does not desert those 
who trust in Him, He willed not to leave His 
martyr without consolation in the moment of so 
great a trial. For lo! an old man and an aged 
virgin, coming from the smaller towns, were has- 
tening to the city, one of whom was carrying 
four skins for sale, and the other two sheets of 
linen. The blessed prelate, when he perceived 
them, recognised a divine dispensation with ref- 





| isters, and was afraid 





or based on a mere | 


! [Wholly apocryphal in all probability, 
avant 


apostrophe. Such “ patronage” was'yet un 
ip P P: 4 y' 


erence to himself. He inquired of them on the 
instant, “ Are ye Christians?” And they replied, 
“Yes,” Then said he, “ Whither are ye going?” 
And they replied, “To the market in the city to 
sell these things that we are carrying.”’” ‘Then 
the most merciful father answered, “ My faithful 
children, God has marked you out, persevere 
with me.” And they immediately recognising 
him, said, ‘Sire, let it be as thou hast com- 
manded.” Then turning to the tribunes, he said, 
““Come, do what ye are about to do, and fulfil 
the king’s command ; for the day is now on the 
point of breaking.” 2 But they, suffering violence 
as it were on account of the wicked decree of 
the prince, brought him to a spot opposite to 
the sanctuary of the evangelist, into a valley 
near the tombs. Then said the holy man, 
“Spread out, thou aged man, the skins which 
thou carriest, and thou too, O aged woman, the 
linen sheets.’””3_ And when they had been spread 
out, this most constant martyr, mounting upon 
them, extended both his hands to heaven, and 
bending his knees on the ground, and fixing his 
mind upon heaven, returned his thanks to the 
Almighty Judge + of the contest, and fortifying 
himself with the sign of the cross, said, Amen. 
Then loosening his omophorion’ from his neck, 
he stretched it forth, saying, “‘What is com- 
manded you, do speedily.” 

Meanwhile the hands of the tribunes were 
paralyzed, and looking upon one another in turn, 
each urged his fellow to the deed, but they were 
all held fast with astonishment and fear. At 
length they agreed that out of their common 
stock a reward for the execution should be ap- 
pointed, and that the man who should venture 
to perpetrate the murder should: enjoy the re- 
ward. There was no delay, each of them 
brought forth five solidi.© But, as says the 
heathen poet, — 


2 ae xxxii. 26.] 

3 The Latin reads here: ‘‘ Spread out, ye aged men, the skins 
which ye are carrying.” 

4 aywvobeTns — 2S president of the Grecian games, the judge. 

$ [Probably he wore ordinarily what afterwards became an 
ecclesiastical ornament. So the casx/a and other vestments were 
retained by the clergy after they ceased to be commonly worn. Mar- 
riott, Vestiar. Christian., p. 198.] The omophorion, which is worn 
by every Eastern bishop, resembles the Latin pallium, except that it 
is broader, and tied round the neck ina knot. Cf following passage 
from Neale’s /utroductton to the Translation of the Eastern 
Liturgtes : “But while the Gospel is being read, the bishop lays 
aside his omophorion, thereby making profession of his service to the 
Lord. For since it is the Lord who is represented as speaking by 
the Gospel, and is, as it were, Himself present, the bishop at that 
time ventures not to be arrayed with the symbol of His incarnation 
—I mean the omofhorion ; but taking it off from his shoulders, he 
gives it to the deacon, who holds it folded in his right hand, himself 
standing near the bishop, and preceding the holy gifts. When he has 
finished the liturgy, and comes to the communion, he again assumes 
the omophorion, manifesting that before this he was one of the min- 
id to put upon himself that holy garment. But 
when the work is accomplished, and he goes on to elevate the bread, 
and to divide it into parts, and to receive it himself, and distribute it 
to others, it is necessary that he should put on all the sacred symbols 
of his dignity; and since the omophorron is the principal vest of a 


| pontiff, he necessarily assumes that, and in that 1s partaker of the 


most divine things.” [All this unknown to antiquity. ] 
6 A solidus or aureus worth 25 denarii, denarius being 8}d.; it 
was worth 17s. 84d.; five solidi, £4, 8s. 64d. [More than $20.] 


THE GENUINE ACTS OF PETER. 


267 





“Quid non mortalia pectora cogis, 
Auri sacra fames?”? . 

one of them, after the manner of the traitor 
Judas, emboldened by the desire of money, drew 
his sword and beheaded the pontiff, on the 25th 
day of November, after he had held the pontifi- 
cate twelve years —three of which were before 
the persecution, but the nine remaining were 
passed by him under persecutions of diverse 
kinds. The blood-money being instantly claimed 
by the executioner, these wicked purchasers, or 
rather destroyers, of man’s life quickly returned, 
for they feared the multitude of the people, since, 
as I have said, they were without their military 
escort. But the body of the blessed martyr, as 
the fathers affirm who went first to the place of 
execution, remained erect, as if instant in prayer, 
until many people, coming together, discovered 
it standing? in the same posture; so that what 
was his constant practice whilst living, to this his 
inanimate body testified. They found also the 
aged man and woman watching with grief and 
lamentation the most precious relic of the Church. 
So, honouring him with a triumphal funeral, they 
covered his body with the linen sheets ; but the 
sacred blood which had been poured forth, they 
collected reverently in a wallet. 

In the meanwhile an innumerable multitude 
of either sex, flocking together from the popu- 
lous city, with groans and ejaculations asked 
each other in turn, being ignorant, in what man- 
ner this had happened. In truth, from the least 
to the greatest, a very great grief was prevalent 
amongst all. For when the chief men of the 
city beheld the laudable importunity of the mul- 
titude, who were busied in dividing his sacred 
spoils to keep them as relics, they wrapped him up 
the tighter in the skins and linen sheets. For the 
most holy minister of God was always clothed in 
sacerdotal vestments of a white colour 3 — that is, 
with the tunic, the Rolodion, and the omophorion. 
Then there arose among them no small conten- 
tion ; for some were for carrying the most sacred 
limbs to the church which he had himself built, 
and where he now rests, but others were endeav- 
ouring to carry him to the sanctuary of the evan- 
gelist, where he attained the goal of martyrdom ; 
and since neither party would yield to the other, 
they began to turn their religious observance into 
a wrangling and a fight. In the meanwhile a 
spirited body of senators of those who are en- 


I Virgil, 4., book iii. 56: — 
“*O sacred hunger of pernicious gold, 
What bands of faith can impious lucte hold ?” — Dryden. 


2 [Here ‘‘ standing” = continuing. He knelt, no doubt, to be 
beheaded; but the corpse ~eazned in this posture. A noble horse, 
shot on the field of Antietam, remained on the field in an attitude of 
raising himself from the ground, as I saw it myself.] 

3 Prhis may be credited. See Cyprian’s Passzon. But the technical 
names which foHow seem an anachronism if technically understood. 
I say this with no spirit of objection to these vestments, eccetaal 

4 [See Kingsley’s Hypatra. In Cyril’s time this might have hap- 
pened: one trusts that for P+ter’s day this, too, is an anachronism. ] 





gaged in the public transport service, seeing what 
had happened, for they were near the sea, pre- 
pared a boat, and suddenly seizing upon the 
sacred relics, they placed them in it, and scaling. 
the Pharos from behind, by a quarter which has 
the name of Leucado, they came to the church 
of the most blessed mother of God, and Ever- 
Virgin Mary, which, as we began to say, he had 
constructed in the western quarter, in a suburb, 
for a cemetery of the martyrs. Thereupon the 
throng of the people, as if the heavenly treasure 
had been snatched from them, some by straight 
roads, and others by a more devious route, fol- 
lowed with hasty steps. And when they at length 
arrived there, there was no longer any altercation 
where he was to be placed, but by a common 
and unimpeachable counsel they agreed first to 
place him in his episcopal chair, and then to 
bury him. 

And this, most prudent reader, I would not 
have you regard as a wild fancy and superstition, 
since, if you learn the cause of this novelty, you 
will admire and approve of the zeal and deed of 
the populace. For this blessed priest, when he 
celebrated the sacrament of the divine mysteries, 
did not, as is the ecclesiastical custom, sit upon 
his pontifical throne, but upon its footstool un- 
derneath, which, when the: people beheld, they 
disliked, and complainingly exclaimed, “Thou 
oughtest, O father, to sit upon thy chair;” and 
when they repeated this frequently, the minister 
of the Lord rising, calmed their complaints with 
tranquil voice, and again took his seat upon the 
same stool. So all this seemed to be done by 
him from motives of humility. But upon a cer- 
tain great festival it happened that he was offer- 
ing the sacrifice of the mass,5 and wished to do 
this same thing. Thereupon, not only the people, 
but the clergy also, exclaimed with one voice, 
“Take thy seat upon thy chair, bishop.” But 
he, as if conscious of a mystery, feigned not to 
hear this ; and giving the signal for silence, — for 
no one dared pertinaciously to withstand him, — 
he made them all quiet, and yet, nevertheless, 
sat down on the footstool of the chair; and the 
solemnities of the mass® having been celebrated 
as usual, each one of the faithful returned to his 
own home. 

But the man of God sending for the clergy, 
with tranquil and serene mind, charged them 
with rashness, saying, “ How is it that ye blush 
not for having joined the cry of the laity, and 
reproaching me? Howbeit, since your reproach 
flows not from the muddy torrent of arrogance, 
but from the pure fountain of love, I will unfold 





5 {Another anachronism, and Occidental also. 

6 [See vol. v. p. 256, note 6, and p. 259, Elucidation II. Missa, 
a Latin word, has clearly no place here save the Roman rule of 
reading modern rites into antiquity. Thus, in Raphael’s picture 
illustrating the story of 2 Macc. ili. 15, the Jewish high-priest is made 
a Roman pontiff. Compare note 6, p. 261, supra. | 


268 





to you the secret of this mystery. Very often 
when I wish to draw near to that seat, I see a 
virtue as it were sitting upon it, exceeding radiant 
with the brightness of its light. Then, being in 
suspense between joy and fear, I acknowledge 
that Iam altogether unworthy to sit upon such 
a seat, and if I did not hesitate to cause an oc- 
casion of offence to the people, without doubt 
I should not even venture to sit upon the stool 
itself. Thus it is, my beloved sons, that I seem 
to you, in this, to transgress the pontifical rule. 
Nevertheless, many times when I see it vacant, 
as ye yourselves are witnesses, I refuse not to sit 
upon the chair after the accustomed manner. 
Wherefore do ye, now that ye are acquainted 
with my secret, and being well assured that, if I 
shall be indulged, I will sit upon the chair, for 
I hold not in slight esteem the dignity of my 
order, cease any further from joining in the ex- 
clamations of the populace.” This explanation 
the most holy father, whilst he was yet alive, was 
compelled to give to the clergy. The faithful 
of Christ, therefore, remembering all this with 
pious devotion, brought his sacred body, and 
caused it to sit upon the episcopal throne. As 
much joy and exultation arose then to heaven 
from the people, as if they were attending him 
alive and in the body. Then embalming him 
with sweet spices, they wrapped him in silken 
coverings ; what each one of them could be the 
first to bring, this he accounted to himself as 
greatest gain. Then carrying palms, the tokens 
of victory, with flaming tapers, with sounding 
hymns, and with fragrant incense, celebrating 
the triumph of his heavenly victory, they laid 
down the sacred relics, and buried them in the 
cemetery which had been long ago constructed 
by him, where too from henceforth, and even to 
this day, miraculous virtues cease not to show 
themselves. Pious vows, forsooth, are received 
with a propitious hearing ; the health of the im- 
potent is restored; the expulsion of unclean 
spirits testifies to the martyr’s merits. These 
gifts, O Lord Jesus, are Thine, whose wont it is 
thus magnificently to honour Thy martyrs after 
death: Thou who with the Father and the Holy 
Consubstantial Spirit livest and reignest for ever- 
more. Amen. 
After this, how that wolf and framer of treach- 


1 [See note a, p. 265, supra.] 





THE. GENUINE ACTS OF PETER. 


— 


ery, that is Arius, covered with a sheep’s skin, 
entered into the Lord’s fold to worry and tor- 
ment it, or in what manner he was enabled to 
attain to the dignity of the priesthood, let us 
employ ourselves in relating in brief. And this 
not to annoy those who ventured to recall to the 
threshing-floor of the Lord those tares of apos- 
tacy and contagion that had been winnowed out 
of the Church by a heavenly fan; for these are 
without doubt reckoned eminent for sanctity, 
but thinking it a light thing to believe so holy a 
a man, they transgressed the injunctions of the 
divine command. What then? Do we repre- 
hend them? Byno means. For as long as this 
corruptible body weighs us down, and this earth- 
ly habitation depresses the sense of our infirmity, 
many are easily deceived in their imaginations, 
and think that which is unjust to be just, that to 
be holy which is impure. The Gibeonites who, 
by the divine threatenings, were to be utterly 
destroyed, having one thing in their wishes and 
another in their voice and mien, were able 
quickly to deceive Joshua,3 that just distributor 
of the land of promise. David‘ also, full of 
prophetic inspiration, when he had heard the 
words of the deceitful youth, although it was by 
the inscrutable and just judgment of God, yet 
acted very differently from what the true nature 
of the case required. What also can be more 
sublime than the apostles, who have not removed 
themselves from our infirmity? For one of them 
writes, “In many things we offend all;’’5 and 
another, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive 
ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”® But 
when we repent of these, so much the more 
readily do we obtain pardon, when we have 
sinned not willingly, but through ignorance or 
frailty. And certainly offences of this sort come 
not of prevarication, but of the indulgence of 
compassion. But I leave to others to write an 
apology for this ; let us pursue what is in hand. 
After that magnificent defender of the faith. 
Peter, worthy of his name, had by the triumph 
of martyrdom, etc. 


THE REST IS WANTING. 


2 Achillas, the successor of Peter, admitted Arius to the priesthood. 

3 Cf. Joshua ix. i 

4 Perhaps Absalom, or it may be Ziba, is referred to. 
xiv. 33, XVi. 3.) 

5 Jas. ili. 2. 

© x Johni. 8. 


(2 Sam. 


THE CANONICAL’ EPISTLE; 


WITH THE 


COMMENTARIES OF THEODORE BALSAMON AND JOHN ZONARAS. 


THE CANONS OF THE BLESSED PETER, ARCHBISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA, AS 


THEY ARE GIVEN 


CANON I. 


Bur since the fourth passover of the perse- 
cution has arrived, it is sufficient, in the case of 
those who have been apprehended and thrown 
into prison, and who have sustained torments 
not to be borne, and stripes intolerable, and 
many other dreadful afflictions, and afterwards 
have been betrayed by the frailty of the flesh, 
even though they were not at the first received 
on account of their grievous fall that followed, 
yet because they contended sorely and resisted 
long ; for they did not come to this of their own 
will, but were betrayed by the frailty of the flesh ; 
for they show in their bodies the marks of Jesus,! 
and some are now, for the third year, bewailing 
their fault: it is sufficient, I say, that from the 
time of their submissive approach, other forty 
days should be enjoined upon them, to keep 
them in remembrance of these things; those 
forty days during which, though our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ had fasted, He was yet, 
after He had been baptized, tempted of the 
devil. And when they shall have, during these 
days, exercised themselves much, and constant- 
ly fasted, then let them watch in prayer, medi- 
tating upon what was spoken by the Lord to him 
who tempted Him to fall down and worship 
him: “Get thee behind me, Satan; for it is 
written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, 
and Him only shalt thou serve.” 5 


BALSAMON. The present canons treat of those who 
have in the persecution denied the faith, and are doing 
penance. And the first canon ordains, that upon those 


ihe Canonical Epistles of Basil have been heretofore men- 
tioned. Vol. v. p. 572, elucidation. ] 

2 These Canons of Peter of Alexandria are interesting as bearing 
upon the controversy between Cyprian and the clergy of Carthage, 
with regard to the treatment of the lapsed. They also bear upon the 
subject-matter of the Novatian schism. 

3 Another reading is dvnxéarous, “* 

4 The marks of Jesus, ot/ymarta, 

5 Matt. iv. 10 


which cannot be cured.” 


C/. Gal. vi. 17. 





IN HIS SERMON ON PENITENCE.? 


who after many torments have sacrificed to the gods, 
not being able by reason of frailty to persevere, and who 
have passed three years in penitence, other forty days 
should be enjoined, and that then they should be ad- 
mitted into the Church. Observe these present canons 
which lay down various and useful rules in favour of 
those who have denied their God, and seek for repent- 
ance, and concerning those who have of their own ac- 
cord sought martyrdom, and have lapsed, and then have 
again confessed the faith, and other things of the like 
nature. Consult also, for you will profitably do so, 
many canons of the Council of Ancyra. 

ZONARAS. Amongst those who in these turbulent 
times denied the faith, the holy Peter makes a distine- 
tion, and says, that upon those who had been brought 
before the tyrant, and thrown into prison, and who had 
endured very grievous torments, and intolerable scour- 
gings, and such as could be cured by no care or medicine 
(for dxo¢ signifies medical care, and avixeazov is the same 
as immedicabile), and other dreadful afflictions, and after- 
wards yielding, sacrificed to the gods, being betrayed as 
it were by the weakness of the flesh, which could not 
hold out under the pain unto the end, that for them the 
time past should suffice for punishment ; since, indeed, 
says he, the fourth passover has now past since they 
made this very grievous fall. And although perhaps at 
first, when they approached in penitence, they were not 
received, yet because they did not of their own free-will 
proceed to sacrifice to the gods, and resisted long, and 
bear about with them the marks of Jesus, that is to say, 
the scars of the wounds which, in behalf of Christ, they 
have endured, and the third year has now elapsed since 
they first bewailed their fall, he decrees that, as an addi- 
tional punishment, other forty days from the time that 
they came asking to be admitted to communion should 
be enjoined on them in the place of any further severity , 
during which they should exercise a still greater degree 
of penance, and should fast more earnestly, that is, with 
more attentive care, keeping guard over themselves, 
being watchful in prayer, meditating upon, that is, turn- 
ing over perpetually in their minds, and saying in words, 
the text quoted by the Lord against the tempter, “ Get 
thee behind me, Satan; for it is written, Thou shalt 
worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou 
serve.” 


CANON II. 


But in the case of those who, after that they 
were thrown into prison, and in the dungeon, 
as in a place besieged. endured afflictions and 

z0G 


270 


THE CANONICAL EPISTLE, : 





nauseous odours, but afterwards, without the con- 
flict of torments, were led captive, being broken 
in spirit by poverty of strength, and a certain 
blindness of the understanding, a year in addi- 
tion to the foregoing time will suffice ; for they 
gave themselves up to be afflicted for the name 
of Christ, even though in their dungeon they 
enjoyed much consolation from their brethren ; 
which, indeed, they shall return many fold, de- 
siring to be set free from that most bitter cap- 
tivity of the devil, especially remembering Him 
who said: “ The spirit of the Lord is upon me, 
because He hath anointed me to preach the 
Gospel to the poor; He hath sent me to heal 
the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the 
captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, 
to set at liberty them that are bruised ; to preach 
the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of 
recompense unto our God.” ? 


BALSAMON. This canon enacts that those who have 
only been evil entreated in prison, and who without tor- 
ment have lapsed, should be punished after the three 
years with an additional ise For though they obtained 
consolation, certain of the faithful ministering to them 
the necessaries of life, yet they ought to obtain pardon, 
as being those who have suffered severely for the faith. 

ZONARAS. In the second order, he places those who 
have only been thrown into prison, and evil entreated in 
the dungeon, and yet, though harassed by no torments, 
have offended; upon whom, besides the time past, the 
three years, namely, of which we have spoken, he pro- 
poses to inflict the penalty of an additional year, since 
they also, “Te he, have for Christ’s name endured hard- 
ness, even though it may be that they obtained some 
consolation from the brethren whilst in prison. For it 
is probable that the faithful, who were not in custody, 
ministered to those in bonds the necessaries of life, and 
brought to them some alleviation of their lot. Which 
things, indeed, they shall return many fold; for those 
consolations which they enjoyed in prison they shall 
vex themselves with penance, and afflict themselves in 
diverse ways, if they wish to-be set free from the cap- 
tivity of the devil, having become his captives and slaves 
by their denial of Christ. He subjoins the words of the 
prophet, taken from Isaiah, which he says that they 
ought to keep in remembrance. 


CANON III. 


But as for those who have suffered none of 
these things, and have shown no fruit of faith, 
but of their own accord have gone over to wick- 
edness, being betrayed by fear and cowardice, 
and now come to repentance, it is necessary and 
convenient to propose the parable of the unfruit- 
ful fig-tree, as the Lord says: “A certain man 
had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard; and he 
came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. 
Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, 
Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit 
on this fig-tree, and find none: cut it down; 
why cumbereth it the ground? And he answer- 
ing, said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year 
also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it. And 


® Isa. lxi. x 2; Luke iv. 18, 19. 











if it bear fruit, well; and if not, then after that 
thou shalt cut it down.” Keeping this before 
their eyes, and showing forth fruit worthy of re- 
pentance, after so long an interval of time, they 
will be profited. 


BALSAMON. Those who from fear only and timidity 
deserted the faith, and then had an eye towards repent- 
ance, the canon punishes with three years’ exclusion, 
according to the parable of the fig-tree in the Gospels. 
For the Lord said, Three years I come to it seeking 
fruit, and find none; but the vine-dresser replies, Lord, 
let it alone this year also. 

ZoNARAS. But those, he says, who having suffered 
no hardness, have deserted from fear only and timidity, 
in that they of their own accord have approached to 
wickedness, and then looked towards repentance, their 
case the parable of the fig-tree in the Gospels will exactly 
suit. Let them keep this before their eyes, and show 
forth for an equal period labours worthy of penitence, 
and they shall be profited; that is, after the fourth year. 
For the Lord said, Three years I come to it seekin 
fruit, and find none; and the vine-dresser ananeree 
Lord, let it alone this year also. 


CANON IV. 


To those who are altogether reprobate, and 
unrepentant, who possess the Ethiopian’s. un- 
changing skin,? and the leopard’s spots, it shall 
be said, as it was spoken to another fig-tree, 
“Tet no fruit grow on thee henceforward for 
ever ; and it presently withered away.”3 For in 
them is fulfilled what was spoken by the Preacher : 
“That which is crooked cannot be made straight ; 
and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.’’4 
For unless that which is crooked shall first be 
made straight, it is impossible for it to be adorned ; 
and unless that which is wanting shall first be 
made up, it cannot be numbered. Hence also, 
in the end, will happen unto them what is spoken 
by Esaias the prophet: “They shall look upon 
the carcases of the men that have transgressed 
against Me; for their worm shall not die, neither 
shall their fire be quenched ; and they shall be an 
abhorring unto all flesh.”5 Since as by the same 
also has been predicted, “ But the wicked are 
like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose 
waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, 
saith my God, to the wicked.” © 


BALSAMON. What has been previously said of the 
lapsed, has been said of the repentant. But against 
those who are unrepentant, he brings forward the curs- 
ing of another fig-tree, to which the Lord said, because 
of its unprofitableness, “No fruit grow on thee hence- 
forward for ever.” 

ZONARAS. What has been previously said of the 
lapsed, has been said of the repentant. Against those 
whom, from desperation or depraved opinion, are im- 
penitent, and carry about with them perpetually the 
inherent and indelible blackness of sin, as of an Ethio- 
pian’s skin, or the leopard’s spots, he brings forward the 
cursing of another fig-tree. To which the Lord said for 





2 Jer. iii. 23. 

3 Matt. xxi. 19. 

4 Eccles. i. 15. 

5 Isa, Ixvi. 24. 

6 Isa, lvii. 20, a1. 


THE CANONICAL EPISTLE. 


274 





‘its barrenness, “ Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward 


for ever. And he says that in them must be fulfilled 
that word of the Preacher: “That which is crooked can- 
not be made straight; and that which is wanting cannot 
be numbered.” Then having explained these things, he 
subjoins the words of Isaiah. 


CANON V. 


- But upon those who have used dissimulation 
like David, who feigned himself to be mad‘ to 
avoid death, being not mad in reality ; and those 
who have not nakedly written down their denial 
of the faith, but being in much tribulation, as boys 
endowed with sagacity and prudence amongst 
foolish children, have mocked the snares of their 
enemies, either passing by the altars, or giving a 
writing, or sending heathen to do sacrifice instead 
of themselves, even though some of them who 
have confessed have, as I have heard, pardoned 
individuals of them, since with the greatest cau- 
tion they have avoided to touch the fire with 
their own hands, and to offer incense to the im- 
pure demons ; yet inasmuch as they escaped the 
notice of their persecutors by doing this, let a 
penalty of six months’ penance be imposed upon 
them. For thus will they be the rather profited, 
meditating upon the prophet’s words, and say- 
ing, “‘ Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is 
given ; and the government shall be upon His 
shoulder: and His name shall be called the 
Messenger of My mighty counsel.”2 Who, as 
ye know, when another infant in the sixth month3 
of his conception had preached ‘before His 
coming repentance for the remission of sins, was 
himself also conceived to preach repentance. 
Moreover, we hear both also preaching, in the 
first place, not only repentance, but the kingdom 
of heaven, which, as we have learned, is within 
us ;+ for the word which we believe is near us, 
in our mouth, and in our heart ; which they, be- 
ing put in remembrance of, will learn to confess 
with their mouths that Jesus is the Christ; be- 
lieving in their heart that God hath raised him 
from the dead, and being as those who hear, that 
“with the heart man believeth unto righteous- 
ness; and with the mouth confession is made 
unto salvation.” 5 


BALSAMON. But if any have pretended to approach 
the altars, or to write their denial of the faith, and have 
not done this nakedly and openly, but by feigned arts 
have illuded those who offered them violence, as David 
did, who, when he was flying from Saul, and was amongst 
strangers, feigned himself to be mad, and thus escaped 
death. So they mocked the snares of their enemies, as 
children endowed with wisdom and prudence mock fool- 
ish children ; for they deceived the impious heathen, in 
that they seemed to sacrifice, although they did not sac- 
rifice, or perhaps they suborned heathens and infidels to 
take their place, and by these means they thought that 





1 Cf. 1 Sam, xxi. 13. 
2 Tsa, ix, 6. 

3 Luke i. 76, 77. 

4 Luke xvii. 21,, 

5 Rom, x, 8-10. 








they offered sacrifice; for them, he says, a period of six 
months will suffice for penance. For although they did 
not sacrifice, yet because they promised to sacrifice, or 
sent others to do so in their place, they are thought to 
stand in need of repentance, even though some of those 
who have given their testimony for the faith have’ par- 
doned individuals of them. He compares them to chil- 
dren, as not having manfully withstood the idolaters, 
but to prudent children, because by artifice they avoided 
doing sacrifice. 

ZoNARAS. But if any have pretended to approach 
the altars, or to write their denial of the faith, but have 
not nakedly written down their abnegation, that is, not 
manifestly, not openly; but by a sort of trick have 
cheated those who offered them violence; as David, 
who while he was flying from Saul, and had come 
amongst strange people, feigned himself to be mad, and 
in this way avoided death, They mocked indeed, he 
says, the insidious devices of their enemies; as prudent 
children, endowed with wisdom and sagacity, and those 
who skilfully take counsel, deceive foolish children. 
Now he compares those to prudent children by whom 
the impious heathen were deceived, and those who 
though they did not sacrifice, yet seemed to sacrifice, 
prudent indeed, as having thus far avoided sacrificing ; 
but children, in that they did not show forth a mature 
and manly spirit, and did not nobly resist the worship- 
pers of idols, but covenanted to sacrifice, even though 
they suborned some in their places, heathens, forsooth, 
and infidels, and when these sacrificed, they were con- 
sidered to have sacrificed. For men of this sort, he 
says, a period of six months will suffice for penance. 
For although they did not sacrifice, yet because they 
covenanted to sacrifice, or suborned others to do so, and 
thus themselves appeared to have sacrificed, they were 
judged to stand in need of repentance; even though 
some confessors might have pardoned individuals of 
them; for some of those who witnessed to the faith and 
suffered for it, pardoned those who by an artifice, as has 
been said, escaped offering sacrifice, and admitted them 
to communion with the faithful, because they studiously 
avoided offering sacrifice to demons. And on account 
of the fixing of this term of six months, he calls to re- 
membrance the annunciation made by Gabriel, in the 
sixth month of the conception of the Forerunner, in 
which the Lord was conceived. Then he subjoins the 
words of the apostle. 


CANON VI. 


In the case of those who have sent Christian 
slaves to offer sacrifice for them, the slaves in- 
deed as being in their master’s hands, and in a 
manner themselves also in the custody of their 
masters, and being threatened by them, and 
from their fear having come to this pass and 
having lapsed, shall during the year show forth 
the works of penitence, learning for the future, 
as the slaves of Christ, to do the will of Christ 
and to fear Him, listening to this especially, that 
“whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the 
same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he 
be bond or free.” © 


BALSAMON. The slaves who under the commands 
and threatenings of their masters offered sacrifice, this 
father punishes with a year’s exclusion; yet he pardons 
them as having acted under the orders of a master, and 
does not inflict a heavy punishment upon them, But 
yet since they are much more the servants of Christ, 
even as they ought to fear Him more, he imposes on 





6 Eph. vi. 8. 


272 


THE CANONICAL EPISTLE. 





them a moderate punishment; for, as says the great 
Paul, '‘ whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same 
pec he receive of the Lord, whaler he be bond or 
ree. 

ZONARAS. Some have sent their own Christian ser- 
vants, even against their will, to offer sacrifice in their 
stead, These servants, therefore, although not of their 
own free-will, but being compelled by their masters, 
they offered sacrifice, this father ordains shall pass a 

ear in penance, and enjoins them to remember that, 

toa the number of the faithful, they are the servants 
f Christ, and that Him they ought rather to fear; for 
““whatsoever any man doeth,” says the great apostle, 
a same shall he receive, whether he be bond or 
ree.” 


CANON VII. 


But the freemen shall be tried by penance 
for three years, both for their dissimulation, and 
for having compelled their fellow-servants to 
offer sacrifice, inasmuch as they have not obeyed 
the apostle, who would have the masters do the 
same things unto the servant, forbearing threat- 
ening ;' knowing, says he, that our and their 
Master is in heaven; and that there is no re- 
spect of persons with Him.? Now, if we all have 
one Master, with whom is no respect of persons, 
since Christ is all and in all, in barbarian, Scyth- 
ian, bond or free,3 they ought to consider what 
they have done, wishing to preserve their own 
lives. They have drawn their fellow-servants to 
idolatry who would have been able to escape, 
had they given to them that which is just and 
equal, as again says the apostle. 


BALSAMON. But upon the freemen, or the masters 
of the servant compelled to sacrifice, he enjoins a pun- 
ishment of three years, both because they pretended to 
sacrifice, and seemed to assent to it; and also because 
they compelled their fellow-servants to offer sacrifice, 
and did not obey the apostle, who ordered them to 
forbear threatening their servants, inasmuch as they 
themselves, the masters, are the servants of God, and 
fellow-servants with their own domestics. And then 
they have made haste to preserve their own lives, and 
have driven their fellow-servants to idolatry who might 
have escaped. 

ZONARAS. But upon the freemen, that is, the mas- 
ters of the servants who were compelled to sacrifice, he 
enjoins a penalty of three years, both because they pre- 
tended to sacrifice, and altogether appeared to succumb; 
and also because they compelled their fellow-servants 
to offer sacrifice, and did not obey the apostle’s injunc- 
tion to forbear threatening their servants; since they 
also, the masters, are the servants of God, and the fel- 
low-servants of their own domestics. And they indeed 
made haste to preserve their own lives, and drove their 
fellow-servants, who might have escaped, to idolatry. 


CANON VIII. 


But to those who have been delivered up, and 
have fallen, who also of their own accord have 
approached the contest, confessing themselves 
to be Christians, and have been tormented and 
thrown into prison, it is right with joy and ex- 
ultation of heart to add strength, and to com- 

1 Eph. vi. 9. 


2 Rom. ii. rz. 
3 Col. iii. xz. 





municate to them in all things, both in prayer, 
and in partaking of the body and blood of Christ, 
and in hortatory discourse ; in order that con- 
tending the more constantly, they may be counted 
worthy of “the prize of their high calling.”4 For 
“seven times,” he says, “a just man falleth, and 
riseth up again,” 5 which, indeed, if all that have 
lapsed had done, they would have shown forth a 
most perfect penitence, and one which pene- 
trates the whole heart. 


BALSAMON. Some had had information laid against 
them before the tyrant, and had been delivered up, or 
themselves had of their own accord given themselves 
up, and then being overcome by their torments, had 
failed in their testimony. Afterwards repenting, and 
acknowledging what was right and good, they confessed 
themselves to be Christians, so that they were cast into 
prison, and afflicted with torments. These this holy 
man thinks it right to receive with joy of heart, and to 
confirm in the orthodox faith, and to communicate with, 
both in prayers and in partaking of the Sacraments, and 
to exhort with cheering words, that they me be more 
constant in the contest, and counted worthy of the 
heavenly kingdom. And that it might not be thought 
that they ought not to be received, because they had 
lapsed, he brings forward the testimony of Scripture to 
the effect that “seven times,” that is, often, “the just 
man falleth, and riseth up again.” And, says he, if 
all who have failed in their confession had done this, 
namely, taken up their struggle again, and before the 
tyrant confessed themselves to be Christians, they would 
have shown forth a most perfect penitence. The sub- 
ject, therefore, comprehended in this canon differs from 
that contained in the first canon, for there indeed those 
who by reason of their torment had lapsed, were not 
converted so as to confess the faith before the tyrants; 
but here those who by reason of their torment have 
lapsed, with a worthy penitence, confess the Lord before 
the tyrants, wherefore they are reckoned not to have 
fallen. 

ZONARAS. But, says he, if any have had information 
laid against them before the tyrants, and have been de- 
livered up, or have of themselves given themselves up, 
and being overcome by the violence of their torments 
have failed in their testimony, not being able to endure 
the distresses and afflictions with which in the dungeon 
they were afflicted; and afterwards taking up the con- 
test anew, have confessed themselves to be Christians, 
so that they have been again cast into prison and af- 
flicted with torments: such men this holy martyr judges 
it reasonable that they should be joyfully received; and 
that they should be strengthened, that is, have strength, 
spirit, and confidence added to them, in order that they 
may confess the faith, and that they should be communi- 
cated with in all things, both in prayer, and in partaking 
of the sacraments, and that they should be exhorted 
with loving words, to rouse themselves to give testimony 
to the faith, that they may be more constant in the con- 
test, and counted worthy of the heavenly kingdom. And 
that it might not be thought by any that they ought not 
to be received from the fact that they had lapsed, and 
sacrificed to the idols, he brings forth this testimony 
from Holy Scripture: “Seven times,” that is, often, ‘‘the 
just man falleth, and riseth up again.” And, says he, if 
all who have failed in their confession had done this, 
that is, after their fall, taken up the contest afresh, and 
confessed themselves to be Christians before the tyrants, 
they would have given proof of a most perfect repent. 
ance. 


4 Philipp. iii. 14. 
5 Prov. xxiv. 16. 


CANON IX. 


With those also who, as it were from sleep, 
themselves leap forth upon a contest which is 
travailing long and likely to be protracted, and 
draw upon themselves the temptations as it were 
of a sea-fight, and the inundations of many 
waves, or rather are for the brethren kindling 
the coals of the sinners, with them also we must 
communicate, inasmuch as they come to this in 
the name of Christ, even though they take no 
heed unto His words, when He teaches us “to 
pray that we enter not into temptation;’’? and 
again in His prayer, He says to His Father, 
“and lead us not into temptation, but deliver 
us from evil.”? And perhaps also they know 
not that the Master of the House and our Great 
Teacher often retired from those who would lay 
snares for Him, and that sometimes He walked 
not openly because of them ; and even when the 
time of His passion drew on, He delivered not 
up Himself, but waited until they came to Him 
with “swords and staves.” He said to them 
therefore, “Are ye come out, as against a thief, 
with swords and staves, for to take Me?”3 And 
they “delivered Him,” He says, “to Pilate.” 4 
As it was with Him it happens to those who walk 
keeping Him before them as an example, recol- 


‘lecting His divine words, in which, confirming 


us, He speaks of persecution: ‘Take heed unto 
yourselves, for they will deliver you up to the 
councils, and they will scourge you in their 
synagogues.” 5 Now, He says, they will deliver 
you up, and not, ye shall deliver up yourselves ; 
and “ ye shall be brought before rulers and kings 
for My sake,” © but not, ye shall bring yourselves, 
for He would have us pass from place to place 
as long as there are those who persecute us for 
His name’s sake ; even as again we hear Him 
saying, “But when they persecute you in this 
city, flee ye into another.”7 For He would not 
have us go over to the ministers and satellites of 
the devil, that we might not be the cause to them 
of a manifold death, inasmuch as thus we should 
be compelling them both to be harsher, and to 
carry out their deadly works, but He would have 
us to wait, and to take heed to ourselves, to 
watch and to pray, lest we enter into tempta- 
tion.t Thus first Stephen, pressing on His foot- 
steps, suffered martyrdom, being apprehended 
in Jerusalem by the transgressors, and being 
brought before the council, he was stoned, and 
glorified for the name of Christ, praying with 
the words, “Lord, lay not this sin to their 
charge.” ® Thus James, in the second place, 


1 Matt. xxvi. qr. 
2 Matt. vi. 13. 

3 Matt, xxvi. 55. 
4 Matt. xxvii. 2. 
5 Matt. x. 17. 

© Matt. x, 8 

7 Matt. x. 23. 

8 Acts vii. 59. 


THE CANONICAL EPISTLE. 





273 





being of Herod apprehended, was beheaded 
with the sword. Thus Peter, the first of the 
apostles, having been often apprehended, and 
thrown into prison, and treated with igominy, 
was last of all crucified at Rome. Likewise also, 
the renowned Paul having been oftentimes de- 
livered up and brought in peril of death, having 
endured many evils, and making his boast in 
his numerous persecutions and afflictions, in the 
same city was also himself beheaded ; who, in 
the things in which he gloried, in these also 
ended his life; and at Damascus he was let 
down by night in a basket by the wall, and es- 
caped the hands of him who sought to take 
him. For what they set before themselves, first 
and foremost, was to do the work of an evan- 
gelist, and to teach the Word of God, in which, 
confirming the brethren, that they might con- 
tinue in the faith, they said this also, “that we 
must out of much tribulation enter into the 
kingdom of God.” © For they sought not what 
was profitable for them, but that which was 
profitable for the many, that they might be 
saved, and that they might be enabled to say 
unto them many things conducing to this, that 
they might act suitably to the Word of. God, 
“unless,” as says the apostle, “the time should 
fail me in speaking.” ™ 


BaALSAMON. Those who have but just arisen from 
sleep, and especially if they were weighed down with a 
heavy and profound sleep, have no constant reason, but 
one perturbed and unsteady. To such as these this 
blessed martyr likens those who, not in due order, but 
rashly and inconsiderately, thrust themselves upon the 
contest, which is as it were in travail, and delayed and 
protracted, inasmuch as it has not yet burst forth openly, 
but meditates and delays, hesitating in truth to bring 
forth the combatants, who bring temptation upon them- 
selves, or draw it towards them. Now these especially 
are, for the rest of the faithful, kindling the coals of the 
sinners, that is to say, the punishment of the tyrants. 
But although he reprehends those who act so, yet he 
enjoins the faithful nevertheless to communicate with 
them, because on account of Christ they have under- 
gone the contest, even though they have ignored His 
teaching , for He teaches them to pray that they may 
not be tempted; and He did not deliver up Himself, but 
was delivered up; and we are not to go over to the tor- 
mentors, that we may not be the cause of bringing upon 
them the guilt of many murders, as those do who incite 
them to inflict punishment upon ‘the godly. The canon 
brings forward different examples from Holy Scripture. 

ZONARAS. Those who have recently arisen from 
sleep, especially if they were oppressed with a heavy 
sleep, have no steady reason, but one inconstant and 
perturbed. To men of this sort this holy martyr likens 
those who rush upon the contest, that is, those who, not 
in due course, but rashly and inconsiderately, intrude 
themselves upon it. It is, as it were, in travail, and de- 
layed and protracted, inasmuch as it has not yet burst 
forth openly, but meditates and delays, and hesitates to 
bring forth the combatants, who bring temptation upon 
themselves, that is, draw it towards themselves, or 
rather, for the rest of the faithful, kindle the coals of the 





9 2 Cor, xi. 32, 33. 
10 Acts xiv. 22. 
11 Heb, xi. 32. 


274 


Te ee bia 


THE CANONICAL EPISTLE. 





sinners, the torments, namely, which are by the tyrants 
inflicted. But although he finds fault ath those who 
act in this way, he nevertheless decrees that the faithful 
must communicate with them, because in the name of 
Christ they come forward to this, trusting, that is, in 
Christ, or in His name demanding this trial for them- 
selves, even though, perhaps, they are not obeying His 
precepts ; for He taught them to pray that they might 
not be tempted; and they are ignoring the fact too that 
the Lord retired from those who were laying snares for 
Him, and was wont sometimes to walk not openly; 
neither did He give up Himself to His passion, but was 
given up by others; and He commanded His disciples, 
when their enemies persecuted them, to fly from city to 
city, and not of their own accord to give themselves up 
to the tormentors, lest they should be the cause of bring- 
ing the guilt of much blood upon their heads, irritating 
them as it were to inflict punishment upon godly men. 
And he brings forward the example of the apostles, of 
Stephen, of James, and the chiefs of the order, Peter 
and Paul. 


CANON X. 


Whence it is not right either that those of the 
clergy who have deserted of their own accord, 
and have lapsed, and taken up the contest afresh, 
should remain any longer in their sacred office, 
inasmuch as they have left destitute the flock of 
the Lord, and brought blame upon themselves, 
which thing did not one of the apostles. For 
when the blessed apostle Paul had undergone 
many persecutions, and had shown forth the 
prizes of many contests, though he knew that it 
was far better to “ depart, and to be with Christ,” 
yet he brings this forward, and says, ‘“‘ Neverthe- 
less to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.’”’! 
For considering not his own advantage but the 
advantage of many, that they might be saved, he 
judged it more necessary than his own rest to 
remain with the brethren, and to have a care for 
them ; who also would have him that teacheth 
to be “in doctrine”? an example to the faith- 
ful. Whence it follows that those who, contend- 
ing in prison, have fallen from their ministry, 
and have again taken up the struggle, are plainly 
wanting in perception. For how else is it that 
they seek for that which they have left, when in 
this present time they can be useful to the breth- 
ren? For as long as they remained firm and 
stable, of that which they had done contrary to 
reason, of this indulgence was accorded them. 
But when they lapsed, as having carried them- 
selves with ostentation,3 and brought reproach 
upon themselves, they can no longer discharge 
their sacred ministry ; and, therefore, let them 
the rather take heed to pass their life in humility, 
ceasing from vainglory. For communion is suf- 
ficient for them, which is granted them with 
diligence and care for two causes; both that 
they should not seem to be afflicted with sorrow, 
and hence by violence seize on their departure 


1 Philipp. i. 23, 24. 

2 Tit. ui. 7. 

3 Cf. St. Paul’s description of charity, : Cor. xiii, 4; ‘‘ Charity 
vaunteth not itself,” ov mepmepeverat, 








from this world ; and also lest any of the lapsed 
should have a pretext for being remiss by occa- 
sion of the punishment. And these indeed will 
reap more shame and ignominy than all others, 
even as he who laid the foundation and was not 
able to finish it; for “all that pass by,” He 
says, ‘will begin to mock him, saying, “ This 
man laid the foundation, and was not able to 
finish it.” 


BALSAMON, The father having spoken of those who 
of their own accord went over to the contest of martyr- 
dom, now also speaks of those of the clergy who are in 
such a case, and he says, that if any clergyman hath of 
his own accord sought the contest, and then, not being 
able to bear the tortures, has fallen, but returning to 
himself, has recanted his error, and before the tyrants 
confessed himself a Christian, such a one shall no 
longer discharge his sacred ministry, because he hath 
deserted the Lord’s flock, and because, having of his 
own accord sought the contest, through not being able 
to endure the torment, he hath brought reproach upon 
himself. For to neglect the teaching of the people, and 
to prefer their own advantage, this did not the apostles. 
For the mighty Paul, after that he had endured many 
torments, though he perceived that it was far better to 
leave this life, yet chose rather to live and to be tor- 
mented for the salvation and instruction of the people. 
They are therefore altogether devoid of perception who 
seek the sacred ministry from which they have fallen of 
their own accord. For how is it that they seek for that 
which they have left, when they are able in this season 
of persecution, that is, to be useful to their brethren? 
If indeed they had not fallen, of that which they had 
done contrary to reason, their spontaneous flight for in- 
stance, or their slackness in teaching and confirming the 
brethren, of these things indulgence would be extended 
to chem. But if from their own arrogance and conceit 
they have lapsed, —for of such a nature is it rashly to 
venture to expose themselves to torture, and not to be 
able to endure it, and thus a triumph has been gained 
over them, — they cannot any longer execute their sacred 
office. Wherefore let them the rather take heed that 
they perfect their confession by humility, ceasing from 
the vainglory of seeking for the sacred ministry; for 
communion with the faithful is sufficient for them, which 
is granted for two reasons, with diligent caution, and 
just judgment. For if we say that we will not hold them 
to be communicants, we shall both afflict them with 
grief, giving our sentence as it were that they should 
depart this life with violence; and we shall cause others 
also, who may have lapsed, and wish to return to what 
is right, to be negligent and remiss in this respect, hav- 
ing as a pretext, that they will not be admitted to com- 
municate with the faithful, even though after their fal} 
they should confess the faith, who, if they are not con- 
verted, will undergo more shame and ignominy than 
others, even as he who laid the foundation, and did not 
finish the building. For such a one do those resemble, 
who, for Christ’s sake indeed, have offered themselves 
to be tormented, and having laid as it were a good foun- 
dation, have not been able to perfect that which is good 
by reason of their fall. Observe, then, that not even 
confession for Christ’s sake restores him who has once 
lapsed and thus become an alien from his clerical office. 

ZONARAS. The father having spoken of those who 
have of their own accord exposed themselves to the 
contest of martyrdom, now begins to discourse about 
those of the clergy who have done the same thing; and 
says that if any clergyman has of his own accord given 
himself up, and then, not being able to endure the vio- 
lence of the torment, has fallen, and again recollecting 
himself has roused himself afresh to the contest, and 
has confessed himself a Christian before the tyrants, a 


THE CANONICAL “EPISTLE: 


275 





man of this sort is not any longer to be admitted to the 
sacred ministry. And the reason of this he subjoins; 
because he has forsaken the Lord's flock, and because 
having of his own accord offered himself to the enemy, 
and not having with constancy endured his torments, 
he has brought reproach upon himself. But that they 
should despise the instruction of the people, and prefer 
their own advantage, this did not the apostles. For the 
mighty Paul, though he had endured many torments, and 
‘felt that it was better for him to leave this life, preferred 
to live and to be tormented for the salvation and instruc- 
tion of the people. Wherefore he demonstrates those 
to be altogether devoid of perception who ask for the 
sacred ministry from which they have voluntarily fallen. 
For how is it, says he, that they ask for that which they 
have left, when in a season of this sort, of raging perse- 
cution forsooth, they can be of great assistance to the 
brethren? As long as they were free from the charge 
of having lapsed, they would have obtained pardon for 
their action that was rashly undertaken, that, namely, 
of voluntarily offering themselves to the adversary, or 
their negligence in instructing the brethren. But since 
they have fallen, inasmuch as they have acted ostenta- 
tiously, they are not to be permitted any longer to dis- 
charge their sacred functions. If, says he, that they had 
not fallen they would. have obtained pardon for their 
action which was devoid of reason; calling that action 
devoid of reason, not only because they gave themselves 
up to the enemy, but rather because they deserted the 
Lord’s flock, and did not remain to guard it, and to con- 
firm the brethren who were harassed in this time of per- 
secution. But if they have fallen, from the fact that 
they have carried themselves vauntingly, and he here 
calls pride and arrogance mepmepeia, because it is from 
arrogance that they have put confidence in themselves, 
and have put an end to the contest, and have brought 
reproach upon themselves; that is, by reason of their 
fall, they have contracted a blemish and stain, it is not 
lawful for them any longer to be occupied in the sacred 
ministry. Wherefore let them study, says he, to perfect 
their confession by humility, ceasing forsooth from all 
vainglory. For in that they seek to be enrolled in the 
sacred ministry, this proceeds from ambition and self- 
seeking. For communion is sufficient for them, that the 
faithful should communicate with them, and pray with 
them, and that they should participate in the sacred 
mysteries. And this should be granted with diligent 
caution and care, both lest they should seem to be 
afflicted with grief, seizing on a dissolution of this life, 
lest, that is, as he says, being overcome with grief, they 
should depart and get free from the body, that is, go out 
from it, from the violence of the torment and afflictions 
which they undergo in the prison; and that none should 
have the pretext of their punishment for carrying them- 
selves dissolutely and cowardly in the contest of confes- 
sion, and thus fall away. Who will the rather be put 
to shame, according to the saying in the Gospel, “‘ Who 
could not finish after that he had laid the foundation.” ? 

Moreover, let those apply their minds to what is in 
this place brought forwarc by this great father and holy 
martyr, who say that it is lawful for bishops to give up 
their Sees, and to retain the dignity of the priesthood. 
For if to the clergy who voluntarily offered themselves 
to the contest of confession, and who, when tormented, 
failed in constancy and yielded, and afterwards returned 
te the contest, if to them indulgence is scarcely granted, 
because they deferred to execute their ministerial duties; 
nor, in the opinion of this divine father, is any thing 
else objected to them but that they deserted the breth- 


ren, when in adverse and turbulent times they might | 


have been useful in confirming them in the faith, and things in which by reason of his subtlety they 


that after that they had been counted worthy to bear 
testimony to the faith, and carried about in their flesh 
the marks of Christ; how shall that chief priest and 





1 A digression which follows is entirely directed against Muzalon. 





pastor, who ought to lay down his life for the sheep, 
when he has deserted the flock that was committed unto 
him, and repudiated its care and administration, and as 
far as in him lies given it over to the wolf, be thought 
worthy to retain the dignity of the sacred ministry, and 
not rather be judged worthy of the severest punish- 
ments for deserting the people entrusted to his care? 
Nay, but he will demand a reward for this thing, or 
rather he will himself supply it to himself: refusing that 
which brings labour to them, namely, the office of teach- 
ing and of correcting vice; but embracing that which 
gains for them honour and glory, making it their own, 
keeping hold of it with their teeth as it were, and not 
letting it go in the least. For if in the case of the clergy 
it be called an action contrary to reason to desert the 
people, and to go away from them to the contest in the 
cause of piety; how much more contrary to reason 
shall it be judged for a bishop to desert his people, not 
in order that he may contend in a contest, but that he 
may deliver himself up to ease and indolence, and lay 
aside and escape entirely from his cares for the salva- 
tion of souls? The sixteenth canon also of the Seventh 
Ecumenical Council? gravely accuses those of folly 
who decree that the dignity of the sacred ministry can 
be retained by a bishop who has repudiated his bishop- 
ric. For if according to the sentence of the aforesaid 
canon, a bishop who has been absent from his See more 
than six months, unless some one of the causes there 
enumerated shall have intervened, has both fallen from 
the episcopate and the highest dignity of the priesthood, 
and is deprived of both; how shall he who has repudi- 
ated the episcopate, and refuses any longer to feed the 
flock entrusted to him, and despises the care of it 
through his desire of an easy life, be held to be of 
the number of bishops? For if he who has committed 
the lesser fault, of leaving for more than six months the 
people placed under him destitute of the care and ad- 
ministration of a pastor, incurs the privation of the 
episcopate and of his sacred dignity; he who offends 
in a way greater and much more grievous, namely, in 
deserting altogether the multitude which the grace of 
the Holy Spirit has committed to him to be cared for 
and guarded, shall deservedly be punished with greater 
severity, and will pay the heavier penalty of losing, as 
far as he is concerned, the flock of which he was ap- 
pointed shepherd by the great and chief Shepherd and 
High Priest. But those who decree the dignity of the 
priesthood to him as a reward and hoxorarium for de- 
clining his office, in my opinion make both themselves 
and him obnoxious to the judgment of God. 


CANON XI. 


For those who first, when the persecution 
waxed warm, leaped forth, standing around the 
judgment-seat, and beholding the holy martyrs 
who were hastening to the “ prize of their high 
calling,’ 3 then, fired with a holy zeal, gave them- 
selves up to this, using much boldness, and es- 
pecially when they saw those who were drawn 
aside and lapsed, on their account they were 
roused mightily within, and, as it were by some 
inward voice, impelled to war down and subdue 
the adversary who was exulting; for this they 
earnestly contended, that he might not seem “to 
be wise in his own conceit,”’ 4 on account of those 


appeared to be inferior to him, even though it 





2 lee (Ecumenical. ] 
3 Philipp. iii, 14. 
4 Rom, xii. 16, 


276 





escaped his observation that he was overcome 
by those who with constancy endured the tor- 
ments of the lash and scourge, and the sharp 
edge of the sword, the burning in the fire, and 
the immersion in the water. ‘To those also who 
entreat that the prayers and supplications of 
faith should be made either in behalf of those 
who have been punished by imprisonment, and 
have been delivered up by hunger and thirst, or 
for those who out of prison have by the judges 
been tortured with whippings and scourgings, 
and afterwards have been overcome by the in- 
firmity of the flesh, it is right to give our consent. 
For to sympathize with the sorrow and affliction 
of those who sorrow and mourn for those who 
in the contest have been overcome by the great 
strength of the evil-contriving devil, whether it 
be for parents, or brethren, or children, hurts no 
one. For we know that on account of the faith 
of others some have obtained the goodness of 
God, both in the remission of sins, and in the 
health of their bodies, and in the resurrection of 
the dead. Therefore, being mindful of the many 
labours and distresses which for the name of 
Christ they have sustained, since they have them- 
selves also repented, and have bewailed that 
which was done by them through their being 
betrayed by the languor and mortification of the 
body ; and since, besides this, they testify that 
in their life they have as it were been aliens from 
their city, let us pray together with them and 
entreat for their reconciliation, together with 
other things that are befitting, through Him who 
is ‘our Advocate with the Father, and makes 
propitiation for our sins.” “And if any man 
sin,” says he, “we have an Advocate with the 
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is 
the propitiation for our sins.” 


BALSAMON. The saint having said before that those 
who of their own accord entered upon the contest and 
lapsed, and did not repent nor recant their error, would 
be covered with more shame, as being like men who did 
not go on with the building beyond the foundation, that 
is, did not perfect that which is good, now brings for- 
ward a confirmation of this and other matters, saying, 
Those who taking their stand in the fervour and vehe- 
mence of the persecution, seeing the holy martyrs, and 
with what divine zeal they contended to receive the 
celestial crown, gave themselves up to martyrdom with 
much boldness, and especially when they saw some 
drawn aside, that is, led astray and deluded by the devil, 
and lapsing or denying godliness; wherefore being in- 
wardly inflamed, and with hearts enkindled, as hearing 
that they by this means should war down and subdue 
the proud adversary the devil, were eager to undergo 
martyrdom lest the devil should boast and seem “to be 
wise in his own conceit,” as having by his subtlety and 
malice overcome those who of their own accord sought 
martyrdom: even though it escaped him that he was 
rather overcome by those combatants who bravely with- 
stood the torments. Thcrefore to the faithful who pray 
for those who are enduring punishment, and afflicted by 
it, it is right to assent or to concur in this, which is also 


tx John ii. x. 








THE CANONICAL EPISTLE. 


ewer 


decreed; and it can by no means be hurtful to sympa- 
thize in their sorrow and affliction with the parents or 
other relatives in behalf of those who have given their 
testimony and undergone martyrdom, but have lapsed 
by the arts and snares of the devil. For we know that 
many have obtained the goodness and compassion of 
God by the prayers of others. Therefore we will pray 
for them that remission of their sins be granted them by 
God; and with the others who have lapsed, and have 
afterwards recanted their error, and confessed godliness, 
we will communicate, being mindful of those contests 
which before their fall they sustained for God’s sake, 
and also of their subsequent worthy repentance, and 
that they testify that on account of their sin they have 
been as it were aliens from their city; and we will not 
only communicate with them, but pray also for their 
reconciliation, together with other things that are con- 
venient, either with the good works which ought to be 
done by them —fasting, for instance, almsgiving, and 
penance; by which things He who is our Advocate 
makes the Father propitious towards us. Then he 
makes use of a passage of Holy Scripture, and this is 
taken from the first catholic epistle of the holy apostle 
and evangelist John. 

ZONARAS. The meaning of the present canon is as 
follows : — Those, he says, who set in the fervour of the 
persecution, that is, in its greatest height and most vehe- 
ment heat, beheld the martyrdoms of the saints, and how 
eagerly they hastened to receive the celestial crown, fired 
with a holy emulation, gave themselves up to martyrdom, 
leaping as it were into the contest with much boldness, 
in imitation of the saints who suffered, and offered them- 
selves readily for the confirming of the faith by their 
testimony; and on that account especially, because they 
beheld many who were drawn. aside, that is, led astray, 
denying their faith, Whereupon they being inflamed, 
that is, fired in heart, endeavoured to subdue the adver- 
sary that was hostile to them, that he might not, as a 
victor, exult over the godly. Although it escaped him 
that he was rather conquered by them, many even unto 
death showing forth constancy for the faith, They has- 
tened, therefore, says he, to do this, but overcome by the 
violence of their torments, by reason of the infirmity of 
the flesh, being some of them evil entreated in prison, 
and others punished by decree of the judges, and not 
being able to endure their punishment. It is meet, 
therefore, to sympathize with those who mourn for their 
sakes. Now they mourn, says he, some the lapse of 
parents, others of brethren, and others of children. To 
mourn, therefore, with those who bewail the lapsed, 
hurts no one; neither to join in prayer and grief with 
those who pray for themselves, together with other things 
that are reasonable, namely, that they who have lapsed 
may show forth other things that are consistent with 
penitence; such as are fasting and tears and other hu- 
miliations, and observe the punishment inflicted on them, 
and, if their means allow, bestow money upon the poor; 
by which means He who is the Advocate in our behalf 
will render the Father propitious to us. Then he brings 
forward a passage from Holy Scripture, which is taken 
from the first epistle of the holy apostle and evangelist 
John. 


CANON XII, 


Against those who have given money that they 
might be entirely undisturbed by evil,? an accu- 
sation cannot be brought. For they have sus- 
tained the loss and sacrifice of their goods that 
they might not hurt or destroy their soul, which 
others for the sake of filthy lucre have not done ; 
and yet the Lord says, ‘‘ What is a man profited, 
if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own 





2 xakia, 


wie a 


THE ‘CANONICAL “EPISTLE. 


\ 


277 





soul?”’! and again, “Ye cannot serve God and 
mammon.”? In these things, then, they have 
shown themselves the servants of God, inasmuch 
as they have hated, trodden under foot, and de- 
spised money, and have thus fulfilled what is 
written: “The ransom of a man’s life are his 
riches.” 3 For we read also in the Acts of the 
Apostles that those who in the stead of Paul and 
Silas were dragged before the magistrates at 
Thessalonica, were dismissed with a heavy fine. 
For after that they had been very burdensome 
to them for his name, and had troubled the peo- 
ple and the rulers of the city, “having taken 
security,” he says, “of Jason, and of the others, 
they let them go. And the brethren immediately 
sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea.” 4 


BaALsAMoN. After that the saint had finished his 
discourse concerning those who of their own accord 
had offered themselves to martyrdom, he said that those 
were not to be reprehended who by a sum of money 
paid down freed themselves from the affliction of perse- 
cution. For they preferred to make a sacrifice of their 
money rather than of their souls. Then he confirms 
this, and brings forward different Scripture examples 
from the Acts of the Apostles concerning the blessed 
apostle Paul and others. 

ZONARAS. But those, he says, are not to be repre- 
hended who have paid money down, and thus escaped, 
and maintained their piety, nor for this thing may any 
one bring an accusation against them. For they have 
preferred to lose their money rather than their souls, 
and have shown that they wish to serve God and not 
mammon ; that is, riches. And he brings forward the 
words of Scripture, and the example, as in the Acts of 
the Apostles, of the blessed apostle Paul and others. 
Now, when it is said that they have been undisturbed 
by all evil,5 it is to be so taken, either that they have 
been left undisturbed, so far as the denial of the faith 
is concerned, which overcomes all evil,’ or he means ® 
the afflictions of persecutions. 


CANON XIII. 


Hence neither is it lawful to accuse those who 
have left all, and have retired for the safety of 
their life, as if others had been held back by 
them. For at Ephesus also they seized Gaius 
and Aristarchus instead of Paul, and rushed to 
the theatre, these being Paul’s companions in 
travel,? and he wishing himself to enter in unto 
the people, since it was by reason of his having 
persuaded them, and drawing away a great mul- 
titude to the worship of the true God, that the 
tumult arose. “The disciples suffered him not,” 
he says. ‘“‘ Nay, moreover, certain of the chief 
of Asia, who were his friends, sent unto him, 
desiring him that he would not adventure him- 
self into the theatre.” But if any persist in con- 
tending with them, let them apply their minds 
with sincerity to him who says, “ Escape for thy 


I Matt. xvi. 26. 

2 Matt. vi. 24. 

3 Prov. xiii. 8. 

4 Acts xvii. 9, 10. 
5 Kakia. 

6 By kxaxias, 

7 Acts xix. 26-30. 





life ; look not behind thee.’’?® Let them recall 
to their minds also how Peter, the chief of the 
apostles, “ was thrown into prison, and delivered 
to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him ;”’ 9 
of whom, when he had escaped by night, and 
had been preserved out of the hand of the Jews 
by the commandment of the angel of the Lord, 
it is said, “ As soon as it was day, there was no 
small stir among the soldiers, what was become 
of Peter. And when Herod had sought for him, 
and found him not, he examined the keepers, 
and commanded that they should be put to 
death,” !° on account of whom no blame is attrib- 
uted to Peter; for it was in their power, when 
they saw what was done, to escape, just as also 
all the infants in Bethlehem," and all the coast 
thereof, might have escaped, if their parents had 
known what was going to happen. ‘These were 
put to death by the murderer Herod, in order 
to secure the death of one Infant whom he 
sought, which Infant itself also escaped at the 
commandment of the angel of the Lord, who 
now began quickly to spoil, and to hasten the 
prey, according to the name whereby he was 
called ; as it is written, ‘‘ Call his name Maher- 
shalal-hash-baz: for before the child shall have 
knowledge to cry, My father and my mother, 
the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria 
shall be taken away before the king of Assyria.” ?? 
The Magi then as now having been despoiled 
and divided for a prey, humbly, and in the guise 
of suppliants, adore the Child, opening their 
treasures, and offering unto Him gifts most op- 
portune and magnificent — gold, and frankin- 
cense, and myrrh—as to a king, to God, and 
to man; whence they were no longer willing to 
return to the Assyrian king, being forbidden to 
do so by Providence. For “ being warned of 
God in a dream,” he says, “that they should 
not return to Herod, they departed into their 
own country another way.” 3 Hence the blood- 
thirsty ‘Herod, when he saw that he was 
mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, 
and sent forth,” he says, “and slew all the chil- 
dren that were in Bethlehem, and in all the 
coast thereof, from two years old and under, 
according to the time that he had diligently 
inquired of the wise men.” '+ ‘Together with 
whom, having sought to kill another infant that 
had been previously born, and not being able 
to find him, he slew ce child’s father Zacharias 
between the temple and the altar, the child 
having escaped with his mother Elisabeth."s 


8 Gen. xix. 17. 

9 Acts xil. 4. 

10 Acts xii, 18, 19. 

Il Matt. ii. 13-16. 

12 Isa, viii. 3, 4. The literal meaning of the name Maher-shalay 
hash-baz is, “‘ i speed spoil, booty hastens.” 

13 Matt. ii. 11-13. 

14 Matt. ii. 16. 

1S [Matt. xxiii. 35.] 


278 


reo a oe ee iia, 


THE CANONICAL EPISTLE. 





Whence these men that have withdrawn them- 
selves are not at all to be blamed. 


BALSAMON. But if aoe says he, have left their good 
and gone away, lest they should be detained and brought 
into peril, as being those perhaps who might not be able 
to persist in their confession to the end, on account of 
the cruelty of their tormentors, they shall not be found 
fault with, even though others have been detained on 
their account. And he brings forward as an instance 
on this score Gaius and Aristarchus, who were detained 
instead of Paul; the soldiers who kept Peter; the in- 
fants who were massacred by Herod on account of 
Christ; and Zacharias, the father of the revered and 
blessed forerunner. 

ZONARAS. But if any, says he, have left their pos- 
sessions, and have gone away, lest being detained they 
should be endangered, and because, perhaps, they would 
not be able to persist in their confession unto the end, 
on account of the cruelty of the tormentors, they are 
not to be accused, even if others are detained and pun- 
ished on their account. And, again, he brings forward 
an example from the Acts of the Apostles, saying that 
at Ephesus also Gaius and Aristarchus were appre- 
hended in the stead of Paul, and that Paul was not 
blamed for this; nor was Peter, when he was brought 
forth out of prison by an angel, and escaped the danger, 
and the soldiers who guarded him were on his account 
punished. Then he cites another example from the 
Gospel, namely, the infants who were put to death by 
Herod; on account of which, says he, our Lord was not 
blamed. And when Elisabeth had taken to flight with 
John, and had preserved him, his father Zacharias was 
put to death, the child being demanded of him; nor was 
this imputed as a crime to John. 


CANON XIV. 


But if any have endured much violence and 
the strong pressure of necessity, receiving into 
their mouths iron and chains, and for their good 
affection towards the faith have bravely borne the 
burning of their hands that against their will had 
been put to the profane sacrifice, as from their 
prison the thrice-blessed martyrs have written to 
me respecting those in Libya, and others their 
fellow-ministers ; such, on the testimony of the 
rest of their brethren, can be placed in the min- 
istry amongst the confessors, as those who have 
been mortified by many torments, and were no 
longer able either to speak, or to give utterance, 
or to move, so as to resist those who vainly of- 
fered them violence. For they did not assent to 
their impiety ; as I have again heard from their 
fellow-ministers, they will be reckoned amongst 
the confessors, as also he who hath after the ex- 
ample of Timothy ordered his life, obeying him 
who says, “ Follow after righteousness, godliness, 
faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good 
fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto 
thou art also called, and hast professed a good 
profession before many witnesses.” * 


BALSAMON. Those who by the violence of the tyrant 
seemed to eat meat that had been offered to idols, or to 
drink wine from the Greek libations, —for it happened 


sometimes that they were thrown upon the ground, and } 





I x Tim, vi. rx, 12. 











hooks or pieces of iron put into their mouths to kee 

them open, and then the tyrants poured wine down their 
throats, or threw into them pieces of meat; or putting 
hot coals into their hands, together with incense, they 
compelled them to sacrifice, —if they were clergymen, 
the canon decrees that they should each in his own de- 
gree be ranked amongst the confessors; but if laymen, 
that they should be reckoned as martyrs, because they 
did not these things of their own free-will, nor did they 
at all assent to the action. As also amongst the con- 
fessors are to be reckoned those who from the extremity 
of the tortures lost their strength of body, and were not 
able to resist those who poured into their mouths the 
wine of the libations. And next in order he speaks of 
those who give the testimony of a good conscience, and 
enumerates them amongst the confessors. 

ZONARAS. Those who chastised the blessed martyrs, 
after many torments, in the case of some violently 
poured into their mouths the wine of the libations, or 
even crammed into their mouths some of the meat that 
had been offered to idols, and putting incense into their 
hands, they dragged them to the altars, and then vio- 
lently seizing on their hands, they either sprinkled: the 
incense upon the altar, or placed hot coals together with 
the incense into their hands, that, not being able to 
bear the pain of the burning, they might drop the in- 
cense together with the coals upon the altar; for they 
were constrained by them. Men of this sort, he affirms, 
can remain enrolled in the sacred ministry, or rather be 
placed in the rank of confessors. For they did not by 
their own choice either taste the libations, or place the 
incense upon the altar, but being compelled by violence, 
their reason not consenting to the action; as also those 
who from the extremity of the suffering lost their bodily 
vigour, so as neither to be able to speak or move, nor 
to resist those who were violently pouring into their 
mouths the wine of libations, these also are to be placed 
amongst the confessors. And next in order he dis- 
courses of those who give the testimony of a good 
conscience, and places them also in the number of 
confessors. 


CANON XV. 


No one shall find fault with us for observing 
the fourth day of the week, and the preparation,? 
on which it is reasonably enjoined us to fast 
according to the tradition. On the fourth day, 
indeed, because on it the Jews took counsel for 
the betrayal of the Lord; and on the sixth, 
because on it He himself suffered for us. But 
the Lord’s day we celebrate as a day of joy, 
because on it He rose again, on which day we 
have received it for a custom not even to bow 
the knee. 


BALSAMON. Conformably to the sixty-fourth Apos- 
tolical canon, which decrees that we are not to fast on 
the Sablsath, with one exception, the great Sabbath; 
and to the sixty-ninth canon, which severely punishes 
those who do not fast in the Holy Lent, and on every 
fourth day of the week and day of preparation. Thus 
also does the present canon decree. 

ZONARAS. Always, says he, are the fourth and sixth 
days of every week to be kept as fasts; nor will any 
one find fault with us for fasting on them; and the 
reasons he subjoins. But on the Lord’s day we ought 
not to fast, for it is a day of joy for the resurrection of 
the Lord, and on it, says he, we have received that we 
ought not even to bow the knee. This word, therefore, 





2 The sixth day, the day before the Hebrew Sabbath.—Tr. 
[The Parasceve.] 


3 [Stationary days. See Vol. ii. p. 33, note 6.] 


THE CANONICAL EPISTLE. 279 





annexes also the causes for which it was forbidden to 
bend the knee on the Lord’s day, and from the Passover 
to Pentecost. Read also the sixty-sixth and sixty-ninth 
Apostolical canons.? 


"js to be carefully observed, “we have received,” and 
“it is enjoined upon us according to the tradition.” 
For from hence it is evident that long-established cus- 
tom was taken for law.’ Moreover, the great Basil 


1 [Vol. v. pp. 382, 572, the notes. ] 2 [So called. Vol. viii., this series. Elucidation II.] 





NOTE BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR. 


HERE may be noted the historic fact that this terrible epoch of persecutions had driven many 
to the deserts, where they dwelt as hermits.'. It now introduced monaséictsm, in its earliest and 
least objectionable forms, into Egypt, whence it soon spread into the Church at large. Fora 
favourable view of the character and life of St. Antony, see Neale’s history? of this period ; but, 
if he turns it into an indirect plea for the subsequent history of monasticism, we shall find in Canon 
Kingsley’s Hypata a high-wrought testimony of an antagonistic character. Bingham,3 avoid- 
ing the entanglements of primitive with medizval history, affords a just view of what may be said 
of the rise of this mighty institution, based upon two texts + of Holy Scripture, proceeding from the 
Incarnate Word Himself, which impressed themselves on the fervid spirit of Antony. Who can 
wonder that fire and sword and ravening wolves predisposed men and women to avoid the do- 
mestic life, and the bringing of hapless families into existence as a prey to the remorseless cruelty 
of the empire? Far be it from me to forget what the world owes, directly and indirectly, to tke 
nobler and purer orders, — what learning must ever acknowledge as its debt to the Benedictines of 
the West.5 But, on the other hand, after the melancholy episcopate of Cyril, we cannot but trace, 
in the history of Oriental monasticism, not only the causes of the decay of Alexandrian scholarship 
and influence, but of the ignomistous fate of the Byzantine Empire, and of that paltry devotion 
to images which seemed to invoke the retributions of a “jealous god,’ and which favoured the 
rise of an impostor who found in his “abhorrence of idols’ an excuse for making himself the 
“Scourge of God.” 





t Luke i. 80, ix. 10; Gal. i. 17. But compare 1 Kings xix, 9. 

2 Patriarchate, etc., vol. i, p. 107. Antony was born czrca A.D. 251, died A.D. 356. 

3 Antiqu., book vii. cap. i, 

4 Matt. xix. 21 and Matt. vi. 34, 

5S Mentalembert’s Monks of the West is but a fascinating romance, but is well worthy of attention 


FRAGMENTS FROM THE WRITINGS OF PETER. 


I.— LETTER TO THE CHURCH AT ALEXAN- 
DRIA. 


PETER, to the brethren beloved and estab- 
lished in the faith of God, peace in the Lord. 
Since I have found out that Meletius acts in no 
way for the common good, — for neither is he 
contented with the letter of the most holy bish- 
ops and martyrs, — but, invading my parish,? hath 
assumed so much to himself as to endeavour to 
separate from my authority the priests,3 and 
those who had been entrusted with visiting the 
needy ;* and, giving proof of his desire for pre- 
eminence, has ordained in the prison several 
unto himself; now, take ye heed to this, and 
hold no communion with him, until I meet him 
in company with some wise and discreet men, 
and see what the designs are which he has 
thought upon. Fare ye well. 


IlL—ON THE GODHEAD 


Since certainly “grace and truth came by 
Jesus Christ,”° whence also by grace we are 
saved, according to that word of the apostle, 
“and that not of yourselves, nor of works, lest 
any man should boast;”7 by the will of God, 
“the Word was made flesh,” ® and “ was found 
in fashion as a man.”9 But yet He was not 
left without His divinity. For neither “ though 
He was rich did He become poor” ’° that He 
might absolutely be separated from His power 
and glory, but that He might Himself endure 
death for us sinners, the just for the unjust, that 
He might bring us to God, “being put to death 
in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit ;” and 
afterwards other things. Whence the evangelist 
also asserts the truth when he says, “‘ The Word 
was made flesh, and dwelt among us ;” then in- 
deed, from the time when the angel had saluted 





1 From Gallandius, 

2 [See p. 240, supra, But note, the Jarzsh was greater than the 
a@iocese in ancient terminology. 

3 [Presbyters. ] 

4 | Deacons. ] 

5 A fragment from his book, from the Acts of the Council of Ephe- 
sus, i, and vii. 2, — GALLAND. 

ohn i. 17, 

7 Eph. ii. 8, 9. 

8 John ii 14. 

9 Phil. ii. 7. 

%© 2 Cor. vili. 9. 

280 








the virgin, saying, “ Hail, thou that art highly 
favoured, the Lord is with thee.” Now when 
Gabriel said, “The Lord is with thee,” he meant 
God the Word is with thee. For he shows that 
He was conceived in the womb, and was to be- 
come flesh; as it is written, “The Holy Ghost 
shall come upon thee, and the power of the 
Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also 
that holy thing which shall be born of thee 
shall be called the Son of God;”"™ and after- 
wards other things. Now God the Word, in the 
absence of a man, by the will of God, who 
easily effects everything, was made flesh in the 
womb of the virgin, not requiring the operation 
of the presence of a man. For more effica- 
cious than a man was the power of God over- 
shadowing the virgin, together with the Holy 
Ghost also who came upon her. 


II.—ON THE ADVENT OF OUR SAVIOUR.” 


And He said unto Judas, “ Betrayest thou the 
Son of God with a kiss?” "3 These things and 
the like, and all the signs which He showed, 
and His miracles, prove that He is God made 
man. Both things therefore are demonstrated, 
that He was God by nature, and that He was 
man by nature. 


IV.—ON THE SOJOURNING OF CHRIST WITH US.™ 


Both therefore is proved, that he was God by 
nature, and was made man by nature. 


V.— THAT UP TO THE TIME OF THE DESTRUC- 
TION OF JERUSALEM, THE JEWS RIGHTLY 
APPOINTED THE FOURTEENTH DAY OF THE 
FIRST LUNAR MONTH. 

1.35 


1. Since the mercy of God is everywhere 


|great, let us bless Him, and also because He 


has sent unto us the Spirit of truth to guide us 


linto all truth. For for this cause the month 





11 Luke i. 35. 

12 A fragment from the homily. Apud Leontium Byzant., lib. 1., 
contra Nestor. et Eutych., tom. i. Thes. Canis., p. 550. 

13 Luke xxii. 48. 

14 A fragment from the homily. Ex Leontio Hierosolymitano, con- 
tra Monophysitas, 4f. Maz. Script. Vet., tom. vii. p. 134. 

1s Apud Galland, Ex Chrontco Paschal, p. 1, segg., edit. Venet., 
2729. 


FRAGMENTS FROM THE WRITINGS OF PETER. 


281 





Abib was appointed by the law to be the begin- 
ning of months, and was made known unto us 
as the first among the months of the year; both 
by the ancient writers who lived before, and by 
the later who lived after the destruction of Jeru- 
salem, it was shown to possess a most clear and 
evidently definite period, especially because in 
some places the reaping is early, and sometimes 
it is late, so as to be sometimes before the time 
and sometimes after it, as it happened in the 
very beginning of the giving of the law, before 
the Passover, according as it is written, “ But the 
wheat and the rye were not smitten, for they 
were not grown up.”’ Whence it is rightly pre- 
scribed by the law, that from the vernal equinox, 
in whatsoever week the fourteenth day of the 
first month shall fall, in it the Passover is to be 
celebrated, becoming and conformable songs of 
praise having been first taken up for its celebra- 
tion. For this first month, says he, “shall be 
unto you the beginning of months,” ? when the 
sun in the summer-time sends forth a far stronger 
and clearer light, and the days are lengthened 
and become longer, whilst the nights are con- 
tracted and shortened. Moreover, when the new 
seeds have sprung up, they are thoroughly purged, 
and borne into the threshing floor ; nor only this, 
but also all the shrubs blossom, and burst forth 
into flower. Immediately therefore they are 
discovered to send forth in alternation various 
and diverse fruits, so that the grape-clusters are 
found at that time ; as says the lawgiver, “ Now, 
it was the time of spring, of the first ripe 
grapes ;’’"3 and when he sent the men to spy 
out the land, they brought, on bearers, a large 
cluster of grapes, and pomegranates also, and 
figs. For then, as they say, our eternal God 
also, the Maker and Creator of all things, framed 
all things, and said to them, “ Let the earth bring 
forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit 
tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is 
in itself upon the earth.” Then ‘he adds, “ And 
it was so; and God saw that it was good. ae 
Moreover, he makes quite clear that the first 
month amongst the Hebrews was appointed by 
law, which we know to have been observed by 
the Jews up to the destruction of Jerusalem, 
because this has been so handed down by the 
Hebrew tradition. But after the destruction of 
the city it was mocked at by some hardening 
of heart, which we observing, according to the 
law, with sincerity have received ; and in this, 
according to the Word, when he speaks of the 
day of our holy festivity, which the election hath 
attained: but the rest have become hardened,5 
as said the Scripture ; and after other things. 





1 Exod. ix. 32. 

2 Exod. xii. 2. 

3 Num. xii. 24. 

4 Gen. i. 11,12. [As “in summer-time, ” probably.) 
§ Rom. xi. } [“‘ Our holy festivity” = er.] 





2. And He says as follows: “ All these things 
will they do unto you for My name’s sake, be- 
cause they know not Him that sent Me.”® But 
if they knew not Him who sent, and Him who 
was sent, there is no reason to doubt but that 
they have been ignorant of the Passover as pre- 
scribed by the law, so as not merely to err in 
their choice of the place, but also in reckoning 
the beginning of the month, which is the first 
amongst the months of the year, on the fourteenth 
day of which, being accurately observed, after 
the equinox, the ancients celebrated the Passover, 
according to the divine command ; whereas the 
men of the present day now celebrate it before 
the equinox, and that altogether through negli- 
gence and error, being ignorant how they cele- 
brated it in its season, as He confesses who in 
these things was described. 

3. Whether therefore the Jews erroneously 
sometimes celebrate their Passover according to 
the course of the moon in the month Phamenoth, 
or according to the intercalary month, every third 
year in the month Pharmuthi,” matters not to us. 
For we have no other object than to keep the 
remembrance of His Passion, and that at this 
very time; as those who were eye-witnesses of 
it have from the beginning handed down, before 
the Egyptians believed. For neither by observ- 
ing the course of the moon do they necessarily 
celebrate it on the sixteenth day of Phamenoth, 
but once every three years in the month Phar- 
muthi; for from the beginning, and before the 
advent of Christ, they seem to have so done. 
Hence, when the Lord reproves them by the 
prophet, He says, “ They do always err in their 
heart ; and I have sworn in My wrath that they 
shall not enter into My rest.’’§ 

4. Wherefore, as thou seest, even in this thou 
appearest to be lying greatly, not only against 
men, but also against God. First, indeed, since 
in this matter the Jews never erred, as consorting 
with those who were eye-witnesses and ministers, 
much less from the beginning before the advent 
of Christ. For God does not say that they did 
always err in their heart as regards the precept 
of the law concerning the Passover, as thou hast 
written, but on account of all their other disobe- 
dience, and on account of their evil and un- 
seemly deeds, when, indeed, He perceived them 
turning to idolatry and to fornication. 

5. And after a few things. So that also in this 
respect, since thou hast slumbered, rouse thyself 
much, and very much, with the scourge of the 
Preacher, being mindful especially of that pas- 
sage where he speaks of “ slipping on the pave- 
ment, and with the tongue.” For, as thou 





ohn xv. 21. 
7 Wal ii, p. 333, note 4. Clement is always worth noting, for his 
heen is thus traceable very widely in the early iioranutert) 
Ps.XCV:. 16, 11. 
9 Ecclus. xx. 18. 


282 





seest again, the charge cast by thee upon their 
leaders is reflected back ; nay, and one may sus- 
pect a great subsequent danger, inasmuch as we 
hear that the stone which a man casts up on 
high falls back upon his head. Much more reck- 
less is he who, in this respect, ventures to bring 
a charge against Moses, that mighty servant of 
God, or Joshua, the son of Nun, who succeeded 
him, or those who in succession rightly followed 
them and ruled; the judges, I mean, and the 
kings who appeared, or the prophets whom the 
Holy Spirit inspired, and those who amongst 
the high-priests were blameless, and those who, 
in following the traditions, changed nothing, 
but agreed as to the observance of the Pass- 
over in its season, as also of the rest of their 
feasts. | 

6. And after other things. But thou oughtest 
rather to have pursued a safer and more auspi- 
cious course, and not to have written rashly and 
slanderously, that they seem from the beginning, 
and always, to have been in error about the Pass- 
over, which you cannot prove, whatever charge 
you may wish to bring against those who, at the 
present time, have erred with a grievous wander- 
ing, having fallen away from the commandment 
of the law concerning the Passover and other 
things. For the ancients seem to have kept it 
after the vernal equinox, which you can dis- 
cover if you read ancient books, and those 
especially which were written by the learned 
Hebrews. 

7. That therefore up to the period of the 
Lord’s Passion, and at the time of the last de- 
struction of Jerusalem, which happened under 
Vespasian, the Roman emperor, the people of 
Israel, rightly observing the fourteenth day of 
the first lunar month, celebrated on it the Pass- 
over of the law, has been briefly demonstrated. 
Therefore, when the holy prophets, and all, as 
I have said, who righteously and justly walked 
in the law of the Lord, together with the entire 
people, celebrated a typical and shadowy Pass- 
over, the Creator and Lord of every visible and 
invisible creature, the only-begotten Son, and the 
Word co-eternal with the Father and the Holy 
Spirit, and of the same substance with them, ac- 
cording to His divine nature, our Lord and God, 
Jesus Christ, being in the end of the world born 
according to the flesh of our holy and glorious 
lady, Mother of God, and Ever-Virgin, and, of 
a truth, of Mary the Mother of God ; and being 
seen upon earth, and having true and real con- 
verse as man with men, who were of the same 
substance with Him, according to His human 
nature, Himself also, with the people, in the 
years before His public ministry and during His 
public ministry, did celebrate the legal and 
shadowy Passover, eating the typical lamb. For 
“T came not to destroy the law, or the prophets, 





~ 


FRAGMENTS FROM THE WRITINGS OF PETER. 


but to fulfil them,” the Saviour Himself said in 
the Gospel. 

But after His public ministry He did not eat 
of the lamb, but Himself suffered as the true 
Lamb in the Paschal feast, as John, the divine 
and evangelist, teaches us in the Gospel written 
by him, where he thus speaks: ‘Then led they 
Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment : 
and it was early ; and they themselves went not 
into the judgment-hall, lest they should be de- 
filed, but that they might eat the passover.” ? 
And after a few things more. “ When Pilate 
therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus 
forth, and sat down in the judgment-seat, in a 
place that is called the Pavement, but in the 
Hebrew, Gabbatha. And it was the preparation 
of the passover, and about the third hour,’ 3 as 
the correct books render it, and the copy itself 
that was written by the hand of the evangelist, 
which, by the divine grace, has been preserved — 
in the most holy church of Ephesus, and is there 
adored by the faithful. And again the same 
evangelist says: ‘“‘The Jews therefore, because. 
it was the preparation, that the bodies should 
not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath-day 
(for that Sabbath-day was an high day), besought 
Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that 
they might be taken away.’ On that day, 
therefore, on which the Jews were about to eat 
the Passover in the evening, our Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ was crucified, being made the victim 
to those who were about to partake by faith of 
the mystery concerning Him, according to what 
is written by the blessed Paul: “ For even Christ 
our Passover is sacrificed for us ;’’5 and not as 
some who, carried along by ignorance, confi-. 
dently affirm that after He had eaten the Pass- 
over, He was betrayed ; which we neither learn 
from the holy evangelists, nor has any of the 
blessed apostles handed it down to us. At the 
time, therefore, in which our Lord and God 
Jesus Christ suffered for us, according to the 
flesh, He did not eat of the legal Passover ; but, 
as I have said, He Himself, as the true Lamb, 
was sacrificed for us in the feast of the typical 
Passover, on the day of the preparation, the 
fourteenth of the first lunar month. The typical 
Passover, therefore, then ceased, the true Pass- 
over being present: “ For Christ our Passover 
was sacrificed for us,” as has been before said, 
and as that chosen vessel, the apostle Paul, 
teaches.° 





1 [But compare Browne, Ox the Thirty-nine Articles, p. 717, 
note 3, American edition, 1874.] 
2 John xviii. 28. 
eee xix. 13,14. And about the sixth hour is the reading of 
our English version. According to St. Mark, the crucifixion took 
lace at the third hour (chap. xxy. 25). Eusebius, Theophylact, and 
verus (in the Catena, ed. Liicke, ii.) suppose that there has been 
some very early erratum in our copies. See Alford’s note on the 
passage. 
4 John xix. 31. 
S x Cor. v. 7. 
6 [Compare Anatolius, p. 151, supra. ] 


ELUCIDATIONS. 283 





II." 


Now it was the preparation, about the third 
sour, as the accurate books have it, and the auto- 
graph copy itself of the Evangelist John, which 
up to this day has by divine grace been preserved 
m the most holy church of Ephesus, and is there 
adored? by the faithful. 


VL—OF THE SOUL AND BODY.3 


The things which pertain to the divinity and 
Aumanity of the Second Man from heaven, in 
what has been written above, according to the 
blessed apostle, we have explained ; and now we 
have thought it necessary to explain the things 
which pertain to the first man, who is of earth 
and earthy, being about, namely, to demonstrate 
this, that he was created at the same time one 
and the same, although sometimes he is separately 
designated as the man external and internal. 
For if, according to the Word of salvation, He 
who made what is without, made also that which 
is within, He certainly, by one operation, and at 
the same time, made both, on that day, indeed, 
on which God said, ‘‘ Let us make man in our 
image, after our likeness ;’’ + whence it is mani- 
fest that man was not formed by a conjunction 
of the body with a certain pre-existent type. 
For if the earth, at the bidding of the Creator, 
brought forth the other animals endowed with 
life, much rather did the dust which God took 
from the earth receive a vital energy from the 
will and operation of God. 


VII. — FRAGMENT: 
Wretch that Iam! I have not remembered 


1 Apud Galland, Ex Chronico Paschal., p. 175, D. 

2 [Adored, i.e., etymolagically, = kissed, 

3 Ex Leontii et Joannis Rer. Sacr., lib. i. Apud Mai, Scrspt. 
Vet., tom. vii. p. 85. From his demonstration that the soul was not 
pre-existent to the body. 





that God observes the mind, and hears the 
voice of the soul. I turned consciously to sin, 
saying to myself, God is merciful, and will bear 
with me; and when I was not instantly smit- 
ten, I ceased not, but rather despised His for- 
bearance, and exhausted the long-suffering of 
God. 


VIlI.—ON ST. MATTHEW.® 


And in the Gospel according to Matthew, the 
Lord said to him who betrayed Him: “ Be- 
trayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss?” 
which Peter the Martyr and Archbishop of Alex- 
andria expounding, says, this and other things 
like, “ All the signs which He showed, and the 
miracles that He did, testify of Him that He is 
God incarnate; both things therefore are to- 
gether proved, that He was God by nature, and 
was made man by nature.” 


IX.— FROM A SERMON.? 


In the meanwhile the evangelist says with 
firmness, “‘The Word was made flesh, and dwelt 
among us.” 8 From this we learn that the angel, 
when he saluted the Virgin with the words, 
“ Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord 
is with thee,’% intended to signify God the 
Word is with thee, and also to show that He 
would arise from her bosom, and would be 
made flesh, even as it is written, “The Holy 
Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of 
the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore 
also that holy thing which shall be born of thee 
shall be called the Son of God.” ° 


6 From the Treatise of the Emperor Justinian against the Monoph- 
ysites. Apud Mai, Scrzpt. Vet., vii. 306, 307. 
7 Or, from a treatise on theology. 


4 Gen. i,-26. 8 John i. 14, 

5 Ex Leontio et Joanne Rev. Sacr., lib. ii. Apud Mai, Scrzpt. 9 Luke i. 28, 

Vet., tom. +3. n. a6, to Lukei. 35. 
PieUCIDATIONS, 


I. 
(Meletian schism, p. 259.) 


Tue date of the Meletian schism is very much in need of elucidation. I follow Neale, how- 
ever, as follows: Athanasius places its origin A.D. 306 (according to Tillemont and Baronius) or 
A.D. 301 ; the latter more probable, as demonstrated by the Benedictine editors. But the dates 
are, perhaps, the least of the difficulties which encumber the whole matter. Somewhat distrust- 
fully I have, after several efforts to construct an original elucidation, adopted the theory of Neale, 
as a diligent and conscientious inquirer whose Oriental studies qualify him to utter almost a 


284 ELUCIDATIONS. 





decisive voice, albeit he never forgets his Occidentalism, and hence fails to speak with absolute 
fidelity to the spirit of Catholic antiquity. 

We know something of Lycopolis from the blessed Alexander ; it seems to have been a sort 
of centre to the bishoprics of the Thebais. It was just the sort of centre, in a region sufficient for 
a separate patriarchate, to suggest to an ambitious and unscrupulous prelate an effort at independ- 
ency. Meletius, who succeeded the good Alexander, was just the man to set up for himself; a man 
not unlikely to be stimulated by the bad example of Paul of Samosata, and by the ingenuity that 
triumphed over the first council that called Paul to account. Bearing all this in mind, we may 
accept Neale’s conviction that Meletius had long been a scandal to the churches, and in the 
time of persecution had lapsed, and sacrificed to idols. Peter summoned him to a council, by 
which he was convicted and degraded ; whereupon he not only refused to submit, but arrogated 
to himself the cathedra of Alexandria, and began to ordain other bishops, and, in short, to re- 
organize its jurisdiction. Owing, I think probable, to the exceptional and overgrown extent of 
this enormous “ patriarchate,” as it was called a little later, the schism gained a considerable 
following. The distance of Lycopolis from Lower Egypt must have favoured the attempt, and 
Peter’s recent accession made it easy for Meletius to circulate evil stories against him. The 
schism, as usual, soon developed into heresy, which even the Nicene Synod failed to extinguish. 
Arius had joined the first outbreak, but conformed for a time, and was ordained a deacon by 
Achillas. His troublesome spirit, however, soon showed itself again after his ordination to the 
priesthood ; and the remnant of the Meletians made common cause with him after his condemna- 
tion at Nicea. Of Peter’s legitimate exercise of authority, and of the impurity and wickedness of 
Meletius before his invasion of Alexandria, there is no reason to doubt; but for the details, re- 
course must be had to Neale.2 The famous Sixth Canon of Nice finds its explanation in this 
rebellion ; but, incidentally, it defines the position of other great centres, which now began to 
be known as patriarchates. Neale’s remarks3 on the excessive leniency of the council in settling 
the case of Meletius, are specially to be noted. 


Il. 


(Canonical Epistle, p. 279.) 


The judgment of Dupin is so exceptionally eulogistic touching these canons, that I quote it, 
as follows : +— 

“Of all the canons of antiquity concerning the discipline of the lapsed, there are none more 
judicious or more equitable than those we have now described. There appear in them a 
wisdom and prudence altogether singular in tempering the rigours of punishment by a reasonable 
moderation, without which justice would be weakened. He examines carefully all the circum- 
stances which might augment or diminish the quality of the crime ; and as he does not lengthen 
out penance by methods too severe, so neither does he deceive the sinner by a facility too 
remiss.” 

Like the famous Canonical Epistles of St. Basil, however, these are compilations of canons 
accepted by the churches of his jurisdiction. Dupin says of those of Basil’ (Zo Amphilochtus), 
“They are not to be considered as the particular opinions of St. Basil, but as the laws of the 
Church in his time; and therefore they are not written in the form of personal letters, but after 
the manner of synodical decisions.” 


1 He reported to the Nicene Council that he had ordained twenty-eight bishops and eight priests or deacons. 
2 Patriarchate of Alexandria, vol. i. pp. 91, 146. 

3 Ibid., p. 146. 

4 Eccl. Hist. Cent. IV., sub tit. “ Peter of Alexandria.” 

5 Ibid., sub tit. “ Basil,” 


THE ROMAN EMPERORS. 


285 





I. 
2. 
3 
4. 
5. 
6. 
7 
8. 
9. 

10. 

Il, 

12. 

13. 

14. 

15. 

16. 

17. 

18. 

19. 

20. 

21. 

22. 


the Flavian family. 


THE ROMAN EMPERORS. 


In the study of these volumes a table is useful, such as I find it convenient to place here, 
showing the Ante-Nicene succession of Cesars. 


AUGUSTUS . 


TIBERIUS 
CALIGULA 
CLaupius 
NERO . 
GALBA_. 
OTHO. 


VITELLIUS . 


VESPASIAN 
TITus . 
DoMITIAN 
NERVA 
TRAJAN 
HADRIAN 


ANTONINUS PIUS 
MaARcus AURELIUS 


COMMODUS . 


PERTINAX 


Dipius JULIANuS (NIGER) . 


SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS 
CARACALLA (GETA). 


MACRINUS 


ey Oy eo ene 


A.D. 
I 


14| 


37 
41 
54 
68 
69 
69 
69 
79 
8 
96 
98 
117 
138 
161 
180 
192 
193 
193 
211 
217 





[43 


SELELIOGABALUS=. js. lai ited wearers 
. ALEXANDER SEVERUS. ... « 
NEA MENUS eo fom. sy veunte 
CORD DAN Temata stat tot mon es Wiehe 
. PupleNuS (BALBINUS). .. . 

. GORDIAN THE YOUNGER. 

. PHILIP Siac Me Reto 
NDE CTUSin cy cen acess ee tegen Aca ee 
. GALLUS (VOLUSIANUS) .. . 

. VALERIAN . 

. GALLIENUS . 

. CLaunpius II. . 

. AURELIAN ; 

. TACITUS (PROBUS) . 

. FLORIAN. Spies Gay Sisk: etaaka 

. CARUS (CARINUS, NUMERIAN) . 
EOIOCER DIAN: sie natant 

. MAXIMIAN (GALERIUS) 

. CONSTANTIUS CHLORUS . 

. MAXIMIN hes Sy as len AS aie 
CONSTANTINE THE GREAT (LICINIUS, etc.) . 


A.D. 
218 
222 
235 
235 
235 
238 
244 
249 
251 
254 
260 
268 
270 
275 
276 
282 
284 
286 
292 
306 
307 


Suetonius includes Julius, and therefore his Zwe/ve Caesars end with Vomitian, the last of 


With Nerva the “five good emperors” (so called) begin, but the “good 


Aurelius”? was a persecutor. St. John, surviving the cruelty of Domitian, lived and died under 
Trajan. , 
The “ vision of Constantine” is dated, at Tréves, A.D. 312. 
The Zasarum became the Roman standard thenceforth. 

The Dominical ordinance dates from Milan, June 2, a.p. 321. 


He founds the city of Constantinople a.pD. 324, convokes the Council of Nicaea a.D. 325. 





Med fais § 


=& 


nods ee La eet a 


Y THE REV. JAMES 








ms af id 
As 
x 1 
J - 
oo 
a} 
. - Zs 
Pas 
> e ’ 
F. ' 
~ 
a 
x a . 
' 
N I 
s 
F r 








INTRODUCTORY NOTICE 


TO 


ALEXANDER, BISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA 


[a.D. 273 '-313-326.} The records of the Ante-Nicene period, so far as Alexandria is con- 
cerned, are complete in this great primate, the friend and patron of Athanasius, and, with him, 
the master-spirit of the great Council of Nicza. I have so arranged the “ Fragments” of the 
Edinburgh series in this volume as to make them a great and important integer in rounding out 
and fulfilling the portraiture of the school and the See of Alexandria. The student will thus 
have at hand the materials for a covetable survey of the Alexandrian Fathers, — their history, their 
influence, and their immense authority in early Christendom. In an elucidation? I venture to 
condense my thoughts upon some points which it has been the interest of unbelievers to misrep- 
resent, and to colour for their own purposes. But, as the limitations uf my editorial duty do not 
allow me to enter upon a dissertation, I am thankful to refer the reader to the truly valuable 
though by no means exhaustive work of Dr. Neale on Zhe Patriarchate of Alexandria. His 
statements are not, indeed, to be received with unreserving confidence ; for, in spite of his pure 
and lofty purposes, his mind had been formed under the strong bias of a transient fashion in 
divinity, and he always surveyed his subject from an Occidental if not from a Latin (I do not 
mean a strictly Roman) point of view. To other popular historians I need not refer the student, 
save, by anticipation, to the list of authorities which will be furnished in the concluding volume 
of this series. 

Let us reflect, then, upon the epoch to which we have now come. The intense sufferings, 
labours, and intellectual as well as moral struggles, of the three heroic centuries, are closing, and 
Alexander of Alexandria is the grand figure of the period. Diocletian is preparing to let loose 
upon the sheep of Christ the ferocious wolves of the tenth persecution. Lucian is founding the 
school of Antioch,‘ revising the New Testament, and, in fact, the whole Bible of the Fathers, 
for his labours included the version of the Seventy. Unhappily, the ambitious Arius, who calls him 
master, has begun to trouble the evangelical See of St. Mark; and Achillas, notwithstanding the 
warnings of Peter, has laid hands upon him, and made him a presbyter. He aspires to be made 
a bishop. But anon a boy is playing on the shore at Alexandria in whom a flaming genius fot 
the priesthood already manifests itself. Alexander, looking forth from his windows, sees him 
“ playing church” with his schoolmates, and actually dipping a young pagan in the sea, “in the 
name of the Father,” etc. No doubt something of the kind did occur, and thus was the boy 
Athanasius brought to the notice of his bishop. But even Dupin rejects the rest of the story, 


1 The first date is conjectural. 

2 Elucidation I. 

3 For liberal references, consult Hagenbach, Text-Book of the History of Doctrine; by all means using Professor Smith’s edition, 
New York, 186r. 

4 For the matters touching the theology of the period, the student should prepare himself by consulting Waterland, History of thé 
Athanasian Creed (Works, vol. iv., London), and Van Oosterzee, CArtstian Dogmatics, New York, 1874. I wonder that Professot 
dSmith could, so unreservedly, commend Hagenbach. 

284 


7 ya Dey e 
ats, v 


290 INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 





that Alexander decided the question of the boy-baptism in favour of its validity, as the Latins 
would have us believe. Anyhow, we have this miracle of precocity attending Alexander as his 
deacon at the Council of Niczea, and then soon after succeeding to his episcopal chair. Athana- 
sius is the grandest figure of the primitive ages after the apostles fell asleep. Raised up to com- — 
plete their testimony to the eternal Logos, and to suffer like them, we soon behold him the noble 
example of constancy against the new perils of the world’s favour and the patronage of the 
Cesars. ‘Athanasius against the world” was in two senses his great encomium, and the epitome 
of his glorious life and warfare. Not less was it “ Athanasius for the world.” Alas! the majestic 
school of Pantznus and Clement soon after comes to its enigmatical decline. Some plants, 
when they have borne their superlative flower and fruit, mysteriously decay. It was so, alas! 
with the great Christian academy that not improbably owes its beginnings to Apollos. 


TRANSLATOR’S INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 


ALEXANDER was appointed successor to Achillas,' as Bishop of Alexandria, about a.D. 312. 
The virtues of this prelate, which Eusebius has passed over entirely without mention, other eccle- 
siastical writers have greatly extolled. For on all sides he is styled “ the staunchest upholder of 
evangelical doctrine,” “the patron and protector of apostolic doctrine ;” and “that bishop of 
divine faith, full of wisdom and of zeal enkindled by the Holy Spirit.” He was the first to detect 
and to condemn Arius ;? and taking his stand upon passages of Holy Scripture, as Theodoret 
remarks,3 he taught that the Son of God was of one and the same majesty with the Father, and 
had the same substance with the Father who begat Him. 

At first he sought to bring back Arius from his heresy. But when he perceived that he openly 
and obstinately taught his false doctrines, he assembled a first and then a second synod of the 
bishops of Egypt, and degraded him from the order of the priesthood,* and cut him off from the 
communion of the Church. This proving ineffectual, the Council of Nicaea was convened, in 
which he was finally condemned. In combating the Arian heresy, Alexander endured, although 
at a great age, many trials, and died shortly after the holding of the council. 





1 [Here given Achziles ; but I preserve unity of usage in this respect, the rather as Achzd/es is the name of a contemporary heretic, ] 
2 [i.e., in his great and final heresy. Of his former condemnation, see pp. 262-263, supra.] 

3H. E.,i, 2. 

4 [To which Achillas had admitted him. See p. 268, sufra. In spite of the warnings, pp. 263-265, sufra.]} 





EPISTLES: ON THE ARIAN HERESY 


AND 


THE DEPOSITION OF ARIUS. 


I.—TO ALEXANDER, BISHOP OF THE CITY OF 
CONSTANTINOPLE. 


To the most reverend and like-minded brother, 
Alexander, Alexander sends greeting in the 
Lora: 


1. THE ambitious and avaricious will of wicked 
men is always wont to lay snares against those 
churches which seem greater, by various pre- 
texts attacking the ecclesiastical piety of such. 
For incited by the devil who works in them, to 
the lust of that which is set before them, and 
throwing away all religious scruples, they trample 
under foot the fear of the judgment of God. 
Concerning which things, I who suffer, have 
thought it necessary to show to your piety, in 
order that you may be aware of such men, lest 
any of them presume to set foot in your dioceses, 
whether by themselves or by others; for these 
sorcerers know how to use hypocrisy to carry 
out their fraud ; and to employ letters composed 
and dressed out with lies, which are able to de- 
ceive a man who is intent upon a simple and 
sincere faith. Arius, therefore, and Achilles,’ 
having lately entered into a conspiracy, emulat- 
ing the ambition of Colluthus, have turned out 
far worse than he. For Colluthus, indeed, who 
reprehends these very men, found some pretext 
for his evil purpose ; but these, beholding his3 
bartering of Christ, endured no longer to be 
subject to the Church; but building for them- 
selves dens of thieves, they hold their assem- 
blies in them unceasingly, night and day direct- 
ing their calumnies against Christ and against 
us. For since they call in question all pious 
and apostolical doctrine, after the manner of 
the Jews, they have constructed a workshop for 
contending against Christ, denying the Godhead 


2 [See p. 2g0, note 1, supra, 

3 Colluthus, being a presbyter of Alexandria, puffed up with arro- 
gance and temerity, had acted as a bishop, and had ordained many 
priests and deacons, But in the synod that was assembled at Alex- 
andria all his acts of ordination were rescinded; and those who had 

ordained by him degraded to the rank of laymen, —TR. 


1 [See 321.] Apud. Theodoritum, Ast. Eccl., book i. chap. 4. 





of our Saviour, and preaching that He is only 
the equal of all others. And having collected 
all the passages which speak of His plan of sal- 
vation and His humiliation for our sakes, they 
endeavour from these to collect the preaching 
of their impiety, ignoring altogether the passages 
in which His eternal Godhead and unutterable 
glory with the Father is set forth. Since, there- 
fore, they back up the impious opinion concern- 
ing Christ, which is held by the Jews and Greeks, 
in every possible way they strive to gain their 
approval; busying themselves about all those 
things which they are wont to deride in us, and 
daily stirring up against us seditions and perse- 
cutions. And now, indeed, they drag us before 
the tribunals of the judges, by intercourse with 
silly and disorderly women, whom they have led 
into error ; at another time they cast opprobrium 
and infamy upon the Christian religion, their 
young maidens disgracefully wandering about 
every village and street. Nay, even Christ’s 
indivisible tunic, which His executioners were 
unwilling to divide, these wretches have dared 
to rend.4 

2. And we, indeed, though we discovered 
rather late, on account of their concealment, 
their manner of life, and their unholy attempts, 
by the common suffrage of all have 5 cast them 
forth from the congregation of the Church which 
adores the Godhead of Christ. But they, run- 
ning hither and thither against us, have begun 
to betake themselves to our colleagues who are 
of the same mind with us; in appearance, in- 
deed, pretending to seek for peace and concord, 
but in reality seeking to draw over some of them 
by fair words to their own diseases, asking long 
wordy letters from them, in order that reading 
these to the men whom they have deceived, they 








4 [Perhaps a quotation, and hence a token of verity as to what is 
narrated of Peter, p. 263, note 4, supra. 

5 It is inferred from these words that this letter of Alexander was 
written after the Synod of Alexandria in which Arius and his com- 
panion were condemned. But Alexander convened two synods of 
the bishops of Egypt against Arius and his friends. — Tr. 


291 


292 


EPISTLES ON THE ARIAN HERESY, 





may make them impenitent in the errors into 
which they have fallen, and obdurate in impiety, 
as if they had bishops thinking the same thing 
and siding with them. Moreover, the things 
which amongst us they have wrongly taught and 
done, and on account of which they have been 
expelled by us, they do not at all confess to 
them, but they either pass them over in silence, 
or throwing a veil over them, by feigned words 
and writings they deceive them. Concealing, 
therefore, their pestilent doctrine by their spe- 
cious and flattering discourse, they circumvent 
the more simple-minded and such as are open 
to fraud, nor do they spare in the meanwhile to 
traduce our piety to all. Hence it comes to pass 
that some, subscribing their letters, receive them 
into the Church, although in my opinion the 
greatest guilt lies upon those ministers who ven- 
ture to do this ; because not only does the apos- 
tolic rule not allow of it, but the working of the 
devil in these men against Christ is by this means 
more strongly kindled.!/ Wherefore without de- 
lay, brethren beloved, I have stirred myself up 
to show you the faithlessness of these men who 
say that there was a time when the Son of God 
was not; and that He who was not before, came 
into existence afterwards, becoming such, when 
' at length He was made, even as every man is 
wont to be born. For, they say, God made all 
things from things which are not, comprehend- 
ing even the Son of God in the creation of all 
things, rational and irrational. To which things 
they add as a consequence, that He is of mutable 
nature, and capable both of virtue and vice. 
And this hypothesis being once assumed, that 
He is “from things which are not,” they over- 
turn the sacred writings concerning His eternity, 
which signify the immutability and the Godhead 
of Wisdom and the Word, which are Christ. 

3. We, therefore, say these wicked men, can 
also be the sons of God even as He. For it is 
written, “I have nourished and brought up chil- 
dren.” * But when what follows was objected to 
them, “and they have rebelled against me,” 
which indeed is not applicable to the nature of 
the Saviour, who is of an immutable nature ; 
they, throwing off all religious reverence, say that 
God, since He foreknew and had foreseen that 
His Son would not rebel against Him, chose 
Him from all. For He did not choose Him as 
having by nature anything specially beyond His 
other sons, for no one is by nature a son of God, 
as they say ; neither as having any peculiar prop- 
erty of His own; but God chose Him who was 
of a mutable nature, on account of the careful- 
ness of His manners and His practice, which in 
no way turned to that which is evil; so that, if 
Paul and Peter had striven for this, there would 


> Isa. i. 2. 








have been no difference between their sonship 
and His. And to confirm this insane doctrine, 
playing with Holy Scripture, they bring forward 
what is said in the Psalms respecting Christ ° 
“Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wicked- 
ness: therefore God, Thy God, hath aneinted 
Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fel- 
lows.” ? 

Gj) Bas that the Son of God was not made 
“from things which are not,” and that there was 
no “time when He was not,’’3 the evangelist 
John sufficiently shows, when he thus writes con- 
cerning Him: “The only-begotten Son, who is 
in the bosom of the Father.”4 For since that 
divine teacher intended to show that the Father 
and the Son are two things inseparable the one 
from the other, he spoke of Him as being in the 
bosom of the Father. Now that also the Word 
of God is not comprehended in the number of 
things that were created “ from things which are 
not,” the same John says, ‘All things were made 
by Him.” For he set forth His proper person- 
ality, saying, “In the beginning was the Word, 
and the Word was with God, and the Word was 
God. All things were made by Him; and with- 
out Him was not anything made that was made.’’5 
For if all things were made by Him, how comes 
it that He who gave to the things which are 
made their existence, at one time Himself was 
not. For the Word which makes is not to be 
defined as being of the same nature with. the 
things which are made ; since He indeed was in 
the beginning, and all things were made by Him, 
and fashioned “from things which are not.” 
Moreover, that which zs seems to be contrary to 
and far removed from those things which are 
made “from things which are not.” For that 
indeed shows that there is no interval between 
the Father and the Son, since not even in thought 
can the mind imagine any distance between them. 
But that the world was created “from things 
which are not,” indicates a more recent a and 
later origin of substance, since the universe re- 
ceives an essence of this sort from the Father 
by the Son. When, therefore, the most pious 
John contemplated the essence of the divine 
Word at a very great distance, and as placed 
beyond all conception of those things that are 
begotten, he thought it not meet to speak of 
His generation and creation; not daring to 
designate the Creator in the same terms as the 
things that are made. Not that the Word is un- 
begotten, for the Father alone is unbegotten, but 
because the inexplicable subsistence of the only- 
begotten Son transcends the acute comprehension 
of the evangelists, and perhaps also of angels. 


2 Ps, xlv. 7. 

3 [The two tests, or crzteria, of Arianism. The Arians affirmed 
(1) the formula é£ ov« Ovtwy, and (2) the jv more ote ovK jy.] 

4 John i. 18. 

S John }, 1-3. 


EPISTLES ON THE ARIAN HERESY. 


5. Wherefore I do not think that he is to be 
reckoned amongst the pious who presumes to 
inquire into anything beyond these things, not 
listening to this saying: ‘“ Seek not out the things 
that are too hard for thee, neither search the 
things that are above thy strength.” ! For if the 
knowledge of many other things that are incom- 
parably inferior to this, are hidden from human 
comprehension, such as in the apostle Paul, “ Eye 
hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered 
into the heart of man, the things which God hath 
prepared for them that love Him.”? As also 
God said to Abraham, that “he could not num- 
ber the stars;”3 and that passage, “Who can 
number the sand of the sea, and the drops of 
rain.” 4 How shall any one be able to investi- 
gate too curiously the subsistence of the divine 
Word, unless he be smitten with frenzy? Con- 
cerning which the Spirit of prophecy says, “‘ Who 
shall declare his generation?”’5 And our Saviour 
Himself, who blesses the pillars of all things in 
the world, sought to unburden them of the knowl- 
edge of these things, saying that to comprehend 
this was quite beyond their nature, and that to 
the Father alone belonged the knowledge of this 
most divine mystery. “For no man,” says He, 
‘“‘knoweth the Son, but the Father ; neither know- 
eth any man the Father, save the Son.”° Of 
this thing also I think that the Father spoke, in 
the words, “ My secret is to Me and Mine.” 

6. Now that it is an insane thing to think that 
the Son was made from things which are not, 
and was in being in time, the expression, “ from 
things which are not,” itself shows, although these 
stupid men understand not the insanity of their 
own words. For the expression, “was not,” 
ought either to be reckoned in time, or in some 
place of anage. But if it be true that “all things 
were made by Him,” it is established that both 
every age and time and all space, and that 
“when” in which the “was not” is found, was 
made by Him. And is it not absurd that He who 
fashioned the times and the ages and the sea- 
sons, in which that “was not” is mixed up, to 
say of Him, that He at some time was not? 
For it is devoid of sense, and a mark of great 
ignorance, to affirm that He who is the cause of 
everything is posterior to the origin of that thing. 
For according to them, the space of time in 
which they say that the Son had not yet been 
made by the Father, preceded the wisdom of 
God that fashioned all things, and the Scripture 
speaks falsely according to them, which calls 
Him “the First-born of every creature.” Con- 
formable to which, that which the majestically- 


! Ecclus. iii. 22. [Compare the canonical equivalent, Ps. cxxxi. 1.] 
2 x Cor. ii. 9. 

3 Gen. xv. 5. 

4 Ecclus. i. 2, 

5 Isa, liii. 8. 

© Matt. xl. 27 





293 


speaking Paul says of Him: “Whom He hath 
appointed heir of all things. By whom also He 
made the worlds. But by Him also were all 
things created that are in heaven, and that are 
in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be 
thrones or dominions, or principalities, or pow- 
ers; all things were created by Him, and for 
Him ; and He 1s before all things.” 7 

7. Wherefore, since it appears that this hy- 
pothesis of a creation from things which are not 
is most impious, it is necessary to say that the 
Father is always the Father. But He is the 
Father, since the Son is always with Him, on ac- 
count of whom He is called the Father. Where- 
fore, since the Son is always with Him, the Father 
is always perfect, being destitute of nothing as 
regards good ; who, not in time, nor after an in- 
terval, nor from things which are not, hath be- 
gotten His only-begotten Son. How, then, is it 
not impious to say, that the wisdom of God once 
was not, which speaks thus concerning itself: “I 
was with Him forming all things ; I was His de- 
light ;”® or that the power of God once did not 
exist ; or that His Word was at any time muti- 
lated ; or that other things were ever wanting 
from which the Son is known and the Father 
expressed? For he who denies that the bright- 
ness of the glory existed, takes away also the 
primitive light of which it is the brightness. And 
if the image of God was not always, it is clear 
also that He was not always, of which it is the 
image. Moreover, in saying that the character 
of the subsistence of God was not, He also is 
done away with who is perfectly expressed by it. 
Hence one may see that the Sonship of our 
Saviour has nothing at all in common with the 
sonship of the rest. For just as it has been 
shown that His inexplicable subsistence excels 
by an incomparable excellence all other things 
to which He has given existence, so also His 
Sonship, which is according to the nature of the 
Godhead of the Father, transcends, by an in- 
effable excellence, the sonship of those who have 
been adopted by Him. For He, indeed, is of 
an immutable nature, every way perfect, and 
wanting in nothing; but these, since they are 
either way subject to change, stand in need of 
help from Him. For what progress can the 
wisdom of God make? What increase can the 
truth itself and God the Word receive? In what 
respect can the life and the true light be made 
better? And if this be so, how much more un- 
natural is it that wisdom should ever be capable 
of folly ; that the power of God should be con- 
joined with infirmity ; that reason should be ob- 
scured by unreason ; or that darkness should be 
mixed up with the true light? And the apostle 
says, on this place, ‘“‘What communion hath light 





7 Col. i. 16,17, 
8 Proy. vill. 30 (LXX.), 


294 


with darkness? and what concord hath Christ 
with Belial?” ! And Solomon says, that it is not 
possible that it should come to pass that a man 
should comprehend with his understanding “the 
way of a serpent upon a rock,” which is Christ, 
according to the opinion of Paul. But men and 
angels, who are His creatures, have received His 
blessing that they might make progress, exercis- 
ing themselves in virtues and in the command- 
ments of the law, so as not to sin. Wherefore 
our Lord, since He is by nature the Son of the 
Father, is by all adored. But these, laying aside 
the spirit of bondage, when by brave deeds and 
by progress they have received the spirit of adop- 
tion, being blessed by Him who is the Son by 
nature, are made sons by adoption. 

8. And His proper and peculiar, natural and 
excellent Sonship, St. Paul has declared, who 
thus speaks of God: “ Who spared not His own 
Son, but for us,” who were not His natural sons, 
“delivered Him up.”? For to distinguish Him 
from those who are not properly sons, He said 
that He was His own Son. And in the Gospel 
we read: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I 
am well pleased.”’3 Moreover, in the Psalms 
the Saviour says: ‘The Lord hath said unto Me, 
Thou art my Son.”4 Where, showing that He 
is the true and genuine Son, He signifies that 
there are no other genuine sons besides Himself. 
And what, too, is the meaning of this: ‘“ From 
the womb before the morning I begat thee’? 5 
Does He not plainly indicate the natural sonship 
of paternal bringing forth, which he obtained not 
by the careful framing of His manners, not by 
the exercise of and increase in virtue, but by 
property of nature? Wherefore, the only-begot- 
ten Son of the Father, indeed, possesses an in- 
defectible Sonship ; but the adoption of rational 
sons belongs not to them by nature, but is pre- 
pared for them by the probity of their life, and 
by the free gift of God. And 7z¢is mutable as the 
Scripture recognises: ‘For when the sons of 
God saw the daughters of men, they took them 
wives,” ° etc. And in another place: “I have 
nourished and brought up children, but they 
have rebelled against Me,’’? as we find God 
speaking by the prophet Isaiah. 

/,g. And though I could say much more, breth- 
ren beloved, I purposely omit to do so, as deem- 
ing it to be burdensome at great length to call 
these things to the remembrance of teachers 
who are of the same mind with myself. For 
ye yourselves are taught of God, nor are ye ig- 
norant that this doctrine, which hath lately 
raised its head against the piety of the Church, 


1 2 Cor, vi. 14, 15. 
2 Rom, viit, 32. 

3 Matt. iii. 17. 

4 Ps. xi. 7. 

5 Ps. ex. 3 (LXX.). 
© Gen, vi. 2, 

7 Isa. h 2. 


EPISTLES ON “THE ARTAN "HERESY, 





a) 


eet 
¥ 





is that of Ebion and Artemas; nor is it aught 
else but an imitation of Paul of Samosata, bishop 
of Antioch, who, by the judgment and counsel 
of all the bishops, and in every place, was sepa- 
rated from the Church. To whom Lucian suc- 
ceeding, remained for many years separate from 
the communion of three bishops.2 And now 
lately having drained the dregs of their impiety, 
there have arisen amongst us those who teach 
this doctrine of a creation from things which are 
not,’° their hidden sprouts, Arius and Achilles, 
and the gathering of those who join in their 
wickedness. And three bishops in Syria, having 
been, in some manner, consecrated on account 
of their agreement with them, incite them to 
worse things. |/ But let the judgment concerning 
these be reserved for your trial. For they, re- 
taining in their memory the words which came 
to be used with respect to His saving Passion, 
and abasement, and examination, and what they 
call His poverty, and in short of all those things 
to which the Saviour submitted for our sakes, 
bring them forward to refute His supreme and 
eternal Godhead. But of those words which 
signify His natural glory and nobility, and abid- 

ing with the Father, they have become unmind- 

ful. Such as this: “ I and My Father are one,”’'' 

which indeed the Lord says, not as proclaiming 

Himself to be the Father, nor to demonstrate 

that two persons are one; but that the Son of 

the Father most exactly preserves the expressed 

likeness of the Father, inasmuch as He has by 

nature impressed upon Him His similitude in 

every respect, and is the image of the Father in 

no way discrepant, and the expressed figure of 

the primitive exemplar. Whence, also, to Philip, 

who then was desirous to see Him, the Lord 

shows this abundantly. For when he said, 

“Show us the Father,’ '? He answered: “ He 

that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father,” since 

the Father was Himself seen through the spot- 

less and living mirror of the divine image. 

Similar to which is what the saints say in the 

Psalms: “In Thy light shall we see light.” 73 

Wherefore he that honoureth the Son, honoureth 

the Father also ;’”’'3 and with reason, for every 

impious word which they dare to speak against 

the Son, has reference to the Father. 

10. But after these things, brethren beloved, 
what is there wonderful in that which I am about 
to write, if I shall set forth the false calumnies 
against me and our most pious laity? For those 
who have set themselves in array against the 
Godhead of Christ, do not scruple to utter their 
ungrateful ravings against us. Who will not 











8 [a.D. 269.] A 

9 [By the canons three bishops were necessary to ordain one to 
the episcopate, nor was communion with fewer than these Catholic. | 

10 [See p. 292, note 3, supra.]} 

™ John x. 30. 

12 pone xiv. 8, 9. 

13 Ps. xxxvi. 9, 





EPISTLES ON THE ARIAN HERESY. 295 





either that any of the ancients should be com- 
pared with them, or suffer that any of those 
whom, from our earliest years, we have used as 
instructors should be placed on a level with them. 
Nay, and they do not think that any of all those 
who are now our colleagues, has attained even 
to a moderate amount of wisdom ; boasting them- 


selves to be the only men who are wise and di- 


vested of worldly possessions, the sole discoverers 
of dogmas, and that to them alone are those 
things revealed which have never before come 
into the mind of any other under the sun. Oh, 
the impious arrogance! Oh, the immeasurable 
madness! Oh, the vainglory befitting those that 
are crazed! Oh, the pride of Satan which has 
taken root in their unholy souls. The religious 
perspicuity of the ancient Scriptures caused them 
no shame, nor did the consentient doctrine of 
our colleagues concerning Christ keep in check 
their audacity against Him. ‘Their impiety not 
even the demons will bear, who are ever on the 
watch for a blasphemous word uttered against 
the Son. 

11. And let these things be now urged accord- 
ing to our power against those who, with respect 
to matter which they. know nothing of, have, as 
it were, rolled in the dust against Christ, and have 
taken in hand to calumniate our piety towards 
Him. For those inventors of stupid fables say, 
that we who turn away with aversion from the im- 
pious and unscriptural blasphemy against Christ, 
of those who speak of His coming from the 
things which are not assert, that there are two 
unbegottens. For they ignorantly affirm that one 
of two things must necessarily be said, either 
that He is from things which are not, or that 
there are two unbegottens ; nor do those ignorant 
men know how great is the difference between 
the unbegotten Father, and the things which 
were by Him created from things which are not, 
as well the rational as the irrational. Between 
which two, as holding the middle place, the only 
begotten nature of God, the Word by which the 
Father formed all things out of nothing, was 
begotten of the true Father Himself. As in a 
certain place the Lord Himself testified, saying, 
“Every one that loveth Him that begat, loveth 
Him also that is begotten of Him.” ' 

12. Concerning whom we thus believe, even 
as the Apostolic Church believes. In one Father 
unbegotten, who has from no one the cause of 
His being, who is unchangeable and immutable, 
who is always the same, and admits of no increase 
or diminution; who gave to us the Law, the 
prophets, and the Gospels ; who is Lord of the 
patriarchs and apostles, and all the saints. And 
in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son 
of God; not begotten of things which are not, 





1 John v. 4. 








but of Him who is the Father; not in a corpo- 
real manner, by excision or division as Sabellius 
and Valentinus thought, but in a certain inex- 
plicable and unspeakable manner, according to 
the words of the prophet cited above: “ Who 
shall declare His generation?’’? Since that His 
subsistence no nature which is begotten can in- 
vestigate, even as the Father can be investigated 
by none; because that the nature of rational 
beings cannot receive the knowledge of His di- 
vine generation by the Father. _But men who 
are moved by the Spirit of truth, have no need 
to learn these things from me, for in our ears 
are sounding the words before uttered by Christ 
on this very thing, ‘‘ No man knoweth the Father, 
save the Son; and no man knoweth who the Son 
is, save the Father.”3 That He is equally with 
the Father unchangeable and immutable, wanting 
in nothing, and the perfect Son, and like to the 
Father, we have learnt ; in this alone is He inferior 
to the Father, that He is not unbegotten. For 
He is the very exact image of the Father, and in 
nothing differing from Him. For it is clear that 
He is the image fully containing all things by 
which the greatest similitude is declared, as the 
Lord Himself hath taught us, when He says, “ My 
Father is greater than I.”4 And according to 
this we believe that the Son is of the Father, 
always existing. “For He is the brightness of 
His glory, the express image of His Father’s 
person.” 5 But let no one take that word adways 
so as to raise suspicion that He is unbegotten, 
as they imagine who have their senses blinded. 
For neither are the words, “‘ He was,” or “al- 
ways,” or “before all worlds,” equivalent to 
unbegotten. But neither can the human mind 
employ any other word to signify unbegotten. 
And thus I think that you understand it, and I 
trust to your right purpose in all things, since 
these words do not at all signify unbegotten. For 
these words seem to denote simply a lengthen- 
ing out of time, but the Godhead, and as it were 
the antiquity of the only-begotten, they cannot 
worthily signify ; but they have been employed 
by holy men, whilst each, according to his capa- 
city, seeks to express this mystery, asking indul- 
gence from the hearers, and pleading a reasonable 
excuse, in saying, Thus far have we attained. But 
if there be any who are expecting from mortal 
lips some word which exceeds human capacity, 
saying that those things have been done away 
which are known in part, it is manifest that the 
words, “ He was,” and “ always,” and “ before all 
ages,’ come far short of what they hoped. And 
whatever word shall be employed is not equiva- 
lent to unbegotten. Therefore to the unbegotten 





2 Isa. liii. 8. 
3 Matt. xi. 27. 
4 ie xiv. 28, 
5 Heb. i. 3. 


296 


Ye “ve, a VVeeyTs 


EPISTLES ON THE ARIAN HERESY. 





Father, indeed, we ought to preserve His proper 
dignity, in confessing that no one is the cause of 
His being; but to the Son must be allotted His 
fitting honour, in assigning to Him, as we have 
said, a generation from the Father without begin- 
ning, and allotting adoration to Him, so as only 
piously and properly to use the words, “‘ He was,” 
and “always,” and “ before all worlds,” with re- 
spect to Him; by no means rejecting His God- 
head, but ascribing to Him a similitude which 
exactly answers in every respect to the Image 
and Exemplar of the Father. But we must say 
that to the Father alone belongs the property of 
being unbegotten, for the Saviour Himself said, 
“My Father is greater than I.”' And besides 
the pious opinion concerning the Father and 
the Son, we confess to one Holy Spirit, as the 
divine Scriptures teach us ; who hath inaugurated 
both the holy men of the Old Testament, and 
the divine teachers of that which is called the 
New. And besides, also, one only Catholic and 
Apostolic Church, which can never be destroyed, 
though all the world should seek to make war 
with it; but it is victorious over every most im- 
pious revolt of the heretics who rise up against 
it. For her Goodman hath confirmed our minds 
by saying, “ Be of good cheer, I have overcome 
the world.”? After this we know of the resur- 
rection of the dead, the first-fruits of which was 
our Lord Jesus Christ, who in very deed, and 
not in appearance merely, carried a body, of 
Mary, Mother of God, who in the end of the 
world came to the human race to put away sin, 
was crucified and died, and yet did He not thus 
perceive any detriment to His divinity, being 
raised from the dead, taken up into heaven, seated 
at the right hand of majesty. 

13. These things in part have I written in this 
epistle, thinking it burdensome to write out each 
accurately, even as I said before, because they 
escape not your religious diligence. Thus do we 
teach, thus do we preach. ‘These are the apos- 
tolic doctrines of the Church, for which also we | 
die, esteeming those but little who would com- 
pel us to forswear them, even if they would force | 
us by tortures, and not casting away our hope in 
them. To these Arius and Achilles opposing 
themselves, and those who with them are the 
enemies of the truth, have been expelled from 
the Church, as being aliens from our holy doc- 
trine, according to the blessed Paul, who says, 
“Tf any man preach any other gospel unto you 
than that ye have received, let him be accursed ; 
even though he feign himself an angel from 
heaven.”3 And also, “If any man teach other- 
wise, and consent not to the wholesome words 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine 





1 John xiv. 28, 


2 ae xvi. 33. 
3 Gal. i. 8, 9. 


which is according to godliness; he is proud, 
knowing nothing,” 4 and so forth. ‘These, there- 
fore, who have been anathematized by the 
brotherhood, let no one of you receive, nor ad- 
mit of those’things which are either said or writ- 
ten by them. For these seducers do always lie, 
nor will they ever speak the truth. They go 
about the cities, attempting nothing else but that 
under the mark of friendship and the name of 
peace, by their hypocrisy and blandishments, 
they may give and receive letters, to deceive by 
means of these a few “silly women, and laden 
with sins, who have been led captive by them,” 5 
and so forth. 

14. These men, therefore, who have dared 
such things against Christ; who have partly in 
public derided the Christian religion ; partly seek 
to traduce and inform against its professors be- 
fore the judgment-seats ; who ina time of peace, 
as far as in them lies, have stirred up a persecu- 
tion against us ; who have enervated the ineffable 
mystery of Christ’s generation ; from these, I say, 
beloved and like-minded brethren, turning away 
in aversion, give your suffrages with us against 
their mad daring; even as our colleagues have 
done, who being moved with indignation, have 
both written to us letters against these men, and 
have subscribed our letter. Which also I have 
sent unto you by my son Apion the deacon, be- 
ing some of them from the whole of Egypt and 
the Thebaid, some from Libya and Pentapolis. 
There are others also from Syria, Lycia, Pam- 
phylia, Asia, Cappadocia, and the other neigh- 
bouring provinces. After the example of which 
I trust also that I shall receive letters from you. 
For though I have prepared many helps towards 
curing those who have suffered injury, this is the 
especial remedy that has been devised for healing 
the multitudes that have been deceived by them, 
that they may comply with the general consent 
of our colleagues, and thus hasten to return to 
repentance. Salute one another, together with 
the brethren who are with you. I pray that ye 
may be strong in the Lord, beloved, and that 
I may profit by your love towards Christ. 


Il. — EPISTLE CATHOLIC.® 


To our beloved and most reverend fellow-mints- 
ters of the Catholic Church in every place, 
Alexander sends greeting in the Lord: 


1. Since the body of the Catholic Church is 
one,’ and it is commanded in Holy Scripture 
that we should keep the bond of unanimity and 
peace, it follows that we should write and signify 
to one another the things which are done by each 





4 1 Tim. vi. 3, 4. 

S$ 2 Tim. iii. 4. 

6 Taken from the Works of St. Athanasius, vol { part 1. p. 397 
seqq., edit. Benedic. Paris, 1698. : 

7 [Elucidation II. ] ; 





EPISTLES ON THE ARIAN HERESY. 297 





of us; that whether one member suffer or re- 


joice we may all either suffer or rejoice with one 
another. In our diocese, then, not so long ago, 
there have gone forth lawless men, and adversa- 
ries of Christ, teaching men to apostatize ; which 
thing, with good right, one might suspect and 
call the precursor of Antichrist. I indeed wished 
to cover the matter up in silence, that so perhaps 
the evil might spend itself in the leaders of the 
heresy alone, and that it might not spread to 
other places and defile the ears of any of the 
more simple-minded. But since Eusebius, the 
present bishop of Nicomedia, imagining that 
with him rest all ecclesiastical matters,’ because, 
having left Berytus and cast his eyes upon the 
church of the Nicomedians, and no punishment 
has been inflicted upon him, he is set over these 
apostates, and has undertaken to write every- 
where, commending them, if by any means he 
may draw aside some who are ignorant to this 
most disgraceful and Antichristian heresy ; it be- 
came necessary for me, as knowing what is writ- 
ten in the law, no longer to remain silent, but to 
announce to you all, that you may know both 
those who have become apostates, and also the 
wretched words of their heresy ; and if Eusebius 
write, not to give heed to him. 

2. For he, desiring by their assistance to renew 
that ancient wickedness of his mind, with respect 
to which he has for a time been silent, pretends 
that he is writing in their behalf, but he proves 
by his deed that he is exerting himself to do 
this on his own account. Now the apostates 
from the Church are these: Arius, Achilles,? 
Aithales, Carpones, the other Arius, Sarmates, 
who were formerly priests ; Euzoius, Lucius, Ju- 
lius, Menas, Helladius, and Gaius, formerly dea- 
cons; and with them Secundus and Theonas, 
who were once called bishops. And the words 
invented by them, and spoken contrary to the 
mind of Scripture, are as follows : — 

“God was not always the Father; but there 
was a time when God was not the Father. The 
Word of God was not always, but was made 
‘from things that are not ;’ for He who is God 
fashioned the non-existing from the non-existing ; 
wherefore there was a time when He was not. 
For the Son is a thing created, and a thing made : 
nor is He like to the Father in substance ; nor 
is He the true and natural Word of the Father ; 
nor is He His true Wisdom ; but He is one of 
the things fashioned and made. And He is 
called, by a misapplication of the terms, the 
Word and Wisdom, since He is Himself made 
by the proper Word of God, and by that wisdom 
which is in God, in which, as God made all other 
things, so also did He make Him. Wherefore, 


I [Imagining. Compare Hippolytus, vol. v. pp. 156 and 158, 
supra. This expression seems to have been a sort of formula. ] 
2 [See p. 290, note 1, supra.] 














He is by His very nature changeable and mu- 
table, equally with other rational beings. The 
Word, too, is alien and separate from the sub- 
stance of God. The father also is ineffable ‘to 
the Son; for neither does the Word perfectly 
and accurately know the Father, neither can He 
perfectly see Him. For neither does the Son 
indeed know His own substance as it is. Since 
He for our sakes was made, that by Him as by 
an instrument God might create us; nor would 
He have existed had not God wished to make 
us. Some one asked of them whether the Son . 
of God could change even as the devil changed ; 
and they feared not to answer that He can; for 
since He was made and created, He is of muta- 
ble nature.” 

3. Since those about Arius speak these things 
and shamelessly maintain them, we, coming to- 
gether with the Bishops of Egypt and the Libyas, 
nearly a hundred in number, have anathematized 
them, together with their followers. But those 
about Eusebius have received them, earnestly 
endeavouring to mix up falsehood with truth, 
impiety with piety. But they will not prevail; 
for the truth prevails, and there is no communion 


| betwixt light and darkness, no concord between 


Christ and Belial. For who ever heard such 
things? or who, now hearing them, is not aston- 
ished, and does not stop his ears that the pol- 
lution of these words should not touch them? 
Who that hears John saying, “In the beginning 
was the Word,’’4 does not condemn those who 
say there was a time when He was not? Who 
that hears these words of the Gospel, “ the only- 
begotten Son ;”’5 and, ‘by Him were all things 
made,” ® will not hate those who declare He is 
one of the things made? For how can He be 
one of the things made by Him? or how shall He 
be the only-begotten who, as they say, is reck- 
oned with all the rest, if indeed He is a thing 
made and created? And how can He be made 
of things which are not, when the Father says, 
“ My heart belched forth a good Word ;’’7 and, 
“From the womb, before the morning have I 
begotten Thee?’’® Or how is He unlike to the 
substance of the Father, who is the perfect 
image and brightness of the Father, and who 
says, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the 
Father?’’2 And how, if the Son is the Word or 
Wisdom and Reason of God, was there a time 
when He was not? It is all one as if they said, 
that there was a time when God was without 
reason and wisdom. How, also, can He be 
changeable and mutable, who says indeed by 
Himself: “I am in the Father, and the Father 
Foy Be a 

s {nn i, 18, 

6 John i. 3. 

7 Ps, xlv. 1. 


SiPsv ex. 22 Heb. a. 3+ 
9 John xiv. 9. 


298 


EPISTLES ON* THE ARITAN HERESY. 





in Me,”? and, “I and My Father are one ;’’? 
and by the prophet, “I am the Lord, I change 
not?” 3 For even though one saying may refer 
to the Father Himself, yet it would now be more 
aptly spoken of the Word, because when He 
became man, He changed not; but, as says the 
apostle, “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to- 
day, and for ever.”+ Who hath induced them 
to say, that for our sakes He was made ; although 
Paul says, “for whom are all things, and by whom 
are all things?” 5 
4. Now concerning their blasphemous asser- 
tion who say that the Son does not perfectly 
know the Father, we need not wonder: for 
having once purposed in their mind to wage war 
against Christ, they impugn also these words of 
His, “As the Father knoweth Me, even so know 
I the Father.’’® Wherefore, if the Father only 
in part knoweth the Son, then it is evident that 
the Son doth not perfectly know the Father. 
But if it be wicked thus to speak, and if the 
Father perfectly knows the Son, it is plain that, 
even as the Father knoweth His own Word, so 
also the Word knoweth His own Father, of whom 
- He is the Word. 
5. By saying these things, and by unfolding 
the divine Scriptures, we have often refuted 
them. But they, chameleon-like, changing their 
sentiments, endeavour to claim for themselves 
that saying: “When the wicked cometh, then 
cometh contempt.’”’? Before them, indeed, many 
heresies existed, which, having dared more than 
was right, have fallen into madness. But these 
by all their words have attempted to do away 
-with the Godhead of Christ, have made those 
seem righteous, since they have come nearer to 
Antichrist. Wherefore they have been excom- 
municated and anathematized by the Church.® 
And indeed, although we grieve at the destruc- 
tion of these men, especially that after having 
once learned the doctrine of the Church, they 
have now gone back; yet we do not wonder at 
it; for this very thing Hymenzus and Philetus 
suffered,? and before them Judas, who, though 
he followed the Saviour, afterwards became a 
traitor and an apostate. Moreover, concerning 
these very men, warnings are not wanting to us, 
for the Lord foretold: ‘Take heed that ye be 
not deceived: for many shall come in My name, 
saying, I am Christ ; and the time draweth near : 
go ye not therefore after them.” '!° Paul, too, 
having learnt these things from the Saviour, 
wrote, “In the latter times some shall depart 
1 John xiv. ro. 
2 : John X. 30. 
al, iii. 6. 
4 Heb. xiii. 8. 
5 Heb. xi. ro. 
6 John x. 15. 
7 Prov, xvill. 
8 [See the signators to this decree in the subjoined fragment. ] 


9 2 Tim. ii. 17. 
Yo Luke xxi. 8. 





from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, 
and doctrines of devils which turn away from 
the truth? *" 

6. Since, therefore, our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ has thus Himself exhorted us, and by His 
apostle hath signified such things to us ; we, who 
have heard their impiety with our own ears, have 
consistently anathematized such men, as I have 
already said, and have declared them to be aliens 
from the Catholic Church and faith, and we have 
made known the thing, beloved and most hon- 
oured fellow-ministers, to your piety, that you 
should not receive any of them, should they 
venture rashly to come unto you, and that you 
should not trust Eusebius or any one else who 
writes concerning them. For it becomes us as 
Christians to turn with aversion from all who 
speak or think against Christ, as the adversaries 
of God and the destroyers of souls, and “not 
even to wish them Godspeed, lest at any time 
we become partakers of their evil deeds,” %? as 
the blessed John enjoins. Salute the brethren 
who are with you. Those who are with me 
salute you. 


SIGNATORS. 
PRESBYTERS OF ALEXANDRIA. 


I, Colluthus, presbyter,'3 give my suffrage to 
the things which are written, and also for the 
deposition of Arius, and those who are guilty of 
impiety with him. 


Alexander, presbyter, in like 
manner. 

Dioscorus, presbyter, in like 
manner. 

Dionysius, presbyter, in like 
manner. 


Arpocration, presbyter, in 
like manner. 

Agathus, presbyter. 

Nemesius, heehee. 

Longus, pres lose 

Silvanus, presbyter. 





Eusebius, presbyter, in like 
manner. 

Alexander, presbyter, in like 
manner. 

Nilaras, presbyter, in like 
manner. 


Perous, presbyter. 

Apis, presbyter. 

Proterius, presbyter. 

Paulus, presbyter. 

Cyrus, presbyter, in like 
manner. 


DEACONS. 


Ammonius, deacon, in like 
manner. 

Macarius, deacon. 

Pistus, deacon, in like man- 
ner. 

Athanasius, deacon. 

Eumenes, deacon. 

Apollonius, deacon. 

Olympius, deacon. 

Aphthonius, deacon. 

Athanasius, deacon." 

Macarius, deacon, in like 
manner. 

Paulus, deacon. 

Petrus, deacon. 





11 y Tim. iv. x. 

2 John x. 
See p. 291, note 3, supra.] 
Note this name. ig 


Ambytianus, deacon. 

Gaius, deacon, in 
manner. 

Alexander, deacon. 

Dionysius, deacon. 

Agathon, deacon. 

Polybius, deacon, in like 
manner. 

Theonas, deacon. 

Marcus, deacon. 

Commodus, deacon. 

Serapion, deacon. 

Nilus, deacon. 

Romanus, deacon, in like 
manner. 


—— 


like 





BrlioblLes ON THE TARIAN HEKESY. 299 





PRESBYTERY OF MAREOTIS. 


I, Apollonius, presbyter, give my suffrage to 
the things which are written, and also for the 
deposition of Arius, and of those who are guilty 
of impiety with him. 


. Ingenius, presbyter, in like Dioscorus, presbyter. 


manner. 
Ammonius, presbyter. 
Tyrannus, presbyter. 
Copres, presbyter. 
Ammonas, presbyter. 
Orion, presbyter. 
Serenus, presbyter. 
Didymus, presbyter. 
Heracles, presbyter. 


Sostras, presbyter. 
Theon, presbyter. 
Boccon, presbyter. 
Agathus, presbyter. 
Achilles, presbyter. 
Paulus, presbyter. 
Thalelzeus, presbyter. 
Dionysius, presbyter, in 
like manner. 


DEACONS. 


Sarapion, deacon, in like Didymus, deacon. 

manner. Ptollarion, deacon. 
Justus, deacon, in like man- Seras, deacon. 

ner. Gaius, deacon. 
Didymus, deacon. Hierax, deacon. 
Demetrius, deacon. Marcus, deacon. 
Maurus, deacon. Theonas, deacon. 
Alexander, deacon. Sarmaton, deacon. 
Marcus, deacon. Carpon, deacon. 
Comon, deacon. Zoilus, deacon, in like 
Tryphon, deacon. manner. 
Ammonius, deacon. 


III. — EPISTLE.! 


Alexander, to the priests and deacons, of Alex- 
andria and Mareotis, being present to them 
present, brethren beloved in the Lord, sends 
greeting °° 


Although you have been forward to subscribe 
the letters that I sent to those about Arius, ur- 
ging them to abjure their impiety, and to obey 
the wholesome and Catholic faith ; and in this 
manner have shown your orthodox purpose, and 
your agreement in the doctrines of the Catholic 
Church ; yet because I have also sent letters to 
all our fellow-ministers in every place with re- 
spect to the things which concern Arius and his 
companions ; I have thought it necessary to call 
together you the clergy of the city, and to sum- 
mon you also of Mareotis; especially since of 
your number Chares and Pistus, the priests ; 
Sarapion, Parammon, Zosimus, and Trenzeus, the 
deacons, have gone over to the party of Arius, 
and have preferred to be deposed with them ; 
that you may know what is now written, and that 
you should declare your consent in these matters, 
and give your suffrage for the deposition of those 
about Arius and Pistus. For it is right that you 
should know what I have written, and that you 
should each one, as if he had written it himself, | 
retain it in his heart. 


t Athanas., 26zd., p. 396. On the-deposition of Arius and his 
followers by Alexander, archbishop of Alexandria. 





IV.— EPISTLE TO AXGLON, BISHOP OF CYNOPO- 
LIS, AGAINST THE ARIANS.? 


From a letter of St. Alexander, bishop ot 
Alexandria, to A®glon, bishop of Cynopolis, 
against the Arians. 

1. Natural will is the free faculty of every in- 
telligent nature as having nothing involuntary 
which is in respect of its essence. 

2. Natural operation is the innate motion of 
all substance. Natural operation is the substan- 
tial and notifying reason of every nature. Natu- 
ral operation is the notifying virtue of every 
substance. 


V.—ON THE SOUL AND BODY AND THE PAS- 
SION OF THE LORD. 


1. The Word which is ungrudgingly sent down 
from heaven, is fitted for the irrigation of our 
hearts, if we have been prepared for His power, 
not by speaking only, but by listening. For as 
the rain without the ground does not produce 
fruit, so neither does the Word fructify without 
hearing, nor hearing without the Word. More- 
over, the Word then becomes fruitful when we 
pronounce it, and in the same way hearing, when 
we listen. Therefore since the Word draws 
forth its power, do you also ungrudgingly lend 
your ears, and when you come to hear, cleanse 
yourselves from all ill-will and unbelief. Two 
very bad things are ill-will and unbelief, both of 
which are contrary to righteousness ; for ill-will 
is opposed to charity, and unbelief to faith; just 
in the same way as bitterness is opposed to 
sweetness, darkness to light, evil to good, death 
to life, falsehood to truth. Those, therefore, 
who abound in these vices that are repugnant 
to virtue, are in a manner dead ; for the malig- 
nant and the unbelieving hate charity and faith, 
and they who do this are the enemies of God. 

2. Since therefore ye know, brethren beloved, 
that the malignant and the unbelieving are the 
enemies of righteousness, beware of these, em- 
brace faith and charity, by which all the holy 
men who have existed from the beginning of 
the world to this day have attained unto salva- 
tion. And show forth the fruit of charity, not 
in words only, but also in deeds, that is, in all 
godly patience for God’s sake. For, see! the 
Lord Himself hath shown His charity towards 
us, not only in words but also in deeds, since He 





2 Two fragments from an epistle. St. Maxim., Theological and 
teres pet’ Works, vol. ii. pp. 152-155. Edit. Paris, 1675. 

3 Many writings of the ancients, as Cardinal Mai has remarked, 
may be disinterred from the Oriental manuscripts in the Vatican 
library, some of which have been brought to light by that eminent 
scholar. In an Arabic ms. he discovered a large portion of the fol- 
lowing discourse by St, Alexander, the patriarch of Alexandria, which 
he afterwards met with entire in the Syrian Vatican manuscript 368. 
The Greek version being lost, Mai, with the assistance of the erudite 
Maronites, Matthzeus Sciahuanus, ‘and Franciscus Mehasebus, trans- 
lated the ‘discourse into Latin, and his version has been chiefly fol- 
lowed in the following translation, Of its genuineness there is no 
doubt, and it is quite worthy of a place among his other writings. 


300 


EPISTLES ON THE ARIAN HERESY. 





hath given Himself up as the price of our sal- | cast down to the lower regions, it was made the 


vation. Besides, we were not created, like the 
rest of the world, by word alone, but also by 
deed. For God made the world to exist by the 
power of a single word, but us He produced by 
the efficacy alike of His word and working. 
For it was not enough for God to say, “ Let us 
make man in our image, after our likeness,” ' 
but deed followed word; for, taking the dust 
from the ground, He formed man out of it, con- 
formable to His image and similitude, and into 
him He breathed the breath of life, so that 
Adam became a living soul. 

3. But when man afterwards by his fall had 
inclined to death, it was necessary that that form 
should be recreated anew to salvation by the 
same Artificer. For the form indeed lay rotting 
in the ground; but that inspiration which had 
been as the breath of life, was detained separate 
from the body in a dark place, which is called 
Hades. There was, therefore, a division of the 
soul from the body ; it was banished ad inferos, 
whilst the latter was resolved into dust; and 
there was a great interval of separation between 
them ; for the body, by the dissolution of the 
flesh, becomes corrupt; the soul being loosened 
from it, its action ceases. For as when the king 
is thrown into chains, the city falls to ruin; or 
as when the general is taken captive, the army is 
scattered abroad ; or as when the helmsman is 
shaken off, the vessel is submerged; so when 
the soul is bound in chains, its body goes to 
pieces ; as the city without its king, so its mem- 
bers are dissolved ; as is the case with an army 
when its general is lost, they are drowned in 
death, even as happens to a vessel when deprived 
of its helmsman. The soul, therefore, governed 
the man, as long as the body survived ; even as 
the king governs the city, the general the army, 
the helmsman the ship. But it was powerless to 
rule it, from the time when it was immoveably 
tied to it, and became immersed in error ; there- 
fore it was that it declined from the straight 
path, and followed tempters, giving heed to 
fornication, idolatry, and shedding of blood; 
by which evil deeds it has destroyed the proper 
manhood. Nay, but itself also being carried at 
length to the lower regions, it was there detained 
by the wicked tempter. Else was it wont, as 
the king restores the ruined city, the general 
collects the dispersed army, the sailor repairs 
the broken ship, even so, I say, the soul used to 
minister supplies to the body before that the 
body was dissolved in the dust, being not as yet 
itself bound fast with fetters. But after that the 
soul became bound, not with material fetters but 
with sins, and thus was rendered impotent to 
act, then it left its body in the ground, and being 





2 Gen. i. 26, 








| womb ? 


footstool of death, and despicable to all. 

4. Man went forth from paradise to a region 
which was the sink of unrighteousness, fornica- 
tion, adultery, and cruel murder. And there he 
found his destruction ; for all things conspired to 
his death, and worked the ruin of him who had 
hardly entered there. Meanwhile man wanted 
some consolation and assistance and rest. For 
when was it well with man? In his mother’s 
womb? But when he was shut up there, he 
differed but little from the dead. When he was 
nourished with milk from the breast? Not even 
then, indeed, did he feel any joy. Was it rather 
whilst he was coming to maturity? But then, 
especially, dangers impended over him from his 
youthful lusts. Was it, lastly, when he grew old? 
Nay, but then does he begin to groan, being 
pressed down by the weight of old age, and the 
expectation of death. For what else is old age 
but the expectation of death? Verily all the 
inhabitants of earth do die, young men and old, 
little children and adults, for no age or bodily 
stature is exempt from death. Why, then, is man 
tormented by this exceeding grief? Doubtless 
the very aspect of death begets sadness ; for we 
behold in a dead man the face changed, the 
figure dead, the body shrunk up with emacia- 
tion, the mouth silent, the skin cold, the carcase 
prostrate on the ground, the eyes sunken, the 
limbs immoveable, the flesh wasted away, the 
veins congealed, the bones whitened, the joints 
dissolved, all parts of him reduced to dust, and 
the man no longer existing. What, then, is 
man? A flower, I say, that is but for a little 
time, which in his mother’s womb is not appar- . 
ent, in youth flourishes, but which in old age 
withers and departs in death. 

5. But now, after all this bondage to death 
and corruption of the manhood, God hath visited 
His creature, which He formed after His own 
image and similitude ; and this He hath done 
that it might not for ever be the sport of death. 
Therefore God sent down from heaven His in- 
corporeal Son to take flesh upon Him in the 
Virgin’s womb ; and thus, equally as thou, was 
He made man, to save lost man, and collect 
all His scattered members. For Christ, when 
He joined the manhood to His person, united 


| that which death by the separation of the body 


had dispersed. Christ suffered that we should 
live for ever. 

For else why should Christ have died? Had 
He committed anything worthy of death? Why 
did He clothe Himself in flesh who was in- 
vested with glory? And since He was God, 
why did He become man? And since He 
reigned in heaven, why did He‘come down to 
earth, and become incarnate in the virgin’s 
What necessity, I ask, impelled God 


OF er ea ar 





EPISTLES ON THE ARIAN HERESY. 301 





to come down to earth, to assume flesh, to be 
wrapped in swaddling clothes in a manger- 
cradle, to be nourished with the milk from the 
breast, to receive baptism from a servant, to be 
lifted up upon the cross, to be interred in an 
earthly sepulchre, to rise again the third day 


from the dead?! 


What necessity, I say, impelled Him to this? 
It is sufficiently discovered that He suffered 
shame for man’s sake, to set him free from 
death ; and that He exclaimed, as in the words 
of the prophet, ‘‘I have endured as a travailing 
woman.”? In very deed did He endure for our 
sakes sorrow, ignominy, torment, even death 
itself, and burial. For thus He says Himself by 
the prophet: “I went down into the deep.” 3 
Who made Him thus to godown? The imptous 
people. Behold, ye sons of men, behold what 
recompense Israel made unto Him! She slew 
her Benefactor, returning evil for good, afflic- 
tion for joy, death for life. They slew by nail- 
ing to the tree Him who had brought to life 
their dead, had healed their maimed, had made 
their lepers clean, had given light to their blind. 
Behold, ye sons of men! behold, all ye people, 
these new wonders! They suspended Him on 
the tree, who stretches out the earth; they 
transfixed Him with nails who laid firm the 
foundation of the world; they circumscribed 
Him who circumscribed the heavens; they 
bound Him who absolves sinners; they gave 
Him vinegar to drink who hath made them to 
drink of righteousness ; they fed Him with gall 
who hath offered to them the Bread of Life ; 
they caused corruption to come upon His hands 
and feet who healed their hands and feet; they 
violently closed His eyes who restored sight to 
them ; they gave Him over to the tomb, who 


‘raised their dead to life both in the time before 


His Passion and also whilst He was hanging on 
the tree. 

6. For when our Lord was suffering upon the 
cross, the tombs were burst open, the infernal 
region was disclosed, the souls leapt forth, the 
dead returned to life, and many of them were 
seen in Jerusalem, whilst the mystery of the 
cross was being perfected ; what time our Lord 
trampled upon death, dissolved the enmity, 
bound the strong man, and raised the trophy 
of the cross, His body being lifted up upon it, 
that the body might appear on high, and death 
to be depressed under the foot of flesh. Then 





1 The passage, as far as to “‘rise again the third day from the 
dead,” is generally marked with inverted commas, and Mai remarks 
that it had been already brought to light by him under the name of 
the same Alexander, in the Sficzleg. Roman., vol. iii. p. 699, 
amongst some extracts of the Fathers from the Arabic Vatican Codex, 
tor, in which is contained the celebrated Monophysite work entitled 
Fides Patrum. \t is established therefore that this discourse was 
written in Greek by Alexander, and afterwards translated not only 
into the Syriac, but also into the Arabic language. [I have made this 
Baseeye into a paragraph distinct from the rest. 

2 Isa. xiii. 14. 

3 Jonah ii. 4. 





the heavenly powers wondered, the angels were 
astonished, the elements trembled, every crea- 
ture was shaken whilst they looked on this new 
mystery, and the terrific spectacle which was 
being enacted in the universe. Yet the entire 
people, as unconscious of the mystery, exulted 
over Christ in derision ; although the earth was 
rocking, the mountains, the valleys, and the sea 
were shaken, and every creature of God was 
smitten with confusion. The lights of heaven 
were afraid, the sun fled away, the moon disap- 
peared, the stars withdrew their shining, the day 
came to end;* the angel in astonishment de- 
parted from the temple after the rending of the 
veil, and darkness covered the earth on which 
its Lord had closed His eyes. Meanwhile hell 5 
was with light resplendent, for thither had the 
star descended. The Lord, indeed, did not 
descend into hell in His body but in His Spirit. 
He forsooth is working everywhere, for whilst 
He raised the dead by His body, by His spirit 
was He liberating their souls. For when the 
body of the Lord was hung upon the cross, the 
tombs, as we have said, were opened ; hell was 
unbarred, the dead received their life, the souls 
were sent back again into the world, and that 
because the Lord had conquered hell, had 
trodden down death, had covered the enemy 
with shame ; therefore was it that the souls came 
forth from Hades, and the dead appeared upon 
the earth. 

7. Ye see, therefore, how great was the effect 
of the death of Christ, for no creature endured 
His fall with equal mind, nor did the elements 
His Passion, neither did the earth retain His 
body, nor hell His Spirit. All things were in 
the Passion of Christ disturbed and convulsed. 
The Lord exclaimed, as once before to Lazarus, 
Come forth, ye dead, from your tombs and your 
secret places; for I, the Christ, give unto you 
resurrection. For then the earth could not long 
hold the body of our Lord that in it was buried ; 
but it exclaimed, O my Lord, pardon mine in- 
iquities, save me from Thy wrath, absolve me 
from the curse, for I have received the blood of 
the righteous, and yet I have not covered the 
bodies of men or Thine own body! What is at 
length this wonderful mystery? Why, O Lord, 
didst Thou come down to earth, unless it was for 
man’s sake, who has been scattered everywhere : 
for in every place has Thy fair image been dis- 
seminated? Nay! but if thou shouldest give but 
one little word, at the instant all bodies would 
stand before Thee. Now, since Thou hast come 
to earth, and hast sought for the members of 
Thy fashioning, undertake for man who is Thine 
own, receive that which is committed to Thee, 





4 [Vol. ili. 58, this series. The patristic testimony is overwhelm- 
ing and sufficient, See Africanus, p. 136, swfra, and a full discus- 
sion of his statement in Routh, &. S., ik. p. 477.] 

Hades 


302 


recover Thine image, Thine Adam. Then the 
Lord, the third day after His death, rose again, 
thus bringing man to a knowledge of the Trinity. 
Then all the nations of the human race were 
saved by Christ. One submitted to the judg- 
ment, and many thousands were absolved. 
Moreover, He being made like to man whom 
He had saved, ascended to the height of heaven, 
to offer before His Father, not gold or silver, or 
precious stones, but the man whom He had 
formed after His own image and similitude ; and 
the Father, raising Him to His right hand, hath 
seated Him upon a throne on high, and hath 
made Him to be judge of the peoples, the lead- 
er of the angelic host, the charioteer of the 
cherubim, the Son of the true Jerusalem, the 
Virgin’s spouse, and King for ever and ever. 
Amen. 


VI.—THE ADDITION IN THE CODEX, WITH A 
VARIOUS READING. 


God, therefore, wishing to visit His own form 
which He had fashioned after His own image 
and similitude, hath in these last times sent into 
the world His incorporeal and only Son, who 
being in the Virgin’s womb incarnate, was born 
perfect man to raise erect lost man, re-collect- 
ing His scattered members. For why else should 
Christ have died? Was He capitally accused ? 
And since He was God, why was He made man? 
Why did He who was reigning in heaven come 
down to earth? Who compelled God to come 
down to earth, to take flesh of the holy Virgin, 
to be wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in 
a manger, to be nourished with milk, to be bap- 
tized in the Jordan, to be mocked of the people, 
to be nailed to the tree, to be buried in the 
bosom of the earth, and the third day to rise 
again from the dead; in the cause of redemp- 
tion to give life for life, blood for blood, to 
undergo death for death? For Christ, by dy- 
ing, hath discharged the debt of death to which 
man was obnoxious. Oh, the new and ineffable 
mystery! the Judge was judged. He who ab- 
solves from sin was bound; He was mocked 
who once framed the world ; He was stretched 
upon the cross who stretched out the heavens ; 
He was fed with gall who gave the manna to be 
bread ; He died who gives life. He was given 








, ye ee aoe 


EPISTLES ON’ THE ARIAN HERESY: 


up to the tomb who raises the dead. The 
powers were astonished, the angels wondered, the 
elements trembled, the whole created universe 
was shaken, the earth quaked, and its founda- 
tions rocked; the sun fled away, the elements 
were subverted, the light of day receded; be- 
cause they could not bear to look upon their 
crucified Lord.‘ The creature, in amazement, 
said, What is this novel mystery? The judge 
is judged and is silent; the invisible is seen 
and is not confounded ; the incomprehensible is 
grasped and is not indignant at it; the immeas- 
urable is contained in a measure and makes no 
opposition ; the impassable suffers and does not 
avenge its own injury; the immortal dies and 
complains not ; the celestial is buried and bears 
it with an equal mind. What, I say, is this 
mystery? ‘The creature surely is transfixed with 
amazement. But when our Lord rose from 
death and trampled it down, when He bound 
the strong man and set man free, then every 
creature wondered at the Judge who for Adam’s 
sake was judged, at the invisible being seen, at 
the impassable suffering, at the immortal dead, 
at the celestial buried in the earth. For our 
Lord was made man; He was condemned that 
He might impart compassion; He was bound 
that He might set free; He was apprehended 
that He might liberate; He suffered that He 
might heal our sufferings; He died to restore 
life to us; He was buried to raise us up. For 
when our Lord suffered, His humanity suffered, 
that which He had like unto man; and He dis- 
solves the sufferings of him who is His like, and 
by dying He hath destroyed death. It was for 
this cause that He came down upon earth, that 
by pursuing death He might kill the rebel that 
slew men. For one underwent the judgment, 
and myriads were set free ; one was buried, and 
myriads rose again. He is the Mediator be- 
tween God and man; He is the resurrection 
and the salvation of all; He is the Guide of the 
erring, the Shepherd of men who have been set 
free, the life of the dead, the charioteer of the 
cherubim, the standard-bearer of the angels, 
and the King of kings, to whom be glory for 
ever and ever. Amen. 


1 Here, again, we have this fact insisted on. See p. jor, note 4. 





ae Rees ae 


ELUCIDATIONS. 303 





ELUCIDATIONS. 


de 
(Some points, p. 289.) 


Twat the theology of the great school of Alexandria had a character of its own, is most 
apparent ; I should be the last to deny it. As its succession of teachers was like that of heredi- 
tary descent in a family, a family likeness is naturally to be found in this school, from the great 
Clement to the great Athanasius. It is a school that hands on the traditions in which Apollos 
had been reared; it not less reflects the Greek influences always dominant in the capital of the 
Macedonian hero; but it is a school in which the Gospel of Christ as the Light of the world 
was always made predominant: and, while a most liberal view of human knowledge was inculcated 
in it, yet the faith was always exalted as the mother and mistress of the true gvosts and of all 
science. The wise men of this world were summoned with an imperial voice, from this eldest 
seat and centre of Christian learning, to cast their crowns and their treasures at the feet of Jesus. 
With a generous patronage Clement conceded all he could to the philosophy of the Greeks, and 
yet sublimely rose above it to a sphere it never discovered, and looked down upon all merely 
human intellect and its achievements like Uriel in the sun. 

It was the special though unconscious mission of this school to prepare the way, and to shape 
the thought of Christendom, for the great epoch of the (nominal) conversion of the empire, and 
for the all-important synodical period, its logical consequence. It was in this school that the 
technical formulas of the Church were naturally wrought out. The process was like that of the 
artist who has first to make his own tools. He does many things, and resorts to many contriv- 
ances, never afterwards necessary when once the tools are complete and his laboratory furnished 
with all he wants for his work. To my mind, therefore, it is but a pastime of no practical worth 
to contrast the idiosyncrasies of Clement with those of Origen, and to set up distinctions between 
the Logos of this doctor and that.!. The differences to be descried belong to the personal pecul- 
iarities of great minds not yet guided to unity of diction by a scientific theology. The marvel is 
their harmony of thought. Their ends and their antagonisms are the same. The outcome of 
their mental efforts and their pious faith is seen in the result. Alexander was their product, and 
Athanasius (bringing all their sheaves to the Church’s garner, winnowed and harvested) is the 
perpetual gromon of the Alexandrian school. Its testimony, its prescription, its harmony and 
unity, are all summed up in him. 

It is extraordinary that many truly evangelical critics seem to see, in the subordination taught 
by Origen,? something not reconcileable with the Nicene orthodoxy. Even Bishop Bull is a szé- 
ordinationist, and so are all the great orthodox divines. When Origen maintains the povap xia (the 
Father as the root and source of the Godhead, as do all the Greeks 3), and also a subordination 
of the Son in the divine ovo/a, he is surely consistent with the Athanasian doctrine ;+ and, if he is 
led to affirm a diversity of essence in connection with this subordination, he does it with such 
limitations as should convince us that he, too, would have subscribed the déuoovcrov, in which 
Alexandrians no whit inferior to him finally formulated the convictions and testimonies of their 
predecessors.5 





1 See, against Petavius and others, Dr. Holmes’s learned note, vol. iii. p. 628, Elucidation I. 

2 Vol. iv. p. 343, this series; also Elucidation II. p. 382. 

3 On Tertullian’s orthodoxy, see notes, vol. iii. p. 600, etc. 

4 When we consider his refinements about the words sudstance, dea, image, etc., in the dispute with Celsus, while yet these terms 
were not reduced to precision, we cannot but detect his effort to convey an orthodox notion. Observe Dr. Spencer’s short but useful note, 
vol. iv. p. 603, note 3. 

5 See vol. iv p. 382, Elucidations I., II., and III. 


TT ee 
. ; : } on Ay Gin 


\ 


304 ELUCIDATIONS. 





II. 


(Since the body of the Catholic Church is one, etc., p. 296.) 


As so shortly preceding the meeting of the Great Council, this letter is most important as a 
clear testimony to the meaning the first council attached to that article of the Creed which 
affirms “one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.” We must compare the Zveat'ses of Cyprian 
for the West, with this and the Letter of Firmilian' for the East, as clearly elucidating the con- 
temporary mind of the Church, and hence the meaning of those words which reflect their mind in 
the Creed. To make any reflections of my own would be out of place, save only, negatively, as 
I compare it with the modern creed of the Council of Trent (Pius IV.), which defines the 
Catholic Church to be the communion which acknowledges the Church of Rome as “the mother 
and mistress of churches.”’ 

The concluding section of this letter is decisive as to the absolute autonomy of the Alexan- 
drian decese To all the other churches Alexander merely communicates his sentence, which 
they are all bound to respect. Whether the Christian Church at this period reflected the Apos- 
tolic Institutions is not the question, but merely what its theory was in the fourth century, and 
how far East and West accorded with the theory of Cyprian. 





2 Vol. v. p. 390, this series, 3 See the force of this spelling, p. 240, susva. 


Er 
‘ie 





"(TRANSLATED BY THE REV. WILLIAM, R LARK, M.A,, 
TAUNTON.) | 


—__ 


= — 
‘ 
a fp 
oad ; = 
—- 
—_ 
“ 
- — 
\ 
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fo . 
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ies 





Ay 





INTRODUCTORY NOTICE 


TO 


METHODIUS. 


[a.D. 260-312]. Considering the strong language in which Methodius is praised by ancient 
writers, as well as by the moderns, I feel that our learned translator has too hastily dismissed his 
name and works in the biographical introduction below. Epiphanius makes great use of him in 
his refutations of Origen; and Dupin’s critical and historical notice of him is prolonged and 
highly discriminating, furnishing an abridgment of all his writings and of those vulgarly at- 
tributed to him heretofore.'’ I have made into an elucidation some references which may be of 
use to the student. In like manner, I have thrown into the form of notes and elucidations what 
would be less pertinent and less useful in a preface. There aze no facts to be added to what is 
here given by the translator; and remarks on the several works, which he has too sparingly an- 
notated, will be more conveniently bestowed, perhaps, on the pages to which they immediately 
refer. The following is the translator’s brief but useful 


INTRODUCTION. 


MEtuHopws, who is also called Eubulius,? was, first of all bishop, simultaneously of Olympus 
and Patara, in Lycia, as is testified by several ancient writers. He was afterwards removed, 
according to St, Jerome, to the episcopal See of Tyre in Phcenicia, and at the end of the latest 
of the great persecutions of the Church, about the year 312, he suffered martyrdom at Chalcis 
in Greece. Some consider that it was at Chalcis in Syria, and that St. Jerome’s testimony ought 
to be thus understood, as Syria was more likely to be the scene of his martyrdom than Greece, 
as being nearer to his diocese. Others affirm that he suffered under Decius and Valerian ; but 
this is incorrect, since he wrote not only against Origen long after the death of Adamantius, but 
also against Porphyry, whilst he was alive, in the reign of Diocletian. 

Methodius is known chiefly as the antagonist of Origen; although, as has been pointed out, 
he was himself influenced in no small degree by the method of Origen, as may be seen by his 
tendency to allegorical interpretations of Holy Scripture. The only complete work of this writer 
which has come down to us is his Banguet of the Ten Virgins, a dialogue of considerable power 
and grace, in praise of the virginal life. His antagonism to Origen, however, comes out less in 
this than in his works Ox the Resurrection, and On Things Created. The treatise On Free Will 
is, according to recent critics, of doubtful authorship, although the internal evidence must be said 
to confirm the ancient testimonies which assign it to Methodius. His writings against Porphyry, 
with the exception of some slight fragments, are lost, as are also his exegetical writings.‘ 





1 [In Dr. Schaff's Héséory (vol. ii. p. 809) is just such a notice and outline as would be appropriate here. ] 

2 St. Epiph., Weves., 64, sec. 63. [But this seems only his xo de plume, assumed in his fiction of the Banguet | 
3 St. Hieronymus, De v7ris rllust., c. 83. 

4 For the larger fragments we are indebted to Epiphanius (H@res., 64) and Photius (Bzblzotheca, 234-237). 


oo7 


308 INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 





‘Combefis published an edition of his works in 1644; but only so much of the Bangue? as 
was contained in the Bibiotheca of Photius. In 1656 Leo Allatius published for the first time a 
complete edition of this work at Rome from the Vatican ms. Combefis in 1672 published 
an edition founded chiefly upon this; and his work has become the basis of all subsequent 
reprints. 

The following translation has been made almost entirely from the text of Migne, which is 
generally accurate, and the arrangement of which has been followed throughout. The edition of 
Jahn in some places rearranges the more fragmentary works, especially that On the Resurrection ; 
but, although his text was occasionally found useful in amending the old readings, and in improv- 
ing the punctuation, it was thought better to adhere in general to the text which is best known. 

A writer who was pronounced by St. Epiphanius' to be “a learned man and a most valiant 
defender of the truth,” and by St. Jerome, asertissimus martyr,2 who elsewhere speaks of him as 
one who nitidi compositique sermonts libros confecit,3 cannot be altogether unworthy the attention 
of the nineteenth century. 





1 Epiph., Her., 64, sec. 63. avip Adytos kai odddpa mepi THs aAnOeias aywvicduevos, [Petavius renders this: “ vir apprime doetus 
acerrimusque veritatis patronus.”’ ] 

2 Hieron., Com. in Dan,, c. 13. 

3 Id., De vir it/., c. 83. Many more such testimonies will be found collected in the various editions of his works in Greek, 





THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS;° 


OR, 


CONCERNING CHASTITY. 


PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: EUBOULIOS,? GREGORION, ARETE; MARCELLA, THEOPH- 
ILA, THALEIA, THEOPATRA, THALLOUSA, AGATHE, PROCILLA, THEKLA, TUSIANE, 


DOMNINA. 


INTRODUCTION. 


PLAN OF THE WORK ; WAY TO PARADISE ; DESCRIP- 
TION AND PERSONIFICATION OF VIRTUE; THE 
AGNOS A SYMBOL OF CHASTITY ; MARCELLA, THE 
ELDEST AND FOREMOST AMONG THE VIRGINS OF 
CHRIST. 


Eusouios. You have arrived most season- 
ably, Gregorion, for I have just been looking for 
you, wanting to hear of the meeting of Marcella 
and Theopatra, and of the other virgins who were 
present at the banquet, and of the nature of their 
discourses on the subject of chastity ; for it is 
said that they argued with such ability and power 
that there was nothing lacking to the full con- 
sideration of the subject. If, therefore, you have 
come here for any other purpose, put that off to 
another time, and do not delay to give us a 
complete and connected account of the matter 
of which we are inquiring. 

Grecorion.3 I seem to be disappointed of 
my hope, as some one else has given you intelli- 
gence beforehand on the subject respecting which 
you ask me. For I thought that you had heard 
nothing of what had happened, and I was flatter- 
ing myself greatly with the idea that I should be 
the first to tell you of it. And for this reason I 
made all haste to come here to you, fearing the 
very thing which has happened, that some one 
might anticipate me. 








t [The idea, and some of the ideas borrowed from the Sy»fostum 
of Plato, but designed to furnish a contrast as strong as possible 
between the swinish sensuality of false “‘ philosophy ” in its best estate, 
and the heavenly chastity of those whom the eas renders “‘ * pure 
in heart,” and = ee life on earth is controlled by the promise, ‘‘ they 
shall see God.’’] 

2 In Migne’s ed Exéboxulzon, but apparently with less authority; 
and probably because the name is connected with that of Gregorion. 

uboultos is a man, and Gregorion a woman. 

3 [Gregorton answers to the Drotzma of Socrates in Plato’s Ban- 
guet, and talks like a epulasonser on these delicate subjects. ] 








Evsouttios. Be comforted, my excellent friend, 
for we have had no precise information respect- 
ing anything which happened ; since the person 
who brought us the intelligence had nothing to 
tell us, except that there had been dialogues ; 
but when he was asked what they were, and to 
what purpose, he did not know. 

GREGORION. Well then, as I came here for 
this reason, do you want to hear all that was said 
from the beginning; or shall I pass by parts of 
it, and recall only those points which I consider 
worthy of mention? 

Evusoutios. By no means the latter ; but first, 
Gregorion, relate to us from the very beginning 
where the meeting was, and about the setting 
forth of the viands, and about yourself, how you 
poured out the wine 

“They in golden cups 
Each other pledged, while towards broad heaven they 
looked.” ¢ 

GreEcoRION. You are always skilful in discus- 
sions, and excessively powerful in argument — 
thoroughly confuting all your adversaries. 

Evusoutios. It is not worth while, Gregorion, 
to contend about these things at present; but 
do oblige us by simply telling us what happened 
from the beginning. 

GREGORION. Well, I will try. But first answer 
me this: You know, I presume, Arete,5 the 
daughter of Philosophia? 

Evugoutios. Why do you ask? 

GREGORION. “We went by invitation to a 
garden of hers with an eastern aspect, to enjoy 
the fruits of the season, myself, and Procilla, and 
Tusiane.” I am repeating the words of Theo- 





4 Hom., 
SA personification of virtue, the daughter of philosophy. [i.e., 
of philosophy 7o¢ falsely so called. ] 


3°99 


PLEAV S95 4s 


310 THE BANQUET OF 


i? 


THE TEN VIRGINS. 





patra, for it was of her I obtained the informa- 
tion. “We went, Gregorion, by a very rough, 
steep, and arduous path: when we drew near to 
the place,” said Theopatra, “we were met by a 
tall and beautiful woman walking along quietly 
and gracefully, clothed in a shining robe as white 
as snow. Her beauty was something altogether 
inconceivable and divine. Modesty, blended 
with majesty, bloomed on her countenance. It 
was a face,” she said, “such as I know not that 
I had ever seen, awe-inspiring, yet tempered with 
gentleness and mirth ; for it was wholly unadorned 
by art, and had nothing counterfeit. She came 
up to us, and, like a mother who sees her daugh- 
ters after a long separation, she embraced and 
kissed each one of us with great joy, saying, ‘O, 
my daughters, you have come with toil and pain 
to me who am earnestly longing to conduct you 
to the pasture of immortality ; toilsomely have 
you come by a way abounding with many frightful 
reptiles ; for, as I looked, I saw you often step- 
ping aside, and I was fearing lest you should turn 
back and slip over the precipices. But thanks 
to the Bridegroom to whom I have espoused! 
you, my children, for having granted an effectual 
answer to all our prayers.’ And, while she is 
thus speaking,” said Theopatra, “we arrive at 
. the enclosure, the doors not being shut as yet, 
and as we enter we come upon Thekla and Agathe 
and Marcella preparing to sup. And Arete im- 
mediately said, ‘Do you also come hither, and 
sit down here in your place along with these your 
fellows.’ Now,” said she to me, ‘‘ we who were 
there as guests were altogether, I think, ten in 
number ; and the place was marvellously beauti- 
ful, and abounding in the means of recreation. 
The air was diffused in soft and regular currents, 
mingled with pure beams of light, and a stream 
flowing as gently as oil through the very middle 
of the garden, threw up a most delicious drink ; 
and the water flowing from it, transparent and 
pure, formed itself into fountains, and these, 
overflowing like rivers, watered all the garden 
with their abundant streams; and there were 
different kinds of trees there, full of fresh fruits, 
and the fruits that hung joyfully from their 
branches were of equal beauty ; and there were 
ever-blooming meadows strewn with variegated 
and sweet-scented flowers, from which came a 
gentle breeze laden with sweetest odour. And 
the agnos? grew near, a lofty tree, under which 
we reposed, from its being exceedingly wide- 
spreading and shady.” 
Evusou.ios. You seem to me, my good friend, 
to be making a revelation of a second paradise.3 





t 2 Cor. xi, 2. 

2 * A tall tree like the willow, the branches of which were strewn 
by matrons on their beds at the Thesmophoria, vitex agnuscastus. 
It was associated with the notion of chastity, from the likeness of its 
name to ayvos.” — LIDDELL and Scott. 

3 [Much of this work suggests a comparison with the Hermas 
of vol ii., and Minucius Felix seems not infrequently reflected. ] 





GrecorION. You speak truly and wisely. 
“When there,” she said, “we had all kinds of 
food and a variety of festivities, so that no delight 
was wanting. After this Arete,4 entering, gave 
utterance to these words : — 

“«Voung maidens, the glory of my greatness, 
beautiful virgins, who tend the undefiled meadows 
of Christ with unwedded hands, we have now had 
enough of food and feasting, for all things are 
abundant and plentiful with us.5 What is there, 
then, besides which I wish and expect? That 
each of you shall pronounce a discourse in praise 
of virginity. Let Marcella begin, since she sits 
in the highest place, and is at the same time the 
eldest. I shall be ashamed of myself if I do 
not make the successful disputant an object of. 
envy, binding her with the unfading flowers of 
wisdom.’ 

“And then,” I think she said, “ Marcella 
immediately began to speak as follows.” 


DISCOURSE I.—MARCELLA. 


CHAP. I.— THE DIFFICULTY AND EXCELLENCE OF 
VIRGINITY ; THE STUDY OF DOCTRINE NECESSARY 
FOR VIRGINS. 


Virginity is something supernaturally great, 
wonderful, and glorious; and, to speak plainly 
and in accordance with the Holy Scriptures, this 
best and noblest manner of life alone is the root ° 
of immortality, and also its flower and first-fruits ; 
and for this reason the Lord promises that those 
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven who have 
made themselves eunuchs, in that passage” of 
the Gospels in which He lays down the various 
reasons for which men have made themselves 
eunuchs. Chastity with men is avery rare thing, 
and difficult of attainment, and in proportion to 
its supreme excellence and magnificence is the 
greatness of its dangers.® 

For this reason, it requires strong and gener- 
ous natures, such as, vaulting over the stream of 
pleasure, direct the chariot of the soul upwards 
from the earth, not turning aside from their aim, 
until having, by swiftness of thought, lightly 
bounded above the world, and taken their stand 
truly upon the vault of heaven, they purely con- 
template immortality itself as it springs forth 9 
from the undefiled bosom of the Almighty. 

Earth could not bring forth this draught ; 
heaven alone knew the fountain from whence it 
flows ; for we must think of virginity as walking 
indeed upon the earth, but as also reaching up 





4 [Virtue presides, and “‘to the pure all things are pure;” but 
the freedoms of the converse must offend unless we bear in mind that 
these are allegorical beings, not women in flesh and blood. ] 

5 poee the oration on Szcon and Anna, cap. 10, tufra.] 

6 Lit. the udder. 

7 Matt. ix. 12. 

8 [I think evidence abounds, in the course of this allegory, that it 
was designed to meet the painful discussions excited in the Church 
by the fanatical conduct of Origen, vol. iv. pp. #25-226.] 

9 Lit. *‘ leaps out.” 


ee 


xe 


- to heaven. 


ae oe ee 


THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS, 


ET 





And hence some who have longed 
for it, and considering only the end of it, have 
come, by reason of coarseness of mind, in- 
effectually with unwashed feet, and have gone 
aside out of the way, from having conceived no 
worthy idea of the wzgima/ manner of life. For 
it is not enough to keep the body only undefiled, 
just as we should not show that we think more 
of the temple than of the image of the god; but 
we should care for the souls of men as being the 
divinities of their bodies, and adorn them with 
righteousness. And then do they most care for 
them and tend them when, striving untiringly to 
hear divine discourses, they do not desist until, 
wearing the doors of the wise,’ they attain to the 
knowledge of the truth. 

For as the putrid humours and matter of flesh, 
and all those things which corrupt it, are driven 
out by salt, in the same manner all the irrational 
appetites of a virgin are banished from the body 
by divine teaching. For it must needs be that 
the soul which is not sprinkled with the words 
of Christ, as with salt, should stink and breed 
worms, as King David, openly confessing with 
tears in the mountains, cried out, “ My wounds 
stink and are corrupt,”? because he had not 
salted himself with the exercises of self-control, 
and so subdued his carnal appetites, but self- 
indulgently had yielded to them, and became 
corrupted in adultery. And hence, in Leviticus,3 
every gift, unless it be seasoned with salt, is for- 
bidden to be offered as an oblation to the Lord 
God. Now the whole spiritual meditation of the 
Scriptures is given to us as salt which stings in 
order to benefit, and which disinfects, without 
which it is impossible for a soul, by means of 
reason, to be brought to the Almighty ; for “ye 
are the salt of the earth,’’+ said the Lord to the 
apostles. 

It is fitting, then, that a virgin should always 
love things which are honourable, and be dis- 
tinguished among the foremost for wisdom, and 
addicted to nothing slothful or luxurious, but 
should excel, and set her mind upon things 
worthy of the state of virginity, always putting 
away, by the word, the foulness of luxury, lest 
in any way some slight hidden corruption should 
breed the worm of incontinence ; for ‘the un- 
married woman careth for the things of the 
Lord,” how she may please the Lord, “ that she 
may be holy both in body and in spirit,’’ 5 says 
the blessed Paul. But many of them who con- 
sider the hearing of the word quite a secondary 
matter, think they do great things if they give 
their attention to it for a little while. But dis- 
crimination must be exercised with respect to 

1 Ecclus, vi. 36. 

2 Ps. xxxvii. 6 (LXX.), xxxviii. 5 (E. V.). 

3 Lev. ii, 13; Markix. 40. 


4 Matt. v. 13. 
5 x Cor. vii. 34. | 





these ; for it is not fitting to impart divine in- 
struction to a nature which is careful about trifles, 
and low, and which counterfeits wisdom. For 
would it not be laughable to go on talking to 
those who direct all their energy towards things 
of little value, in order that they may complete 
most accurately those things which they want to 
bring to perfection, but do not think that the 
greatest pains are to be taken with those neces- 
sary things by which most of all the love of 
chastity would be increased in them? 


CHAP. II. — VIRGINITY A PLANT FROM HEAVEN, IN- 
TRODUCED LATE ; THE ADVANCEMENT OF MAN- 
KIND TO PERFECTION, HOW ARRANGED. 


For truly by a great stretch of power the plant 
of virginity was sent down to men from heaven, 
and for this reason it was not revealed to the 
first generations. For the race of mankind was 
still very small in number ; and it was necessary 
that it should first be increased in number, and 
then brought to perfection. Therefore the men 
of old times thought it nothing unseemly to take 
their own sisters for wives, until the law coming 
separated them, and by forbidding that which 
at first had seemed to be right, declared it to be 
a sin, calling him cursed who should “ uncover 
the nakedness” of his sister ;° God thus merci- 
fully bringing to our race the needful help in due 
season, as parents do to their children. For they 
do not at once set masters over them, but allow 
them, during the period of childhood, to amuse 
themselves like young animals, and first send 
them to teachers stammering like themselves, 
until they cast off the youthful wool of the mind, 
and go onwards to the practice of greater things, 
and from thence again to that of greater still. 
And thus we must consider that the God and 
Father of all acted towards our forefathers. For 
the world, while still unfilled with men, was like 
a child, and it was necessary that it should first 
be filled with these, and so grow to manhood. 
But when hereafter it was colonized from end to 
end, the race of man spreading to a boundless 
extent, God no longer allowed man to remain in 
the same ways, considering how they might now 
proceed from one point to another, and advance 
nearer to heaven, until, having attained to the 
very greatest and most exalted lesson of virginity, 
they should reach to perfection; that first they 
should abandon the intermarriage of brothers 
and sisters, and marry wives from other families ; 
and then that they should no longer have many 
wives, like brute beasts, as though born for the 
mere propagation of the species ; and then that 
they should not be adulterers; and then again 
that they should go on to continence, and from 
continence to virginity, when, having trained 





© Lev. xviii. 19, xx. 17. 


312 


themselves to despise the flesh, they sail fear- 
lessly into the peaceful haven of immortality. 





CHAP, IIIl.— BY THE CIRCUMCISION OF ABRAHAM, 
MARRIAGE WITH SISTERS FORBIDDEN; IN THE 
TIMES OF THE PROPHETS POLYGAMY PUT A STOP 
TO; CONJUGAL PURITY ITSELF BY DEGREES EN- 
FORCED. } 


If, however, any one should venture to find 
fault with our argument as destitute of Scripture 
proof, we will bring forward the writings of the 
prophets, and more fully demonstrate the truth 
of the statements already made. Now Abra- 
ham, when he first received the covenant of 
circumcision, seems to signify, by receiving cir- 
cumcision in a member of his own body, noth- 
ing else than this, that one should no longer 
beget children with one born of the same parent ; 
showing that every one should abstain from in- 
tercourse with his own sister, as his own flesh. 
And thus, from the time of Abraham, the custom 
of marrying with sisters has ceased; and from 
the times of the prophets the contracting of 
marriage with several wives has been done away 
with ; for we read, “‘Go not after thy lusts, but 
refrain thyself from thine appetites ;’’? for 
“wine and women will make men of under- 
standing to fall away ;”’3 and in another place, 
“Let thy fountain be blessed ; and rejoice with 
the wife of thy youth,” + manifestly forbidding a 
plurality of wives. And Jeremiah clearly gives 
the name of “fed horses’’5 to those who lust 
after other women; and we read, “ The multi- 
plying brood of the ungodly shall not thrive, 
nor take deep rooting from bastard slips, nor 
lay any fast foundation.” ® 

Lest, however, we should seem prolix in col- 
lecting the testimonies of the prophets, let us 
again point out how chastity succeeded to mar- 
riage with one wife, taking away by degrees the 
lusts of the flesh, until it removed entirely the 
inclination for sexual intercourse engendered by 
habit. For presently one is introduced earnestly 
deprecating, from henceforth, this seduction, 
saying, “O Lord, Father, and Governor of my 
life, leave me not to their counsels ; give me not 
a proud look; let not the greediness of the 
belly, nor lust of the flesh, take hold of me.’’7 
And in the Book of Wisdom, a book full of all 
virtue, the Holy Spirit, now openly drawing His 
hearers to continence and chastity, sings on this 








t [Contending with the worse than bestial sensuality of paganism, 
and inured to the sorrows of martyr-ages, when Christian families 
could not be reared in peace, let us not wonder at the high concep- 
tions of these heroic believers, based on the words of Christ Himself, 
Lae: the promise, ‘‘ Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see 


2 Kcclus. xviii. 30. 

3 Ecclus. xix. 2. 

4 Prov. v. 18. 

s er v. 8. 

6 Wisd. iv. 3. 

7 Ecclus. xxiii. 1, 4, 6. 








a ae 


ON ee ons a ea ee 
' 7 ; . ; ‘ ov 
: / wiek 


THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 





wise, “ Better it is to have no children, and to 
have virtue, for the memorial thereof is immor- 
tal; because it is known with God and with men. 
When it is present men take example at it; and 
when it is gone they desire it: it weareth a 
crown and triumpheth for ever, having gotten 
the victory, striving for undefiled rewards,”’ ® 


CHAP. IV.—CHRIST ALONE TAUGHT VIRGINITY, 
OPENLY PREACHING THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN ; 
THE LIKENESS OF GOD TO BE ATTAINED IN THE 
LIGHT OF THE DIVINE VIRTUES. 


We have already spoken of the periods of 
the human race, and how, beginning with the 
intermarriage of brothers and sisters, it went 
on to continence ; and we have now left for us 
the subject of virginity. Let us then endeavour 
to speak of this as well as we can. And first 
let us inquire for what reason it was that no one 
of the many patriarchs and prophets and right- 
eous men, who taught and did many noble things, 
either praised or chose the state of virginity. 
Because it was reserved for the Lord alone to 
be the first to teach this doctrine, since He 
alone, coming down to us, taught man to draw 
near to God ; for it was fitting that He who was 
first and chief of priests, of prophets, and of 
angels, should also be saluted as first and chief 
of virgins.? For in old times man was not yet 
perfect, and for this reason was unable to receive 
perfection, which is virginity. For, being made 
in the Jmage of God, he needed to receive that 
which was according to His Lzkeness ; '° which 
the Word being sent down into the world to 
perfect, He first took upon Him our form, dis- 
figured as it was by many sins, in order that 
we, for whose sake He bore it, might be able 
again to receive the divine form. For it is then 
that we are truly fashioned in the likeness of 
God, when we represent His features in a human 
life, like skilful painters, stamping them upon 
ourselves as upon tablets, learning the path which 
He showed us. And for this reason He, being 
God, was pleased to put on human flesh, so that 
we, beholding as on a tablet the divine Pattern 
of our life, should also be able to imitate Him 
who painted it. For He was not one who, 
thinking one thing, did another; nor, while He 
considered one thing to be right, taught another. 
But whatever things were truly useful and right, 
these He both taught and did. 


CHAP. V.—- CHRIST, BY PRESERVING HIS FLESH IN- 
CORRUPT IN VIRGINITY, DRAWS TO THE EXER- 
CISE OF VIRGINITY ; THE SMALL NUMBER OF 





8 Wisd. iv. 1, 2. 

9 [This seems to me admirable. Our times are too little willing 
to see all that Scripture teaches in this matter. 

10 A distinction common among the Fathers. 





a 
ie 
\ 


i 








THE BANQUET OF 





VIRGINS IN PROPORTION 
SADITS. 


What then did the Lord, who is the Truth and 
the Light, take in hand when He came down 
from heaven? He preserved the flesh which 
He had taken upon Him incorrupt in virginity, 
so that we also, if we would come to the likeness 
of God and Christ, should endeavour to honour 
virginity. For the likeness of God is the avoid- 
ing of corruption, And that the Word, when 
He was incarnate, became chief Virgin, in the 
same way as He was chief Shepherd and chief 
Prophet of the Church, the Christ-possessed 
John shows us, saying, in the Book of the Reve- 
lation, “ And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood 
on the mount Sion, and with Him an hundred 
forty and four thousand, having His name and 
His Father’s name written in their foreheads. 
And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice 
of many waters, and as the voice of a great 
thunder ; and I heard the voice of harpers harp- 
ing with their harps: And they sung as it were 
anew song before the throne, and before the 
four beasts, and the elders: and no man could 
learn that song but the hundred and forty and 
four thousand, which were redeemed from the 
earth. These are they which were not defiled 
with women; for they are virgins. These are 
they who follow the Lamb whithersoever He 
goeth;”’: showing that the Lord is leader of 
the choir of virgins. And remark, in addition 
to this, how very great in the sight of God is 
the dignity of virginity : “These were redeemed 
from among men, being the first-fruits unto God 
and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was 
found no guile: for they are without fault,” ? 
he says, “and they follow the Lamb whitherso- 
ever He goeth.” And he clearly intends by this 
to teach us that the number of virgins was, from 
the beginning, restricted to so many, namely, a 
hundred and forty and four thousand, while the 
multitude of the other saints is innumerable. 
For let us consider what he means when dis- 
coursing of the rest. “I beheld a great multi- 
tude, which no man could number, of all nations, 
and kindreds, and people, and tongues.” 3 It 
is plain, therefore, as I said, that in the case of 
the other saints he introduces an unspeakable 
multitude, while in the case of those who are in 
a state of virginity he mentions only a very small 
number, so as to make a strong contrast with 
those who make up the innumerable number.* 

This, O Arete, is my discourse to you on the 
subject of virginity. But, if I have omitted any- 
thing, let Theophila, who succeeds me, supply 
the omission. 


TO THE NUMBER OF 





1 Rev. xiv. 1-4. 

2 Rev, xiv. 4, 5. 

3 Rev. vii. A ; : ’ 

4 [Compare Cyprian, vol. v. p. 475, this series.] 





THE TEN VIRGINS. 213 





DISCOURSE Il.—THEOPHILA. 


I. — MARRIAGE NOT ABOLISHED BY THE 
COMMENDATION OF VIRGINITY. 


And then, she said, Theophila spoke : — 

Since Marcella has excellently begun this dis- 
cussion without sufficiently completing it, it is 
necessary that I should endeavour to put a finish 
to it. Now, the fact that man has advanced by 
degrees to virginity, God urging him on from 
time to time, seems to me to have been admira- 
bly proved ; but I cannot say the same as fo the 
assertion that from henceforth they should no 
longer beget children. For I think I have per- 
ceived clearly from the Scriptures that, after He 
had brought in virginity, the Word did not alto- 
gether abolish the generation of children; for 
although the moon may be greater than the stars, 
the light of the other stars is not destroyed by 
the moonlight. 

Let us begin with Genesis, that we may give 
its place of antiquity and supremacy to this 
scripture. Now the sentence and ordinance of 
God respecting the begetting of children 5 is con- 
fessedly being fulfilled to this day, the Creator 
still fashioning man. For this is quite manifest, 
that God, like a painter, is at this very time work- 
ing at the world, as the Lord also taught, “ My 
Father worketh hitherto.”® But when the rivers 
shall cease to flow and fall into the reservoir of 
the sea, and the light shall be perfectly separated 
from the darkness, — for the separation is still go- 
ing on, — and the dry land shall henceforth cease 
to bring forth its fruits with creeping things and 
four-footed beasts, and the predestined number 
of men shall be fulfilled ; then from henceforth 
shall men abstain from the generation of children. 
But at present man must co-operate in the form- 
ing of the image of God, while the world exists 
and is still being formed ; for it is said, “ Increase 
and multiply.” 5 And we must not be offended 
at the ordinance of the Creator, from which, 
moreover, we ourselves have our being. For the 
casting of seed into the furrows of the matrix is 
the beginning of the generation of men, so that 
bone taken from bone, and flesh from flesh, by 
an invisible power, are fashioned into another 
man. And in this way we must consider that the 
saying is fulfilled, “‘‘This is now bone of my bone, 
and flesh of my flesh.’’7 


CHAP. 


CHAP. II.— GENERATION SOMETHING AKIN TO THE 
FIRST FORMATION OF EVE FROM THE SIDE AND 
NATURE OF ADAM ; GOD THE CREATOR OF MEN 
IN ORDINARY GENERATION. 


And this perhaps is what was shadowed forth 
by the sleep and trance of the first man, which 





5 Gen. i. 28. ; 
© éws apt, even until now. John v. 17. 
7 Gen. ii. 23. 


314 THE BANQUET OF 





prefigured the embraces of connubial love. 
When thirsting for children a man falls into a 
kind of trance,’ softened and subdued by the 
pleasures of generation as by sleep, so that again 
something drawn from his flesh and from his 
bones is, as 1 said, fashioned into another man. 
For the harmony of the bodies being disturbed 
in the embraces of love, as those tell us who 
have experience of the marriage state, all the 
marrow-like and generative part of the blood, 
like a kind of liquid bone, coming together from 
all the members, worked into foam and curdled, 
is projected through the organs of generation 
into the living body of the female. And proba- 
bly it is for this reason that a man is said to 
leave his father and his mother, since he is then 
suddenly unmindful of all things when united to 
his wife in the embraces of love, he is overcome 
by the desire of generation, offering his side to 
the divine Creator to take away from it, so that 
the father may again appear in the son. 
Wherefore, if God still forms man, shall we 
not be guilty of audacity if we think of the gen- 
eration of children as something offensive, which 
the Almighty Himself is not ashamed to make 
use of in working with His undefiled hands ; 
for He says to Jeremiah, ‘“ Before I formed thee 
in the belly I knew thee ;”? and to Job, “ Didst 
thou take clay and form a living creature, and 
make it speak upon the earth?”’3 and Job draws 
near to Him in supplication, saying, ‘ Thine 
hands have made me and fashioned me.’ 4 
Would it not, then, be absurd to forbid marriage 
unions, seeing that we expect that after us there 
will be martyrs, and those who shall oppose the 
evil one, for whose sake also the Word promised 
that He would shorten those days?5 For if the 
generation of children henceforth had seemed 
evil to God, as you said, for what reason will 
those who have come into existence in opposi- 
tion to the divine decree and will be able to 
appear well-pleasing to God? And must not 
that which is begotten be something spurious, 
and not a creature of God, if, like a counterfeit 
coin, it is moulded apart from the intention and 
ordinance of the lawful authority? And so we 
concede to men the power of forming men. 


CHAP. III.— AN AMBIGUOUS PASSAGE OF SCRIP- 
TURE ; NOT ONLY THE FAITHFUL BUT EVEN 
PRELATES SOMETIMES ILLEGITIMATE. 


But Marcella, interrupting, said, “O Theoph- 
ila, there appears here a great mistake, and 
something contrary to what you have said; and 
do you think to escape under cover of the cloud 





1 Remark the connection, éxotagts and eficratat, 
2 Jer. i. 5. 

3 Job xxxviii. 14 (LXX.). 

4 Job x. 8. 

5 Matt, xxiv. 22, 





THE TEN VIRGINS. 





which you have thrown around you? For there 
comes that argument, which perhaps any one 
who addresses you as a very wise person will 
bring forward: What do you say of those who 
are begotten unlawfully in adultery? For you 
laid it down that it was inconceivable and im- 
possible for any one to enter into the world unless 
he was introduced by the will of the divine 
Ruler, his frame being prepared for him by God. 
And that you may not take refuge behind a safe 
wall, bringing forward the Scripture which says, 
‘As for the children of the adulterers, they shall 
not come to their perfection,’ ° he will answer you 
easily, that we often see those who are unlawfully 
begotten coming to perfection like ripe fruit. 

And if, again, you answer sophistically, ‘O, 
my friend, by those who come not to perfection 
I understand being perfected in Christ-taught 
righteousness ;’ he will say, ‘But, indeed, my 
worthy friend, very many who are begotten of 
unrighteous seed are not only numbered among 
those who are gathered into the flock of the 
brethren, but are often called even to preside 
over them.” Since, then, it is clear, and all tes- 
tify, that those who are born of adultery do 
come to perfection, we must not imagine that 
the Spirit was teaching respecting conceptions 
and births, but rather perhaps concerning those 
who adulterate the truth, who, corrupting the 
Scriptures by false doctrines, bring forth an 
imperfect and immature wisdom, mixing their 
error with piety.’ And, therefore, this plea being 
taken away from you, come now and tell us if 
those who are born of adultery are begotten by 
the will of God ; for you said that it was impos- 
sible that the offspring of a man should be 
brought to perfection unless the Lord formed it 
and gave it life.” 


CHAP. IV.— HUMAN GENERATION, AND THE WORK 
OF GOD THEREIN SET FORTH. 


Theophila, as though caught round the middle 
by a strong antagonist, grew giddy, and with 
difficulty recovering herself, replied, “ You ask a 
question, my worthy friend, which needs to be 
solved by an example, that you may still better 
understand how the creative power of God, per- 
vading all things, is more especially the real 
cause in the generation of men, making those 
things to grow which are planted in the produc- 
tive earth. For that which is sown is not to be 
blamed, but he who sows in a strange soil by 
unlawful embraces, as though purchasing a slight 
pleasure by shamefully selling his own seed. For 
imagine our birth into the world to be like some 
such thing as a house having its entrance lying 
close to lofty mountains ; and that the house ex- 





© Wisd. iii. 16. 
7 [Bastardy seems to have been regarded as washed out by bap- 
tism, thousands of pagan converts having been born under this stain.] 





THE BANQUET OF 





tends a great way down, far from the entrance, 
and that it has many holes behind, and that in 
this part it is circular.” “I imagine it,” said 
Marcella. ‘“ Well, then, suppose that a modeller 
seated within is fashioning many statues; im- 
agine, again, that the substance of clay is in- 
cessantly brought to him from without, through 


the holes, by many men who do not any of 


them see the artist himself. Now suppose the 
house to be covered with mist and clouds, and 
nothing visible to those who are outside but only 
the holes.” “Let this also be supposed,” she 
said. ‘And that each one of those who are 
labouring together to provide the clay has one 
hole allotted to himself, into which he alone has 
to bring and deposit his own clay, not touching 
any other hole. And if, again, he shall offi- 
ciously endeavour to open that which is allotted 
to another, let him be threatened with fire and 
scourges. : 

“ Well, now, consider further what comes after 
this: the modeller within going round to the 
holes and taking privately for his modelling the 
elay which he finds at each hole, and having in 
a certain number of months made his model, 
giving it back through the same hole; having 
this for his rule, that every lump of clay which is 
capable of being moulded shall be worked up 
indifferently, even if it be unlawfully thrown by 
any one through another’s hole, for the clay has 
done no wrong, and, therefore, as being blame- 
less, should be moulded and formed; but that 
he who, in opposition to the ordinance and law, 
deposited it in another’s hole, should be pun- 
ished as a criminal and transgressor. For the 
clay should not be blamed, but he who did this 
in violation of what is right ; for, through incon- 
tinence, having carried it away, he secretly, by 
violence, deposited it in another’s hole.” ‘“ You 
say most truly.” 


CHAP. V.~-THE HOLY FATHER FOLLOWS UP THE 
SAME ARGUMENT. 


And now that these things are completed, it 
remains for you to apply this picture, my wisest 
of friends, to the things which have been already 
spoken of ; comparing the house to the invisible 
nature of our generation, and the entrance ad- 
jacent to the mountains to the sending down 
of our souls from heaven, and their descent into 
the bodies ; the holes to the female sex, and the 
modeller to the creative power of God, which, 
under the cover of generation, making use of 
our nature, invisibly forms us men within, work- 
ing the garments for the souls. Those who carry 
the clay represent the male sex in the compari- 
son ; when thirsting for children, they bring and 
cast in seed into the natural channels of the 
female, as those in the comparison cast clay into 
the holes. For the seed, which, so to speak, 





THE TEN VIRGINS. 315 





partakes of a divine creative power, is not to be 
thought guilty of the incentives to incontinence ; 
and art always works up the matter submitted to 
it; and nothing is to be considered as evil in 
itself, but becomes so by the act of those who 
used it in such a way; for when properly and 
purely made use of, it comes out pure, but if 
disgracefully and improperly, then it becomes 
disgraceful. For how did iron, which was dis- 
covered for the benefit of agriculture and the 
arts, injure those who sharpened it for murderous 
battles? Or how did gold, or silver, or brass, 
and, to take it collectively, the whole of the 
workable earth, injure those who, ungratefully 
towards their Creator, make a wrong use of them 
by turning parts of them into various kinds of . 
idols? And if any one should supply wool from 
that which had been stolen to the weaving art, 
that art, regarding this one thing only, manu- 
factures the material submitted to it, if it will 
receive the preparation, rejecting nothing of that 
which is serviceable to itself, since that which is 
stolen is here not to be blamed, being lifeless. 
And, therefore, the material itself is to be wrought 
and adorned, but he who is discovered to have 
abstracted it unjustly should be punished. So, 
in like manner, the violators of marriage, and 
those who break the strings of the harmony of 
life, as of a harp, raging with lust, and letting 
loose their desires in adultery, should themselves 
be tortured and punished, for they do a great 
wrong stealing from the gardens of others the 
embraces of generation; but the seed itself, as 
in the case of the wool, should be formed and 
endowed with life. 


CHAP. VI.— GOD CARES EVEN FOR ADULTEROUS 
BIRTHS ; ANGELS GIVEN TO THEM AS GUARDIANS. 


But what need is there to protract the argu- 
ment by using such examples? for nature could 
not thus, in a little time, accomplish so great a 
work without divine help. For who gave to the 
bones their fixed nature? and who bound the 
yielding members with nerves, to be extended 
and relaxed at the joints? or who prepared 
channels for the blood, and a soft windpipe for 
the breath? or what god caused the humours to 
ferment, mixing them with blood and forming 
the soft flesh out of the earth, but only the Su- 
preme Artist making us to be man, the rational 
and living image of Himself, and forming it like 
wax, in the womb, from moist slight seed? or by 
whose providence was it that the foetus was not 
suffocated by damp when shut up within, in the 
connexion of the vessels? or who, after it was 
brought forth and had come into the light, 
changed it from weakness and smallness to size, 
and beauty, and strength, unless God Himself, 
the Supreme Artist, as I said, making by His 
creative power copies of Christ, and living pic- 


316 


oe ee a A ee Veer 


THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 





tures? Whence, also, we have received from 
the inspired writings, that those who are begotten, 
even though it be in adultery, are committed to 
guardian angels. 
in opposition to the will and the decree of the 
blessed nature of God, how should they be de- 
livered over to angels, to be nourished with much 
gentleness and indulgence? and how, if they had 
to accuse their own parents, could they confi- 
dently, before the judgment seat of Christ, in- 
voke Him and say, ‘Thou didst not, O Lord, 
grudge us this common light ; but these appointed 
us to death, despising Tl y command?” “ For,” 
He says, “children begotten of unlawful beds are 
witnesses of wickedness against their parents at 
their trial.” 


CHAP, VII.— THE RATIONAL SOUL FROM GOD HIM- 
SELF ; CHASTITY NOT THE ONLY GOOD, ALTHOUGH 
THE BEST AND. MOST HONOURED. 


And perhaps there will be room for some to 
argue plausibly among those who are wanting in 
discrimination and judgment, that this fleshly 
garment of the soul, being planted by men, is 


shaped spontaneously apart from the sentence | 


of God. If, however, he should teach that the 
immortal being of the soul also is sown along 
with the mortal body, he will not be believed ; 
for the Almighty alone breathes into man the 
undying and undecaying part, as also it is He 
alone who is Creator of the invisible and inde- 
structible. For, He says, He “ breathed into his 
nostrils the breath of life; and man became a 
living soul.”? And those artificers who, to the 
destruction of men, make images in human form, 
not perceiving and knowing their own Maker, 
are blamed by the Word, which says, in the Book 
of Wisdom, a book full of all virtue,3 “ his heart 
is ashes, his hope is more vile than earth, and 
his life of less value than clay ; forasmuch as he 
knew not his Maker, and Him that inspired into 
him an active soul, and breathed in a living 
spirit ;”’4 that is, God, the Maker of all men; 
therefore, also, according to the apostle, He 
“will have all men to be saved, and to come 
unto the knowledge of the truth.”5 And now, 
although this subject be scarcely completed, yet 
there are others which remain to be discussed. 
For when one thoroughly examines and under- 
stands those things which happen to man accord- 
ing to his nature, he will know not to despise the 
procreation of children, although he applauds 
chastity, and prefers it in honour. For although 
honey be sweeter and more pleasant than other 
things, we are not for that reason to consider 





1 Wisd. iv. 6. 

2 Gen. il. 7. 

3 [This language shows that it is not cited as Holy Scripture. It 
confirms St. Jerome’s testimony, Pro’. in Libros Salomonts.] 

4 Wisd. xv. 10, 11. 

Sx Tim. i, 4, 


But if they came into being 





other things bitter which are mixed up in the 
natural sweetness of fruits. And, in support of 
these statements, I will bring forward a trust- 
worthy witness, namely, Paul, who says, “So then 
he that giveth her® in marriage doeth well; but 
he that giveth her not in marriage doeth bet- 
ter.” 7 Now the word, in setting forth that which 
is better and sweeter, did not intend to take 
away the inferior, but arranges so as to assign to 
each its own proper use and advantage. For 
there are some to whom it is not given to attain 
virginity ; and there are others whom He na 
longer wills to be excited by procreations to lust, 
and to be defiled, but henceforth to meditate 
and to keep the mind upon the transformation 
of the body to the likeness of angels, when they 
‘neither marry nor are given in marriage,” ® ac- 
cording to the infallible words of the Lord ; since 
it is not given to all to attain that undefiled state 
of being a eunuch for the sake of the kingdom 
of heaven,? but manifestly to those only who are 
able to preserve the ever-blooming and unfading 
flower of virginity. For it is the custom of the 
prophetic Word to compare the Church to a 
flower-covered and variegated meadow, adorned 
and crowned not only with the flowers of vir- 
ginity, but also with those of child-bearing and 
of continence ; for it is written, “Upon thy ’° 
right hand did stand the queen in a vesture of 
gold, wrought about with divers colours.” 

These words, O Arete, I bring according to 
my ability to this discussion in behalf of the 
truth. 

And when Theophila had thus spoken, Theo- 
patra said that applause arose from all the virgins 
approving of her discourse ; and that when they 
became silent, after a long pause, Thaleia arose, 
for to her had been assigned the third place in 
the contest, that which came after Theophila. 
And she then, as I think, followed, and spoke. 


DISCOURSE III.— THALEIA, 


CHAP. I.— PASSAGES OF HOLY SCRIPTURE '* COM- 
PARED. 


You seem to me, O Theophila, to excel all in 
action and in speech, and to be second to none 
in wisdom. For there is no one who will find 
fault with your discourse, however contentious 
and contradictory he may be. Yet, while every- 
thing else seeins rightly spoken, one thing, my 
friend, distresses and troubles me, considering 
that that wise and most spiritual man — I mean 








6 His virgin. [St. Paul was married, and then a widower, in the 
opinion of many of the ancients. See Euseb., 4. £., iii. 30.] 
7 1 Cor. vil. 38. 


8 Matt. xxii. 30. 

9 Matt. xix. 12. 

10 The bridegroom’s. 

11 Ps, xlv. ro (xliv. ro, LXX.). 

12 Gen, ii. 23, 24, and Eph, v. 28-32. 


roe ee a 


aA 
_ 


en ee TA 


io \e a 





THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 


317 





Paul — would not vainly refer to Christ and the 


Church the union of the first man and woman,’ 
if the Scripture meant nothing higher than what 
is conveyed by the mere words and the history ; 
for if we are to take the Scripture as a bare rep- 
resentation wholly referring to the union of man 
and woman, for what reason should the apostle, 
calling these things to remembrance, and guiding 
us, as I opine, into the way of the Spirit, alle- 
gorize the history of Adam and Eve as having a 
reference to Christ and the Church? For the 
passage in Genesis reads thus : “And Adam said, 
This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my 
flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she 
was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man 
leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave 
unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.’’? 
But the apostle considering this passage, by no 
means, as I said, intends to take it according to 
its mere natural sense, as referring to the union 
of man and woman, as you do; for you, explain- 
ing the passage in too natural a sense, laid down 
that the Spirit is speaking only of conception 
and births; that the bone taken from the bones 
was made another man, and that living creatures 
coming together swell like trees at the time of 
conception. But he, more spiritually referring 
the passage to Christ, thus teaches: “He that 
loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man 
ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and 
cherisheth it, even as the Lord the Church: for 
we are members of His body, of His flesh, and 
of His bones. For this cause shall a man leave 
his father and mother, and shall be joined unto 
his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This 
is a great mystery: but I speak concerning 
Christ and the Church.” 3 


CHAP. II.— THE DIGRESSIONS OF THE APOSTLE 
PAUL; THE CHARACTER OF HIS DOCTRINE: 
NOTHING IN IT CONTRADICTORY; CONDEM- 
NATION OF ORIGEN, WHO WRONGLY TURNS 
EVERYTHING INTO ALLEGORY. 


Let it not disturb you, if, in discussing one 
class of subjects, he, i.e., Aau/, should pass over 
into another, so as to appear to mix them up, 
and to import matters foreign to the subject 
under consideration, departing from the ques- 
tion, as now for instance. For wishing, as it 
seems, to strengthen most carefully the argument 
on behalf of chastity, he prepares the mode of 
argument beforehand, beginning with the more 
persuasive mode of speech. For the character 
of his speech being very various, and arranged 
for the purpose of progressive proof, begins gen- 
tly, but flows forward into a style which is loftier 
and more magnificent. And then, again chan- 


1 Eph. y. 32. [A forcible argument. ] 
2 Gen. ii. 23, 24. 


3 Eph. v. 28-32. [Compare the next chapter, note 4.] 





ging to what is deep, he sometimes finishes with 
what is simple and easy, and sometimes with 
what is more difficult and delicate ; and yet in- 
troducing nothing which is foreign to the subject 
by these changes, but, bringing them all together 
according to a certain marvellous relationship, 
he works into one the question which is set forth 
as his subject. It is needful, then, that I should 
more accurately unfold the meaning of the apos- 
tle’s arguments, yet rejecting nothing of what 
has been said before. For you seem to me, O 
Theophila, to have discussed those words of the 
Scripture amply and clearly, and to have set 
them forth as they are without mistake. For it 
is a dangerous thing wholly to despise the literal 
meaning, as has been said, and especially of 
Genesis, where the unchangeable decrees of God 
for the constitution of the universe are set forth, 
in agreement with which, even until now, the 
world is perfectly ordered, most beautifully in 
accordance with a perfect rule, until the Law- 
giver Himself having re-arranged it, wishing to 
order it anew, shall break up the first laws of 
nature by a fresh disposition. But, since it is 
not fitting to leave the demonstration of the 
argument unexamined — and, so to speak, half- 
lame — come let us, as it were completing our 
pair, bring forth the analogical sense, looking 
more deeply into the Scripture ; for Paul is not 
to be despised when he passes over the literal 
meaning, and shows that the words extend to 
Christ and the Church. 
CHAP. III. — COMPARISON 
THE FIRST 


INSTITUTED BETWEEN 
AND SECOND ADAM. 


And, first, we must inquire if Adam can be 
likened to the Son of God, when he was found 
in the transgression of the Fall, and heard the 
sentence, ‘‘ Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt 
thou return.” 5 For how shall he be considered 
“the first-born of every creature,’’® who, after 
the creation of the earth and the firmament, was 
formed out of clay? And how shall he be ad. 
mitted to be “the tree of life’ who was cast 
out for his transgression,’ lest “he should again 
stretch forth his hand and eat of it, and live for 
ever?”’8 For it is necessary that a thing which 
is likened unto anything else, should in many 
respects be similar and analogous to that of 
which it is the similitude, and not have its con- 
stitution opposite and dissimilar. For one who 
should venture to compare the uneven to the 
even, or harmony to discord, would not be con- 


4 This is the obvious English equivalent of the Greek text. — Tr, 
e singularly cautious testimony against Origen, whom our author 
ollows too closely in allegorizing interpretations of Scripture, Ori- 
gen, having literalized so sadly in one case, seems to have erred ever 
afterward in the other extreme. Here is a ‘prudent caveat.| 


5 Gen, ili. 19. 
CIC ola 25. 
7 Rev. ii. 7. 


8 Gen. iii. 22, 


318 THE BANQUET OF 


sidered rational. But the even should be com- 
pared to that which in its nature is even, although 

it should be even only in a small measure ; and 
the white to that which in its nature is white, 
even although it should be very small, and should 
show but moderately the whiteness by reason of 
which it is called white. Now, it is beyond all 
doubt clear to every one, that that which is sin- 
less and incorrupt is even, and harmonious, and 
bright as wisdom ; but that that which is mortal 
and sinful is uneven and discordant, and cast 
out as guilty and subject to condemnation. 


CHAP. IV.— SOME THINGS HERE HARD AND TOO 
SLIGHTLY TREATED, AND APPARENTLY NOT SUF- 
FICIENTLY BROUGHT OUT ACCORDING TO THE 
RULE OF THEOLOGY. 


Such, then, I consider to be the objections 
urged by many who, despising, as it seems, the 
wisdom of Paul, dislike the comparing of the 
first man to Christ. For come, let us consider 
how rightly Paul compared Adam to Christ, not 
only considering him to be the type and image, 
but also that Christ Himself became the very 
same thing,’ because the Eternal Word fell upon 
Him. For it was fitting that the first-born of 
God, the first shoot, the only-begotten, even the 
~ wisdom of God, should be joined to the first- 
formed man, and first and first-born of mankind, 
and should become incarnate. And this was 
Christ, a man filled with the pure and perfect 
Godhead, and God received into man. For it 
was most suitable that the oldest of the Aons 
and the first of the Archangels, when about to 
hold communion with men, should dwell in the 
oldest and the first of men, even Adam. And 
thus, when renovating those things which were 
from the beginning, and forming them again of 
the Virgin by the Spirit, He frames the same? 
just as at the beginning. When the earth was 
still virgin and untilled, God, taking mould, 
formed the reasonable creature from it without 
seed.3 


CHAP. V.—A PASSAGE OF JEREMIAH EXAMINED. 


And here I may adduce the prophet Jeremiah 
as a trustworthy and lucid witness, who speaks 
thus: “Then I went down to the potter’s house ; 
and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. 
And the vessel that he made of clay was marred 
in the hand of the potter: so he made it again 
another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to 
make it.””4 For when Adam, having been formed 


’ 1 Namely, the second Adam. 

2 Second Adam. 

3 The obscurity of this chapter is indicated in the heading placed 
over it by the old Latin translator. The general meaning, however, 
will be clear enough to the theological reader. — Tx. 

4 Jer. xviii. 3, 4. 





THE TEN VIRGINS. 


out of clay, was still soft and moist, and not yet, 
like a tile, made hard and incorruptible, sin 
ruined him, flowing and dropping down upon 
him like water. And therefore God, moistening 
him afresh and forming anew the same clay to 
His honour, having first hardened and fixed it in 
the Virgin’s womb, and united and mixed it with 
the Word, brought it forth into life no longer 
soft and broken ; lest, being overflowed again by ~ 
streams of corruption from without, it should be- 
come soft, and perish as the Lord in His teach- 
ing shows in the parable of the finding of the 
sheep ; where my Lord says to those standing by, 
“What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if 
he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety 
and nine in the wilderness, and go after that 
which is lost until he find it? and when he hath 
found it, he layeth it on his shoulders rejoicing ; 
and when he cometh home, he calleth together 
his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, 
Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep 
which was lost.” 


CHAP. VI.—THE WHOLE NUMBER OF SPIRITUAL 
SHEEP; MAN A SECOND CHOIR, AFTER THE 
ANGELS, TO THE PRAISE OF GOD; THE PARABLE 
OF THE LOST SHEEP EXPLAINED. 


Now, since He truly was and is, being in the 
beginning with God, and being God,’ He is the 
chief Commander and Shepherd of the heavenly 
ones, whom all reasonable creatures obey and at- 
tend, who tends inorder and numbers the multi- 
tudes of the blessed angels. For this is the equal 
and perfect number of immortal creatures, divided 
according to their races and tribes, man also be- 
ing here taken into the flock. For he also was 
created without corruption, that he might honour 
the king and maker of all things, responding to 
the shouts of the melodious angels which came 
from heaven. But when it came to pass that, by 
transgressing the commandment (of God), he 
suffered a terrible and destructive fall, being thus 
reduced to a state of death, for this reason the 
Lord says that He came from heaven into (a 
human) life, leaving the ranks and the armies 
of angels. For the mountains are to be ex- 
plained by the heavens, and the ninety and nine 
sheep by the principalities and powers® which 
the Captain and Shepherd left when He went 
down to seek the lost one. For it remained that 
man should be included in this catalogue and 
number, the Lord lifting him up and wrapping 
him round, that he might not again, as I said, be 
overflowed and swallowed up by the waves of 
deceit. For with this purpose the Word as- 
sumed the nature of man, that, having overcome 
the serpent, He might by Himself destroy the 


S St. John i. 1. 
6 Eph. i. 21, ili. ro. 





fh 


AN i ca’ 
VEX, 


= Pe 


i 


=e 


THE BANQUET OF 





‘condemnation which had come into being along 


with man’s ruin. For it was fitting that the Evil 
One should be overcome by no other, but by him 
whom he had deceived, and whom he was boast- 
ing that he held in subjection, because no other- 
wise was it possible that sin and condemnation 
should be destroyed, unless that same man on 
whose account it had been said, “ Dust thou art, 
and unto dust thou shalt return,’’! should be 


created anew, and undo the sentence which for | 
his sake had gone forth on all, that “as in| 


Adam” at first “all die, even so” again “in 
Christ,” who assumed the nature and position 
of Adam, should “ all be made alive.” 2 


CHAP. VII.— THE WORKS OF CHRIST, PROPER TO 
GOD AND TO MAN, THE WORKS OF HIM WHO 
IS ONE. 


And now we seem to have said almost enough 
on the fact that man has become the organ and 
clothing of the Only-begotten, and what He was 
who came to dwell in him. But the fact that 
there is no moral inequality or discord3 may 
again be considered briefly from the beginning. 
For he speaks well who says that that is in its 
own nature good and righteous and holy, by par- 
ticipation of which other things become good, 
and that wisdom is in connection with* God, 
and that, on the other hand, sin is unholy and 
unrighteous and evil. For life and death, cor- 


_Tuption and incorruption, are two things in the 


highest degree opposed to each other. For life 
is a moral equality, but corruption an inequality ; 
and righteousness and prudence a harmony, but 
unrighteousness and folly a discord. Now, man 
being between these is neither righteousness 
itself, nor unrighteousness; but being placed 
midway between incorruption and corruption, to 
whichever of these he may incline is said to par- 
take of the nature of that which has laid hold 
of him. Now, when he inclines to corruption, 
he becomes corrupt and mortal, and when to 
incorruption, he becomes incorrupt and im- 
mortal. For, being placed midway between the 
tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of 
good and evil, of the fruit of which he tasted,5 
he was changed into the nature of the latter, 
himself being neither the tree of life nor that 
of corruption ; but having been shown forth as 
mortal, from his participation in and presence 
with corruption, and, again, as incorrupt and 
immortal by connection with and participation 
in life ; as Paul also taught, saying, ‘‘ Corruption 


1 Gen. iii. 19. 

2 x Cor. xv. 22. 

3 In Him. 

4 Here, as in the previous chapter, and in many other passages, I 
have preferred the text of ¥ahx to that of Mzgze, as being generally 
the more accurate. — TR. 

5 Gen. ii. 9. 


THE TEN VIRGINS. 319 


shall not inherit incorruption, nor death life,’ ® 
rightly defining corruption and death to be that 
which corrupts and kills, and not that which is 
corrupted and dies; and incorruption and life 
that which gives life and immortality, and not 
that which receives life and immortality. And 
thus man is neither a discord and an inequality, 
nor an equality and a harmony. But when he 
received discord, which is transgression and sin, 
he became discordant and unseemly ; but when 
he received harmony, that is righteousness, he 
became a harmonious and seemly organ, in order 
that the Lord, the Incorruption which conquered 
death, might harmonize the resurrection with the 
flesh, not suffering it again to be inherited by 
corruption. And on this point also let these 
statements suffice. 


CHAP. VIII. —THE BONES AND FLESH OF WISDOM ; 
THE SIDE OUT OF WHICH THE SPIRITUAL EVE 
IS FORMED, THE HOLY SPIRIT; THE WOMAN 
THE HELP-MEET OF ADAM ; VIRGINS BETROTHED 
TO CHRIST. 


For it has been already established by no con- 
temptible arguments from Scripture, that the 
first man may be properly referred to Christ 
Himself, and is no longer a type and represen- 
tation and image of the Only-begotten, but has 
become actually Wisdom and the Word. 

For man, having been composed, like water, 
of wisdom and life, has become identical with 
the very same untainted light which poured into 
him. Whence it was that the apostle directly 
referred to Christ the words which had been 
spoken of Adam. For thus will it be most cer- 
tainly agreed that the Church is formed out of 
His bones and flesh; and it was for this cause 
that the Word, leaving His Father in heaven, 
came down to be “joined to His wife ;”7 and 
slept in the trance of His passion, and will- 
ingly suffered death for her, that He might 
present the Church to Himself glorious and 
blameless, having cleansed her by the laver,® 
for the receiving of the spiritual and blessed 
seed, which is sown by Him who with whispers 
implants it in the depths of the mind; and is 
conceived and formed by the Church, as by a 
woman, so as to give birth and nourishment to 
virtue. For in this way, too, the command, 
“Increase and multiply,” 9 is duly fulfilled, the 
Church increasing daily in greatness and beauty 
and multitude, by the union and communion of 
| the Word, who now still comes down to us and 
falls into a trance by the memorial of His pas- 
sion ; for otherwise the Church could not con- 





6 x Cor. xv. 22. The words are, “‘ Neither doth corruption in- 
herit incorruption,” 

7 Eph. v. 31. 

8 Eph. v. 26, 27. 

9 Gen. i, 18 





320 THE BANQUET OF 





ceive believers, and give them new birth by the 
laver of regeneration, unless Christ, emptying 
Himself for their sake, that He might be con- 
tained by them, as I said, through the recapitu- 
lation of His passion, should die again, coming 
down from heaven, and being “joined to His 
wife,” the Church, should provide for a certain 
power being taken from His own side, so that 
all who are built up in Him should grow up, even 
those who are born again by the laver, receiving 
of His bones and of His flesh, that is, of His 
holiness and of His glory. For he who says 
that the bones and flesh of Wisdom are under- 
standing and virtue, says most rightly ; and that 
the side * is the Spirit of truth, the Paraclete, of 
whom the illuminated? receiving are fitly born 
again to incorruption. For it is impossible for 
any one to be a partaker of the Holy Spirit, and 
to. be chosen a member of Christ, unless the 
Word first came down upon him and fell into a 
trance, in order that he, being filled 3 with the 
Spirit, and rising again from sleep with Him who 
was laid to sleep for his sake, should be able to 
receive renewal and restoration. For He may 
fitly be called the side' of the Word, even the 
sevenfold Spirit of truth, according to the proph- 
et;* of whom God taking, in the trance of 
Christ, that is, after His incarnation and pas- 
sion, prepares a help-meet for Him5—I mean 
the souls which are betrothed and given in mar- 
riage to Him. For it is frequently the case that 
the Scriptures thus call the assembly and mass 
of believers by the name of the Church, the 
more perfect in their progress being led up to 
be the one person and body of the Church. 
For those who are the better, and who embrace 
the truth more clearly, being delivered from the 
evils of the flesh, become, on account of their 
perfect purification and faith, a church and help- 
meet of Christ, betrothed and given in marriage 
to Him as a virgin, according to the apostle,® so 
that receiving the pure and genuine seed of His 
doctrine, they may co-operate with Him, help- 
ing in preaching for the salvation of others. 
And those who are still imperfect and beginning 
their lessons, are born to salvation, and shaped, 
as by mothers, by those who are more perfect, 
until they are brought forth and regenerated 
unto the greatness and beauty of virtue ; and so 
these, in their turn making progress, having be- 
come a church, assist in labouring for the birth 
and nurture of other children, accomplishing in 
the receptacle of the soul, as in a womb, the 
blameless will of the Word. 
2 See used by the Greek Fathers for the Baptized. [Fol- 
lowing Holy Scripture, Heb. x. $2, and Calvin’s Commentary, ad /oc. 


Also his comment on Tit, iii. 5. 
3 F¥ahn's reading, avawAngbeis, 





Migne has avandAacécis, 


moulded. 
4 Isa. xi. 2. 
5 Gen, ii, 18. 


© 2 Cor. xi. 12. 








Wie ee I Ae 
_ 4 


Te ee ee 
' yi © I 


THE TEN VIRGINS. 


tall 


CHAP, IX. — THE DISPENSATION OF GRACE IN PACE 
THE APOSTLE, 


Now we should consider the case of the re. 
nowned Paul, that when he was not yet perfect 
in Christ, he was first born and suckled, Ananias 
preaching to him, and renewing him in baptism, 
as the history in the Acts relates. But when he 
was grown to a man, and was built up, then 
being moulded to spiritual perfection, he was 
made the help-meet and bride of the Word ; and 
receiving and conceiving the seeds of life, he 
who was before a child, becomes a church and 
a mother, himself labouring in birth of those 
who, through him, believed in the Lord, until 
Christ was formed and born in them also. For 
he says, “ My little children, of whom I travail 
in birth again until Christ be formed in you ;”’7 
and again, “In Christ Jesus I have begotten you 
through the Gospel.” 8 

It is evident, then, that the statement respect- 
ing Eve and Adam is to be referred to the 
Church and Christ. For this is truly a great 
mystery and a supernatural, of which I, from my 
weakness and dulness, am unable to speak, ac- 
cording to its worth and greatness. Neverthe- 
less, let us attempt it. It remains that I speak 
to you on what follows, and of its signification. 


CHAP. X.— THE DOCTRINE OF THE SAME APOSTLE 
CONCERNING PURITY. 


Now Paul, when summoning all persons to 
sanctification and purity, in this way referred 
that which had been spoken concerning the first 
man and Eve in a secondary sense to Christ and 
the Church, in order to silence the ignorant, 
now deprived of all excuse. For men who are 
incontinent in consequence of the uncontrolled 
impulses of sensuality in them, dare to force the 
Scriptures beyond their true meaning, so as to 
twist into a defence of their incontinence the 
saying, “Increase and multiply;’’9 and the 
other, “Therefore shall a man leave his father 
and his mother ;’’'° and they are not ashamed 
to run counter to the Spirit, but, as though born 
for this purpose, they kindle up the smouldering 
and lurking passion, fanning and provoking it ; 
and therefore he, cutting off very sharply these 
dishonest follies and invented excuses, and hav- 
ing arrived at the subject of instructing them 
how men should behave to their wives, showing 
that it should be as Christ did to the Church, 
“who gave Himself for it, that He might sanc- 
tify and cleanse it by the washing '* of water by 
the Word,” 2 he referred back to Genesis, men- 

“ Gal. iv. 19. 

1 Cor. iv. 15. 

; Gen. ii. 18. 

10 Gen. ii. 2 

11 [Laver (Gr. Aovtpov). Compare Tit. iii. 5 and Calvin's com- 


ment, Of/., tom. ii. p. 506, ed. 1667. ] 
12 te v. 25,26, [ aptismus = lavacrum anime. — Carvin, /6, 
P- 350. 





THE BANQUET OF 


THE TEN VIRGINS. Bor 





‘tioning the things spoken concerning the first 


man, and explaining these things as bearing on 
the subject before him, that he might take away 
occasion for the abuse of these passages from 
those who taught the sensual gratification of the 
body, under the pretext of begetting children. 


CHAP. XI.— THE SAME ARGUMENT. 

For consider, O virgins, how he,' desiring with 
all his might that believers in Christ should be 
chaste, endeavours by many arguments to show 
them the dignity of chastity, as when he says,? 
** Now, concerning the things whereof ye wrote 


unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a 


woman,”’ thence showing already very clearly that 
it is good not to touch a woman, laying it down 
and setting it forth unconditionally. But after- 
wards, being aware of the weakness of the less 
continent, and their passion for intercourse, he 
permitted those who are unable to govern the 
flesh to use their own wives, rather than, shame- 
fully transgressing, to give themselves up to forni- 
cation. Then, after having given this permission, 
he immediately added these words,‘ “ that Satan 
tempt you not for your incontinency ;” which 
means, “if you, such as you are, cannot, on 
account of the incontinence and softness of your 
bodies, be perfectly continent, I will rather per- 
mit you to have intercourse with your own wives, 
lest, professing perfect continence, ye be con- 
stantly tempted by the evil one, and be inflamed 
with lust after other men’s wives.”’ 


CHAP, XII.— PAUL AN EXAMPLE TO WIDOWS, AND 
TO THOSE WHO DO NOT LIVE WITH THEIR 
WIVES. 


Come, now, and let us examine more carefully 
the very words which are before us, and observe 
that the apostle did not grant these things un- 
conditionally to all, but first laid down the reason 
on account of which he was led to this. For, 
having set forth that “it is good for a man not 
to touch a woman,”’? he added immediately, 
“Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every 
man have his own wife” 5— that is, “on account 
of the fornication which would arise from your 
being unable to restrain your voluptuousness ”” — 
and let every woman have her own husband. Let 
the husband render unto the wife due benevo- 
lence: and likewise also the wife unto the hus- 
band. The wife hath not power of her own body, 
but the husband : and likewise also the husband 
hath not power of his own body, but the wife. 
Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with 
consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves 

1 Paul. 

2 x Cor. vii. 7. [A vulgar pcp arity te faaed.) ; 

3 In the orginal the two words are different. In the quotation 
trom St, Paul it is awreoOa:; here it is mpooavay. Nothing could 
be gained by using two words in the translation. — Tr. 


41 Cor. vii. 5. , 
§ x Cor, vii. 2. 








to prayer ;° and come together again, that Satan 
tempt you not for your incontinency. But I 
speak this by permission, and not of command- 
ment.’”’? And this is very carefully considered. 
“ By permission,” he says, showing that he was 
giving counsel, “not of command ;”’ for he re- 
ceives command respecting chastity and the not 
touching of a woman, but permission respecting 
those who are unable, as I said, to chasten their 
appetites. These things, then, he lays down con- 
cerning men and women who are married to one 
spouse, or who shall hereafter be so; but we 
must now examine carefully the apostle’s lan- 
guage respecting men who have lost their wives, 
and women who have lost their husbands, and 
what he declares on this subject. 

“T say therefore,” he goes on,° “to the un- 
married and widows, It is good for them if they 
abide even as I. But if they cannot contain, let 
them marry: for it is better to marry than to 
burn.” Here also he persisted in giving the pref- 
erence to continence. For, taking himself as a 
notable example, in order to stir them up to 
emulation, he challenged his hearers to this state 
of life, teaching that it was better that a man 
who had been bound to one wife should hence- 
forth remain single, as he also did.9 But if, on 
the other hand, this should be a matter of diffi- 
culty to any one, on account of the strength of 
animal passion, he allows that one who is in such 
a condition may, “ by permission,’ contract a 
second marriage; not as though he expressed 
the opinion that a second marriage was in itself 
good,"° but judging it better than burning. Just 
as though, in the fast which prepares for the 
Easter celebration, one should offer food to an- 
other who was dangerously ill, and say, “ In truth, 
my friend, it were fitting and good that you 
should bravely hold out like us, and partake of 
the same things,’ for it is forbidden even to 
think of food to-day; but since you are held 
down and weakened by disease, and cannot bear 
it, therefore, ‘by permission,’ we advise you to 
eat food, lest, being quite unable, from sickness, 
to hold up against the desire for food, you per- 
ish.” Thus also the apostle speaks here, first 
saying that he wished all were healthy and con- 
tinent, as he also was, but afterwards allowing a 
second marriage to those who are burdened with 
the disease of the passions, lest they should be 
wholly defiled by fornication, goaded on by the 
itchings of the organs of generation to promis- 
cuous intercourse, considering such a second 
marriage far preferable to burning and indecency. 





” 


6 E. V. ‘‘ Fasting and prayer. 
«at is wanting in the text. 

7 x Cor. vi. 2-6. 

5 x Cor. vii. 8, 9. 

9 [See p. 316, supra (note), and also Eusebius, there cited. Per 
contra, see Lewin, vol. i. 382, 386. : 

10 Kaddy, It is the same word which is translated good in ver. x, 
*« It is good for a man.” 

1 j,¢., participate in the same ordinances, and in their fruits. 


As in the best Mss., TH ynoreia 


333 THE BANQUET OF 


THE TEN VIRGINS. 





CHAP, XIII. — THE DOCTRINE OF PAUL CONCERN- 
ING VIRGINITY EXPLAINED. 


I have now brought to an end what I have to 
say respecting continence and marriage and chas- 
tity, and intercourse with men, and in which of 
these there is help towards progress in righteous- 
ness ; but it still remains to speak concerning 
virginity — if, indeed, anything be prescribed on 
this subject. Let us then treat this subject also ; 
for it stands thus:! “ Now concerning virgins, 
I have no commandment of the Lord: yet I 
give my judgment, as one that hath obtained 
mercy of the Lord to be faithful. I suppose 
therefore that this is good for the present dis- 
tress ; I say, that it is good for a man so to be. 
Art thou bound unto a wife? seek not to be 
loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not 
a wife. But and if thou marry, thou hast not 
sinned ; and if a virgin marry, she has not sinned. 
Nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh : 
but I spare you.” Having given his opinion 
with great caution respecting virginity, and being 
about to advise him who wished it to give his 
virgin in marriage, so that none of those things 
which conduce to sanctification should be of 
necessity and by compulsion, but according to 
the free purpose of the soul, for this is accepta- 
ble to God, he does not wish these things to 
be said as by authority, and as the mind of the 
Lord, with reference to the giving of a virgin in 
marriage ; for after he had said,? “if a virgin 
marry, she hath not sinned,” directly afterwards, 
with the greatest caution, he modified his state- 
ment, showing that he had advised these things 
by human permission, and not by divine. So, 
immediately after he had said, “ if a virgin mar- 
ry, she hath not sinned,” he added, “such shall 
have trouble in the flesh: but I spare you.” 2 
By which he means: “TI sparing you, such as 
you are, consented to these things, because you 
have chosen to think thus of them, that I may 
not seem to hurry you on by violence, and com- 
pel any one to this.3 But yet if it shall please 
you who find chastity hard to bear, rather to 
turn to marriage ; I consider:it to be profitable 
for you to restrain yourselves in the gratification 
of the flesh, not making your marriage an occa- 
sion for abusing your own vessels to unclean- 
ness.” Then he adds,‘ “ But this I say, brethren, 
the time is short: it remaineth, that both they 
that have wives be as though they had none.” 
And again, going on and challenging them to 
the same things, he confirmed his statement, 
powerfully supporting the state of virginity, and 

t x Cor. vii. 25-28. 

2 x Cor. vii. 28. 

3 Which I recommend. 

4 x Cor. vii. 29. [Nobody can feel more deeply than I do the 
immeasurable evils of an enforced celibacy; nobody can feel more 
deeply the deplorable state of the Church which furnishes only rare and 


exceptional examples of voluntary celibacy for the sake of Christ. 
On chastity, see Jer. Taylor’s Holy Living, Works, i. p. 424.] 





adding expressly the following words to those 
which he had spoken before, he exclaimed,’ “ I 
would have you without carefulness. He that 
is unmarried careth for the things that belong to 
the Lord:® but he that is married careth for 
the things that are of the world, how he may 
please his wife. There is a difference also be- 
tween a wife and a virgin. The unmarried 
woman careth for the things of the Lord, that 
she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but 
she that is married careth for the things of the 
world, how she may please her husband.” Now 
it is clear to all, without any doubt, that to care 
for the things of the Lord and to please God, is 
much better than to care for the things of the 
world and to please one’s wife. For who is 
there so foolish and blind, as not to perceive in 
this statement the higher praise which Paul ac- 
cords to chastity? “And this,’ he says,7 “I 
speak for your own profit, not that I may cast 
a snare upon you, but for that which is comely.” 


CHAP. XIV. — VIRGINITY A GIFT OF GOD: THE PUR- 
POSE OF VIRGINITY NOT RASHLY TO BE ADOPTED 
BY ANY ONE. ; 


Consider besides how, in addition to the words 
already quoted, he commends the state of vir- 
ginity as a gift of God. Wherefore he rejects 
those of the more incontinent, who, under the 
influence of vain-glory, would advance to this’ 
state, advising them to marry, lest in their time 
of manly strength, the flesh stirring up the de- 
sires and passions, they should be goaded on to 
defile the soul. For let us consider what he lays 
down :® “ But if any man think that he behaveth 
himself uncomely towards his virgin,” he says, 
“if she pass the flower of her age, and need so 
require, let him do what he will, he sinneth not: 
let him marry ;” properly here preferring mar- 
riage to ‘‘ uncomeliness,”’ in the case of those who 
had chosen the state of virginity, but afterwards 
finding it intolerable and grievous, and in word 
boasting of their perseverance before men, out 
of shame, but indeed no longer having the power 
to persevere in the lifeof a eunuch. But for him 
who of his own free will and purpose decides to 
preserve his flesh in virgin purity, “having no 
necessity,” 9 that is, passion calling forth his loins 
to intercourse, for there are, as it seems, differ- 
ences in men’s bodies; such a one contending 
and struggling, and zealously abiding by his pro- 
fession, and admirably fulfilling it, he exhorts to 
abide and to preserve it, according the highest 
prize to virginity. Forhe that is able, he says, 
and ambitious to preserve his flesh pure, does 


5 x Cor. vii. 32-34. 

6 A clause is omitted here in the text. 

7 x Cor. vii. 35. 

8 x Cor. vii. 36. 
1844.] 8 

9 x Cor. vii. 37. 


[On virginity, see Taylor, i. 426, ed. London, 





THE BANQUET OF 


better ; but he that is unable, and enters into 
marriage lawfully, and does not indulge in secret 
corruption, does well. And now poset has 
been said on these subjects. 

Let any one who will, take in his hand the 
Epistle to the Corinthians, and, examining all 
its passages one by one, then consider what 
we have said, comparing them together, as to 
whether there is not a perfect harmony and 
agreement between them. ‘These things, accord- 
ing to my power, O Arete, I offer to thee as my 
contribution on the subject of chastity. 

Evsou.ios. Through many things, O Grego- 
rion, she has scarcely come to the subject, having 
measured and crossed a mighty sea of words. 

GREGORION. So it seems; but come, I must 
mention the rest of what was said in order, going 
through it and repeating it, while I seem to have 
the sound of it dwelling in my ears, before it 
flies away and escapes; for the remembrance 
of things lately heard is easily effaced from the 
aged. 

Evusoutios. Say on, then; for we have come 
to have the pleasure of hearing these discourses. 

Grecorion. And then after, as you observed, 
Thaleia had descended from her smooth and un- 
broken course to the earth, Theopatra, she said, 
followed her in order, and spoke as follows. 


DISCOURSE IV.— THEOPATRA. 


CHAP. I. — THE NECESSITY OF PRAISING VIRTUE, 
FOR THOSE WHO HAVE THE POWER. 


If the art of speaking, O virgins, always went 
by the same ways, and passed along the same 
path, there would be no way to avoid wearying 
you for one who persisted in the arguments 
which had already been urged. But since there 
are of arguments myriads of currents and ways, 
God inspiring us “at sundry times and in di- 
vers manners,’’' who can have the choice of 
holding back or of being afraid? For he would 
not be free from blame to whom the gift has 
been given, if he failed to adorn that which is 
honourable with words of praise. Come then, 
we also, according to our gifts, will sing the 
brigltest and most glorious star of Christ, which 
is chastity. For this way of the Spirit is very 
wide and large. Beginning, therefore, at the 
point from which we may say those things which 
are suitable and fitting to the subject before us, 
let us from thence consider it. 


CHAP. II.— THE PROTECTION OF CHASTITY AND 
VIRGINITY DIVINELY GIVEN TO MEN, THAT THEY 
MAY EMERGE FROM THE MIRE OF VICES. 


Now I at least seem to perceive that nothing 
has been such a means of restoring men to para- 
dise, and of the change to incorruption, and of 





Heb. i. 1. 


1 poAumEpa@s Kai ToAUTpPOTWs. 





THE TEN VIRGINS. 323 
reconciliation to God, and such a means of sal- 
vation to men, by guiding us to life, as chastity. 
And I will now endeavour to show why I think 
so concerning these things, that having heard 
distinctly the power of the grace already spoken 
of, you may know of how great blessings it has 
become the giver to us. Anciently, then, after 
the fall of man, when he was cast out by reason 
of his transgression, the stream of corruption 
poured forth abundantly, and running along in 
violent currents, not only fiercely swept along 
whatever touched it from without, but also rush- 
ing within it, overwhelmed the souls of men. 
And they,? continuously exposed to this, were 
carried along dumb and stupid, neglecting to 
pilot their vessels,3 from having nothing firm 
to lay hold of. For the senses of the soul, as 
those have said who are learned in these things, 
when, being overcome by the excitements to 
passion which fall upon them from without, they 
receive the sudden bursts of the waves of folly 
which rush into them, being darkened turn aside 
from the divine course its whole vessel, which is 
by nature easily guided. Wherefore God, pity- 
ing us who were in such a condition, and were 
able neither to stand nor to rise, sent down from 
heaven the best and most glorious help, virginity, 
that by it we might tie our bodies fast, like ships, 
and have a calm, coming to an anchorage with- 
out damage, as also the Holy Spirit witnesses. 
For this is said in the hundred and thirty-sixth 4 
psalm, where the souls send joyfully up to God 
a hymn of thanksgiving,> as many as have been 
taken hold of and raised up to walk with Christ 
in heaven, that they might not be overwhelmed 
by the streams of the world and the flesh. 
Whence, also, they say that Pharaoh was a type 
of the devil in Egypt, since he mercilessly com- 
manded the males to be cast into the river,° 
but the females to be preserved alive. For the 
devil, ruling? from Adam to Moses over this 
great Egypt, the world, took care to have the 
male and rational offspring of the soul carried 
away and destroyed by the streams of passions, 
but he longs for the carnal and irrational off- 
spring to increase and multiply. 


CHAP. III. — THAT PASSAGE OF DAVID EXPLAINED 5 3 
WHAT THE HARPS HUNG UPON THE WILLOWS 
SIGNIFY ; THE WILLOW A SYMBOL OF CHASTITY ; 
THE WILLOWS WATERED BY STREAMS. 


But not to pass away from our subject, come, 
let us take in our hands and examine this psalm, 


2 i.e., at wuxat, 

3 The body. 

4 Ps. cxxxvii. E. V., andin Heb. [Does not our author follow 
the Hebrew here? I must think his reference here is to the cxxxvith 
Psalm, as we have it. It is Eucharistic, and verses 10-16 seem to be 
specially referred to.] 

$ Or, Eucharistic hymn. 

6 Exod. i. 16, 

7 Rom. v. 14. 

8 “ By the waters of Babylon,” etc. [He passes to the next psalm.) 


324 THE BANQUET OF 


THE TEN VIRGINS. 





which the pure and stainless souls sing to God, 
saying:' “By the rivers of Babylon there we 
sat down; yea, we wept, when we remembered 
Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows 
in the midst thereof,” clearly giving the name of 
harps to their bodies which they hung upon the 
branches of chastity, fastening them to the wood 
that they might not be snatched away and 
dragged along again by the stream of inconti- 
nence. For Babylon, which is interpreted “ dis- 
turbance ” or “confusion,” signifies this life around 
which the water flows, while we sit in the midst 
of which the water flows round us, as long as 
we are in the world, the rivers of evil always 
beating upon us. Wherefore, also, we are always 
fearful, and we groan and cry with weeping to 
God, that our harps may not be snatched off by 
the waves of pleasure, and slip down from the 
tree of chastity. For everywhere the divine 
writings take the willow as the type of chastity, 
because, when its flower is steeped in water, if it 
be drunk, it extinguishes whatever kindles sen- 
sual desires and passions within us, until it 
entirely renders barren, and makes every inclina- 
tion to the begetting of children without effect, 
as also Homer indicated, for this reason calling 
the willows destructive of fruit.2 And in Isaiah 
the righteous are said to “spring up as willows 
by the water courses.”3 Surely, then, the shoot 
of virginity is raised to a great and glorious 
height, when the righteous, and he to whom it is 
given to preserve it and to cultivate it, bedewing 
it with wisdom, is watered by the gentlest streams 
of Christ. For as it is the nature of this tree to 
bud and grow through water, so it is the nature 
of virginity to blossom and grow to maturity when 
enriched by words, so that one can hang his 
body 4 upon it. 


CHAP. IV.— THE AUTHOR GOES ON WITH THE IN- 
TERPRETATION OF THE SAME PASSAGE. 


If, then, the rivers of Babylon are the streams 
of voluptuousness, as wise men say, which con- 
fuse and disturb the soul, then the willows must 
be chastity, to which we may suspend and draw 
up the organs of lust which overbalance and 
weigh down the mind, so that they may not be 
borne down by the torrents of incontinence, and 
be drawn like worms to impurity and corruption. 
For God has bestowed upon us virginity as a 
most useful and a serviceable help towards in- 
corruption, sending it as an ally to those who 
are contending for and longing after Zion, as the 
psalm shows, which is resplendent charity and 


3 Ps, cxxxvii.1,2. [Here is a transition to Psalm cxxxvii., which 
has been the source of a confusion in the former chapter. This psalm 
is not Eucharistic, but penitential.} 

2 Odyss. K’, 510. 

$ Isa. xliv. 4. 

4 dpyavoy. The word used for harp above, and here employed 
@ith a double meaning. [“‘ Body” here = man’s physical system. 





the commandment respecting it, for Zion is in- 
terpreted “The commandment of the watch- 
tower.”’5 Now, let us here enumerate the points 
which follow. For why do the souls declare that 
they were asked by those who led them captive 
to sing the Lord’s song ina strange land? Surely 
because the Gospel teaches a holy and secret 
song, which sinners and adulterers sing to the 
Evil One. For they insult the commandments, 
accomplishing the will of the spirits of evil, and 
cast holy things to dogs, and pearls before swine,® 
in the same manner as those of whom the 
prophet says with indignation, “They read the 
law? without ;’’® for the Jews were not to read 
the law going forth out of the gates of Jerusalem 
or out of their houses; and for this reason the 
prophet blames them strongly, and cries that 
they were liable to condemnation, because, while 
they were transgressing the commandments, and 
acting impiously towards God, they were pre- 
tentiously reading the law, as if, forsooth, they 
were piously observing its precepts; but they 
did not receive it in their souls, holding it firmly 
with faith, but rejected it, denying it by their 
works. And hence they sing the Lord’s song in 
a strange land, explaining the law by distorting 
and degrading it, expecting a sensual kingdom, 
and setting their hopes on this alien world, which 
the Word says will pass away,? where those who 
carry them captive entice them with pleasures, 
lying in wait to deceive them. 


CHAP. V.—-THE GIFTS OF VIRGINS, ADORNED WITH 
WHICH THEY ARE PRESENTED TO ONE HUSBAND, 
CHRIST. 


Now, those who sing the Gospel to senseless 
people seem to sing the Lord’s song in a strange 
land, of which Christ is not the husbandman ; 
but those who have put on and shone in the 
most pure and bright, and unmingled and pious 
and becoming, ornament of virginity, and are 
found barren and unproductive of unsettled and 
grievous passions, do not sing the song in a 
strange land ; because they are not borne thither 
by their hopes, nor do they stick fast in the lusts 
of their mortal bodies, nor do they take a low 
view of the meaning of the commandments, but 
well and nobly, with a lofty disposition, they have 
regard to the promises which are above, thirsting 
for heaven as a congenial abode, whence God, 
approving their dispositions, promises with an 
oath to give them choice honours, appointing 
and establishing them “above His chief joy ;” 
for He says thus: '° “If I forget thee, O Jerusa- 


5 In Hebrew the word means simply “‘ a memorial.” 

6 Matt. vii. 6. 

7 i.e., To those without. : 

® Amos iv. 5(LXX.). The E. V. is, “ Offer a sacrifice of thanke 
giving in the leaven.” 

9 x Pet. ii. 10. 

10 Ps. cxxxvii. 5, 6. 


Dod ioe te 
{ 





THE BANQUET. OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 


325 





fem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I 
do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to 
the roof of my mouth ; if I prefer not Jerusalem 
above my chief joy ;” meaning by Jerusalem, as 
I said, these very undefiled and incorrupt souls, 
which, having with self-denial drawn in the pure 
draught of virginity with unpolluted lips, are 
“espoused to one husband,” to be presented 
“as a chaste virgin to Christ” * in heaven, “ hav- 
ing gotten the victory, striving for undefiled 
rewards.” ?_ Hence also the prophet Isaiah pro- 
claims, saying,’ “Arise, shine,* for thy light is 
come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon 
thee.” Now these promises, it is evident to 
every one, will be fulfilled after the resurrection.’ 
For the Holy Spirit does not speak of that well- 
known town in Judea ; but truly of that heavenly 
city, the blessed Jerusalem, which He declares 
to be the assembly of the souls which God plainly 
promises to place first, “above His chief joy,” 
in the new dispensation, settling those who are 
clothed in the most white robe of virginity in 
the pure dwelling of unapproachable light ; be- 
cause they had it not in mind to put off their 
wedding garment — that is, to relax their minds 
by wandering thoughts. 


CHAP. VI.— VIRGINITY TO BE CULTIVATED AND 
COMMENDED IN EVERY PLACE AND TIME. 


Further, the expression in Jeremiah,® “That 
a maid should not forget her ornaments, nor a 
bride her attire,”’7 shows that she should not 
give up or loosen the band of chastity through 
wiles and distractions. For by the heart are 
properly denoted our heart and mind. Now the 
breastband, the girdle which gathers together 
and keeps firm the purpose of the soul to chas- 
tity, is love to God, which our Captain and 
Shepherd, Jesus, who is also our Ruler and Bride- 
groom, O illustrious virgins, commands both you 
and me to hold fast unbroken and sealed up 
even to the end; for one will not easily find 
anything else a greater help to men than this 
possession, pleasing and grateful to God. There- 
fore, I say, that we should all exercise and hon- 
our chastity, and always cultivate and commend 
it. 

Let these first-fruits of my discourse suffice for 
thee, O Arete, in proof of my education and my 
zeal. “And I receive the gift,” she said that 


1 2 Cor. xi. 2. 

2 Wisd. iv. 2. 

3 Isa, Ix. 1. 

4 O Jerusalem. 

5 Commentators have remarked the allusion to Phil. iii, rz. See 
Migne’s note. The thought of the marriage of the heavenly bride- 
groom, Christ, to His virgin bride, the Church, at the second Advent, 
when “‘ the dead shall be raised,” was obviously present to the mind 
of the writer. 

6 Jer, ii. 32, The author, in quoting from the LXX., slightly alters 
the text, so as to make it almost a command, instead of a question. 
The original has emtArjoerat; in the text it is emAadécOa, 

7 Literally, breastband. 








Arete replied, “and bid Thallousa speak after 
thee ; for I must have a discourse from each one 
of you.” And she said that Thallousa, pausing 
a little, as though considering somewhat with 
herself, thus spoke. : 


DISCOURSE V.—THALLOUSA. 


I.— THE OFFERING OF CHASTITY A GREA 
cirt.8 


I pray you, Arete, that you will give your as- 
sistance now too, that I may seem to speak 
something worthy in the first place of yourself, 
and then of those who are present. For I am 
persuaded, having thoroughly learnt it from the 
sacred writings, that the greatest and most glori- 
ous offering and gift, to which there is nothing 
comparable, which men can offer to God, is the 
life of virginity. For although many accom- 
plished many admirable things, according to 
their vows, in the law, they alone were said to 
fulfil a great vow who were willing to offer them- 
selves of their free-will. For the passage runs 
thus: “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto 
them, when either man or woman shall separate 
themselves . . . unto the Lord.” ?° One vows 
to offer gold and silver vessels for the sanctuary 
when he comes, another to offer the tithe of his 
fruits, another of his property, another the best 
of his flocks, another consecrates his being ; and 
no one is able to vow a great vow to the Lord, 
but he who has offered himself entirely to God. 


CHAP. 


CHAP. II, — ABRAHAM’S SACRIFICE OF A HEIFER 
THREE YEARS OLD, OF A GOAT, AND OF A RAM 
ALSO THREE YEARS OLD: ITS MEANING ; EVERY 
AGE TO BE CONSECRATED TO GOD; THE THREE- 
FOLD WATCH AND OUR AGE. 


I must endeavour, O virgins, by a true exposi- 
tion, to explain to you the mind of the Scripture 
according to its meaning.'' Now, he who watches 
over and restrains himself in part, and in part is 
distracted and wandering, is not wholly given up 
to God. Hence it is necessary that the perfect 
man offer up all, both the things of the soul and 
those of the flesh, so that he may be complete 
and notlacking. Therefore also God commands 
Abraham,” “Take Me an heifer of three years 
old, and ashe goat of three years old, and a ram 
of three years old, and a turtle dove, and a 
young pigeon;” which is admirably said; for 
remark, that concerning those things, He also 
gives this command, Bring them Me and keep 


8 [Compare vol. v. R 587, this series. ] 
9 Lit. game or toil, d@Aov. : 
10 Lit. shall greatly vow a vow to offer, with sacrifices of purifica- 
tion, chastity to the Lord. Num. vi. 1, 2. ‘ 
here are two readings. The above rendering may fairly em- 
brace them both. 


12 Gen. xv. 9. [Our author has in mind (the triad) 1 Thess. v. 23.] 


326 : 
them free from the yoke, even thy soul unin- 
jured, like a heifer, and your flesh, and your 
reason ; the last like a goat, since he traverses 
lofty and precipitous places, and the other like 
a ram, that he may in nowise skip away, and fall 
and slip off from the right way. For thus shalt 
thou be perfect and blameless, O Abraham, when 
thou hast offered to Me thy soul, and thy sense, 
and thy mind, which He mentioned under the 
symbol of the heifer, the goat, and the ram of 
three years old, as though they represented the 
pure knowledge of the Trinity. 

And perhaps He also symbolizes the begin- 
ning, the middle, and the end of our life and of 
our age, wishing as far as possible that men 
should spend their boyhood, their manhood, and 
their more advanced life purely, and offer them 
up to Him. Just as our Lord Jesus Christ com- 
mands in the Gospels, thus directing: “ Let not 
your lights be extinguished, and let not your 
loins be loosed. Therefore also be ye like men 
who wait for their lord, when he will return 
from the wedding; that, when he cometh and 
knocketh, they may open unto him immedi- 
ately. Blessed are ye, when he shall make you 
sit down, and shall come and serve you. And 
if he come in the second, or in the third watch, 
ye are blessed.”’* For consider, O virgins, when 
He mentions three watches of the night, and 
His three comings, He shadows forth in symbol 
our three periods of life, that of the boy, of the 
full-grown man, and of the old man; so that if 
He should come and remove us from the world 
while spending our first period, that is, while we 
are boys, He may receive us ready and pure, 
having nothing amiss; and the second and the 
third in like manner. For the evening watch is 
the time of the budding and youth of man, when 
the reason begins to be disturbed and to be 
clouded by the changes of life, his flesh gaining 
strength and urging him to lust. The second is 
the time when, afterwards advancing to a full- 
grown man, he begins to acquire stability, and 
to make a stand against the turbulence of passion 
and self-conceit. And the third, when most of 
the imaginations and desires fade away, the flesh 
now withering and declining to old age. 


CHAP. II. —- FAR BEST TO CULTIVATE VIRTUE FROM 
BOYHOOD. 


Therefore, it is becoming that we should kin- 
dle the unquenchable light of faith in the heart, 
and gird our loins with purity, and watch and 
ever wait for the Lord; so that, if He should 
will to come and take any of us away in the first 
period of life, or in the second, or in the third, 
and should find us most ready, and working 
what He appointed, He may make us to lie 





1 Luke xii. 35-38. The author apparently quotes from memory. 





Ne A i orien db 


THE ‘BANQUET ‘OF THE TEN’ VIRGINS: ; 





down in the bosom of Abraham, of Isaac, and 
of Jacob. Now Jeremiah says, “It is good for 
a man that he bear the yoke in his youth; 2 
and “that his soul should not depart from the. 
Lord.” It is good, indeed, from boyhood, to 
submit the neck to the divine Hand, and not 
to shake off, even to old age, the Rider who 
guides with pure mind, when the Evil One is 
ever dragging down the mind to that which is 
worse. For who is there that does not receive 
through the eyes, through the ears, through the 
taste and smell and touch, pleasures and delights, 
so as to become impatient of the control of con- 
tinence as a driver, who checks and vehemently 
restrains the horse from evil? Another who 
turns his thoughts to other things will think 
differently ; but we say that he offers himself 
perfectly to God who strives to keep the flesh 
undefiled from childhood, practising virginity ; 
for it speedily brings great and much-desired 
gifts of hopes to those who strive for it, drying 
up the corrupting lusts and passions of the soul. 
But come, let us explain how we give ourselves 
up to the Lord. 


IV. — PERFECT CONSECRATION AND DEVO- 
TION TO GOD: WHAT IT Is. 


That which is laid down in the Book of Num- 
bers,3 “ greatly to vow a vow,” serves to show, 
as, with a litle more explanation, I proceed. to 
prove, that chastity is the great vow above all 
vows. For then am I plainly consecrated alto- 
gether to the Lord, when I not only strive to- 
keep the flesh untouched by intercourse, but also 
unspotted by other kinds of unseemliness. For 
“the unmarried woman,” it is said,* “ careth for 
the things of the Lord, how she may please the 
Lord ;” not merely that she may bear away the 
glory in part of not being maimed in her virtue, 
but in both parts, according to the apostle, that 
she may be sanctified in body and spirit, offer- 
ing up her members to the Lord. For let us 
say what it is to offer up oneself perfectly to the 
Lord. If, for instance, I open my mouth on 
some subjects, and close it upon others; thus, 
if I open it for the explanation of the Scriptures, 
for the praise of God, according to my power, 
in a true faith and with all due. honour, and if I 
close it, putting a door and a watch upon it5 
against foolish discourse, my mouth is kept pure, 
and is offered up to God. “My tongue is a 
pen,” © an organ of wisdom; for the Word of 
the Spirit writes by it in clearest letters, from 
the depth and power of the Scriptures, even the 
Lord, the swift Writer of the ages, that He 


— 


CHAP. 





2 Lam. iii. 27. 

3 Num. vi. 2 (LXX.). 

4 x Cor. vii. 34; quoted from memory, 
5 Cf. Ps. cxxxix. 4, and cxli. 3. 

6 Ps. xly. 2, 


THE BANQUET OF 


r 





quickly and swiftly registers and fulfils the coun- 
sel of the Father, hearing the words, “ quickly 
spoil, swiftly plunder.” * ‘To such a Scribe the 
words may be applied, “ My tongue is a pen;”’ 
for a beautiful pen is sanctified and offered to 
Him, writing things more lovely than the poets 
and orators who confirm the doctrines of men. 
If, too, I accustom my eyes not to lust after the 
charms of the body, nor to take delight in un- 
seemly sights, but to look up to the things which 
are above, then my eyes are kept pure, and are 
offered to the Lord. If I shut my ears against 
detraction and slanders, and open them to the 
word of God, having intercourse with wise men,’ 
then have I offered up my ears to the Lord. If 
I keep my hands from dishonourable dealing, 
from acts of covetousness and of licentiousness, 
then are my hands kept pure to God. If I 
withhold my steps from going 3 in perverse ways, 
then have I offered up my feet, not going to the 
places of public resort and banquets, where 
wicked men are found, but into the right way, 
fulfilling something of the+ commands. What, 
then, remains to me, if I also keep the heart pure, 
offering up all its thoughts to God ; if I think no 
evil, if anger and wrath gain no rule over me, if 
I meditate in the law of the Lord day and night? 
And this is to preserve a great chastity, and to 
vow a great vow. 


CHAP. V.— THE VOW OF CHASTITY, AND ITS RITES 
IN THE LAW; VINES, CHRIST, AND THE DEVIL. 


I will now endeavour to explain to you, O 
virgins, the rest of that which is prescribed ; 
for this is attached to your duties, consisting of 
laws concerning virginity, which are useful as 
teaching how we should abstain, and how ad- 
vance to virginity. For it is written thus: 5 
“ And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak 
unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, 
When either man or woman shall separate them- 
selves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate 
themselves unto the Lord; he shall separate 
himself from wine and strong drink, and shall 
drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong 
drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, 
nor eat moist grapes, or dried, all the days of 
his separation.” And this means, that he who 
has devoted and offered himself to the Lord 
shall not take of the fruits of the plant of evil, 
because of its natural tendency to produce 
intoxication and distraction of mind. For we 
perceive from the Scriptures two kinds of vines 
which were separate from each other, and were 
unlike. For the one is productive of immortal- 





1 Tsa. viii. 1. 
however, is nearer the original than the E. V. Cf 
Bib. Com., in loc. 

2 Cf. Ecclus. vi. 36. 

3 70 mopevtixdy, the power of going. 

4 Divine. 

5 Num. vi. 1-4. 


The LXX. is quotedfrom memory. The meaning, 
eil and Delitzsch, 








THE TEN VIRGINS. 327. 





ity and righteousness ; but the other of madness 
and insanity. The sober and joy-producing vine, 
from whose instructions, as from branches, there 
joyfully hang down clusters of graces, distilling 
love, is our Lord Jesus, who says expressly to 
the apostles,° “I am the true vine, ye are the 
branches ; and my Father is the husbandman.” 
But the wild and death-bearing vine is the devil, 
who drops down fury and poison and wrath, as 
Moses relates, writing concerning him,” “ For 
their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the 
fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of 
gall, their clusters are bitter: their wine is the 
poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.” 
The inhabitants of Sodom having gathered grapes 
from this, were goaded on to an unnatural and 
fruitless desire for males. Hence, also, in the 
time of Noah, men having given themselves up 
to drunkenness, sank down into unbelief, and, 
being overwhelmed by the deluge, were drowned. 
And Cain, too, having drawn from this, stained 
his fratricidal hands, and defiled the earth with 
the blood of his own family. Hence, too, the 
heathen, becoming intoxicated, sharpen their 
passions for murderous battles; for man is not 
so much excited, nor goes so far astray through 
wine, as from anger and wrath. A man does 
not become intoxicated and go astray through 
wine, in the same way as he does from sorrow, 
or from love, or from incontinence. And there- 
fore it is ordered that a virgin shall not taste of 
this vine, so that she may be sober and watchful 
from the cares of life, and-may kindle the shin- 
ing torch of the light of righteousness for the 
Word. “Take heed to yourselves,” says the 
Lord,® “lest at any time your hearts be over- 
charged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and 
cares of this life, and so that day come upon 
you unawares, as a snare.” 


CHAP. VI. —SIKERA, A MANUFACTURED AND SPURI- 
OUS WINE, YET INTOXICATING ; THINGS WHICH 
ARE AKIN TO SINS ARE TO BE AVOIDED BY A 
VIRGIN ; THE ALTAR OF INCENSE (A SYMBOL 
OF) VIRGINS. 


Moreover, it is not only forbidden to virgins 
in any way to touch those things which are made 
from that vine, but even such things as resemble 
them and are akin to them. For Sikera, which 
is manufactured, is called a spurious kind of 
wine, whether made of palms or of other fruit- 
trees. For in the same way that draughts of 
wine overthrow man’s reason, so do these ex- 
ceedingly ; and to speak the plain truth, the wise 
are accustomed to call by the name of Sikera all 
that produces drunkenness and distraction of 
mind, besides wine. In order, therefore, that 





6 St. John xv. 1, 5. 
7 Deut, xxxii. 32, 33, 
8 Luke xxi. 34. 


328 THE BANQUET OF 
the virgin may not, when guarding against those 
sins which are in their own nature evil, be defiled 
by those which are like them and akin to them, 
conquering the one and being conquered by the 
other, that is, decorating herself with textures of 
different cloths, or with stones and gold, and 
other decorations of the body, things which in- 
toxicate the soul; on this account it is ordered 
that she do not give herself up to womanish weak- 
nesses and laughter, exciting herself to wiles and 
foolish talking, which whirl the mind around and 
confuse it; as it is indicated in another place,' 
“Ye shall not eat the hyzena and animals like it ; 
nor the weasel and creatures of that kind.” For 
this is the straight and direct way to heaven, not 
merely not to avoid any stumbling-block which 
would trip up and destroy men who are agitated 
by a desire for luxuries and pleasures, but also 
from such things as resemble them. 

Moreover, it has been handed down that the 
unbloody altar of God signifies the assembly of 
the chaste ; thus virginity appears to be some- 
thing great and glorious. Therefore it ought to 
be preserved undefiled and altogether pure, 
having no participation in the impurities of the 
flesh ; but it should be set up before the pres- 
ence of the testimony, gilded with wisdom, for 
the Holy of holies, sending forth a sweet savour 
of love to the Lord; for He says,? “Thou shalt 
make an altar to burn incense upon: of shittim- 
wood shalt thou make it. And thou shalt make 
the staves of shittim-wood, and overlay them 
with gold. And thou shalt put it before the veil 
that is by the ark of the testimony, before the 
mercy-seat that is over the testimony, where I 
will meet with thee. And Aaron shall burn there- 
on sweet incense every morning: when he dress- 
eth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it. 
And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he 
shall burn incense upon it ; a perpetual incense 
before the Lord throughout your generations. 
Ye shall offer no strange incense thereon, nor 
burnt-sacrifices nor meat-offering ; neither shall 
ye pour drink-offering thereon.” 


CHAP. VII. — THE CHURCH INTERMEDIATE BETWEEN 
THE SHADOWS OF THE LAW AND THE REALITIES 
OF HEAVEN. 


If the law, according to the apostle, is spiritual, 
containing the images “ of future good things,”’ 3 
come then, let us strip off the veil of the letter 
which is spread over it, and consider its naked 
and true meaning. The Hebrews were com- 
manded to ornament the Tabernacle as a type 
of the Church, that they might be able, by means 
of sensible things, to announce beforehand the 





1 Lev. xi. 29; not an exact quotation. 

2 Exod. xxx. 1-9. 

3 Heb. x. x. The apostle says, ‘‘a shadow,” and ‘‘not the very 
image.” The difference, however, is verbal only. — Tr. 











THE TEN VIRGINS. 


image of divine things. For the pattern which 
was shown to Moses‘ in the mount, to which 
he was to have regard in fashioning the Taberna- 
cle, was a kind of accurate representation of the 
heavenly dwelling, which we now perceive more 
clearly than through types, yet more darkly than 
if we saw the reality. For not yet, in our present 
condition, has the truth come unmingled to men, 
who are here unable to bear the sight of pure 
immortality, just as we cannot bear to look upon 
the rays of the sun. And the Jews declared that 
the shadow of the image (of the heavenly things 
which was: afforded to them), was the third from 
the reality ; but we clearly behold the image of 
the heavenly order ; for the truth will be accu- 
rately made manifest after the resurrection, when 
we shall see the heavenly tabernacle (the city in 
heaven ‘whose builder and maker is God”’5) 
“face to face,” and not “darkly” and “in part.’’® 


CHAP. VIII.— THE DOUBLE ALTAR, WIDOWS AND 
VIRGINS ; GOLD THE SYMBOL OF VIRGINITY. 


Now the Jews prophesied our state, but we 
foretell the heavenly ; since the Tabernacle was 
a symbol of the Church, and the Church of 
heaven. Therefore, these things being so, and 
the Tabernacle being taken for a type of the 
Church, as I said, it is fitting that the altars 
should signify some of the things in the Church. 
And we have already compared the brazen altar 
to the company and circuit of widows; for they 
are a living altar of God, to which they bring 
calves and tithes, and free-will offerings, as a 
sacrifice to the Lord ; but the golden altar within 
the’? Holy of holies, before the presence of the 
testimony, on which it is forbidden to offer sac- 
rifice and libation, has reference to those in a 
state of virginity, as those who have their bodies 
preserved pure, like unalloyed gold, from carnal 
intercourse. Now gold is commended for two 
reasons: the first, that it does not rust, and the 
second, that in its colour it seems in a measure 
to resemble the rays of the sun; and thus it is 
suitably a symbol of virginity, which does not 
admit any stain or spot, but ever shines forth 
with the light of the Word. Therefore, also, it 
stands nearer 70 God within the Holy of holies, 
and before the veil, with undefiled hands, like 
incense, offering up prayers to the Lord, accept- 
able as a sweet savour; as also John indicated, 
saying that the incense in the vials of the four- 
and-twenty elders were the prayers of the saints, 
This, then, I offer to thee, O Arete, on the spur 
of the moment, according to my ability, on the 
subject of chastity. 


4 Exod. xxv. 40. 

5 Heb. xi. 10 

© x Cor. xii. 12. 

7 An apparent confusion between the altar of incense, to which the 
author refers, and which stood in the Holy Place, and the Mercy- 
Seat, which was within the vale in the Holy of holies. — Tr. 





u 
a 


THE BANQUET OF 


THE TEN VIRGINS. 329 





- And when Thallousa had said this, Theopatra 
said that Arete touched Agathe with her sceptre, 
and that she, perceiving it, immediately arose 
and answered. 


DISCOURSE VI.— AGATHE. 


CHAP. I. — THE EXCELLENCE OF THE ABIDING GLORY 
OF VIRGINITY ; THE SOUL MADE IN THE IMAGE 
OF THE IMAGE OF GOD, THAT IS OF HIS SON ; THE 
DEVIL A SUITOR FOR THE SOUL. 


With great confidence of being able to per- 
suade, and to carry on this admirable discourse, 
O Arete, if thou go with me, will I also endeavy- 
our, according to my ability, to contribute some- 
thing to the discussion of the subject before us ; 
something commensurate to my own power, and 
not to be compared with that which has already 
been spoken. For I should be unable to put 
forth in philosophizing anything that could com- 
pete with those things which have already been 
so variously and brilliantly worked out. For I 
shall seem to bear away the reproach of silliness, 
if I make an effort to match myself with my 
superiors in wisdom. If, however, you will bear 
even with those who speak as they can, I will 
endeavour to speak, not lacking at least in good 
will. And here let me begin. 

We have all come into this world, O virgins, 
endowed with singular beauty, which has a rela- 
tionship and affinity to @vine wisdom. For the 
souls of men do then most accurately resemble 
Him who begat and formed them, when, reflect- 
ing the unsullied representation of His likeness, 
and the features of that countenance, to which 


God looking formed them to have an immortal 


and indestructible shape, they remain such. For 
the unbegotten and incorporeal beauty, which 
neither begins nor is corruptible, but is unchange- 
able, and grows not old and has need of nothing, 
He resting in Himself, and in the very light which 
is in unspeakable and inapproachable places,’ 
embracing all things in the circumference of His 
power, creating and arranging, made the soul 
after the image of His image. Therefore, also, 
it is reasonable and immortal. For being made 
after the image of the Only-begotten, as I said, 
it has an unsurpassable beauty, and therefore 
evil spirits? love it, and plot and strive to defile 
its godlike and lovely image, as the prophet 
Jeremiah shows, reproaching Jerusalem, ‘Thou 
hadst a whore’s forehead, thou refusedst to be 





reasonable and clear-sighted beauty of mind by 
intercourse with themselves, and desire to co- 
habit with every soul which is betrothed to the 
Lord. : 


CHAP. Il. —- THE PARABLE OF THE TEN VIRGINS.‘ 


If, then, any one will keep this beauty invio- 
late and unharmed, and such as He who con- 
structed it formed and fashioned it, imitating the 
eternal and intelligible nature of which man is 
the representation and likeness, and will become 
like a glorious and holy image, he will be trans- 
ferred thence to heaven, the city of the blessed, 
and will dwell there as in a sanctuary. Now our 
beauty is then best preserved undefiled and perfect 
when, protected by. virginity, it is not darkened 
by the heat of corruption from without ; but, 
remaining in itself, it is adorned with righteous- 
ness, being brought as a bride to the Son of 
God; as He also Himself suggests, exhorting 
that the light of chastity should be kindled in 
their flesh, as in lamps; since the number of the 
ten virgins 5 signifies the souls that have believed 
in Jesus Christ, symbolizing by the ten the only 
right way to heaven. Now five of them were 
prudent and wise ; and five were foolish and un- 
wise, for they had not the forethought to fill their 
vessels with oil, remaining destitute of righteous- 
ness. Now by these He signifies those who strive 
to come to the boundaries of virginity, and who 
strain every nerve to fulfil this love, acting vir- 
tuously and temperately, and who profess and 
boast that this is their aim; but who, making 
light of it, and being subdued by the changes 
of the world, come rather to be sketches of the 
shadowy image of virtue, than workers who rep- 
resent the living truth itself. 


CHAP. UI.— THE SAME ENDEAVOUR AND EFFORT 
AFTER VIRGINITY, WITH A DIFFERENT RESULT. 


Now when it is said5 that “the kingdom of 
heaven is likened unto ten virgins, which took 
their lamps and went forth to meet the bride- 
groom,” this means that the same way towards 
the goal had been entered upon, as is shown by 
the mark X.° By profession they had equally 
proposed the same end, and therefore they are 
called ten, since, as I have said, they chose the 
same profession ; but they did not, for all that, 
go forth in the same way to meet the bridegroom. 
For some provided abundant future nourishment 
for their lamps which were fed with oil, but 


ashamed ;’’3 speaking of her who prostituted | others were careless, thinking only of the pres- 


herself to the powers which came against her to) ent. 
For her lovers are the devil and| 


pollute her. 


And, therefore, they are divided into two 





his angels, who plan to defile and pollute our | 4 iba has suggested the form of this allegorical work.] 
5 





1 Cf Tim. vi. 16. 

2 mvevpatixa THs movnpias (Eph. vi. 12). 
wickedness.” 

3 Jer. iil. 3, 


att. xxv. 
6 In Greek (= ten. The word employed signifies the index of a 
sun-dial. —Tr. [The lamps found in the Roman catacombs have 


In E. V. “ spiritual | this mark (X), which is at once a monogram for Christ and a refer- 
P’ 


ence to the ten virgins. In the Greek the accented /o¢a might yet 
be associated with the initial of Jesus.] ea 


Te ee Pigg ee WA he Pore aes © 


330 THE BANQUET OF 


equal numbers of five, inasmuch as the one class 
preserved the five senses, which most people 
consider the gates of wisdom, pure and undefiled 
by sins; but the others, on the contrary, cor- 
rupted them by multitudes of sins, defiling them- 
selves with evil. For having restrained them, 
and kept them free from righteousness, they bore 
a more abundant crop of transgressions, in con- 
sequence of which it came to pass that they 
were forbidden, and shut out from the divine 
courts. For whether, on the one hand, we do 
right, or, on the other, do wrong through these 
senses, our habits of good and evil are confirmed. 
And as Thallousa said that there is a chastity of 
the eyes, and of the ears, and of the tongue, 
and so on of the other senses ; so here she who 
keeps inviolate the faith of the five pathways of 
virtue — sight, taste, smell, touch, and hearing 
—is called by the name of the five virgins, be- 
cause she has kept the five forms of the sense 
pure to Christ, as a lamp, causing the light of 
holiness to shine forth clearly from each of them. 
For the flesh is truly, as it were, our five-lighted 
lamp, which the soul will bear like a torch, when 
it stands before Christ the Bridegroom, on the 
day of the resurrection, showing her faith spring- 
ing out clear and bright through all the senses, 
as He Himself taught, saying,' “I am come to 
send fire on the earth; and what will I if it be 
already kindled?” meaning by the earth our 
bodies, in which He wished the swift-moving and 
fiery operation of His doctrine to be kindled. 
Now the oil represents wisdom and righteous- 
ness ; for while the soul rains down unsparingly, 
and pours forth these things upon the body, the 
light of virtue is kindled unquenchably, making 
its good actions to shine before men, so that our 
Father which is in heaven may be glorified.” 





CHAP. IV.— WHAT THE OIL IN THE LAMPS MEANS. 


Now they offered, in Leviticus,3 oil of this 
kind, “pure oil olive, beaten for the light, to 
cause the lamps to burn continually, without the 
veil . . . before the Lord.” But they were 
commanded to have a feeble light from the even- 
ing to the morning. For their light seemed to 
resemble the prophetic word, which gives en- 
couragement to temperance, being nourished by 
the acts and the faith of the people. But the 
temple (in which the light was kept burning) 
refers to “the lot of their inheritance,” + inas- 
much as a light can shine in only one house. 
Therefore it was necessary that it should be 
lighted before day. For he says,5 “‘ they shall burn 





1 Luke xii, 49. The Latin version is certainly more accurate, 
“Quid volo #zsz ut accendatur?” —Tr. [A visionary interpretation 
follows. But has not this text been too much overlooked in its /zterad 
significance? “Tt is the last time.” The planet is now on fire. ] 

2 Matt. v. 16. 

3 Lev. xxiv. 2, 3. 

4 Ps. cv. rr. 

S Lev. xxiv. 3. 





e Pa ey 





THE TEN VIRGINS. 


— 


?¢ until the morning,” that is, until the coming of 


Christ. But the Sun of chastity and of righteous- 
ness having arisen, there is no need of o¢her light. 
So long, then, as this people treasured up 
nourishment for the light, supplying oil by their 
works, the light of continence was not extin- 
guished among them, but was ever shining and 
giving light in the “Jot of their inheritance.” 
But when the oil failed, by their turning away 
from the faith to incontinence, the light was en- 
tirely extinguished, so that the virgins have again 
to kindle their lamps by light transmitted from 
one to another, bringing the light of incorruption 
to the world from above. Let us then supply 
now the oil of good works abundantly, and of 
prudence, being purged from all corruption 
which would weigh us down; lest, while the 
Bridegroom tarries, our lamps may also in like 
manner be extinguished. For the delay is the 
interval which precedes the appearing of Christ. 
Now the slumbering and sleeping of the virgins 
signifies the departure from life; and the mid- 
night is the kingdom of Antichrist, during which 
the destroying angel passes over the houses.° 
But the cry which was made when it was said,? 
“Behold the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to 
meet him,’ is the voice which shall be heard 
from heaven, and the trumpet, when the saints, 
all their bodies being raised, shall be caught up, 
and shall go on the clouds to meet the Lord.’ 
For it is to be observed that the word of God 
says, that after the cry all the virgins arose, that 
is, that the dead shall be raised after the voice 
which comes from heaven, as also Paul inti- 
mates,? that “the Lord Himself shall descend 
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the 
archangel, and with the trump of God: and the 
dead in Christ shall rise first ;’’ that is the tab- 
ernacles,'° for they died, being put off by their 
souls. ‘Then we which are alive shall be caught 
up together with them,” meaning our souls." 
For we truly who are alive are the souls which, 
with the bodies, having put them on again, shall 
go to meet Him in the clouds, bearing our lamps 
trimmed, not with anything alien and worldly, 
but like stars radiating the light of prudence and 
continence, full of ethereal splendour. 


CHAP. V.— THE REWARD OF VIRGINITY. 


These, O fair virgins, are the orgies of our 
mysteries ; these the mystic rites of those who 
are initiated in virginity; these the “undefiled 
rewards” '? of the conflict of virginity. I am be- 





6 Exod. xi., xii. 

7 Matt. xxv. 6, 
bacy. ] 

8 1 Thess. iv. 16, 17. 

9 x Thess. iv. 16. 


[This parable greatly stimulated primitive celi- 


10 Bodies. 

11 x Thess. iv. 17.. Commentators have remarked on the peculiar- 
ity of the interpretation. We give simply the writer’s meaning. — Tr. 

12 Wisd. iv. 2. 





THE BANQUET OF 


THE TEN VIRGINS. 331 





trothed to the Word, and receive as a reward the 
eternal crown of immortality and riches from the 
Father ; and I triumph in eternity, crowned with 
the bright and unfading flowers of wisdom. I 
am one in the choir with Christ dispensing His 
rewards in heaven, around the unbeginning and 
never-ending King. I have become the torch- 
bearer of the unapproachable lights,’ and I join 
with their company in the new song of the 
archangels, showing forth the new grace of the 
Church ; for the Word says that the company of 
virgins always follow the Lord, and have fellow- 
ship with Him wherever He is. And this is what 
John signifies in the commemoration of the 
hundred and forty-four thousand.? 

Go then, ye virgin band of the new ages. Go, 
fill your vessels with righteousness, for the hour 
is coming when ye must rise and meet the bride- 
groom. Go, lightly leaving on one side the fas- 
cinations and the pleasures of life, which confuse 
and bewitch the soul; and thus shall ye attain 
the promises, “This I swear by Him who has 
shown me the way of life.” This crown, woven 
by the prophets, I have taken from the prophetic 
meadows, and offer to thee, O Arete. 

Agathe having thus admirably brought her 
discourse to an end, she said, and having been 
applauded for what she had uttered, Arete again 
commanded Procilla to speak. And she, rising 
and passing before the entrance, spoke thus. 


DISCOURSE VII.— PROCILLA. 


CHAP. I. — WHAT THE TRUE AND SEEMLY MANNER 
OF PRAISING; THE FATHER GREATER THAN THE 
SON, NOT IN SUBSTANCE, BUT IN ORDER; 
VIRGINITY THE LILY; FAITHFUL SOULS AND 
VIRGINS, THE ONE BRIDE OF THE ONE CHRIST. 


It is not lawful for me to delay, O Arete, after 
such discourses, seeing that I confide undoubt- 
ingly in the manifold wisdom of God, which gives 
richly and widely to whomsoever it wills. For 
sailors who have experience of the sea declare 
that the same wind blows on all who sail; and 
that different persons, managing their course 
differently, strive to reach different ports. Some 
have a fair wind ; to others it blows across their 
course; and yet both easily accomplish their 
voyage. Now, in the same way, the “ under- 
standing Spirit,3 holy, one only,” ¢ gently breath- 
ing down from the treasures of the Father above, 
giving us all the clear fair wind of knowledge, 
will suffice to guide the course of our words 
without offence. 

And now it is time for me to speak. 





1 Although the Greek word is not the same as in 1 Tim. vi. 16, the 
meaning is probably this rather than uzgwenchaéle, as it is rendered 
in the Latin. — Tr. [See Discourse XI. cap. 2, 22/ra.] 

2 Rey. vii. 4, xiv. 4. 

3 mvedua here, ahd for wzd above. 

4 Literally, only begotten. Wisd. vii. 22. 





This, O virgins, is the one true and seemly 
mode of praising, when he who praises brings 
forward a witness better than all those who are 
praised. For thence one may learn with cer- 
tainty that the commendation is given not from 
favour, nor of necessity, nor from repute, but in 
accordance with truth and an unflattering judg- 
ment. And so the prophets and apostles, who 
spoke more fully concerning the Son of God, 
and assigned to Him a divinity above other men, 
did not refer their praises of Him to the teaching 
of angels, but to Him upon whom all authority 
and power depend. For it was fitting that He 
who was greater than all things after the Father, 
should have the Father, who alone is greater than 
Himself,5 as His witness. And so I will not 
bring forward the praises of virginity from mere 
human report, but from Him who cares for us, 
and who has taken up the whole matter, showing 
that He is the husbandman of this grace, and a 
lover of its beauty, and a fitting witness. And 
this is quite clear, in the Song of Songs,° to any 
one who is willing to see it, where Christ Him- 
self, praising those who are firmly established in 
virginity, says,” “As the lily among thorns, so is 
my love among the daughters ;” comparing the 
grace of chastity to the lily, on account of its 
purity and fragrance, and sweetness and joyous- 
ness. For chastity is like a spring flower, always 
softly exhaling immortality from its white petals. 
Therefore He is not ashamed to confess that He 
loves the beauty of its prime, in the following 
words: ® “Thou hast ravished my heart, my 
sister, my spouse ; thou hast ravished my heart 
with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy 
neck. How fair is thy love, my sister, my 
spouse ! how much better is thy love than wine ! 
and the smell of thine ointments than all spices ! 
Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb ; 
honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the 
smell of thy garments is like the smell of Leba- 
non. A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse ; 
a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.” 

These praises does Christ proclaim to those 
who have come to the boundaries of virginity, 
describing them all under the one name of His 
spouse ; for the spouse must be betrothed to 
the Bridegroom, and called by His name. And, 
moreover, she must be undefiled and unpolluted, 
as a garden sealed, in which all the odours of 
the fragrance of heaven are grown, that Christ 
alone may come and gather them, blooming with 
incorporeal seeds. For the Word loves none of 
the things of the flesh, because He is not of such 
a nature as to be contented with any of the 
things which are corruptible, as hands, or face, 





5 St. John xiv. 28. 

6 [That the Canticles demand allegorical interpretation, we may 
admit; nor can IJ object to our author's ideas here. ] 

7 Cantsil. 2; 

8 Cant. iv. 9-12. 


332 


or feet ; but He looks upon and delights in the 
beauty which is immaterial and spiritual, not 
touching the beauty of the body. 


CHAP. II.— THE INTERPRETATION OF THAT PAS- 
SAGE OF THE CANTICLES." 


Consider now, O virgins, that, in saying to the 
bride, “Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, 
my spouse,” He shows the clear eye of the un- 
derstanding, when the inner man has cleansed 
it and looks more clearly upon the truth. For 
it is clear to every one that there is a twofold 
power of sight, the one of the soul, and the 
other of the body. But the Word does not pro- 
fess a love for that of the body, but only that of 
the understanding, saying, “Thou hast ravished 
my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain 
of thy neck ;”” which means, By the most lovely 
sight of thy mind, thou hast urged my heart to 
love, radiating forth from within the glorious 
beauty of chastity. Now the chains of the neck 
are necklaces which are composed of various 
precious stones ; and the souls which take care 
of the body, place around the outward neck of 
the flesh this visible ornament to deceive those 
who behold; but those who live chastely, on 
the other hand, adorn themselves within with 
ornaments truly composed of various precious 
stones, namely, of freedom, of magnanimity, of 
wisdom, and of love, caring little for those tem- 
poral decorations which, like leaves blossoming 
for an hour, dry up with the changes of the body. 
For there is seen in man a twofold beauty, of 
which the Lord accepts that which is within and 
is immortal, saying, “Thou hast ravished my 
heart with one chain of thy neck ;”’ meaning to 
show that He had been drawn to love by the 
splendour of the inner man shining forth in its 
glory, even as the Psalmist also testifies, saying, 
“The King’s daughter is all glorious within.” 2 


CHAP. III. — VIRGINS BEING MARTYRS FIRST AMONG 
THE COMPANIONS OF CHRIST. 


Let no one suppose that all the remaining 
company of those who have believed are con- 
demned, thinking that we who are virgins alone 
shall be led on to attain the promises, not un- 
derstanding that there shall be tribes and fami- 
lies and orders, according to the analogy of the 
faith of each. And this Paul, too, sets forth, 
saying,? “There is one glory of the sun, and 
another glory of the moon, and another glory 
of the stars: for one star differeth from another 
star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the 
dead.” And the Lord does not profess to give 
the same honours to all; but to some He prom- 





t Chap. iv. ver. 9-12. 
2 Ps. xiv. 14. 
3 x Cor. xv. 41, 42. 





THE ‘BANQUET OF THE «TEN VIRGINS: 


ises that they shall be numbered in the kingdom 
of heaven, to others the inheritance of the earth, 
and to others to see the Father.t And here, 
also, He announces that the order and holy 
choir of the virgins shall first enter in company 
with Him into the rest of the new dispensation, 
as into a bridal chamber. For they were mar- 
tyrs, not as bearing the pains of the body for a 
little moment of time, but as enduring them 
through all their life, not shrinking from truly 
wrestling in an Olympian contest for the prize 
of chastity ; but resisting the fierce torments of 
pleasures and fears and griefs, and the other 
evils of the iniquity of men, they first of all carry 
off the prize, taking their place in the higher 
rank of those who receive the promise. Un- 
doubtedly these are the souls whom the Word 
calls alone His chosen spouse and His sister, 
but the rest concubines and virgins and daugh- 
ters, speaking thus:5 “There are threescore 
queens and fourscore concubines, and virgins 
without number. My dove, my undefiled, is but 
one; she is the only one of her mother, she is 
the choice one of her that bare her: the daugh- 
ters saw her and blessed her: yea, the queens 
and the concubines, and they praised her.” For 
there being plainly many daughters of the 
Church, one alone is the chosen and most pre- 
cious in her eyes above all, namely, the order of 
virgins. 


CHAP. IV.—THE PASSAGE 5 EXPLAINED ; THE 
QUEENS, THE HOLY SOULS BEFORE THE DEL- 
UGE; THE CONCUBINES, THE SOULS OF THE 
PROPHETS ; THE DIVINE SEED FOR SPIRITUAL 
OFFSPRING IN THE BOOKS OF THE PROPHETS ; 
THE NUPTIALS OF THE WORD IN THE PROPHETS 
AS THOUGH CLANDESTINE. 


Now if any one should have a doubt about 
these things, inasmuch as the points are nowhere 
fully wrought out, and should still wish more fully 
to perceive their spiritual significance, namely, 
what the queens and the concubines and the 
virgins are, we will say that these may have 
been spoken concerning those who have been 
conspicuous for their righteousness from the 
beginning throughout the progress of time; as 
of those before the flood, and those after the 
flood, and so on of those after Christ. The 
Church, then, is the spouse. The queens are 
those royal souls before the deluge, who became 
well-pleasing to God, that is, those about Abel 
and Seth and Enoch. The concubines ® those 
after the flood, namely, those of the prophets, 
in whom, before the Church was betrothed to 
the Lord, being united to them after the manner 





4 Matt. v. 3-16. 

5 Cant. vi. 8, 9. ; ; : 

6 [Here allegorizing is refuted and perishes in fanciful and sve 
strained analogies. 


THE BANQUET OF 





THE TEN VIRGINS. 333 








of concubines, He sowed true words in an in- 
corrupt and pure philosophy, so that, conceiving 
faith, they might bring forth to Him the spirit 
of salvation. For such fruits do the souls bring 
forth with whom Christ has had _ intercourse, 
fruits which bear an ever-memorable renown. 
For if you will look at the books of Moses, or 
David, or Solomon, or Isaiah, or of the prophets 
who follow, O virgins, you will see what offspring 
they have left, for the saving of life, from their 
intercourse with the Son of God. Hence the 
Word has with deep perception called the souls 
of the prophets concubines, because He did not 
espouse them openly, as He did the Church, 
having killed for her the fatted calf." 


CHAP. V.— THE SIXTY QUEENS: WHY SIXTY, AND 
WHY QUEENS ; THE EXCELLENCE OF THE SAINTS 
OF THE FIRST AGE. 


In addition to these matters, there is this also 
to be considered, so that nothing may escape us 
of things which are necessary, why He said that 
the queens were sixty, and the concubines eighty, 
and the virgins so numerous as not to be counted 
from their multitude, but the spouse one. And 
first let us speak of the sixty. I imagine that 
He named under the sixty queens, those who 
had pleased God from the first-made man in 
succession to Noah, for this reason, since these 
had no need of precepts and laws for their sal- 
vation, the creation of the world in six days 
being still recent. For they remembered that 
in six days God formed the creation, and those 
things which were made in paradise ; and how 
man, receiving a command not to touch? the 
tree of knowledge, ran aground, the author of 
evil having led him astray.3 Thence he gave 
the symbolical name of sixty queens to those 
souls who, from the creation of the world, in 
succession chose God as the object of their love, 
and were almost, so to speak, the offspring of 
the first age, and neighbours of the great six 
days’ work, from their having been born, as I 
said, immediately after the six days. For these 
had great honour, being associated with the 
angels, and often seeing God manifested visi- 
bly, and not in a dream. For consider what 
confidence Seth had towards God, and Abel, 
and Enos, and Enoch, and Methuselah, and 
Noah, the first lovers of righteousness, and the 
first of the first-born children who are written 
in heaven,* being thought worthy of the king- 
dom, as a kind of first-fruits of the plants for 
salvation, coming out as early fruit to God. 
And so much may suffice concerning these. 





1 Luke xv. 23. 

2 This was Eve's testimony to the serpent, not the original com- 
mand.—Tr. [But I do not see the force of this note. Eve in her 
innocency is surely a competent witness. ] 

3 Gen. iii. 3. 

4 Heb. xi. 23. 





CHAP. VI.— THE EIGHTY CONCUBINES, WHAT ; THE 
KNOWLEDGE OF THE INCARNATION COMMUNI- 
CATED TO THE PROPHETS, 


It still remains to speak concerning the con- 
cubines. To those who lived after the deluge 
the knowledge of God was henceforth more re- 
mote, and they needed other instruction to ward 
off the evil, and to be their helper, since idola- 
try was already creeping in. Therefore God, 
that the race of man might not be wholly de- 
stroyed, through forgetfulness of the things which 
were good, commanded His own Son to reveal 
to the prophets His own future appearance in 
the world by the flesh, in which the joy and 
knowledge of the spiritual eighth day 5 shall be 
proclaimed, which would bring the remission of 
sins and the resurrection, and that thereby the 
passions and corruptions of men would be cir- 
cumcised. And, therefore, He called by the 
name of the eighty virgins the list of the proph- 
ets from Abraham, on account of the dignity 
of circumcision, which embraces the number 
eight, in accordance with which also the law is 
framed ; because they first, before the Church 
was espoused to the Word, received the divine 
seed, and foretold the circumcision of the spirit- 
ual eighth day. 


CHAP. VII. — THE VIRGINS,” THE RIGHTEOUS AN- 
CIENTS ; THE CHURCH, THE ONE ONLY SPOUSE, 
MORE EXCELLENT THAN THE OTHERS. 


Now he calls by the name of virgins, who be- 
long to a countless assembly, those who, being 
inferior to the better ones, have practised right- 
eousness, and have striven against sin with youth- 
ful and noble energy. But of these, neither the 
queens, nor the concubines, nor the virgins, are 
compared to the Church. For she is reckoned 
the perfect and chosen one beyond all these, con- 
sisting and composed of all the apostles, the Bride 
who surpasses all in the beauty of youth and vir- 
ginity. Therefore, also, she is blessed and praised 
by all, because she saw and heard freely what 
those desired to see, even for a little time, and saw 
not, and to hear, but heard not. For “ blessed,” 
said our Lord to His disciples,” “are your eyes, 
for they see ; and your ears, for they hear. For 
verily I say unto you, That many prophets have 
desired to see those things which ye see, and 
have not seen them; and to hear those things 
which ye hear, and have not heard them.” For 
this reason, then, the prophets count them 
blessed, and admire them, because the Church 





5 Here, and in many other places, the prevalent millenarian be- 
lief of the first centuries is expressed by Methodius. —Tr. [See 
Barnabas, vol. i. p. 147, this series; also Irenzeus (same vol.), p. 562, 
at note 11.] 

6 This word, as being that employed in the E.T. of the Canticles, 
is adopted throughout. It must be remembered, that, in this connec- 
tion, it stands for veavedes, and not for mapGévor. — TR, 

7 Matt, xii, 16,17. 


334 


was thought worthy to participate in those things 
which they did not attain to hear or see. For 
“there are threescore queens, and fourscore con- 
cubines, and virgins without number. My dove, 
my undefiled, is but one.” * 


CHAP. VIII.— THE HUMAN NATURE OF CHRIST HIS 
ONE DOVE. 


Can any one now say otherwise than that 
the Bride is the undefiled flesh of the Lord, for the 
sake of which He left the Father and came down 
here, and was joined to it, and, being incarnate, 
dwelt in it? Therefore He called it figuratively 
a dove, because that creature is tame and do- 
mestic, and readily adapts itself to man’s mode 
of life. For she alone, so to speak, was found 
spotless and undefiled, and excelling all in the 
glory and beauty of righteousness, so that none 
of those who had pleased God most perfectly 
could stand near to her in a comparison of virtue. 
And for this reason she was thought worthy to 
become a partaker of the kingdom of the Only- 
begotten, being betrothed and united to Him. 
And in the forty-fourth psalm,? the queen who, 
chosen out of many, stands at the right hand of 
God, clothed in the golden ornament of virtue, 
whose beauty the King desired,3 is, as I said, 
the undefiled and blessed fiesh, which the Word 
Himself carried into the heavens, and presented 
at the right hand of God, “wrought about with 
divers colours,” that is, in the pursuits of im- 
mortality, which he calls symbolically golden 
fringes. For since this garment is variegated 
and woven of various virtues, as chastity, pru- 
dence, faith, love, patience, and other good 
things, which, covering, as they do, the unseem- 
liness of the flesh, adorn man with a golden 
ornament. 


CHAP, IX.—TaE VIRGINS IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE 
QUEEN AND SPOUSE. 


Moreover, we must further consider what the 
Spirit delivers to us in the rest of the psalm, 
after the enthronization of the manhood assumed 
by the Word at the right hand of the Father. 
“The virgins,” He says,+ “that be her fellows 
shall bear her company, and shall be brought 
unto thee. With joy and gladness shall they be 
brought, and shall enter into the King’s palace.” 
Now, here the Spirit seems quite plainly to praise 
virginity, next, as we have explained, to the Bride 
of the Lord, who promises that the virgins shall 
approach second to the Almighty with joy and | 
gladness, guarded and escorted by angels. For 
so lovely and desirable is in truth the glory of| 
virginity, that, next to the Queen, whom the 





1 Cant. vi. 8, 9. 
2 The forty-fifth in our arrangement. 
3 Ps. xlv. 2. | 
4 Ps, xlv. 15, 16, 





THE BANQUET OF THE" TEN VIRGINS: 





Lord exalts, and presents in sinless glory to the 
Father, the choir and order of virgins bear her 
company, assigned to a place second to that of 
the Bride. Let these efforts of mine to speak 
to thee, O Arete, concerning chastity, be en- 
graven on a monument. 

And Procilla having thus spoken, Thekla said, 
It is my turn after her to continue the contest ; 
and I rejoice, since I too have the favouring wis- 
dom of words, perceiving that I am, like a harp, 
inwardly attuned, and prepared to speak with 
elegance and propriety. 

ARETE. I most willingly hail thy readiness, 
O Thekla, in which I confide to give me fitting 
discourse, in accordance with thy powers ; since 
thou wilt yield to none in universal philosophy 
and instruction, instructed by Paul in what. is 
fitting to say of evangelical and divine doctrine. 


DISCOURSE VIII.— THEKLA. 


CHAP, I.— METHODIUS’ DERIVATION OF THE WORD 
VIRGINITY : 5 WHOLLY DIVINE ; VIRTUE, IN GREEK 
dpetn, WHENCE SO CALLED. 


Well, then, let us first say, beginning from the 
origin of the name, for what cause this supreme 
and blessed pursuit was called zap@evia, what it 
aims at, what power it has, and afterwards, 
what fruits it gives forth. For almost all have 
been ignorant of this virtue as being superior 
to ten thousand other advantages of virtue which 
we cultivate for the purification and adornment 
of the soul. For virginity5 is divine by the 
change of one letter,° as she alone makes him 
who has her, and is initiated by her incorrupti- 
ble rites like unto God, than which it is impos- 
sible to find a greater good, removed, as it is, 
from pleasure and grief; and the wing of the 
soul sprinkled by it becomes stronger and lighter, 
accustomed daily to fly from human desires. 

For since the children of the wise have said 
that our life is a festival, and that we have come 
to exhibit in the theatre the drama of truth, that 
is, righteousness, the devil and the demons plot- 
ting and striving against us, it is necessary for 
us to look upwards and to take our flight aloft, 
and to flee from the blandishments of their 
tongues, and from their forms tinged with the 
outward appearance of temperance, more than 
from the Sirens of Homer. For many, be- 
witched by the pleasures of error, take their 
flight downwards, and are weighed down when 
they come into this life, their nerves being re- 
laxed and unstrung, by means of which the 
power of the wings of temperance is strength- 
ened, lightening the downward tendency of 
the corruption of the body. Whence, O Arete, 
whether thou hast thy name, signifying virtue, 





S mapOevia, 


6 mapdevia . . . mapbeta, 











THE BANQUET OF 


THE TEN VIRGINS. 335 





because thou art worthy of being chosen’ for 
thyself, or because thou raisest 2 and liftest up 
to heaven, ever going in the purest minds, come, 
give me thy help in my discourse, which thou 
hast thyself appointed me to speak. 


CHAP. II.— THE LOFTY MIND AND CONSTANCY OF 
THE SACRED VIRGINS ; THE INTRODUCTION OF 
VIRGINS INTO THE BLESSED ABODES BEFORE 
OTHERS. 


Those who take a downward flight, and fall 
mto pleasures, do not desist from grief and la- 
bours until, through their passionate desires, 
they fulfil the want of their intemperance, and, 
being degraded and shut out from the sanctu- 
ary, they are removed from the scene of truth, 
and, instead of procreating children with mod- 
esty and temperance, they rave in the wild 
pleasures of unlawful amours. But those who, 
on light wing, ascend into the supramundane 
life, and see from afar what other men do not 
see, the very pastures of immortality, bearing in 
abundance flowers of inconceivable beauty, are 
ever turning themselves again to the spectacles 
there; and, for this reason, those things are 
thought small which are here considered noble 
—such as wealth, and glory, and birth, and 
marriage; and they think no more of those 
things.3 But yet if any of them should choose 
to give up their bodies to wild beasts or to fire, 
and be punished, they are ready to have no ‘care 
for pains, for the desire of them or the fear of 
them; so that they seem, while in the world, 
not to be in the world, but to have already 
reached, in thought and in the tendency of their 
desires, the assembly of those who are in heaven. 

Now it is not right that the wing of virginity 
should, by its own nature, be weighed down upon 
the earth, but that it should soar upwards to 
heaven, to a pure atmosphere, and to the life 
which is akin to that of angels. Whence also 
they, first of all, after their call and depart- 
ure hence, who have rightly and faithfully con- 
tended as virgins for Christ, bear away the prize 
of victory, being crowned by Him with the 
flowers of immortality. For, as soon as their 
souls have left the world, it is said that the an- 
gels meet them with much rejoicing, and con- 
duct them to the very pastures already spoken 
of, to which also they were longing to come, 
contemplating them in imagination from afar, 
when, while they were yet dwelling in their 
bodies, they appeared to them divine. 


CHAP. III. — THE LOT AND INHERITANCE OF 
VIRGINITY. 


Furthermore, when they have come hither, 


they see wonderful and glorious and blessed 


I aipety. 
2 alipew, 
3 Than of the most ordinary things of life, 








things of beauty, and such as cannot be spoken 
to men. They see there righteousness itself and 
prudence, and love itself, and truth and temper- 
ance, and other flowers and plants of wisdom, 
equally splendid, of which we here behold only 
the shadows ¢ and apparitions, as in dreams, and 
think that they consist of the actions of men, 
because there is no clear image of them here, 
but only dim copies, which themselves we see 
often when making dark copies of them. For 
never has any one seen with his eyes the great- 
ness or the form or the beauty of righteousness 
itself, or of understanding, or of peace; but 
there, in Him whose name is I AM,5 they are 
seen perfect and clear, as they are. For there is 
a tree of temperance itself, and of love, and of 
understanding, as there are plants of the fruits 
which grow here —as of grapes, the pomegranate, 
and of apples; and so, too, the fruits of those 
trees are gathered and eaten, and do not perish 
and wither, but those who gather them grow to 
immortality and a likeness to God. Just as he 
from whom all are descended, before the fall 
and the blinding of his eyes, being in paradise, 
enjoyed its fruits, God appointing man to dress 
and to keep the plants of wisdom. For it was 
entrusted to the first Adam to cultivate those 
fruits. Now Jeremiah saw that these things ex- 
ist specially in a certain place, removed to a 
great distance from our world, where, compas- 
sionating those who have fallen from that good 
state, he says:° ‘ Learn where is wisdom, where 
is strength, where is understanding ; that thou 
mayest know also where is length of days, and 
life, where is the light of the eyes, and peace. 
Who hath found out her place? or who hath 
come into her treasures?” The virgins having 
entered into the treasures of these things, gather 
the reasonable fruits of the virtues, sprinkled 
with manifold and well-ordered lights, which, 
like a fountain, God throws up over them, irra- 
diating that state with unquenchable lights. And 
they sing harmoniously, giving glory to God. 
For a pure atmosphere is shed over them, and 
one which is not oppressed by the sun. 


CHAP. IV.—EXHORTATION TO THE CULTIVATION 
OF VIRGINITY ; A PASSAGE FROM THE APOCA- 
LYPSE’7 IS PROPOSED TO BE EXAMINED. 


Now, then, O Virgins, daughters of undefiled 
temperance, let us strive for a life of blessedness 
and the kingdom of heaven. And do ye unite 
with those before you in an earnest desire for 
the same glory of chastity, caring little for the 





4 The influence of Plato is traceable, here and elsewhere, through- 
out the works of Methodius. It has been fully examined in the able 
work of Jahn, Methodius Platontzans.— Tr. [Elucidation I.] 

S Exod. iil. 14, 

6 Baruch iii. 14, 15. The apocryphal book of Baruch, as bear- 
ing the name of the companion of Jeremiah, was usually quoted, in 
the second and third centuries, as the work of that great prophet. 


R. 
7 Rev. xii. 1-6. 


336 THE BANQUET OF 


THE TEN VIRGINS. 





things of this life. For immortality and chastity 
do not contribute a little to happiness, raising up 
the flesh aloft, and drying up its moisture and its 
clay-like weight, by a greater force of attraction. 
And let not the uncleanness which you hear 
creep in and weigh you down to the earth; 
nor let sorrow transform your joy, melting away 
your hopes in better things; but shake off in- 
cessantly the calamities which come upon you, 
not defiling your mind with lamentations. Let 
faith conquer wholly, and let its light drive 
away the visions of evil which crowd around the 
heart. For, as when the moon brightly shining 
fills the heaven with its light, and all the air 
becomes clear, but suddenly the clouds from the 
west, enviously rushing in, for a little while over- 
shadow its liglft, but do not destroy it, since 
they are immediately driven away by a blast 
of the wind ; so ye also, when causing the light of 
chastity to shine in the world, although pressed 
upon by afflictions and labours, do not grow 
weary and abandon your hopes. For the clouds 
which come from the Evil One are driven away 
by the Spirit,’ if ye, like your Mother, who gives 
birth to the male Virgin in heaven, fear nothing 
the serpent that lies in wait and plots against 
you ; concerning whom I intend to discourse to 
you more plainly ; for it is now time. 

John, in the course of the Apocalypse, says :? 
“And there appeared a great wonder in heaven ; 
a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon 
under her feet, and upon her head a crown of 
twelve stars: and she, being with child, cried, 
travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. 
And there appeared another wonder in heaven ; 
and behold a great red dragon, having seven 
heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his 
heads. And his tail drew the third part of the 
stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: 
and the dragon stood before the woman which 
was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child 
as soon as it was born. And she brought forth 
a man-child, who was to rule all nations with a 
rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto 
God, and to His throne. And the woman fled 
into the wilderness, where she hath a place pre- 
pared of God, that they should feed her there a 
thousand two hundred and threescore days.’ 
So far we have given, in brief, the history of the 
woman and the dragon. But to search out and 
explain the solution of them is beyond my 
powers. Nevertheless, let me venture, trusting 
in Him who commanded to search the Scrip- 
tures.3 If, then, you agree with this, it will not 
be difficult to undertake it; for you will quite 
pardon me, if I am unable sufficiently to explain 
the exact meaning of the Scripture. 





1 The same word in the text which is translated wind: TvevMa, 
The play upon the word cannot be preserved in the translation, — TR. 
2 Rev. xii. 1-6. 


3 St. John v. 39. 





CHAP. V.— THE WOMAN WHO BRINGS FORTH, TO 
WHOM THE DRAGON IS OPPOSED, THE CHURCH ; 
HER ADORNMENT AND GRACE, 


The woman who appeared in heaven clothed 
with the sun, and crowned with twelve stars, and 
having the moon for her footstool, and being 
with child, and travailing in birth, is certainly, 
according to the accurate interpretation, our 
mother,‘ O virgins, being a power by herself dis- 
tinct from her children; whom the prophets, 
according to the aspect of their subjects, have 
called sometimes Jerusalem, sometimes a Bride, 
sometimes Mount Zion, and sometimes the 
Temple and Tabernacle of God. For she is 
the power which is desired to give light in the 
prophet, the Spirit crying to her :5 “Arise, shine ; 
for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord 
is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness 
shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the 
people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and 
His glory shall be seen upon thee. And the 
Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to 
the brightness of thy rising. Lift up thine eyes 
round about, and see ; all they gather themselves 
together, they come to thee: thy sons shall come 
from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at 
thy side.” It is the Church whose children shall 
come to her with all speed after the resurrection, 
running to her from all quarters. She rejoices 
receiving the light which never goes down, and 
clothed with the brightness of the Word as with 
a robe, For with what other more precious or 
honourable ornament was it becoming that the 
queen should be adorned, to be led as a Bride 
to the Lord, when she had received a garment 
of light, and therefore was called by the Father? 
Come, then, let us go forward in our discourse, 
and look upon this marvellous woman as upon 
virgins prepared for a marriage, pure and unde- 
filed, perfect and radiating a permanent beauty, 
wanting nothing of the brightness of light; and 
instead of a dress, clothed with light itself; and 
instead of precious stones, her head adorned 
with shining stars. For instead of the clothing 
which we have, she had light ; and for gold and 
brilliant stones, she had stars ; but stars not such 
as those which are set in the invisible heaven, 
but better and more resplendent, so that these 
may rather be considered as their images and 
likenesses. 


CHAP. VI.—THE WORKS OF THE CHURCH, THE 
BRINGING FORTH OF CHILDREN IN BAPTISM ;} THE 
MOON IN BAPTISM, THE FULL MOON OF CHRIST’S 
PASSION. 

Now the statement that she stands upon the 
moon, as I consider, denotes the faith of those 
who are cleansed from corruption in the laver 





4 fie the Church. See p. 337, note 4, z%fra.] 
5 Isa. lx. 1-4. 


THE BANQUET OF 





of regeneration, because the light of the moon 


has more resemblance to tepid water, and all 
moist substance is dependent upon her. The 
Church, then, stands upon our faith and adop- 
tion, under the figure of the moon, until the 
fulness of the nations come in, labouring and 
bringing forth natural men as spiritual men ; for 
which reason too she is amother. For just as a 
woman receiving the unformed seed of a man, 
within a certain time brings forth a perfect man, 
in the same way, one should say, does the Church 
conceive those who flee to the Word, and, form- 
ing them according to the likeness and form of 
Christ, after a certain time produce them as citi- 
zens of that blessed state. Whence it is ne- 
cessary that she should stand upon the laver, 
bringing forth those who are washed in it. And 
in this way the power which she has in con- 
nection with the laver is called the moon,' be- 
cause the regenerate shine being renewed with a 
new ray,? that is, a new light. Whence, also, 
they are by a descriptive term called newly-en- 
lightened ;3 the moon ever showing forth anew 
to them the spiritual full moon, namely, the 
period and the memorial of the passion, until the 
glory and the perfect light of the great day arise. 


CHAP. VII.— THE CHILD OF THE WOMAN IN THE 
APOCALYPSE NOT CHRIST, BUT THE FAITHFUL WHO 
ARE BORN IN THE LAVER. 


If any one, for there is no difficulty in speak- 
ing distinctly, should be vexed, and reply to 
what we have said: “ But how, O virgins, can 
this explanation seem to you to be according 
to the mind of Scripture, when the Apocalypse 
plainly defines that the Church brings forth a 
male, while you teach that her labour-pains have 
their fulfilment in those who are washed in the 
laver?” We will answer, But, O faultfinder, not 
even to you will it be possible to show that 
Christ Himself* is the one who is born. For 
long before the Apocalypse, the mystery of the 
Incarnation of the Word was fulfilled. And 
John speaks concerning things present and things 
to come. But Christ, long ago conceived, was 
not caught up to the throne of God when He 
was brought forth, from fear of the serpent in- 
juring Him. But for this was He begotten, and 
Himself came down from the throne of the 
Father, that He should remain and subdue the 
dragon who made an assault upon the flesh. So 
that you also must confess that the Church 
labours and gives birth to those who are baptized. 





I ceAqvy. 

2 gédas, 

3 veoputictor, 

4 It is hardly necessary to observe, that amid many interpretations 
of the passage, this which Methodius condemns is probably the true 
one, as it is certainly the most natural. — Tr. [It 1s certainly worth 
observing, that Methodius has on his side a strong following among 
the ancients; the interpretation the translator favours having little 
support save among’ modern defenders of the late pontiff’s bull /#- 

fabidis, Elucidation II.] 





THE TEN VIRGINS. 337 


As the spirit says somewhere in Isaiah:5 ‘“ Be- 


fore she travailed, she brought forth ; before her 
pain came, she was delivered of a man-child. 
Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen 
such things? Shall the earth be made to bring 
forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at 
once ? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought 
forth her children.” ® From whom did he flee? 
Surely from the dragon, that the spiritual Zion 


might bear a masculine people, who should come 


back from the passions and weakness of women 
to the unity of the Lord, and grow strong in 
manly virtue. 


CHAP. VIII.—THE FAITHFUL IN BAPTISM MALES, 
CONFIGURED TO CHRIST ; THE SAINTS THEMSELVES 
CHRISTS. 


Let us then go over the ground again from the 
beginning, until we come in course to the end, 
explaining what we have said. Consider if the 
passage seems to you to be explained to your 
mind. For I think that the Church is here said 
to give birth to a male; since the enlightened 7 
receive the features, and the image, and the man- 
liness of Christ, the likeness of the form of the 
Word being stamped upon them, and begotten 
in them by a true knowledge and faith, so that 
in each one Christ is spiritually born. And, 
therefore, the Church swells and travails in birth 
until Christ is formed in us,’ so that each of 
the saints, by partaking of Christ, has been born 
a Christ. According to which meaning it is 
said in a certain scripture,? ‘“‘Touch not mine 
anointed,’® and do my prophets no harm,” as 
though those who were baptized into Christ had 
been made Christs*t by communication of the 
Spirit, the Church contributing here their clear- 
ness and transformation into the image of the 
Word. And Paul confirms this, teaching it plain- 
ly, where he says: '? ‘For this cause I bow my 
knees unto the Father of our Lerd Jesus Christ, 
of whom the whole family in heaven and earth 
is named, that He would grant you, according 
to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened 
with might by His Spirit in the inner man ; that 
Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.” For 
it is necessary that the word of truth should be 
imprinted and stamped upon the souls of the 
regenerate. 


CHAP. IX.— THE SON OF GOD, WHO EVER IS, IS 
TO-DAY BEGOTTEN IN THE MINDS AND SENSE 
OF THE FAITHFUL. 


Now, in perfect agreement and correspond- 
ence with what has been said, seems to be this 





5 Isa. Ixvi. 7, 8. 

6 In the LXX. ‘‘a male.” 
7 The baptized, 

8 Gal iv. 19. 

9 Ps. cv. 15. 

10 ypioTa@v. 

It Anointed. 

12 Eph, ili. 14-17. 


ea Pe 


338 


eT ee On ee a 
. 7 ae oe Pn eee) 


THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 





which was spoken by the Father from above to 
Christ when He came to be baptized in the 
water of the Jordan, “Thou art my son: this 
day have I begotten thee;’’' for it is to be 
remarked that He was declared to be His Son 
unconditionally, and without regard to time; 
for He says “Thou art,” and not “Thou hast 
become,” showing that He had neither recently 
attained to the relation of Son, nor again, having 
begun before, after this had an end, but having 
been previously begotten,? that He was to be, 
and was the same. But the expression, “ This 
day have I begotten thee,” signifies that He 
willed that He who existed before the ages in 
heaven should be begotten on the earth — that 
is, that He who was before unknown should be 
made known. Now, certainly, Christ has never 
yet been born in those men who have never 
perceived the manifold wisdom of God — that 
is, has never been known, has never been man- 
ifested, has never appeared to them. But if 
these also should perceive the mystery of grace, 
then in them too, when they were converted 
and believed, He would be born in knowledge 
and understanding. ‘Therefore from hence the 
Church is fitly said to form and beget the male 
Word in those who are cleansed.3 So far I have 
spoken according to my ability concerning the 
travail of the Church ; and here we must change 
to the subject of the dragon and the other mat- 
ters. Let us endeavour, then, to explain it in 
some measure, not deterred by the greatness of 
the obscurity of the Scripture ; and if anything 
difficult comes to be considered, I will again help 
you to cross it like a river. 


CHAP. X.—-THE DRAGON, THE DEVIL; THE STARS 
STRUCK FROM HEAVEN BY THE TAIL OF THE 
DRAGON, HERETICS; THE NUMBERS OF THE 
TRINITY, THAT IS, THE PERSONS NUMBERED ; 
ERRORS CONCERNING THEM. 


The dragon, which is great, and red, and 
cunning, and manifold, and seven-headed, and 
horned, and draws down the third part of the 
stars, and stands ready to devour the child of 
the woman who is travailing, is the devil, who 
lies in wait to destroy the Christ-accepted mind 
of the baptized, and the image and clear features 
of the Word which had been brought forth in 
them. But he misses and fails of his prey, the 
regenerate being caught up on high to the 
throne of God — that is, the mind of those who 
are renovated is lifted up around the divine seat 
and the basis of truth against which there is no 
stumbling, being taught to look upon and regard 





1 Ps, ii. 7. 

2 Cera phrases like this have led to the opinion that Methodius 
was inclined to Arianism. There is no ground for the supposition. 
In the writer’s mind, as is clear from the previous statements, the pre- 
vious generation was eternal. — TR, 

3 In the baptismal font. 








the things which are there, so that it may not 
be deceived by the dragon weighing them down. 
For it is not allowed to him to destroy those 
whose thoughts and looks are upwards. And 
the stars, which the dragon touched with the 
end of his tail, and drew them down to earth, 
are the bodies of heresies ; for we must say that 
the stars, which are dark, obscure, and falling, 
are the assemblies of the heterodox ; since they, 
too, wish to be acquainted with the heavenly 
ones, and to have believed in Christ, and to 
have the seat of their soul in heaven, and to 
come near to the stars as children of light. But 
they are dragged down, being shaken out by 
the folds of the dragon, because they did not 
remain within the triangular forms cf godliness, 
falling away from it with respect to an orthodox 
service. Whence also they are called the third 
part of the stars, as having gone astray with re 
gard to one of the three Persons of the Trinity, 
As when they say, like Sabellios, that the Al 
mighty Person of the Father Himself suffered ;: 
or as when they say, like Artemas, that thi 
Person of the Son was born and manifested onl) 
in appearance ;5 or when they contend, like the 
Ebionites, that the prophets spoke of the Person 
of the Spirit, of their own motion. For of Mar: 
cion and Valentinus, and those about Elkesaio; 
and others, it is better not even to make mention, 


CHAP. XI. —- THE WOMAN WITH THE MALE CHILD 
IN THE WILDERNESS THE CHURCH; THE WIL: 
DERNESS BELONGS TO VIRGINS AND SAINTS ; THE 
PERFECTION OF NUMBERS AND MYSTERIES ; THE 
EQUALITY AND PERFECTION OF THE NUMBER 
SIX} THE NUMBER SIX RELATED TO CHRIST ; 
FROM THIS NUMBER, TOO, THE CREATION AND 
HARMONY OF THE WORLD COMPLETED. 


Now she who brings forth, and has brought 
forth, the masculine Word in the hearts of the 
faithful, and who passed, undefiled and uninjured 
by the wrath of the beast, into the wilderness, is, 
as we have explained, our mother the Church, 
And the wilderness into which she comes, and 
is nourished for a thousand two hundred and 
sixty days, which is truly waste and unfruitful of 
evils, and barren of corruption, and difficult of 
access and of transit to the multitude ; but fruit- 
ful and abounding in pasture, and blooming and 
easy of access to the holy, and full of wisdom, 
and productive of life, is this most lovely, and 
beautifully wooded and well-watered abode of 
Arete.© Here the south wind awakes, and the 
north wind blows, and the spices flow out,” and 
all things are filled with refreshing dews, and 
crowned with the unfading plants of immortal 








4 Patripassianism: nearly the same as Sabellianism. — TR. 
5 Aoxnoer, hence Docet@. —TR. 

6 Virtue. 

7 Cant. iv. 16. 








THE BANQUET OF 


THE TEN VIRGINS. 339 





life ; in which we now gather flowers, and weave 
with sacred fingers the purple and glorious crown 
of virginity for the queen. For the Bride of the 
Word is adorned with the fruits of virtue. And 
the thousand two hundred and sixty days that 
we are staying here, O virgins, is the accurate 
and perfect understanding concerning the Father, 
and the Son, and the Spirit, in which our mother 
increases, and rejoices, and exults throughout 
this time, until the restitution of the new dispen- 
sation, when, coming into the assembly in the 
heavens, she will no longer contemplate the I 
AM through the means of Auman knowledge, 
but will clearly behold entering in together with 
Christ. For a thousand,’ consisting of a hun- 
dred multiplied by ten, embraces a full and per- 
fect number, and is a symbol of the Father 
Himself, who made the universe by Himself, and 
rules all things for Himself. Two hundred em- 
braces two perfect numbers united together, and 
is the symbol of the Holy Spirit, since He is 
the Author of our knowledge of the Son and the 
Father. But sixty has the number six multiplied 
by ten, and is a symbol of Christ, because the 
number six proceeding? from unity is composed 
of its proper parts, so that nothing in it is want- 
ing or redundant, and is complete when resolved 
into its parts. Thus it is necessary that the 
number six, when it is divided into even parts 
by even parts, should again make up the same 
quantity from its separated segments. For, first, 
if divided equally, it makes three ; then, if di- 
vided into three parts, it makes two ; and again, 
if divided by six, it makes one, and is again col- 
lected into itself. For when divided into twice 
three, and three times two, and six times one, 
when the three and the two and the one are 
put together, they complete the six again. But 
everything is of necessity perfect which neither 
needs anything else in order to its completion, 
nor has anything over. Of the other numbers, 
some are more than perfect, as twelve. For the 
half of it is six, and the third four, and the fourth 
three, and the sixth two, and the twelfth one. 
The numbers into which it can be divided, when 
put together, exceed twelve, this number not 
having preserved itself equal to its parts, like the 
number six. And those which are imperfect, are 
numbers like eight. For the half of it is four, 
and the fourth two, and the eighth one. Now 
the numbers into which it is divided, when put 
together, make seven, arid one is wanting to its 
completion, not being in all points harmonious 
with itself, like six, which has reference to the 
Son of God, who came from the fulness of the 





! Methodius is not the first or the last who has sought to explore 
the mystery of numbers. An interesting and profound examination 
of the subject will be found in Bahr’s Sydolik, also in Delitzsch’s 
Bib. Psychology. —Tr. [On the Stx Days’ Work, p. 71, transla- 
tion, Edinburgh, 1875.] 

2 j,e., in a regular arithmetical progression. 

3 i.e., its divisors or dividends. 








Godhead into a human life. For having emptied 
Himself, and taken upon Him the form of a 
slave, He was restored again to His former per- 
fection and dignity. For He being humbled, 
and apparently degraded, was restored again 
from His humiliation and degradation to His 
former completeness and greatness, having never 
been diminished from His essential perfection. 

Moreover, it is evident that the creation of 
the world was accomplished in harmony with 
this number, God having made heaven and 
earth, and the things which are in them, in six 
days; the word of creative power containing 
the number six, in accordance with which the 
Trinity is the maker of bodies. For length, 
and breadth, and depth make up a body. And 
the number six is composed of triangles. On 
these subjects, however, there is not sufficient 
time at present to enlarge with accuracy, for 
fear of letting the main subject slip, in consider- 
ing that which is secondary. 


CHAP. XII.— VIRGINS ARE CALLED TO THE IMITA- 
TION OF THE CHURCH IN THE WILDERNESS 
OVERCOMING THE DRAGON, 


The Church, then, coming hither into this 
wilderness, a place unproductive of evils, is 
nourished, flying on the heavenward wings of 
virginity, which the Word called the “wings of 
a great eagle,’ 5 having conquered the serpent, 
and driven away from her full moon the wintry 
clouds. It is for the sake-of these things, mean- 
while, that all these discourses are held, teach- 
ing us, O fair virgins, to imitate according to 
our strength our mother, and not to be troubled 
by the pains and changes and afflictions of life, 
that you may enter in exulting with her into the 
bride-chamber, showing your lamps. Do not, 
therefore, lose courage on account of the schemes 
and slanders of the beast, but bravely prepare 
for the battle, armed with the helmet of salva- 
tion,® and the breastplate, and the greaves. For 
you will bring upon him an immense consterna- 
tion when you attack him with great advantage 
and courage ; nor will he at all resist, seeing his 
adversaries set in array by One more powerful ; 
but the many-headed and many-faced beast will 
immediately allow you to carry off the spoils of 
the seven contests : — 

“Lion in front, but dragon all behind, 

And in the midst a she-goat breathing forth 
Profuse the violence of flaming fire. 

Her slew Bellerophon in truth. And this 

Slew Christ the King; for many she destroyed, 


Nor could they bear the fetid foam which burst 
From out the fountain of her horrid jaws ;”7 


unless Christ had first weakened and overcome 





4 “Make Himself of no reputation.” — E. T., Phil. ii. 7. 
5 Ezek. xvii. 3. 

6 Eph. vi. 17. 

7 Hom., /7., vi. 181. 


340 


= - ye 7 avy eum ™ 


THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 





her, making her powerless and contemptible 
before us. 


CHAP. XIII. — THE SEVEN CROWNS OF THE BEAST 
TO BE TAKEN AWAY BY VICTORIOUS CHASTITY ; 
THE TEN CROWNS OF THE DRAGON, THE VICES 
OPPOSED TO THE DECALOGUE ; THE OPINION OF 
FATE THE GREATEST EVIL. 


Therefore, taking to you a masculine and sober 
mind, oppose your armour to the swelling beast, 
and do not at all give way, nor be troubled be- 
cause of his fury. For you will have immense 
glory if you overcome him, and take away the 
seven crowns which are upon him, on account 


of which we have to struggle and wrestle, accord- ; 


ing to our teacher Paul. For she who having 
first overcome the devil, and destroyed his seven 
heads, becomes possessed of the seven crowns 
of virtue, having gone through the seven great 
struggles of chastity. For incontinence and 
luxury is a head of the dragon; and whoever 
bruises this is wreathed with the crown of tem- 
perance. Cowardice and weakness is also a 
head ; and he who treads upon this carries off 
the crown of martyrdom. Unbelief and folly, 
and other similar fruits of wickedness, is another 
head ; and he who has overcome these and de- 
stroyed them carries off the honours connected 
with them, the power of the dragon being in 
many ways rooted up. Moreover, the ten horns 
and stings which he was said to have upon his 
heads are the ten opposites, O virgins, to the 
Decalogue, by which he was accustomed to gore 
and cast down the souls of many imagining and 
contriving things in opposition to the law, “ Thou 
shalt love the Lord thy God,” ! and to the other 
precepts which follow. Consider now the fiery 
and bitter horn of fornication, by which he casts 
down the incontinent ; consider adultery, con- 
sider falsehood, covetousness, theft, and the 
other sister and related vices, which flourish by 
nature around his murderous heads, which if you 
root out with the aid of Christ, you will receive, 
as it were, divine heads, and will bloom with the 
crowns gained from the dragon. For it is our 
duty to prefer and to set forward the best things, 
who have received, above the earth-born, a com- 
manding and voluntary mind, and one free from 
all necessity, so as to make choice like masters 
of the things which please us, not being in bond- 
age to fate or fortune. And so no man would 
be master of himself and good, unless selecting 
the human example of Christ, and bringing him- 
self to the likeness of Him, he should imitate 
Him in his manner of life. For of all evils the 
greatest which is implanted in many is that which 
refers the causes of sins to the motions of the 
stars, and says that our life is guided by the ne- 


® Deut. vi. 5. 





cessities of fate, as those say who study the 
stars, with much insolence. For they, trusting 
more in guessing than in prudence, that is, in 
something between truth and falsehood, go far 
astray from the sight of things as they are. 
Whence, if you permit me, O Arete, now that I 
have completed the discourse which you, my 
mistress, appointed to be spoken, I will endeay- 
our, with your assistance and favour, to examine 
carefully the position of those who are offended, 
and deny that we speak the truth, when we say 
that man is possessed of free-will, and prove that 
“They perish self-destroyed, 
By their own fault,” ? 

choosing the pleasant in preference to the expe- 
dient. 

ARETE. I do permit you and assist you; for 
your discourse will be perfectly adorned when 
you have added this to it. 


CHAP. XIV. — THE DOCTRINE OF MATHEMATICIANS 
NOT WHOLLY TO BE DESPISED, WHEN THEY ARE 
CONCERNED ABOUT THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE 
STARS; THE TWELVE SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC 
MYTHICAL NAMES. 


THEKLA. Resuming then, let us first lay bare, 
in speaking of those things according to our 
power, the imposture of those who boast as 
though they alone had comprehended from what 
forms the heaven is arranged, in accordance with 
the hypothesis of the Chaldeans and Egyptians. 
For they say that the circumference of the world 
is likened to the turnings of a well-rounded 
globe, the earth having a central point. For its 
outline being spherical, it is necessary, they say, 
since there are the same distances of the parts, 
that the earth should be the centre of the uni- 
verse, around which, as being older, the heaven 
is whirling. For if a circumference is described 
from the central point, which seems to be a circle, 
— for it is impossible for a circle to be described 
without a point, and it is impossible for a circle 
to be without a point, —surely the earth con 
sisted before all, they say, in a state of chaos 
and disorganization. Now certainly the wretched 
ones were overwhelmed in the chaos of error, 
“‘ because that, when they knew God, they glori- 
fied Him not as God, neither were thankful ; but 
became vain in their imaginations, and their fool- 
ish heart was darkened ;”3 and their wise men 
said that nothing earth-born was more honour- 
able or more ancient than the Olympians. 
Whence they are not mere children who know 
Christ, like the Greeks, who, burying the truth 
in fables and fictions, rather than in artistic 
words, ascribing human calamities to the heav- 
ens, are not ashamed to describe the circumfer- 


2 Hom., Od., i. 7. 
3 Rom. i. az. 


a. 


FHE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 


341 





ence of the world by geometrical theorems and 


figures, and explain that the heaven is adorned 
with the images of birds and of animals that 
live in water and on dry land, and that the 
qualities of the stars were made from the 
calamities of the men of old, so that the move- 
ments of the planets, in their opinion, depended 
upon the same kind of bodies. And they say 
that the stars revolve around the nature of the 
twelve signs of the Zodiac, being drawn along 
by the passage of the circle of the Zodiac, so 
that through their intermingling they see the 
things which happen to many, according to their 
conjunctions and departures, their rising and 
setting. 

For the whole heaven being spherical, and 
having the earth for its central point, as they 
think,‘ because all the straight lines from the 
circumference falling upon the earth are equal 
to one another, holds back from the circles 
which surround it, of which the meridian is the 
greatest ; and the second, which divides it into 
two equal parts, is the horizon; and the third, 
which separates these, the equinoctial; and on 
each side of this the two tropics, the summer 
and the winter — the one on the north, and the 
other on the south. Beyond is that which is 
called the axis, around which are the greater and 
lesser Bears, and beyond them is the tropic. And 
the Bears, turning about themselves, and weigh- 
ing upon the axis, which passes through the 
poles, produce the motion of the whole world, 
having their heads against each other’s loins, and 
being untouched by our horizon. 

Then they say that the Zodiac touches all the 
circles, making its movements diagonally, and 
that there are in it a number of signs, which are 
called the twelve signs of the Zodiac, beginning 
with the Ram, and going on to the Fishes, which, 
they say, were so determined from mythical 
causes ; saying that it was the Ram that con- 
veyed Helle, the daughter of Athamas, and her 
brother Phryxos into Scythia ; and that the head 
of the Ox is in honour of Zeus, who, in the form 
of a Bull, carried over Europe into Crete; and 


way, which reaches from the Fishes to the Ram 
was poured forth for Herakles from the breasts 
of Hera, by the commands of Zeus. And thus, 
according to them, there was no natal destiny 
before Europe or Phryxos, and the Dioscuroi,? 
and the other signs of the Zodiac, which were 
placed among the constellations, from men and 
beasts. But our ancestors lived without destiny. 
Let us endeavour now to crush falsehood, like 





1 [“* Ag they think.” Had Methodius any leaning to Pythagoras 
and his school? To ‘‘science” the world owes its rejection of the 
true theory of the universe for two thousand years, till Copernicus, 
a Christian priest, broke that spell. Could the hristian Fathers know 
more than science taught them? Methodius hints it.] 

2 Castor and Pollux. 


'posed the seasons in the same manner. 
they say the circle called the Galaxy, or milky | 





physicians, taking its edge off, and quenching it 
with the healing medicine of words, here con- 
sidering the truth. 


CHAP. XV.— ARGUMENTS FROM THE NOVELTY OF 
FATE AND GENERATION ; THAT GOLDEN AGE, 
EARLY MEN}; SOLID ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE 
MATHEMATICIANS, 


If it were better, O wretched ones, that man 
should be subject to the star of his birth, than 
that he should not, why was not his generation 
and birth from the very time when the race of 
man began to be? And if it was, what is the 
need of those which had lately been placed 
among the stars, of the Lion, the Crab, the 
Twins, the Virgin, the Bull, the Balance, the 
Scorpion, the Ram, the Archer, the Fishes, 
the Goat, the Watercarrier, Perseus, Cassiopeia, 
Cepheus, Pegasus, Hydra, the Raven, the Cup, 
the Lyre, the Dragon, and others, from which 
you introduce, by your instructions, many to 
the knowledge of mathematics, or, rather, to a 
knowledge which is anathema?3 Well, then, 
either there was generation among those before, 
and the removal of these creatures above was 
absurd ; or else there was not, and God changed 
human life into a better state and government 
than that of those who before that lived an 
inferior life. But the ancients were better than 
those of the present time; whence theirs was 
called the golden age. There was then no natal 
destiny. 

If the sun, driving through the circles and 
passing along the signs of the Zodiac in his 
annual periods, accomplishes the changes and 
turnings of the seasons, how did those who were 
born before the signs of the Zodiac were placed 
among the stars, and the heaven was adorned 
with them, continue to exist, when summer, 
autumn, winter, and spring, were not as yet 
separated from each other, by means of which 
the body is increased and strengthened? But 
they did exist, and were longer lived and stronger 
than those who live now, since God then dis- 
The 
heaven was not then diversified by such shapes. 

If the sun and the moon and the other stars 
were made for the division and protection of 
the members of the time,* and for the adorn- 
ment of the heaven, and the changes of the 
seasons, they are divine, and better than men; 
for these must needs pass a better life, and a 
blessed and peaceful one, and one which far 
exceeds our own life in righteousness and virtue, 
observing a motion which is well-ordered and 
happy. But if they are the causes of the calami- 
ties and mischief of mortals, and busy themselves 





3 We cannot preserve the play upon words of the original. These 
it is— pabqwatixhy and katadepatixyv, — TR 


Ms i. 14, etc. 


342 THE BANQUET OF 





THE TEN VIRGINS. 





in working the lasciviousness, and the changes 
and vicissitudes of life, then they are more mis- 
erable than men, looking upon the earth, and 
their weak and lawless actions, and doing noth- 
ing better than men, if at least our life depends 
upon their revolutions and movements. 


CHAP. XVI.—SEVERAL OTHER THINGS TURNED 
AGAINST THE SAME MATHEMATICIANS. 


If no action is performed without a previous 
desire, and there is no desire without a want, yet 
the Divine Being has no wants, and therefore 
has no conception of evil. And if the nature 
of the stars be nearer in order to that of God, 
being better than the virtue of the best men, 
then the stars also are neither productive of evil, 
nor in want. 

And besides, every one of those who are per- 
suaded that the sun and moon and stars are 
divine, will allow that they are far removed from 
evil, and incapable of human actions which 
spring from the sense of pleasure and pain; for 
such abominable desires are unsuitable to heav- 
enly beings. But if they are by nature exempt 
from these, and in no want of anything, how 
should they be the causes to men of those things 
which they do not will themselves, and from 
which they are exempt? 

Now those who decide that man is not pos- 
sessed of free-will, and affirm that he is governed 
by the unavoidable necessities of fate, and her 
unwritten commands, are guilty of impiety 
towards God Himself, making Him out to be 
the cause and author of human evils. For if 
He harmoniously orders the whole circular mo- 
tion of the stars, with a wisdom which man can 
neither express nor comprehend, directing the 
course of the universe ; and the stars produce 
the qualities of virtue and vice in human life, 
dragging men to these things by the chains of 
necessity ; then they declare God to be the 
Cause and Giver of evils. But God is the cause 
of injury to no one; therefore fate * is not the 
cause of all things. 

Whoever has the least intelligence will confess 
that God is good, righteous, wise, true, helpful, 
not the cause of evils, free from passion, and 
everything of that kind. And if the righteous be 
better than the unrighteous, and unrighteousness 
be abominable to them, God, being righteous, 
rejoices in righteousness, and unrighteousness is 
hateful to Him, being opposed and hostile to 
righteousness. ‘Therefore God is not the author 
of unrighteousness. 

If that which profits is altogether good, and 
temperance is profitable to one’s house and life 
and friends, then temperance is good. And if 





temperance be in its nature good, and licentious- 
ness be opposed to temperance, and that which 
is opposed to good be evil, then licentiousness 
is evil. And if licentiousness be in its nature 
evil, and out of licentiousness come adulteries, 


thefts, quarrels, and murders, then a licentious, 


life is in its nature evil. But the Divine Being 
is not by nature implicated in evils. Therefore 
our birth is not the cause of these things. 

If the temperate are better than the inconti- 
nent, and incontinence is abominable to them, 
and God rejoices in temperance, being free from 
the knowledge of passions, then incontinence is 


hateful also to God. Moreover, that the action 


which is in accordance with temperance, being 
a virtue, is better than that which is in accord- 
ance with incontinence, which is a vice, we may 
learn from kings and rulers, and commanders, 
and women, and children, and citizens, and mas- 
ters, and servants, and pedagogues, and teach- 
ers ; for each of these is useful to himself and 
to the public when he is temperate ; but when 
he is licentious he is injurious to himself and to 
the public. And if there be any difference be- 
tween a filthy man and a noble man, a licentious 
and a temperate; and if the character of the 
noble and the temperate be the better, and that 
of the opposite the worse; and if those of the 
better character be near to God and His friends, 
and those of the worse be far from Him and 
His enemies, those who believe in fate make no 
distinction between righteousness and. unright- 
eousness, between filthiness and nobility, between 
licentiousness and temperance, which is a con- 
tradiction. For if good be opposed to evil, and 
unrighteousness be evil, and this be opposed to 
righteousness and righteousness be good, and 
good be hostile to evil, and evil be unlike to 
good, then righteousness is different from un- 
righteousness. And therefore God is not the 
cause of evils, nor does He rejoice in evils. 
Nor does reason commend them, being good. 
If, then, any are evil, they are evil in accordance 
with the wants and desires of their minds, and 
not by necessity. 


“They perish self-destroyed, 
By their own fault.” ? 


If destiny 3 leads one on to kill a man, and to 
stain his hands with murder, and the law forbids 
this, punishing criminals, and by threats restrains 
the decrees of destiny, such as committing in- 
justice, adultery, theft, poisoning, then the law 
is in opposition to destiny; for those things 
which destiny appointed the law prohibits, and 
those things which the law prohibits destiny com- 
pels men to do. Hence law is hostile to des- 
tiny. But if it be hostile, then lawgivers do 





I yéveos = birth, i.e., our life is not controlled by the star of our 
nativity. — TR. [See Hippolytus, vol. v. p. 27, this series.] 


2 Hom., Od., 
3 yéveots = ee h. the star of man’s nativity, h. destiny. 





THE BANQUET OF 








not act in accordance with destiny ; for by pass- 
ing decrees in opposition to destiny they destroy 
destiny. Either, then, there is destiny and there 
was no need of laws; or there are laws and 
they ‘are not in accordance with destiny. But 
it is impossible that anyone should be born or 
anything done apart from destiny ; for they say 
it is not lawful for anyone even to move a finger 
apart from fate. And therefore it was in accord- 
ance with destiny that Minos and Dracon, and 
Lycurgus, and Solon, and Zaleukos were law- 
givers and appointed laws, prohibiting adulteries, 
murders, violence, rape, thefts, as things which 
neither existed nor took place in accordance 
with destiny. But if these things were in accord- 
ance with destiny, then the laws were not in ac- 
cordance with destiny. For destiny itself would 
not be destroyed by itself, cancelling itself, and 
contending against itself; here appointing laws 
forbidding adultery and murders, and taking 
vengeance upon and punishing the wicked, and 
there producing murders and adulteries. But 
this is impossible: for nothing is alien and ab- 
horrent to itself, and self-destructive, and at 
variance with itself. And, therefore, there is no 
destiny. 

If everything in the world falls out in accord- 
ance with destiny, and nothing without it, then 
the law must needs be produced by destiny. But 
the law destroys destiny, teaching that virtue 
should be learnt, and diligently performed ; and 
that vice should be avoided, and that it is pro- 
duced by want of discipline. Therefore there is 
no destiny. 

If destiny makes men to injure one another, 
and to be injured by one another, what need is 
there of laws? But if laws are made that they 
may check the sinful, God having a care for those 
who are injured, it were better that the evil 
should not act in accordance with Fate, than 
that they should be set right, after having acted. 
But God is good and wise, and does what is 
best. Therefore there is no fixed destiny. 

Either education and habit are the cause of 
sins, or the passions of the soul, and those de- 
sires which arise through the body. But which- 
ever of these be the cause, God is not the 
cause. 

If it is better to be righteous than to be un- 
righteous, why is not man made so at once from 
his birth? But if afterwards he is tempered by 
instruction and laws, that he may become better, 
he is so tempered as possessing free-will, and not 
by nature evil. 

If the evil are evil in accordance with destiny, 
by the decrees of Providence, they are not 
blameworthy and deserving of the punishment 
which is inflicted by the laws, since they live 
according to their own nature, and are not capa- 
ble of being changed, 





THE TEN VIRGINS. 343 





And, again, if the good, living according to 
their own proper nature, are praiseworthy, their 
natal destiny being the cause of their goodness ; 
yet the wicked, living according to their own 
proper nature, are not blamable in the eye of a 
righteous judge. For, if we must speak plainly, 
he who lives according to the nature which be- 
longs to him, in no way sins. For he did not 
make himself thus, but Fate; and he lives ac- 
cording to its motion, being urged on by un- 
avoidable necessity. Then no one is bad. But 
some men are bad: and vice is blameworthy, 
and hostile to God, as reason has shown. But 
virtue is lovable and praiseworthy, God having 
appointed a law for the punishment of the 
wicked. Therefore there is no Fate. 


CHAP. XVII. — THE LUST OF THE FLESH AND SPIRIT : 
VICE AND VIRTUE. 


But why do I draw out my discourse to such 
length, spending the time with arguments, having 
set forth the things which are most necessary for 
persuasion, and to gain approval for that which 
is expedient ; and having made manifest to all, 
by a few words, the inconsistency of their trick, 
so that it is now possible even for a child to see 
and perceive their error ; and that to do good or 
evil is in our own power, and not decided by the 
stars. For there are two motions in us, the lust 
of the flesh and that of the soul, differing from 
each other,' whence they have received two 
names, that of virtue and that of vice. And we 
ought to obey the most noble and most useful 
leading of virtue, choosing the best in preference 
to the base. But enough on these points. I 
must come to the end of my discourse ; for I 
fear, and am ashamed, after these discourses on 
chastity, that I should be obliged to introduce 
the opinions of men who study the heavens, or 
rather who study nonsense, who waste their life 
with mere conceits, passing it in nothing but 
fabulous figments. And now may these offerings 
of ours, composed from the words which are 
spoken by God, be acceptable to thee, O Arete, 
my mistress. 

Eusoutios. How bravely and magnificently, 
O Gregorion, has Thekla debated ! 

GREGORION. What, then, would you have said, 
if you had listened to herself, speaking fluently, 
and with easy expression, with much grace and 
pleasure? So that she was admired by every 
one who attended, her language blossoming with 
words, as she set forth intelligently. and in fact 
picturesquely, the subjects on which she spoke, 
her countenance suffused with the blush of mod- 
esty ; for she is altogether brilliant in body and 
soul. 

Eupoutlos. Rightly do you say this, Grego- 


5 Gal. v. 17. 


344 THE BANQUET OF 


Di: eee eee es 
may 


THE TEN VIRGINS. 





rion, and none of these things is false; for I 
knew her wisdom also from other noble actions, 
and what sort of things she succeeded in speak- 
ing, giving proof of supreme love to Christ ; and 
how glorious she often appeared in meeting the 
chief conflicts of the martyrs, procuring for her- 
self a zeal equal to her courage, and a strength 
of body equal to the wisdom of her counsels. 

Grecorion. Most truly do you also speak. 
But let us not waste time ; for we shall often be 
able to discuss these and other subjects. But I 
must now first relate to you the discourses of the 
other virgins which followed, as I promised ; and 
chiefly those of Tusiane and Domnina ; for these 
still remain. When, then, Thekla ceased speak- 
ing these things, Theopatra said that Arete di- 
rected Tusiane to speak ; and that she, smiling, 
passed before her and said. 


DISCOURSE IX.— TUSIANE. 


CHAP, I. — CHASTITY THE CHIEF ORNAMENT OF THE 
TRUE TABERNACLE ; SEVEN DAYS APPOINTED TO 
THE JEWS FOR CELEBRATING THE FEAST OF TAB- 
ERNACLES : WHAT THEY SIGNIFY ; THE SUM OF 
THIS SEPTENARY UNCERTAIN ; NOT CLEAR TO ANY 
ONE WHEN THE CONSUMMATION OF THE WORLD 
WILL BE ; EVEN NOW THE FABRIC OF THE WORLD 
COMPLETED. 


O Arete, thou dearest boast to the lovers of 
virginity, I also implore thee to afford me thine 
aid, lest I should be wanting in words, the sub- 
ject having been so largely and variously handled. 
Wherefore I ask to be excused exordium and in- 
troductions, lest, whilst I delay in embellishments 
suitable to them, I depart from the subject: so 
glorious, and honourable, and renowned a thing 
is virginity. 

God, when He appointed to the true Israelites 
the legal rite of the true feast of the tabernacles, 
directed, in Leviticus, how they should keep and 
do honour to the feast ; above all things, saying 
that each one should adorn his tabernacle with 
chastity. I will add the words themselves of 
Scripture, from which, without any doubt, it will 
be shown how agreeable to God, and acceptable 
to Him, is this ordinance of virginity: “In the 
fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye 
have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall 
keep a feast unto the Lord seven days: on the 
first day shall be a Sabbath, and on the eighth day 
shall be aSabbath. And ye shall take you on the 
first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of 
palm-trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and wil- 
lows! of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before 
the Lord your God seven days. And ye shall 
keep it a feast unto the Lord seven days in the 





I The LXX. adds “‘ And of the Agnos.” See note on this tree 


at the beginning of the treatise, p. 310, note 2.] 





year. It shall be a statute for ever in your gen- 
erations ; ye shall celebrate it in the seventh 
month. Ye shall dwell in booths seven days ; 
all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths ; 
that your generations may know that I made the 
children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I 
brought them out of Egypt: I am the Lord 
your God.” ? 

Here the Jews, fluttering about the bare letter 
of Scripture, like drones about the leaves of 
herbs, but not about flowers and fruits as the 
bee, fully believe that these words and ordinances 
were spoken concerning such a tabernacle as 
they erect; as if God delighted in those trivial 
adornments which they, preparing, fabricate from 
trees, not perceiving the wealth of good things 
to come; whereas these things, being like air 
and. phantom shadows, foretell the resurrection 
and the putting up of our tabernacle that had 
fallen upon the earth, which at length, in the 
seventh thousand of years, resuming again im- 
mortal, we shall celebrate the great feast of true 
tabernacles in the new and indissoluble creation, 
the fruits of the earth having been gathered in, 
and men no longer begetting and begotten, but 
God resting from the works of creation.3 

For since in six days God made the heaven 
and the earth, and finished the whole world, and 
rested on the seventh day from all His works 
which He had made, and blessed the seventh 
day and sanctified it,4 so by a figure in the 
seventh month, when the fruits of the earth have 
been gathered in, we are commanded to keep 
the feast to the Lord, which signifies that, when 
this world shall be terminated at the seventh 
thousand years, when God shall have completed 
the world, He shall rejoice in us.5 For now to 
this time all things are created by His all-suffi- 
cient will and inconceivable power; the earth 
still yielding its fruits, and the waters being 
gathered together in their receptacles ; and the 
light still severed from darkness, and the allotted 
number of men not yet being complete ; and the 
sun arising to rule the day, and the moon the 
night; and four-footed creatures, and beasts, 
and creeping things arising from the earth, and 
winged creatures, and creatures that swim, from 
the water. Then, when the appointed times shall 
have been accomplished, and God shall have 
ceased to form this creation, in the seventh 
month, the great resurrection-day, it is com- 
manded that the Feast of our Tabernacles shall 
be celebrated to the Lord, of which the things 
said in Leviticus are symbols and figures, which 
things, carefully investigating, we should con- 





2 Lev. xxiii. 39-42. 

3 [Methodius did not adopt the errors of the Chiliasts, but he kept 
up the succession of witnesses to this primitive idea. Coleridge’s re- 
marks on Jeremy Taylor, touching this point, may be worth consult- 
ing. Notes on Old English Divines, vol. i. p. 218. 

4 Gen. ii. x. 

5 Ps. civ. 31. 


yet 
po. 


THE BANQUET OF 


sider the naked truth itself, for He saith, “A 
wise man will hear, and will increase learning ; 
and a man of understanding shall attain unto 
wise counsels: to understand a proverb, and the 
interpretation ; the words of the wise, and their 
dark sayings.” * 

Wherefore let it shame the Jews that they do 
not perceive the deep things of the Scriptures, 
thinking that nothing else than outward things 
are contained in the law and the prophets ; for 
they, intent upon things earthly, have in greater 
esteem the riches of the world than the wealth 
which is of the soul. For since the Scriptures 
are in this way divided that some of them give 
the likeness of past events, some of them a type 
of the future, the miserable men, going back, 
deal with the figures of the future as if they were 
already things of the past. As in the instance 
of the immolation of the Lamb, the mystery of 
which they regard as solely in remembrance of 
the deliverance of their fathers from Egypt, when, 
although the first-born of Egypt were smitten, 
they themselves were preserved by marking the 
door-posts of their houses with blood. Nor do 
they understand that by it also the death of 
Christ is personified, by whose blood souls made 
safe and sealed shall be preserved from wrath in 
the burning of the world ; whilst the first-born, 
the sons of Satan, shall be destroyed with an 
utter destruction by the avenging angels, who 
shall reverence the seal of the Blood impressed 
upon the former. 


CHAP, II. — FIGURE, IMAGE, TRUTH: LAW, GRACE, 
GLORY; MAN CREATED IMMORTAL: DEATH 
BROUGHT IN BY DESTRUCTIVE SIN. 


And let these things be said for the sake of 
example, showing that the Jews have wonderfully 
fallen from the hope of future good, because they 
consider things present to be only signs of things 
already accomplished ; whilst they do not per- 
ceive that the figures represent images, and 
images are the representatives of truth. For the 
law is indeed the figure and the shadow of an 
image, that is, of the Gospel; but the image, 
namely, the Gospel, is the representative of truth 
itself. For the men of olden time and the law 
foretold to us the characteristics of the Church, 
and the Church represents those of the new dis- 
pensation which is to come. Whence we, having 
received Christ, saying, “I am the truth,” ? know 
that shadows and figures have ceased ; and we 
hasten on to the truth, proclaiming its glorious 
images. For now we know “in part,” and as it 
were “through a glass,’’3 since that which is 
perfect has not yet come to us; namely, the 
kingdom of heaven and the resurrection, when 





1 Prov. i. 5, 6. 
2 St. John xiv. 16. 
3 x Cor. xiii. 12, 





THE TEN VIRGINS. 345 


“that which is in part shall be done away.” 4 
For then will all our tabernacles be firmly set up, 
when again the body shall rise, with bones again 
joined and compacted with flesh. Then shall 
we celebrate truly to the Lord a glad festal-day, 
when we shall receive eternal tabernacles, no 
more to perish or be dissolved into the dust of 
the tomb. Now, our tabernacle was at first fixed 
in an immoveable state, but was moved by trans- 
gression and bent to the earth, God putting an 
end to sin by means of death, lest man immortal, 
living a sinner, and sin living in him, should be 
liable to eternal curse. Wherefore he died, al- 
though he had not been created liable to death 
or corruption, and the soul was separated from 
the flesh, that sin might perish by death, not 
being able to live longer in one dead. Whence 
sin being dead and destroyed, again I shall rise 
immortal ; and I praise God who by means of 
death frees His sons from death, and I celebrate 
lawfully to His honour a festal-day, adorning my 
tabernacle, that is my flesh, with good works, as 
there did the five virgins with the five-lighted 
lamps. 


CHAP. III.— HOW EACH ONE OUGHT TO PREPARE 
HIMSELF FOR THE FUTURE RESURRECTION. 


In the first day of the resurrection I am ex- 
amined whether I bring these things which are 
commanded, whether I am adorned with virtuous 
works, whether I am overshadowed by the boughs 
of chastity. For account the resurrection to be 
the erection of the tabernacle. Account that the 
things which are taken for the putting together 
of the tabernacle are the works of righteousness. 
I take, therefore, on the first day the things which 
are set down, that is, on the day in which I stand 
to be judged, whether I have adorned my taber- 
nacle with the things commanded; if those 
things are found on that day which here in time 
we are commanded to prepare, and there to 
offer to God. But come, let us consider what 
follows. 

“And ye shall take you,” He says, “on the 
first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of 
palm-trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and 
willows (and the tree of chastity) of the brook ; 
and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God.” 5 
The Jews, uncircumcised in heart, think that the 
most beautiful fruit of wood is the citron wood, 
on account of its size; nor are they ashamed to 
say that God is worshipped with cedar, to whom 
not all the quadrupeds of the earth would suffice 
as a burnt-offering or as incense for burning. 
And moreover, O hard breasts, if the citron ap- 
pear beautiful to you, why not the pomegranate, 
and other fruits of trees, and amongst them 


4 x Cor. xiii. 10. 
3 Ley. xxiil. 40. 


346 


7 S aeees  e 


ey a ae 





apples, which much surpass the citron?  In- 
deed, in the Song of Songs,‘ Solomon having 
made mention of all these. fruits, passes over in 
silence the citron only. But this deceives the 
unwary, for they have not understood that the 
tree of life? which Paradise once bore, now again 
the Church has produced for all, even the "De 
and comely fruit of faith. 

Such fruit it is necessary that we bring when 
we come to the judgment-seat of Christ, on the 
first day of the feast ; for if we are without it we 
shall not be able to feast with God, nor to have 
part, according to John,} in the first resurrection. 
For the tree of life is wisdom first begotten of 
all. “She is a tree of life to them that lay hold 
upon her,” says the prophet ;4 “and happy is 
every one that retaineth her.” “A tree planted 
by the waterside, that will bring forth his fruit in 
due season ;”’5 that is, learning and charity and 
discretion are imparted in due time to those 
who come to the waters of redemption. 

He that hath not believed in Christ, nor hath 
understood that He is the first principle and the 
tree of life, since he cannot show to God his 
tabernacle adorned with the most goodly of 
fruits, how shall he celebrate the feast? How 
shall he rejoice? Desirest thou to know the 
goodly fruit of the tree? Consider the words 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, how pleasant they are 
beyond the children of men. Good fruit came 
by Moses, that is the Law, but not so goodly as 
the Gospel. For the Law is a kind of figure and 
shadow of things to come, but the Gospel is 
truth and the grace of life. Pleasant was the 
fruit of the prophets, but not so pleasant as the 
fruit of immortality which is plucked from 

the Gospel. 


CHAP. IV. — THE MIND CLEARER WHEN CLEANSED 
FROM SIN ; THE ORNAMENTS OF THE MIND AND 
THE ORDER OF VIRTUE; CHARITY DEEP AND 
FULL ; CHASTITY THE LAST ORNAMENT OF ALL ; 
THE VERY USE OF MATRIMONY TO BE RE- 
STRAINED. 


“And ye shall take you on the first day the 
boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm-trees.’’® 
This signifies the exercise of divine discipline, 
by which the mind that subdues the passions is 
cleansed and adorned by the sweeping out and 
ejection from it of sins. For it is necessary to 
come cleansed and adorned to the feast, arrayed, 
as by a decorator, in the discipline and exercise 
of virtue. For the mind being cleansed by 
laborious exercises from the distracting thoughts 
which darken it, quickly perceives the truth; as 


1 Cant. iv. 13. 

2 Gen. ii. 9. 

3 Rey. xx. 6. 

4 Prov. iii. 18. 
S Ps. i. 3. 

5 Lev. xxiii. 40. 





the widow in the Gospels 7 found the piece of 
money after she had swept the house and cast 
out the dirt, that is, the passions which obscure 
and cloud the mind, which increase in us from 
our luxuriousness and carelessness. 

Whoso, therefore, desires to come to that 
Feast of Tabernacles, to be numbered with the 
saints, let him first procure the goodly fruit of 
faith, then palm branches, that is, attentive 
meditation upon and study of the Scriptures, 
afterwards the far-spreading and thickly-leaved 
branches of charity, which He commands us to 
take after the palm branches; most fitly calling 
charity dense boughs, because it is all thick and 
close and very fruitful, not having anything bare 
or empty, but all full, both branches and trunks. 
Such is charity, having no part void or unfruit-. 
ful. For “ though I sell all my goods and give 
to the poor, and though I yield up my body to 
the fire, and though I have so great faith that 
I can remove mountains, and have not charity, I 
am nothing.” ® Charity, therefore, is a tree the 
thickest and most fruitful of all, full and abound- 
ing, copiously abounding in graces. 

After this, what else does He will that we 
should take? Willow branches; by that figure 
indicating righteousness, because “the just,” 
according to the prophet, shall spring up “as 
grass in the midst of the waters, as willows by 
the watercourses,’”’? flourishing in the word. 
Lastly, to crown all, it is commanded that the 
bough of the Agnos tree be brought to decorate 
the Tabernacle, because it is by its very name 
the tree of chastity, by which those already 
named are adorned. Let the wanton now be 
gone, who, through their love of pleasure, reject 
chastity. How shall they enter into the feast with 
Christ who have not adorned their tabernacle 
with boughs of chastity, that God-making and 
blessed tree with which all who are hastening to 
that assembly and nuptial banquet ought to be 
begirt, and to cover their loins? For come, 
fair virgins, consider the Scripture itself, and its 
commands, how the Divine word has assumed 
chastity to be the crown of those virtues and 
duties that have been mentioned, showing how 
becoming and desirable it is for the resurrection, 
and that without it no one will obtain the prom- 
ises which we who profess viginity supremely 
cultivate and offer to the Lord. They also pos- 
sess it who live chastely with their wives, and 
do, as it were about the trunk, yield its lowly 
branches bearing chastity, not being able like us 
to reach its lofty and mighty boughs, or even to 
touch them; yet they, too, offer no less truly, 
although in a less degree, the branches of chas- 





7 Luke xv. 8. 

8 x Cor. xiii. 2, 3. 
verbally. — Tr. 

9 Isa, xliv. 4. The reading of the LXX. 


Quoted from memory and in meaning, not 


i 5 


THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 





THE BANQUET OF 


tity." But those who are goaded on by, their 
lusts, although they do not commit fornication, 
yet who, even in the things which are permitted 
with a lawful wife, through the heat of unsub- 
dued concupiscence are excessive in embraces, 
how shall they celebrate the feast? how shall 
they rejoice, who have not adorned their taber- 
nacle, that is their flesh, with the boughs of the 
Agnos, nor have listened to that which has been 
said, that “they that have wives be as though 
they had none?” ? 


CHAP. V.— THE MYSTERY OF THE TABERNACLES, 


Wherefore, above all other things, I say to those 
who love contests, and who are strong-minded, 
that without delay they should honour chastity, 
as a thing the most useful and glorious. For in 
the new and indissoluble creation, whoever shall 
not be found decorated with the boughs of chas- 
tity, shall neither obtain rest, because he has not 
fulfilled the command of God according to the 
law, nor shall he enter into the land of promise, 
because he has not previously celebrated the 
Feast of Tabernacles. For they only who have 
celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles come to the 
Holy Land, setting out from those dwellings 
which are called tabernacles, until they come to 
enter into the temple and city of God, advancing 
to a greater and more glorious joy, as the Jewish 
types indicate. For like as the Israelites, having 
left the borders of Egypt, first came to the Taber- 
nacles,3 and from hence, having again set forth, 
came into the land of promise, so also do we. 
For I also, taking my journey, and going forth 
from the Egypt of this life, came first to the 
resurrection, which is the true Feast of the Taber- 
nacles, and there having set up my tabernacle, 
adorned with the fruits of virtue, on the first day 
of the resurrection, which is the day of judgment, 
celebrate with Christ the millennium of rest, 
which is called the seventh day, even the true 
Sabbath. Then again from thence I, a follower 
of Jesus, “ who hath entered into the heavens,’ 4 
as they also, after the rest of the Feast of Taber- 
nacles, came into the land of promise, come into 
the heavens, not continuing to remain in taber- 
nacles — that is, my body not remaining as it 
was before, but, after the space of a thousand 
years, changed from a human and corruptible 
form into angelic size and beauty, where at last 
we virgins, when the festival of the resurrection 
is consummated, shall pass from the wonderful 
place of the tabernacle to greater and better 
things, ascending into the very house of God 
above the heavens, as, says the Psalmist, “in the 
voice of praise and thanksgiving, among such as 





cap. ii. sec. 3, Works, vol. i. 


1 [See Jer, Taylor, Holy ete © 
i en of antiquity. | 


Pp. 427, ed. Bohn, 1844. This is a to 
2 x Cor. vii. 29. 
3 In Hebrew, Succoth, Num. xxxiii. 5. 
4 Heb, iv. 14. 


| 








THE TEN VIRGINS. 347 


keep holy day.” 5 I, O Arete, my mistress, offer 
as a gift to thee this robe, adorned according to 
my ability. 

Evugoutios. I am much moved, O Gregorion, 
considering within myself in how great anxiety 
of mind Domnina must be from the character of 
the discourses, perplexed in heart as she is, and 
with good cause, fearing lest she should be at a 
loss for words, and should speak more feebly 
than the rest of the virgins, since they have 
spoken on the subject with such ability and 
variety. If, therefore, she was evidently moved, 
come and complete this too ; for I wonder if she 
had anything to say, being the last speaker. 

Grecorion. Theopatra told me, Euboulios, 
that she was greatly moved, but she was not 
perplexed from want of words. After, therefore, 
Tusiane had ceased, Arete looked at her and said, 
Come, my daughter, do thou also deliver a dis- 
course, that our banquet may be quite complete. 
At this Domnina, blushing, and after a long delay, 
scarcely looking up, rose to pray, and turning 
round, invoked Wisdom to be her present helper. 
And when she had prayed, Theopatra said that 
suddenly courage came to her, and a certain 
divine confidence possessed her, and she said : — 


DISCOURSE X.—DOMNINA. 


CHAP. I.— CHASTITY ALONE AIDS AND EFFECTS 
THE MOST PRAISEWORTHY GOVERNMENT OF THE 
SOUL. 


O Arete, I also, omitting the long preludes 
of exordiums, will endeavour according to my 
ability to enter upon the subject, lest, by delay- 
ing upon those matters which are outside the 
subject in hand, I should speak of them at 
greater length than their importance would war- 
rant. For I account it a very great part of 
prudence not to make long speeches, which 
merely charm the ears, before coming to the 
main question, but to begin forthwith at the 
point in debate. So I will begin from thence, 
for it is time. 

Nothing can so much profit a man, O fair 
virgins, with respect to moral excellence, as 
chastity ; for chastity alone accomplishes and 
brings it about that the soul should be governed 
in the noblest and best way, and should be set 
free, pure from the stains and pollutions of the 
world. For which reason, when Christ taught 
us to cultivate it, and showed its unsurpassable 
beauty, the kingdom of the Evil One was de- 
stroyed, who aforetime led captive and enslaved 
the whole race of men, so that none of the more 
ancient people pleased the Lord, but all were 
overcome by errors, since the law was not of 
itself sufficient to free the human race from 





S Ps, xlii. 4. 


348 THE BANQUET OF 


_ tale ia a al A 1s oe - 


THE TEN VIRGINS. 





corruption, until virginity, succeeding the law, 
governed men by the precepts of Christ. Nor 
truly had the first men so often run headlong 
into combats and slaughter, into lust and idola- 
try, if the righteousness that is by the law had 
been to them sufficient for salvation. Now truly 
they were then confused by great and frequent 
calamities ; but from the time when Christ was 
incarnate, and armed and adorned His flesh with 
virginity, the savage tyrant who was master of 
incontinence was taken away, and \eace and 
faith have dominion, men no longer curning so 
much as before to idolatry. 


CHAP. Il. — THE ALLEGORY OF THE TREES DE- 
MANDING A KING, IN THE BOOK OF JUDGES,! 
EXPLAINED. 


But lest I should appear to some to be sophis- 
tical, and to conjecture these things from mere 
probabilities, and to babble, I will bring forward 
to you, O virgins, from the Old Testament, writ- 
ten prophecy from the Book of Judges, to show 
that I speak the truth, where the future reign of 
chastity was already clearly foretold. For we 
read: ‘“ The trees went forth on a time to anoint 
a king over them ; and they said unto the olive- 
tree, Reign thou over us. But the olive-tree 
said unto them, Should I leave my fatness, where- 
with by me they honour God and man, and go 
to be promoted over the trees? And the trees 
said to the fig-tree, Come thou, and reign over 
us. But the fig-tree said unto them, Should I 
forsake my sweetness, and my good fruit, and 
go to be promoted over the trees? Then said 
the trees unto the vine, Come thou, and reign 
over us. And the vine said unto them, Should 
I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man, 
and go to be promoted over the trees? Then 
said all the trees unto the bramble, Come thou, 
and reign over us. And the bramble said unto 
the trees, If in truth ye anoint me king over you, 
then come and put your trust in my shadow; 
and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and 
devour the cedars of Lebanon.” 

Now, that these things are not said of trees 
srowing out of the earth, is clear. For inani- 
mate trees cannot be assembled in council to 
choose a king, inasmuch as they are firmly fixed 
by deep roots to the earth. But altogether are 
these things narrated concerning souls which, 
before the incarnation of Christ, too deeply lux- 
lriating in transgressions, approach to God as 
suppliants, and ask His mercy, and that they 
may be governed by His pity and compassion, 
which Scripture expresses under the figure of 
the olive, because oil is of great advantage to 
our bodies, and takes away our fatigues and 
ailments, and affords light. For all lamp-light 





1 Judg. ix. 8-15. 





increases when nourished by oil. So also the 
mercies of God entirely dissolve death, and assist 
the human race, and nourish the light of the 
heart.2, And consider whether the laws, from 
the first created man until Christ in succession, 
were not set forth in these words by the Scrip- 
ture by figments, in opposition to which the 
devil has deceived the human race. And it has 
likened the fig-tree to the command given to 
man in paradise, because, when he was deceived, 
he covered his nakedness with the leaves of a 
fig-tree ;3 and the vine to the precept given to 
Noah at the time of the deluge, because, when 
overpowered by wine, he was mocked.‘ The 
olive signifies the law given to Moses in the 
desert, because the prophetic grace, the holy 
oil, had failed from their inheritance when they 
broke the law. Lastly, the bramble not inaptly 
refers to the law which was given to the apostles 
for the salvation of the world ; because by their 
instruction we have been taught virginity, of 
which alone the devil has not been able to make 
a deceptive image. For which cause, also, four 
Gospels have been given, because God has four 
times given the Gospel 5 to the human race, and 
has instructed them by four laws, the times of 

which are clearly known by the diversity of the 
fruits. For the fig-tree, on account of its sweet- 

ness and richness, represents the delights of 

man, which he had in paradise before the fall. 

Indeed, not rarely, as we shall afterwards show, 

the Holy Spirit® takes the fruit of the fig-tree 

as an emblem of goodness. But the vine, on 

account of the gladness produced by wine, and 

the joy of those who were saved from wrath and 

from the deluge, signifies the change produced 

from fear and anxiety into joy.?7 Moreover, the 

olive, on account of the oil which it produces, 

indicates the compassion of God, who again, 

after the deluge, bore patiently when men turned 

aside to ungodliness, so that He gave them the 

law and manifested Himself to some, and nour- 

ished by oil the light of virtue, now almost ex- 

tinguished. 


CHAP. III.— THE BRAMBLE AND THE AGNOS THE 
SYMBOL OF CHASTITY; THE FOUR GOSPELS, 
THAT IS, TEACHINGS OR LAWS, INSTRUCTING 
TO SALVATION. 


Now the bramble commends chastity, for the 
bramble and the agnos is the same tree: by 
some it is called bramble, by others agnos.® 





2 For this use of heart, cf 2 Cor. iv, 6. — TR. 
Leighton, Old English Divines, vol. ii. p. 137.] 

3 Gen. ili. 7. 

4 Gen. ix. 22. 

5 Good news. 

6 Jer. viii. 13. 

7 Joel ii. 22. 

8 Jahn’s reading is here followed. [This is a puzzle as well as a 
parable; the Seventy give pduvos, which is not=ayvos. It spoils 
the force of Jotham’s caustic satire to adopt this conception of our 
author. ] 


[See Coleridge on 


THE BANQUET OF 





Perhaps it is because the plant is akin to virgin- 
ity that it is called bramble and agnos,; bramble, 
because of its strength and firmness against pleas- 
ures ; agnos, because it always continues chaste. 
Hence the Scripture relates that Elijah, fleeing 
from the face of the woman Jezebel,‘ at first 


came under a bramble, and there, having been | 


heard, received strength and took food ; signify- 
ing that to him who flies from the incitements 
of lust, and from a woman — that is, from pleas- 
ure—the tree of chastity is a refuge and a shade, 


ruling men from the coming of Christ, the chief! 


of virgins. For when the first laws, which were 
published in the times of Adam and Noah and 
Moses, were unable to give salvation to man, the 
evangelical law alone has saved all. 

And this is the cause why the fig-tree may be 
said not to have obtained the kingdom over 
trees, which, in a spiritual sense, mean men; 
and the fig-tree the command, because man de- 
sired, even after the fall, again to be subject to 
the dominion of virtue, and not to be deprived 
of the immortality of the paradise of pleasure. 
But, having transgressed, he was rejected and 
cast far away, as one who could no longer be 
governed by immortality, nor was capable of 
receiving it. And the first message to him after 
the transgression was preached by Noah,? to 
which, if he had applied his mind, he might 
have been saved from sin; for in it he promised 
both happiness and rest from evils, if he gave 
heed to it with all his might, just as the vine 
promises to yield wine to those who cultivate it 
with care and labour. But neither did this law 
rule mankind, for men did not obey it, although 
zealously preached by Noah. But, after they 
began to be surrounded and drowning by the 
waters, they began to repent, and to promise 
that they would obey the commandments. 
Wherefore with scorn they are rejected as sub- 
jects ; that is, they are contemptuously told that 
they cannot be helped by the law; the Spirit 
answering them back and reproaching them be- 
cause they had deserted those men whom God 
had commanded to help them, and to save them, 
and make them glad; such as Noah and those 
with him. “Even to you, O rebellious,” said 
he, “I come, to bring help to you who are des- 
titute of prudence, and who differ in nothing 
from dry trees, and who formerly did not believe 
me when I preached that you ought to flee from 
present things.” 


CHAP. IV.—THE LAW USELESS FOR SALVATION ; 
THE LAST LAW OF CHASTITY UNDER THE FIGURE 
OF THE BRAMBLE. 


And so those men, having been thus rejected 
from the divine care, and the human race having 


1 x Kings xix. 4., 
3 Gen. v. a9. 





THE TEN VIRGINS. 349 





again given themselves up to error, again God 
sent forth, by Moses, a law to rule them and re- 
call them to righteousness. But these, thinking 
fit to bid a long farewell to this law, turned to 
idolatry. Hence God gave them up to mutual 
slaughters, to exiles, and captivities, the law it- 
self confessing, as it were, that it could not save 
them. Therefore, worn out with ills and af- 
flicted, they again promised that they would obey 
the commandments ; until God, pitying man the 
fourth time, sent chastity to rule over them, which 
Scripture consequently called the bramble. And 
she consuming pleasures threatens besides, that 
unless all undoubtingly obey her, and truly come 
to her, she will destroy all with fire, since there 
will be hereafter no other law or doctrine but 
judgment and fire. For this reason, man hence- 
forth began to do righteousness, and firmly to 
believe in God, and to separate himself from the 
devil. Thus chastity was sent down, as being 
most useful and helpful to men. For of her 
alone was the devil unable to forge an imitation 
to lead men astray, as is the case with the other 
precepts. 


CHAP. V.— THE MALIGNITY OF THE DEVIL AS AN 
IMITATOR IN ALL THINGS ; TWO KINDS OF FIG- 
TREES AND VINES. 


The fig-tree, as I said, from the sweetness and 
excellence of its fruit, being taken as a type of 
the delights of paradise, the devil, having be- 
guiled the man by its imitations, led him captive, 
persuading him to conceal the nakedness of his 
body by fig-leaves ; that is, by their friction he 
excited him to sexual pleasure. Again, those 
that had been saved from the deluge, he intoxi- 
cated with a drink which was an imitation of the 
vine of spiritual joy ; and again he mocked them, 
having stripped them of virtue. And what I say 
will hereafter be more clear. 

The enemy, by his power, always imitates the 
forms of virtue and righteousness, not for the 
purpose of truly promoting its exercise, but for 
deception and hypocrisy. For in order that those 
who fly from death he may entice to death, he 
is outwardly dyed with the colours of immortality. 
And hence he wishes to seem a fig-tree or vine, 
and to produce sweetness and joy, and is “ trans- 
formed into an angel of light,” ¢ ensnaring many 
by the appearance of piety. 

For we find in the Sacred Writings that there 
are two kinds of fig-trees and vines, “the good 
figs, very good ; and the evil, very evil ;’’5 “ wine 
that maketh glad the heart of man,’’® and wine 
which is the poison of dragons, and the incurable 


3 [Diabolus stmia Det, an idea very common to the Fathers, 
He is the malignant caricature of the Most High, exulting *» the de- 
formity which he gives to his copies. Exod. vii. 11.] 

4 2 Cor. xi. 14, 

5 ee xxiv. 3. 

6 Ps. civ. 15. 


350 


THE BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 





venom of asps.' But from the time when chas- 
tity began to rule over men, the fraud was de- 
tected and overcome, Christ, the chief of virgins, 
overturning it. So both the true fig-tree and the 
true vine yield fruit after that the power of chas- 
tity has laid hold upon all men, as Joel the 
prophet preaches, saying: “ Fear not, O land; 
be glad and rejoice, for the Lord will do great 
things. Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field ; for 
the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the 
tree beareth her fruit, the fig-tree and the vine 
do yield their strength. Be glad then, ye chil- 
dren of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God, 
for He hath given you food unto righteousness ; ” ? 
calling the former laws the vine and the fig, trees 
bearing fruit unto righteousness for the children 
of the spiritual Zion, which bore fruit after the 
incarnation of the Word, when chastity ruled over 
us, when formerly, on account of sin and much 
error, they had checked and destroyed their buds: 
For the true vine and the true fig-tree were not 
able to yield such nourishment to us as would be 
profitable for life, whilst as yet the false fig-tree, 
variously adorned for the purpose of fraud, flour- 
ished. But when the Lord dried up the false 
branches, the imitations of the true branches, 
uttering the sentence against the bitter fig-tree, 
“Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for 
ever,” 3 then those which were truly fruit-bear- 
ing trees flourished and yielded food unto right- 
eousness. 

The vine, and that not in a few places, refers 
to the Lord Himself,# and the fig-tree to the 
Holy Spirit, as the Lord “ maketh glad the hearts 
of men,” and the Spirit healeth them. And 
therefore Hezekiah is commanded 5 first to make 
a plaster with a lump of figs—that is, the fruit 
of the Spirit— that he may be healed — that is, 
according to the apostle — by love ; for he says, 
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long- 
suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, 
temperance ;’’® which, on account of their great 
pleasantness, the prophet calls figs. Micah also 
says, ‘They shall sit every man under his vine 
and under his fig-tree; and none shall make 
them afraid.’”’7 Now it is certain that those who 
have taken refuge and rested under the Spirit, 
and under the shadow of the Word, shall not be 
alarmed, nor frightened by him who troubles the 
hearts of men. 


CHAP, VI.—THE MYSTERY OF THE VISION OF 
ZECHARIAH. 

Moreover, Zechariah shows that the olive 

shadows forth the law of Moses, speaking thus : 





I Deut. xxxii. 33. 

2 Joel ii. 21-23. 
LXX. version. — TR. 

3 Matt. xxi. 19. 

4 John xv. x. ; 

S 2 Kings xx. 7; Isa. xxxviii. a1. 

© Gal. v. 22, 23. 

7 Micah iv, 4. 


The last words of the quotation are from the 








“And the angel that talked with me came again, 
and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of 
his sleep, and said unto me, What seest thou? 
And I said, I have looked, and behold a candle- 
stick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it. 

. . . And two olive-trees by it, one upon the 
right side of the bowl, and the other upon the 
left side thereof.’® And after a few words, 
the prophet, asking what are the olives on the 
right and left of the candlestick, and what the 
two olive-boughs in the hands of the two pipes, 
the angel answered and said: “These are the 
two sons of fruitfulness 9 which stand by the Lord 
of the whole earth,” signifying the two first-born 
virtues that are waiting upon God, which, in His 
dwelling, supply around the wick, through the 
boughs, the spiritual oil of God, that man may 
have the light of divine knowledge. But the two 
boughs of the two olives are the law and the 
prophets, around, as it were, the lot ?° of the in- 
heritance, of which Christ and the Holy Spirit 
are the authors, we ourselves meanwhile not 
being able to take the whole fruit and the great- 
ness of these plants, before chastity began to rule 
the world, but only their boughs —to wit, the 
law and the prophets—did we formerly culti- 
vate, and those moderately, often letting them 
slip. For who was ever able to receive Christ 
or the Spirit, unless he first purified himself? 
For the exercise which prepares the soul from 
childhood for desirable and delectable glory, and 
carries this grace safely thither with ease, and 
from small toils raises up mighty hopes, is chas- 
tity, which gives immortality to our bodies ; 
which it becomes all men willingly to prefer in 
honour and to praise above all things; some, 
that by its means they may be betrothed to the 
Word, practising virginity ; and others, that by 
it they may be freed from the curse, ‘‘ Dust thou 
art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” ™ 

This, O Arete, is the discourse on virginity 
which you required of me, accomplished accord- 
ing to my ability ; which I pray, O mistress, al- 
though it is mediocre and short, that thou wilt 
receive with kindness from me who was chosen 
to speak last. 


DISCOURSE XI.— ARETE, 


CHAP. I.— THE TRUE AND CHASTE VIRGINS FEW 5 
CHASTITY A CONTEST ; THEKLA CHIEF OF VIR- 
GINS. 


I do accept it, Theopatra related that Arete 
said, and approve of it all. For it is an excellent 
thing, even although you had not spoken so 
clearly, to take up and go through with earnest- 
ness those things which have been said, not to 





8 Zech, iv. 1-3. 

9 E. V. “‘ Anointed ones,” ver. 14. 

10 gyoivicua: same word as that translated “ wick.” — Tr. 
II Gen, iii. 19. 





THE BANQUET OF 





THE TEN VIRGINS. 351 





‘)repare a sweet entertainment for those who 


listen, but for correction, recollection, and absti- 
nence. For whoever teaches that chastity is to 
be preferred and embraced first of all among my 
pursuits, rightly advises ; which many think that 
they honour and cultivate, but which few, so to 
speak, really honour. For it is not one who has 
studied to restrain his flesh from the pleasure of 
carnal delight that cultivates chastity, if he do 
not keep in check the rest of the desires; but 
rather he dishonours it, and that in no small 
degree, by base lusts, exchanging pleasures for 
pleasures. Nor if he have strongly resisted the 
desires of the senses, but is lifted up with vain- 
glory, and from this cause is able to repress the 
heats of burning lust, and reckon them all as 
nothing, can he be thought to honour chastity ; 
for he dishonours it in that he is lifted up with 
pride, cleansing the outside of the cup and plat- 
ter, that is, the flesh and the body, but injuring 
the heart by conceit and ambition. Nor when 
any one is conceited of riches is he desirous of 
honouring chastity ; he dishonours it more than 
all, preferring a little gain to that to which noth- 
ing is comparable of those things that are in this 
life esteemed. For all riches and gold “ in re- 
spect of it are as a little sand.”* And neither 
does he who loves himself above measure, and 
eagerly considers that which is expedient for 
himself alone, regardless of the necessities of his 
neighbour, honour chastity, but he also dishon- 
ours it. For he who has repelled from himself 
charity, mercy, and humanity, is much inferior 
to those who honourably exercise chastity. Nor 
is it right, on the one hand, by the use of chas- 
tity to keep virginity, and, on the other hand, to 
pollute the soul by evil deeds and lust ; nor here 
to profess purity and continence, and there to 
pollute it by indulgence in vices.. Nor, again, 
here to declare that the things of this world bring 
no care to himself; there to be eager in procur- 
ing them, and in concern about them. But all 
the members are to be preserved intact and free 
from corruption ; not only those which are sex- 
ual, but those members also which minister to 
the service of lusts. For it would be ridiculous 
to preserve the organs of generation pure, but 
not the tongue; or to preserve the tongue, but 
neither the eyesight, the ears, nor the hands ; or 
lastly, to preserve these pure, but not the mind, 
defiling it with pride and anger. 

It is altogether necessary for him who has re- 
solved that he will not err from the practice of 
chastity, to keep all his members and senses 
clean and under restraint, as is customary with 
the planks of ships, whose fastenings the ship- 
masters diligently join together, lest by any 
means the way and access may lie open for sin 





1 Wisd. vii. 9. 





to pour itself into the mind. For great pursuits 
are liable to great falls, and evil is more opposed 
to that which is really good than to that which 
is not good. For many who thought that to 
repress vehement lascivious desires constituted 
chastity, neglecting other duties connected with 
it, failed also in this, and have brought blame? 
upon those endeavouring after it by the right 
way, as you have proved who are a model in> 
everything, leading a virgin life in deed and 
word. And now what that is which becomes a 
virgin state has been described. 

And you all in my hearing having sufficiently 
contended in speaking, I pronounce victors and 
crown; but Thekla with a larger and thicker 
chaplet, as the chief of you, and as having shone 
with greater lustre than the rest. 


CHAP. Il. — THEKLA SINGING DECOROUSLY A HYMN, 
THE REST OF THE VIRGINS SING WITH HER ; 
JOHN THE BAPTIST A MARTYR TO CHASTITY ; 
THE CHURCH THE SPOUSE OF GOD, PURE AND 
VIRGIN. 


Theopatra said that Arete having said these 
things, commanded them all to rise, and, stand- 
ing under the Agnos, to send up to the Lord in 
a becoming manner a hymn of thanksgiving ; and 
that Thekla should begin and should lead the 
rest. And when they had stood up, she said that 
Thekla, standing in the midst of the virgins on 
the right of Arete, decorously sang ; but the rest, 
standing together in a circle after the manner 
of a chorus, responded to her: “I keep myself 
pure for Thee, O Bridegroom, and holding a 
lighted torch I go to meet Thee.” 3 


THEKLA. 1. From above, O virgins, the sound 
of a noise that wakes the dead has come, bidding 
us all to meet the Bridegroom in white robes, and 
with torches towards the east. Arise, before the 
King enters within the gates. 

Cuorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O 
Bridegroom, and holding a lighted torch I 
go to meet Thee. 

THEKLA. 2. Fleeing from the sorrowful hap- 
piness of mortals, and having despised the luxu- 
riant delights of life and its love, I desire to be 
protected under Thy life-giving arms, and to 
behold Thy beauty for ever, O blessed One. 

Cuorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O 
Bridegroom, and holding a lighted torch I 
go to meet Thee. 

THEKLA. 3. Leaving marriage and the beds 

of mortals and my golden home for Thee, O 
King, I have come in undefiled robes, in order 


2 [compare our Lord’s wisdom and mercy, Matt. xix, 11.] 

3 The text of Jahn is here followed. —Tr. [I have been obliged 
to arrange this hymn (so as to bring out the refrain as sung by the 
chorus of virgins) somewhat differently from the form in the Edin. 
burgh edition. I invite a comparison.] : 


352 THE BANQUET OF 


‘that I might enter with Thee within Thy happy 
bridal chamber. 

Cuorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O 
Bridegroom, and holding a lighted torch I 
go to meet Thee. 

THEKLA. 4. Having escaped, O blessed One, 
from the innumerable enchanting wiles of the 
serpent, and, moreover, from the flame of fire, 
and from the mortal-destroying assaults of wild 
beasts, I await Thee from heaven. 

Cuorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O 
Bridegroom, and holding a lighted torch I 
go to meet Thee. 

THEKLA. 5.1 forget my own country, O 
Lord, through desire of Thy grace." I forget, 
also, the company of virgins, my fellows, the 
desire even of mother and of kindred, for Thou, 
O Christ, art all things to me. 

Cuorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O 
Bridegroom, and holding a lighted torch I 
go to meet Thee. 

THEKLA. 6. Giver of life art Thou, O Christ. 
Hail, light that never sets, receive this praise. 
The company of virgins call upon Thee, Perfect 
Flower, Love, Joy, Prudence, Wisdom, Word. 

Cuorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O 
Bridegroom, and holding a lighted torch I 
go to meet Thee. 

THEKLA. 7. With open gates, O beauteously 
adorned Queen, admit us within thy chambers. 
O spotless, gloriously triumphant Bride, breath- 
ing beauty, we stand by Christ, robed as He 
is, celebrating thy happy nuptials, O youthful 
maiden. 

Cuorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O 
Bridegroom, and holding a lighted torch I 
go to meet Thee. 

THEKLA. 8. The virgins standing without the 
chamber,’ with bitter tears and deep moans, wail 
and mournfully lament that their lamps are gone 
out, having failed to enter in due time the cham- 
ber of joy. 

Cuorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O 
Bridegroom, and holding a lighted torch I 

go to meet Thee. 

THEKLA. g. For turning from the sacred way 
of ‘life, unhappy ones, they have neglected to 
prepare sufficiency of oil for the path of life ; 
bearing lamps whose bright light is dead, they 
groan from the inward recesses of their mind. 

Cuorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O 
Bridegroom, and holding a lighted torch I 
go to meet Thee. 

THEKLA. 10. Here are cups full of sweet 
nectar; let us drink, O virgins, for it is celestial 
drink, which the Bridegroom hath placed for 
those duly called to the wedding. 

Cuorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O 


2 Ps. xlv,-10. 
$ Matt. xxv. 11. 


THE TEN VIRGINS. 


Bridegroom, and holding a lighted torch I 
go to meet Thee. 

THEKLA. 11. Abel, clearly prefiguring Thy 
death,3 O blessed One, with flowing blood, and 
eyes lifted up to heaven, said, Cruelly slain by a 
brother’s hand, O Word, I pray Thee to receive me. 

Cuorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O 
Bridegroom, and holding a lighted torch I 
go to meet Thee. 

THEKLA. 12. Thy valiant son Joseph,4 O 
Word, won the greatest prize of virginity, when 
a woman heated with desire forcibly drew him 
to an unlawful bed; but he giving no heed to 
her fled stripped, and crying aloud : — 

Cuorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O 
Bridegroom, and holding a lighted torch I 
go to meet Thee. 

THEKLA. 13. Jephthah offered his fresh slaugh- 
tered virgin daughter a sacrifice to God, like a 
lamb ; and she, nobly fulfilling the type of Thy 
body, O blessed One, bravely cried : — 

Cuorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O 
Bridegroom, and holding a lighted torch I 
go to meet Thee. 

THEKLA. 14. Daring Judith,5 by clever wiles 
having cut off the head of the leader of the for- 
eign hosts, whom previously she had allured by 
her beautiful form, without polluting the limbs 





of her body, with a victor’s shout said : — 

Cuorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O 
Bridegroom, and holding a lighted torch I 
go to meet Thee. 

THEKLA. 15. Seeing the great beauty of Su- 
sanna, the two Judges, maddened with desire, 
said, O dear lady, we have come desiring secret 
intercourse with thee; but she with tremulous 
cries said : — 

Cuorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O 
Bridegroom, and holding a lighted torch I 
go to meet Thee. 

THEKLA. 16. It is far better for me to die 
than to betray my nuptials to you, O inad for 
women, and so to suffer the eternal justice of 
God in fiery vengeance. Save me now, O Christ, 
from these evils. 

Cuorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O 
Bridegroom, and holding a lighted torch I 
go to meet Thee. 

THEKLA. 17. Thy Precursor, washing multi- 
tudes of men in flowing lustral water, unjustly 
by a wicked man, on account of his chastity, 
was led to slaughter ; but as he stained the dust 
with his life-blood, he cried to Thee, O blessed 





One : — 
Cuorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O 
Bridegroom, and holding a lighted torch I 
go to meet Thee. 


3 Gen. iv, 10, 
4 Gen. xxxix. 12, 
S Jud. visi, 





THE BANQUET OF 





'THEKLA. 18. The parent of Thy life, that 
unspotted Grace‘ and undefiled Virgin, bearing 
in her womb without the ministry of man, by an 
immaculate conception,? and who thus became 
suspected of having betrayed the marriage-bed, 
she, O blessed One, when pregnant, thus 
spoke : — 

Cuorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O 
Bridegroom, and holding a lighted torch I 
go to meet Thee. 

THEKLA. 19. Wishing to see Thy nuptial day, 
O blessed One, as many angels as Thou, O King, 
calledst from above, bearing the best gifts to 
Thee, came in unsullied robes : — 

Cuorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O 
Bridegroom, and holding a lighted torch I 
go to meet Thee. 

THEKLA. 20. In hymns, O blessed spouse of 
God, we attendants of the Bride honour Thee, 
O undefiled virgin Church of snow-white form, 
dark haired, chaste, spotless, beloved. 

Cuorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O 
Bridegroom, and holding a lighted torch I 
go to meet Thee. 

THEKLA. 21. Corruption has fled, and the 
tearful pains of diseases; death has been taken 
away, all folly has perished, consuming mental 
grief is no more; for again the grace of the 
God-Christ has suddenly shone upon mortals. 

Cuorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O 
Bridegroom, and holding a lighted torch I 
go to meet Thee. 

THEKLA. 22. Paradise is no longer bereft of 
mortals, for by divine decree he no longer dwells 
there as formerly, thrust out from thence when 
he was free from corruption, and from fear by 
the various wiles of the serpents, O blessed 
One. 

Cuorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O 
Bridegroom, and holding a lighted torch I 
go to meet Thee. 

THEKLA. 23. Singing the new song, now the 
company of virgins attends thee towards the 
heavens, O Queen, all manifestly crowned with 
white lilies, and bearing in their hands bright 
lights. 

Cuorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O 
Bridegroom, and holding a lighted torch I 
go to meet Thee. 

THEKLA. 24. O blessed One, who inhabited 
the undefiled seats of heaven without beginning, 
who governed all things by everlasting power, O 
Father, with Thy Son, we are here, receive us 
also within the gates of life. 

Cuorus. I keep myself pure for Thee, O 

Bridegroom, and holding a lighted torch I 
go to meet Thee. 


1 Matt, i. 18, 
2 [The only one. See p. 35s, Elucidation II., 7z/ra.] 





THE TEN VIRGINS. 333 


CHAP. Ill. — WHICH ARE THE BETTER, THE CON- 
TINENT, OR THOSE WHO DELIGHT IN TRANQUIL- 
LITY OF LIFE? CONTESTS THE PERIL OF CHASTITY : 
THE FELICITY OF TRANQUILLITY ; PURIFIED AND 
TRANQUIL MINDS GODS: THEY WHO SHALL SEE 
GOD ; VIRTUE DISCIPLINED BY TEMPTATIONS, 


Evusou.ios. Deservedly, O Gregorion, has 
Thekla borne off the chief prize. 


Grecorion. Deservedly indeed. 
Evsou.ios. But what about the stranger Tel. 
misiake?3 Tell me, was she not listening from 


without? I wonder if she could keep silence 
on hearing of this banquet, and would not forth- 
with, as a bird flies to its food, listen to the things 
which were spoken. 

Grecorion. ‘The report is that she was pres- 
ent with Methodios+ when he inquired respect- 
ing these things of Arete. But it is a good as 
well as a happy thing to have such a mistress 
and guide as Arete, that is virtue. 

Evusoutios. But, Gregorion, which shall we 
say are the better, those who without lust govern 
concupiscence, or those who under the assaults 
of concupiscence continue pure? 

GREGORION. For my part, I think those who 
are free from lust, for they have their mind un- 
defiled, and are altogether uncorrupted, sinning 
in no respect. 

Evepoutios. Well, I swear by chastity, and 
wisely, O Gregorion. But lest in any wise I hin- 
der you, if I gainsay your words, it is that I may 
the better learn, and that no one hereafter may 
refute me. 

GREGORION. Gainsay me as you will, you 
have my permission. For, Euboulios, I think 
that I know sufficient to teach you that he who 
is not concupiscent is better than he who is. If 
I cannot, then there is no one who can convince 
you. 

Evusoutios. Bless me! Jam glad that you 
answer me so magnanimously, and show how 
wealthy you are as regards wisdom. 


GrREGORION. A mere chatterer, so you seem 
to be, O Euboulios. 

Evusoutios. Why so? 

GREGORION. Because you ask rather for the 


sake of amusement than of truth. 

Evsou.ios. Speak fair, I pray you, my good 
friend ; for I greatly admire your wisdom and 
renown. I say this because, with reference to 
the things that many wise men often dispute 
among themselves, you say that you not only 
understand them, but also vaunt that you can 
teach another. 

GREGORION. Now tell me truly whether it is 
a difficulty with you to receive the opinion, that 
they who are not concupiscent excel those who 








3 In Jahn, Telmesiake. — Tr. [Comp. p. 356, n. 2, 2nfra.] 
4 [Contrast the shameful close of Plato’s Sympostum.] 


384 THE BANQUET OF 


PES ey SOM Ue Oe se 





THE TEN VIRGINS. 





are concupiscent, and yet restrain themselves? 
or are you joking? 

Eusou.ios. How so, when I tell you that I 
do not know? But, come, tell me, O wisest 
lady, in what do the non-concupiscent and chaste 
excel the concupiscent who live chastely ? 

Grecorion. Because, in the first place, they 
have the soul itself pure, and the Holy Spirit 
always dwells in it, seeing that it is not dis- 
tracted and disturbed by fancies and unre- 
strained thoughts, so as to pollute the mind. 
But they are in every way inaccessible to lust, 
both as to their flesh and to their heart, enjoy- 
ing tranquillity from passions. But they who 
are allured from without, through the sense of 
sight, with fancies, and receiving lust flowing 
like a stream into the heart, are often not less 
polluted, even when they think that they con- 
tend and fight against pleasures, being van- 
quished in their mind. 


Evusouttos. Shall we then say that they who 
serenely live and are not disturbed by lusts are 
pure? 

GREGORION. Certainly. For these ' are they 


whom God makes gods in the beatitudes; they 
who believe in Him without doubt. And He 
says that they shall look upon God with confi- 
dence, because they bring in nothing that darkens 
or confuses the eye of the soul for the behold- 
ing of God; but all desire of things secular 
being eliminated, they not only, as I said, pre- 
serve the flesh pure from carnal connection, but 
even the heart, in which, especially, as in a 
temple, the Holy Spirit rests and dwells, is open 
to no unclean thoughts. 

EvusouLios. Stay now; for I think that from 
hence we shall the better go on to the discovery 
of what things are truly the best; and, tell me, 
do you call anyone a good pilot? 

GREGORION. I certainly do. 

Evusoutios. Whether is it he that saves his 
vessel in great and perplexing storms, or is it he 
who does so in a breathless calm? 

GREGORION. He that does so in a great and 
perplexing storm. 

Evusou.ios. Shall we not then say that the 
soul, which is deluged with the surging waves of 
the passions, and yet does not, on that account, 
weary or grow faint, but direct her vessel — that 
is, the flesh — nobly into the port of chastity, is 
better and more estimable than he that navigates 
in calm weather? 

GREGORION. We will say so. 

Eusoutios. For to be prepared against the 
entrance of the gales of the Evil Spirit, and not 
to be cast away or overcome, but to refer all to 
Christ, and strongly to contend against pleasures, 
brings greater praise than he wins who lives a 
virgin life calmly and with ease. 


I Matt. v. 8. 








GREGORION. It appears so. 

Evsouuios. And what saith the Lord? Does 
He not seem to show that he who retains conti- 
nence, though concupiscent, excels him who, 
having no concupiscence, leads a virgin life ? 

GreEGORION. Where does He say so? 

Evupoutios. Where, comparing a wise man 
to a house well founded, He declares him im- 
moveable because he cannot be overthrown by 
rains, and floods, and winds; likening, as it 
would seem, these storms to lusts, but the im. 
moveable and unshaken firmness of the soul ir 
chastity to the rock. 


GreEcoRION. You appear to speak what is 
true. 
Evsoutios. And what say you of the physi- 


cian? Do you not call him the best who has 
been proved in great diseases, and has healed 
many patients ? 

Grecorion. I do. 

Evpoutios. But the one who has never at any 
time practised, nor ever had the sick in his 
hands, is he not still in all respects the inferior ? 

GREGORION. Yes. 

Evugpoutios. Then we may certainly say that 
a soul which is contained by a concupiscent 
body, and which appeases with the medicaments 
of temperance the disorders arising from the 
heat of lusts, carries off the palm for healing, 
over one to whose lot it has fallen to govern 
aright a body which is free from lust.? 

GrReEcoRION. It must be allowed. 

Euszoutios. And how is it in wrestling? 
Whether is the better wrestler he who has many 
and strong antagonists, and continually is con- 
tending without being worsted, or he who has 
no opponents ? 

Grecorion. Manifestly he who wrestles. 

Eugou.ios. And, in wrestling, is not the 
athlete who contends the more experienced ? 

GREGORION. It must be granted. 

Eusoutios. ‘Therefore it is clear that he whose 
soul contends against the impulses of lust, and is 
not borne down by it, but draws back and sets 
himself in array against it, appears stronger than 
he who does not lust.? 

GREGORION. ‘True. 

Eusoutios. What then? Does it not appear 
to you, Gregorion, that there is more courage in 
being valiant against the assaults of base desires ? 


GREGORION. Yes, indeed. 

Evuzou.ios. Is not this courage the strength 
of virtue ? 

GREGORION. Plainly so. 

Eusouios. Therefore, if endurance be the 


strength of virtue, is not the soul, which is 
troubled by lusts, and yet perseveres against 
them, stronger than that which is not so troubled ? 





2 [Recur to what is said of Origen and his epoch on p. 224, vol. iv. 
of this series. } 











ELUCIDATIONS. 355 

'GREGORION. Yes. Grecorion. You speak truly, and I shall de- 
Evsouios. And if stronger, then better? sire still more fully to discourse with you con- 
GREGORION. ‘Truly. cerning these things. If, therefore, it pleases 


Evsoutios. Therefore the soul which is con- | you, to-morrow I will come again to hear respect- 
cupiscent, and exercises self-control, as appears|ing them. Now, however, as you see, it is time 
from what has been said, is better than that which | to betake ourselves to the care of the outward 
is not concupiscent, and exercises self-control.! | man. 














t [Here is our author’s conclusive condemnation of Origen, whose | work. Possibly the epoch of Anthony had revived such discussions 
great mistake, I have supposed, gave occasion to this extraordinary | when this was written | 


ELUCIDATIONS. 


I. 
(We here behold only shadows, etc., p. 335.) 


SCHLEIERMACHER,’ in commenting on Plato’s Symposium, remarks: “ Even natural birth (i.e., 
in Plato’s system) was nothing but a reproduction of the same esernal form and idea. . . . The 
whole discussion displays the gradation, not only from that pleasure which arises from the contem- 
plation of personal beauty through that which every larger object, whether single or manifold, may 
occasion, to that immediate pleasure of which the source is in the Eternal Beauty,” etc. Our 
author ennobles such theorizing by mounting up to the great I AM. 


At 
(Christ Himself is the one who is born, p. 337-) 


Wordsworth, and many others of the learned, sustain our author’s comment on this passage.? 
So Aquinas, ad /oc., Bede, and many others. Methodius is incorrectly represented as rejecting 3 
the idea that “the woman” is the Blessed Virgin Mary, for no such idea existed for him to reject. 
He rejects the idea that the man-child is Christ ; but that idea was connected with the supposition 
that the woman was the Church of the Hebrews bringing forth the Messiah. Gregory the Great 
regards the woman as the Christian Church. So Hippolytus:+ “By the woman. . . is meant 
most manifestly the Church, endued with the Father’s Word, whose brightness is above the sun,” 
etc. Bossuet says candidly,5 “ C’est l’Eglise, tout éclatante de la lumiére de J. C.,” etc. 

Now, note the progress of corruption, one fable engendering another. The text of Gen. iil. 
15, contrary to the Hebrew, the Seventy, the Syriac, and the Vulgate itself, in the best mss., is made 
to read, “‘ She shall bruise thy head,” etc. The “woman,” therefore, becomes the Mother of our 
Lord, and the “ great red dragon” (of verse 3), from which the woman “ fled into the wilderness,” 
is next represented as under her feet (where the moon appears in the sacred narrative) ; and then 
the Immaculate Conception of her Holy Seed is transferred back to the mother of Mary, who is 
indecently discussed, and affirmed to have been blest with an “ Immaculate Conception ” when, in 
the ordinary process of nature, she was made the mother of the Virgin. So, then, the bull /ze/ 
Jabilis comes forth, eighteen hundred years after the event,° with the announcement that what 
thousands of saints and many bishops of Rome have denounced as a fable must be received by 
all Christians on peril of eternal damnation.?. The worst of it all is the fact, that, as the mystery of 
the Incarnation of the Son of God has heretofore been the only “ Immaculate Conception” known 
to the faith of Christendom, thousands now imagine that ¢4zs is what was only so lately set forth, 
and what we must therefore renounce as false. 





1 Introduction to the Dialogues, etc., Dobson’s translation, Cambridge, 1836. 4 Vol. v. p. 217, this series. 
2 See his work On the Apocalypse, Lecture IX. p. 198, ed. Philadelphia, 1852. 5 Works, vol. i. p. 447, ed. Paris, 1845. 
3 Speaker’s Com., ad oc. 6 Dec. 8, 1854. 


7 See The Etrenicon of Dr. Pusey, ed. New York, 1866. 


CONCERNING 


OrtHopoxus. The old man of Ithaca, ac- 
cording to the legend of the Greeks, when he 
wished to hear the song of the Sirens, on account 
of the charm of their voluptuous voice, sailed to 
Sicily in bonds, and stopped up the ears of his 
companions ; not that he grudged them the hear- 
ing, or desired to load himself with bonds, but 
because the consequence of those singers’ music 
to those who heard it was death. For such, in 
the opinion of the Greeks, are the charms of the 
Sirens. Now I am not within hearing of any 
such song as this ; nor have I any desire to hear 
the Sirens who chant men’s dirges, and whose 
silence is more profitable to men than their voice ; 
but I pray to enjoy the pleasure of a divine 
voice, which, though it be often heard, I long to 
hear again; not that I am overcome with the 
charm of a voluptuous voice, but I am being 
taught divine mysteries, and expect as the result, 
not death but eternal salvation. For the singers 
are not the deadly Sirens of the Greeks, but a 
divine choir of prophets, with whom there is no 
need to stop the ears of one’s companions, nor 
to load one’s-self with bonds, in fear of the 
penalty of hearing. For, in the one case, the 
hearer, with the entrance of the voice, ceases to 
live ; in the other, the more he hears, the better 
life will he enjoy, being led onwards by a divine 
Spirit. Let every one come, then, and hear the 
divine song without any fear. There are not with 
us the Sirens from the shore of Sicily, nor the 
bonds of Ulysses, nor the wax poured melting 
into men’s ears; but a loosening of all bonds, 
and liberty to listen to every one that approaches. 
For it is worthy of us to hear such a song as 
this ; and to hear such singers as these, seems to 
me to be a thing to be prayed for. But if one 
wishes to hear the choir of the apostles as well, 
he will find the same harmony of song. For the 
others sang beforehand the divine plan in a mys- 
tical manner; but these sing an interpretation 
of what has been mystically announced by the 
former. Oh, concordant harmony, composed by 
the Divine Spirit! Oh, the comeliness of those 
who sing of the mysteries of God/ Oh, that 





t [This debate between Orthodoxus and a Valentinian reminds 
ws of the Octavius of Minucius Felix, vol iv.] 


356 





ek oR | 


FREE-WILL: 


I also may join in these songs in my prayer. Let 
us then also sing the like song, and raise the 
hymn to the Holy Father, glorifying in the Spirit 
Jesus, who is in His bosom.? 

Shun not, man, a spiritual hymn, nor be ill- 
disposed to listen to it. Death belongs not to 
it; a story of salvation is our song. Already I 
seem to taste better enjoyments, as I discourse 
on such subjects as these; and especially when 
there is before me such a flowering meadow, that 
is to say, our assembly of those who unite in 
singing and hearing the divine mysteries. Where- 
fore I dare to ask you to listen to me with ears 
free from all envy, without imitating the jealousy 
of Cain,3 or persecuting your brother, like Esau,* 
or approving the brethren of Joseph,’ because 
they hated their brother on account of his words ; 
but differing far from all these, insomuch that 
each of you is used to speak the mind of his 
neighbour. And, on this account, there is no 
evil jealousy among you, as ye have undertaken 
to supply your brother’s deficiencies. O noble 
audience, and venerable company, and spiritual 
food! ‘That I may ever have a right to share in 
such pleasures, be this my prayer ! 

VALENTINIAN. As I was walking yesterday 
evening, my friend, along the shore of the sea, 
and was gazing on it somewhat intently, I saw an 
extraordinary instance of divine power, and a 
work of art produced by wise science, if at least 
such a thing may be called a work of art. For 
as that verse of Homer ® says, — 

“ As when two adverse winds blowing from Thrace, 
Boreas and Zephyrus, the fishy deep 


Vex sudden, all around, the sable flood 
High curled, flings forth the salt weed on the shore ; ” — 


So it seemed to me to have happened yesterday. 
For I saw waves very like mountain-tops, and, sc 
to speak, reaching up to heaven itself. Whence 
I expected nothing else but that the whole land 
would be deluged, and I began to form in my 
mind a place of escape, and a Noah’s ark. Bui 
it was not as I thought ; for, just as the sea rose 


2 John i, 18. 
3 Gen. iv. 5. 
4 Gen, xxvii. 41. 
5 Gen. xxxvii. 4. 


6 Iliad, ix. 4, i. (Cowper's Tr.). 


CONCERNING FREE-WILL. 


Jae 





to a crest, it broke up again into itself, without 
overstepping its own limits, having, so to speak, 
a feeling of awe fora divine decree.! And as 
oftentimes a servant, compelled by his master to 
do something against his will, obeys the command 
through fear, while he dares not say a word of 
what he suffers in his unwillingness to do it, but, 
full of rage, mutters to himself, — somewhat so 
it appeared to me that the sea, as if enraged and 
confining its awe within itself, kept itself under, 
as not willing to let its Master perceive its anger. 

On these occurrences I began to gaze in si- 
lence, and wished to measure in my mind the 
heaven and its sphere. I began to inquire 
whence it rises and where it sets ; also what sort 
of motion it had— whether a progressive one, 
that is to say, one from place to place, or a re- 
volving one ; and, besides, how its movement is 
continued. And, of a truth, it seemed worth 
while to inquire also about the sun, — what is the 
manner of his being set in the heaven ; also what 
is the orbit he traverses ; also whither it is that, 
after a short time, he retires ; and why it is that 
even he does not go out of his proper course : 
but he, too, as one may say, is observing a com- 
mandment of a higher power, and appears with 
us just when he is allowed to do so, and departs 
as if he were called away. 

So, as I was investigating these things, I saw 
that the sunshine was departing, and the daylight 
failing, and that immediately darkness came on ; 
and the sun was succeeded by the moon, who, at 
her first rising, was not of full size, but after ad- 
vancing in her course presented a larger appear- 
ance. And I did not cease inquiring about her 
also, but examined the cause of her waning and 
waxing, and why it is that she, too, observes the 
revolution of days; and it seemed to me from 
all this that there is a divine government and 
power controlling the whole, which we may justly 
call God. 

And thereupon I began to praise the Creator, 
as I saw the earth fast fixed, and living creatures 


in such variety, and the blossoms of plants with | 


their many hues. But my mind did not rest upon 
these things alone; but thereupon I began to 
inquire whence they have their origia — whether 
from some source eternally co-existent with God, 
or from Himself alone, none co-existing with 
Him ; for that He has made nothing out of that 
which has no existence appeared to me the right 
view to take, unless my reason were altogether 
untrustworthy. For it is the nature of things 
which come into being to derive their origin 
from what is already existing. And it seemed to 
me that it might be said with equal truth, that 
nothing is eternally co-existent with God distinct 
from Himself, but that whatever exists has its 





1 Job xxxviii, 11, 





origin from Him, and I was persuaded of this 
also by the undeniable disposition of the ele- 
ments, and by the orderly arrangement of nature 
about them. 

So, with some such thoughts of the fair order 
of things, I returned home. But on the day fol- 
lowing, that is to-day, as I came I saw two beings 
of the same race ——I mean men —striking and 
abusing one another; and another, again, wish- 
ing to strip his neighbour. And now some be- 
gan to venture upon a more terrible deed; for 
one stripped a corpse, and exposed again to the 
light of day a body that had been once hidden 
in the earth, and treated a form like his own with 
such insult as to leave the corpse to be food for 
dogs; while another bared his sword, and at- 
tacked a man like himself. And he wanted to 
procure safety by flight; but the other ceased 
not from pursuing, nor would control his anger. 
And why should I say more? It is enough that 
he attacked him, and at once smote him with 
his sword. So the wounded man became a sup- 
pliant to his fellow, and spread out his hands 
in supplication, and was willing to give up his 
clothing, and only made a claim for life. But 
the other did not subdue his anger, nor pity his 
fellow-man, nor would he see his own image in 
the being before him; but, like a wild beast, 
made preparations with his sword for feeding 
upon him. And now he was even putting his 
mouth to the body so like his own, such was the 
extent of his rage. And there was to be seen 
one man suffering injurious treatment, and an- 
other forthwith stripping him, and not even coy- 
ering with earth the body which he denuded of 
clothing. But, in addition to these, there was 
another who, robbing others of their marriage 
rights, wanted to insult his neighbour’s wife, and 
urged her to turn to unlawful embraces, not wish- 
ing her husband to be father to a child of his 
own. 

After that I began to believe the tragedies, 
and thought that the dinner of Thyestes had 
really taken place ; and believed in the unlawful 
lust of Oinomaos, nor doubted of the strife in 
which brother drew the sword on brccher. 

So, after »eholding such things as these, I be- 
gan to inquire whence they arise, and what is 
their origin, and who is the author of such de- 
vices against men, whence came their discovery, 
and who is the teacher of them. Now to dare 
to say that God was the author of these things 
was impossible ; for surely it could not even be 
said that they have from Him their substance, or 
their existence. For how were it possible to 
entertain these thoughts of God? For He is 
good, and the Creator of what is excellent, and 
to Him belongs nothing bad. Nay, it is His 
nature to take no pleasure in such things; but 


| He forbids their production, and rejects those 


358 





CONCERNING FREE-WILL. 





who delight in them, but admits into His pres- 
ence those who avoid them. And how could it 
be anything but absurd to call God the maker of 
these things of which He disapproves? For He 
would not wish them not to be, if He had first 
been their creator; and He wishes those who 
approach Him to be imitators of Him. 
Wherefore it seemed to me unreasonable to 
attribute these things to God, or to speak of 
them as having sprung from Him; though it 
must certainly be granted that it is possible for 
something to come into existence out of what 
has no existence, in case He made what is evil. 
For He who brought them into existence out 
of non-existence would not reduce them to the 
loss of it. And again, it must be said that there 
was once atime when God took pleasure in evil 
things, which now is not the case. Wherefore it 
seems to me impossible to say this of God. 
For it is unsuitable to His nature to attach this 
to Him. Wherefore it seemed to me that there 
is co-existent with Him somewhat which has the 
name of matter, from which He formed existing 
things, distinguishing between them with wise 
art, and arranging them in a fair order, from 
which also evil things seem to have come into 
being. For as this matter was without quality 
or form, and, besides this, was borne about with- 
out order, and was untouched by divine art, God 
bore no grudge against it, nor left it to be con- 
tinually thus borne about, but began to work upon 
it, and wished to separate its best parts from its 
worst, and thus made all that it was fitting for 
God to make out of it; but so much of it as 
was like lees, so to speak, this being unfitted for 
being made into anything, He left as it was, since 
it was of no use to Him; and from this it seems 
to me that what is evil has now streamed down 
among men. ‘This seemed to me the right view 
to take of these things. But, my friend, if you 
think that anything I have said is wrong, men- 
tion it, for I exceedingly desire to hear about 
these things. 

OrrHopoxus. I appreciate your readiness, 
my friend, and applaud your zeal about the sub- 
ject ; and as for the opinion which you have ex- 
pressed respecting existing things, to the effect 
that God made them out of some underlying 
substance, I do not altogether find fault with it. 
For, truly, the origin of evil zs a subject that has 
called out opinions from many men.' Before 
you and me, no doubt, there have been many 
able men who have made the most searching 
inquiry into the matter. And some of them ex- 
pressed the same opinion as you did, but others 





1 [See the essay of Archbishop King Ox the Origin of Evil, ed. 
Cambridge, 1739. Law’s annotations in this edition are valuable 
See also Dr. Bledsoe, Tkeodicy, and Elucidation VIII. p. 522, vol. 
ii, this series. Of Leibnitz (refuting Bayle), no need to speak here. 
Comp Addison, Sfectator, Nos. 237 and 519; also Parnell’s Her- 
mit ; also Jer, xii. r.] 





again represented God as the creator of these 
things, fearing to allow the existence of substance 
as coeval with Him; while the former, from fear 
of saying that God was the author of evil, 
thought fit to represent matter as coeval with 
Him.? And it was the fate of both of these 
to fail to speak rightly on the subject, in conse- 
quence of their fear of God not being in agree- 
ment with an accurate knowledge of the truth. 

But others declined to inquire about such a 
question at all, on the ground that such an in- 
quiry is endless. As for me, however, my con- 
nection with you in friendship does not allow me 
to decline the subject of inquiry, especially when 
you announce your own purpose, that you are not 
swayed by prejudice, — although you had your 
opinion about the condition of things derived 
from your conjectures, — but say that you are 
confirmed in a desire of knowing the truth. 

Wherefore I will willingly turn to the discus- 
sion of the question. But I wish this companion 
of mine here to listen to our conversation.3 
For, indeed, he seems to have much the same 
opinions about these things as you have, where- 
fore I wish that you should both have a share in 
the discussion. For whatever I should say to 
you, situated as you are, I shall say just as much 
to him. If, then, you are indulgent enough to 
think I speak truly on this great subject, give an 
answer to each question I ask ; for the result of 
this will be that you will gain a knowledge of the 
truth, and I shall not carry on my discussion 
with you at random. 

VALENTINIAN. I am ready to do as you say; 
and therefore be quite ready to ask those ques- 
tions from which you think I may be able to 
gain an accurate knowledge of this important 
subject. For the object which I have set before 
myself is not the base one of gaining a victory, 
but that of becoming thoroughly acquainted with 
the truth. Wherefore apply yourself to the rest 
of the discussion. 

OrtTHopoxus. Well, then, I do not suppose 
you are ignorant that it is impossible for two un- 
created things to exist together, although you 
seem to have expressed nearly as much as this 
in an earlier part of the conversation. Assuredly 
we must of necessity say one of two things: 
either that God is separate from matter, or, on 
the other hand, that He is inseparable from it. 
If, then, one would say that they are united, he 
will say that that which is uncreated is one only, 
for each of the things spoken of will be a part 
of the other; and as they are parts of each 
other, there will not be two uncreated things, 
but one composed of different elements. For 





2 The reader will here naturally think of the great and Jong-con- 
tinued Manichzan controversy. — TR. 

3 [See Routh, RX. S., tom. ii. p. 98, and note p. 115, and all Routh’s 
notes on Maximus, the original of Methodius, of whom see Fusebius, 
H, £., book v. cap. 27-} : 


CONCERNING FREE-WILL. 


359 





we do not, because a man has different mem- 
bers, break him up into many beings. But, as 
the demands of reason require, we say that a 
single being, man, of many parts, has been 
created by God. So it is necessary, if God be 
not separate from matter, to say that that which 
is uncreated is one only; but if one shall say 
that He is separate, there must necessarily be 
something intermediate between the two, which 
makes their separation evident. For it is im- 
possible to estimate the distance of one thing 
from another, unless there be something else 
with which the distance between them may be 
compared. And this holds good, not only as 
far as the instance before us, but also to any 
number of others. For the argument which we 
advanced in the case of two uncreated things 
would of necessity be of equal force, were the 
uncreated things granted to be three in number. 
For I should ask also respecting them, whether 
they are separate from each other, or, on the 
other hand, are united each to its neighbour. 
For if any one resolve to say that they are 
united, he will be told the same as before; if, 
again, that they are separate, he will not escape 
the necessary existence of that which separates 
them. 

If, then, any one were to say that there is a 
third account which might fitly be given of 
uncreated things, namely, that neither is God 
separate from matter, nor, again, are they united 
as part of a whole; but that God is locally 
situate in matter, and matter in God, he must 
be told as the consequence,’ that if we say that 
God is placed in matter, we must of necessity say 
that He is contained within limits, and circum- 
scribed by matter. But then He must, equally 
with matter, be carried about without order. 
And that He rests not, nor remains by Himself, 
is a necessary result of that in which He is 
being carried, now this way, and now that. And 
besides this, we must say that God was in worse 
case still. 

For if matter were once without order, and 
He, determining to change it for the better, put 
it into order, there was a time when God was in 
that which had no order. And I might fairly 
ask this question also, whether God filled matter 
completely, or existed in some part of it. For 
if one resolve to say that God was in some part 
of matter, how far smaller than matter does he 
make Him; that is, if a part of it contained 
God altogether. But if he were to say that He 
is in all of it, and is extended through the whole 
of matter, he must tell us how He wrought upon 
it. For we must say that there was a sort of 
contraction of God, which being effected, He 
wrought upon that from which He was withdrawn, 


or else that He wrought in union with matter, 
without having a place of withdrawal. But if 
any one say that matter is in God, there is equal 
need of inquiry, namely, whether it is by His 
being separated from Himself, and as creatures 
exist in the air, by His being divided and parted 
for the reception of the beings that are in Him; 
or whether it is locally situated, that is to say, 
as water in land; for if we were to say, as in 
the air, we must say that God is divisible; but 
if, as water in earth, —since matter was without 
order and arrangement, and besides, contained 
what was evil,— we must say that in God were 
to be found the disorderly and the evil. Now 
this seems to me an unbecoming conclusion, nay, 
more, a dangerous one. For you wish for the 
existence of matter, that you may avoid saying 
that God is the author of evil ; and, determining 
to avoid this, you say that He is the receptacle 
of evil. 

If, then, under the supposition that matter is 
separate from created substances, you had said 
that it is uncreated, I should have said much 
about it, to prove that it is impossible for it to 
be uncreated ; but since you say that the gwes- 
tion of the origin of evil is the cause of this sup- 
position, it therefore seems to me right to proceed 
to inquire into this. For when it is clearly 
stated how evil exists, and that it is not possible 
to say that God is the cause of evil, because of 
matter being subject to Him, it seems to me to 
destroy such a supposition, to remark, that if 
God created the qualities which did not exist, 
He equally created the substances.? 

Do you say, then, that there co-exists with 
God matter without qualities out of which He 
formed the beginning of this world? 

VALENTINIAN. So I think. 

OrtHopoxus. If, then, matter had no quali- 
ties, and the world were produced by God, and 
qualities exist in the world, then God is the 
maker of qualities? 

VALENTINIAN. It is so. 

OrtHopoxus. Now, as I heard you say some 
time ago that it is impossible for anything to 
come into being out of that which has no exist- 
ence, answer my question: Do you think that 
the qualities of the world were not produced 
out of any existing qualities ? 


VALENTINIAN. I do. 

OrtHopoxus. And that they are something 
distinct from substances ? 

VALENTINIAN. Yes. 

OrtHopoxus. If, then, qualities were neither 


made by God out of any ready at hand, nor: 
derive their existence from substances, because 
they are not substances, we must say that they 
were produced by God out of what had no 





1 Jahn’s reading is here followed. 





2 The text is here in an uncertain state. Cf, Migne and Jahn, 


360 


CONCERNING FREE-WILL. 





existence. Wherefore I thought you spoke ex- 
travagantly in saying that it was impossible to 
suppose that anything was produced by God 
out of what did not exist. 

But let our discussion of this matter stand 
thus. For truly we see among ourselves men 
making things out of what does not exist, 
although they seem for the most part to be mak- 
ing them with something. As, for instance, we 
may have an example in the case of architects ; 
for they truly do not make cities out of cities, 
nor in like manner temples out of temples.? 


. . . . . 


But if, because substances underlie these 
things, you think that the builders make them 
out of what does exist, you are mistaken in your 
calculation. For it is not the substance which 
makes the city or the temples, but art applied to 
substance. And this art is not produced out of 
some art which lies in the substances themselves, 
but from that which is not in them. 

But you seem likely to meet me with this 
argument: that the artificer makes the art which 
is connected with the substance out of the art 
which he has. Now I think it is a good reply 
to this to say, that in man it is not produced 
from any art lying beneath ; for it is not to be 
granted that substance by itself is art. For art 
is in the class of accidents, and is one of the 
things that have an existence only when they are 
employed about some substance. For man will 


exist even without the art of building, but it will | 


have no existence unless man be previously in 
being. Whence we must say that it is in the 
nature of things for arts to be produced in men 
out of what has no existence. If, then, we 
have shown that this is so in the case of men, 
why was it improper to say that God is able to 
make not only qualities, but also substances, out 
of that which has no existence? For as it ap- 
pears possible for something to be produced out 
of what exists not, it is evident that this is the 
case with substances. To return to the question 
of evil. Do you think evil comes under the 
head of substances, or of qualities of substances ? 


VALENTINIAN. Of qualities. 

OrtTHoboxus. But matter was found to be 
without quality or form? 

VALENTINIAN. It was. 

OrrHopoxus. Well, then, the connection of 


these names with substance is owing to its acci- 
dents. For murder is not a substance, nor is 
any other evil; but the substance receives a 
cognate name from putting it into practice. For 
a man is not (spoken of as) murder, but by 
committing it he receives the derived name of 
murderer, without being himself murder; and, 
to speak concisely, no other evil is a substance ; 





I Imperfect. The rest from the Bzb/iotheca of Photius. 








but by practising any evil, it can be called evil. 
Similarly consider, if you imagine anything else 
to be the cause of evil to men, that it too is evil 
by reason of its acting: by them, and suggesting 
the committal of evil. For a man is evil in 
consequence of his actions. For he is said to 
be evil, because he is the doer of evil. Now 
what a man does, is not the man himself, but his 
activity, and it is from his actions that he receives 
the title of evil. For if we were to say that he 
is that which he does, and he commits murders, 
adulteries, and such-like, he will be all these. 
Now if he is these, then when they are produced 
he has an existence, but when they are not, he 
too ceases to be. Now these things are produced 
by men. Men then will be the authors of them, 
and the causes of their existing or not existing. 
But if each man is evil in consequence of what 
he practises, and what he practises has an origin, 
he also made a beginning in evil, and evil too 
had a beginning. Now if this is the case, no 
one is without a beginning in evil, nor are evil 
things without an origin. 

VALENTINIAN. Well, my friend, you seem to 
me to have argued sufficiently against the other 
side. For you appeared to draw right conclu- 
sions from the premises which we granted to the 
discussion. For truly if matter is without quali- 
ties, then God is the maker of qualities ; and if 
evils are qualities, God will be the author of 
evils. But it seems to me false to say that matter 
is without qualities ; for it cannot be said respect- 
ing any substance that it is without qualities. 
But indeed, in the very act of saying that it is 
without qualities, you declare that it has a quality, 
by describing the character of matter, which is 
a kind of quality. Therefore, if you please, 
begin the discussion from the beginning ; for it 
seems to me that matter never began to have 
qualities. For such being the case, I assert, my 
friend, that evil arises from its emanation. 

OrtHopoxus. If matter were possessed of 
qualities from eternity, of what will God be the 
creator? For if we say substances, we speak 
of them as pre-existing ; if, again, we say quali- 
ties, these too are declared to have an existence. 
Since, then, both substances and qualities exist, 
it seems to me superfluous to call God a creator. 
But answer me a question. In what way do you 
say that God was acreator? Was it by changing 
the existence of those substances into non-exist- 
ence, or by changing the qualities while He 
preserved the substances? 

VALENTINIAN. I think that there was no 
change of the substances, but only of the quali- 
ties; and in respect to these we call God a 
creator. And just as if one might chance to say 
that a house was made of stones, it cannot be 
said of them that they do not still continue stones 
in substance, because they are called a house; 


Soir ape el err 
* ; A we ¥4 
; 


CONCERNING FREE-WILL. 


361 





for I affirm that the house is made by the quality 
of construction. So I think that God, while 
substance remained, produced a change of its 
qualities, by reason of which I say that this 
world was made by God. 

OrtHopoxus. Do you think, too, that evil is 
among the qualities of substances ? 

VALENTINIAN. I do. 

OrtHopoxus. And were these qualities in 
matter from the first, or had they a beginning? 

VALENTINIAN. I say that these qualities were 
eternally co-existent with matter. 

OrTHopoxus. But do you not say that God 
has made a change in the qualities? 


VALENTINIAN. I do say this. 

OrtHopoxus. For the better? 

VALENTINIAN. I think so. 

OrtHopoxus. If, then, evil is among the 


qualities of matter, and its qualities were changed 
by God for the better, the inquiry must be made 
whence evil arose. For either all of them, being 
evil, underwent a change for the better, or some 
of them being evil, and some not, the evil ones 
were not changed for the better; but the rest, 
as far as they were found superior, were changed 
by God for the sake of order. 

VALENTINIAN. ‘That is the opinion I held 
from the beginning. 

OrtTHOboxus. How, then, do you say it was 
that He left the qualities of evil as they were? 
Was it that He was able to do away with them, 
or that, though He wished to do so, He was un- 
able? For if you say that He was able, but dis- 
inclined to do so, He must be the author of these 
things ; because, while He had power to bring 
evil to an end, He allowed it to remain as it was, 
especially when He had begun to work upon 
matter. For if He had had nothing at all to do 
with matter, He would not have been the author 
of what He allowed to remain. But since He 
works upon a part of it, and leaves a part of it 
to itself, while He has power to change it for the 
better, I think He is the author of evil, since He 
left part of matter in its vileness. He wrought 
then for the ruin of a part; and, in this respect, 
it seems to me that this part was chiefly injured 
by His arranging it in matter, so that it became 
partaker of evil. For before matter was put in 
order, it was without the perception of evil; but 
now each of its parts has the capacity of per- 
ceiving evil. Now, take an example in the case 
of man. Previously to becoming a living crea- 
ture, he was insensible to evil; but from the 
time when he is fashioned by God into the form 
of man, he gains the perception of approaching 
evil. So this act of God, which you say was 
done for the benefit of matter, is found to have 
happened to it rather for the worse. But if you 
say that God was not able to stop evil, does the 
impossibility result from His being naturally 








weak, or from His being overcome by fear, and 
in subjection to some more powerful being? 
See which of these you would like to attribute 
to the almighty and good God. But, again, 
answer me about matter. Is matter simple or 
compound? For if matter be simple and uni- 
form, and the universe compound, and composed 
of different substances, it is impossible to say 
that it is made of matter, because compound 
things cannot be composed of one pure and sim- 
ple ingredient. For composition indicates the 
mixture of several simple things. But if, on the 
other hand, you say that matter is compound, it 
has been entirely composed of simple elements, 
and they were once each separately simple, and 
by their composition matter was produced ; for 
compound things derive their composition from 
simple things. So there was once a time when 
matter did not exist — that is to say, before the 
combination of the simple elements. But if 
there was once a time when matter did not exist, 
and there was never a time when what is uncre- 
ated did not exist, then matter is not uncreated. 
And from this it follows that there are many 
things which are uncreated. For if God were 
uncreated, and the simple elements of which 
matter was composed were uncreated, the num- 
ber of the uncreated would be more than two. 
But to omit inquiring what are the simple ele- 
ments, matter or form — for this would be fol- 
lowed by many absurdities — let me ask, do you 
think that nothing that exists is contrary to 
itself? 

VALENTINIAN. I do. 

OrtHopoxus. Yet water is contrary to fire, 
and darkness to light, and heat to cold, and 
moisture to dryness. 

VALENTINIAN. I think it is. 

OrtHopoxus. If, then, nothing that exists is 
contrary to itself, and these are contrary to one 
another, they will not be one and the same mat- 
ter—no, nor formed from one and the same 
matter. But, again, I wish to ask, do you think 
that the parts of a thing are not destructive of 
one another? 

VALENTINIAN. I do. 

OrtHopoxus. And: that fire and water, and 
the rest likewise, are parts of matter? 

VALENTINIAN. I hold them to be so. 

OrtHopoxus. Why, then, do you not think 
that water is destructive of fire, and light of 
darkness, and so on with the rest? 

VALENTINIAN. I do. 

OrtHopoxus. Then, if parts of a thing are 
not destructive of one another, and these are 
found to be so, they will not be parts of the 
same thing. But if they are not parts of the 
same thing, they will not be parts of one and 
the same matter. And, indeed, they will not be 
matter either, because nothing that exists is de- 


362 


Apo Sas oa ‘ie 


CONCERNING FREE-WILL. 





structive of itself. And this being the case with 
the contraries, it is shown that they are not mat- 
ter. This is enough on the subject of matter. 

Now we must come to the examination of 
evils, and must necessarily inquire into the evils 
among men. As to these, are they forms of the 
principle of evil, or parts of it? If forms, evil 
will not have a separate existence distinct from 
them, because the species are to be sought for in 
the forms, and underlie them. But if this is the 
case, evil has an origin. For its forms are shown 
to have an origin—such as murder, and adul- 
tery, and the like. But if you will have them to 
be parts of some principle of evil, and they have 
an origin, it also must have an origin. For those 
things whose parts have an origin, are of neces- 
sity originated likewise. For the whole consists 
of parts. And the whole will not exist if the 
parts do not, though there may be some parts, 
even if the whole be not there. 

Now there is nothing existing of which one 
part is originated, and another part not. But if 
I were even to grant this, then there was a time 
when evil was not complete, namely, before 
matter was wrought by God. And it attains 
completeness when man is produced by God; 
for man is the maker of the parts of evil. And 
from this it follows that the cause of evil being 
complete, is God the Creator, which it is impious 
to say. But if you say that evil is neither of the 
things supposed, but is the doing of something 
evil, you declare that it has an origin. For the 
doing of a thing makes the beginning of its 
existence. And besides this, you have nothing 
further to pronounce evil. For what other action 
have you to point out as such, except what 
happens among men? Now, it has been already 
shown that he who acts is not evil according to 
his being, but in accordance with his evil doing. 

Because there is nothing evil by nature, but it 
is by use that evil things become such. SoI say, 
says he, that man was made with a free-will, not 
as if there were already evil in existence, which 
he had the power of choosing if he wished, but 
on account of his capacity of obeying or dis- 
obeying God. 

For this was the meaning of the gift of Free 
Will. And man after his creation receives a com- 
mandment from God ; and from this at once rises 
evil, for he does not obey the divine command ; 
and this alone is evil, namely, disobedience, 
which had a beginning. 


For man received power, and enslaved him- 
self, not because he was overpowered by the 
irresistible tendencies of his nature, nor because 





! The whole of this work, as preserved, is in a very fragmentary 
state. We have followed Migne in general, as his edition is most 
widely known, and but little is gained by adopting Jahn’s, which is 
somewhat more complete, — Tr. 





the capacity with which he was gifted deprived 
him of what was better for him; for it was for 
the sake of this that I say he was endowed with 
it (but he received the power above mentioned), 
in order that he may obtain an addition to what 
he already possesses, which accrues to him from 
the Superior Being in consequence of his obedi- 
ence, and is demanded as a debt from his Maker. 
For I say that man was made not for destruction, 
but for better things. For if he were made as 
any of the elements, or those things which render 
a similar service to God, he would cease to 
receive a reward befitting deliberate choice, and 
would be like an instrument of the maker ; and 
it would be unreasonable for him to suffer blame 
for his wrong-doings, for the real author of them 
is the one by whom he is used. But man did 
not understand better things, since he did not 
know the author (of his existence), but only the 
object for which he was made. I say therefore 
that God, purposing thus to honour man, and to 
grant him an understanding of better things, 
has given him the power of being able to do 
what he wishes, and commends the employment 
of his power for better things; not that He 
deprives him again of free-will, but wishes to 
point out the better way. For the power is 
present with him, and he receives the command- 

ment ; but God exhorts him to turn his power of 

choice to better things. For as a father exhorts 
his son, who has power to learn his lessons, to 

give more attention to them, inasmuch as, while 

he points out this as the better course, he does 

not deprive his son of the power which he 

possessed, even if he be not inclined to learn 

willingly ; so I do not think that God, while He 

urges on man to obey His commands, deprives 

him of the power of purposing and withholding 

obedience. For He points out the cause of 

His giving this advice, in that He does not 

deprive him of the power. But He gives com- 

mands, in order that man may be able to enjoy 

better things. For this is the consequence of 

obeying the commands of God. So that He 

does not give commands in order to take away 

the power which He has given, but in order that 

a better gift may be bestowed, as to one worthy 

of attaining greater things, in return for his 

having rendered obedience to God, while he had 

power to withhold it. I say that man was made 

with free-will, not as if there were already exist- 

ing some evil, which he had the power of choosing 

if he wished, . . . but that the power of obey- 

ing:and disobeying God is the only cause.” 

For this was the object to be obtained by free- 
will) And man after his creation receives a 
commandment from God, and from this at once 
rises evil; for he does not obey the divine com- 





2 Of the bestowal of free-will. 


‘ 


CONCERNING 


mand, and this alone is evil, namely, disobe- 
dience, which had a beginning. For no one has 
it in his power to say that it is without an origin, 
when its author had an origin. But you will be 
sure to ask whence arose this disobedience. It 
is clearly recorded in Holy Scripture, by which 
I am enabled to say that man was not made by 
God in this condition, but that he has come to 
it by some. teaching. For man did not receive 
such a nature as this. For if it were the case 
that his nature was such, this would not have 
come upon him by teaching. Now one says in| 





FREE-WILL. 363 
Holy Writ, that “man has learnt (evil).”" I 
say, then, that disobedience to God is taught. 
For this alone is evil which is produced in oppo- 
sition to the purpose of God, for man would not 
learn evil by itself. He, then, who teaches evil 
is the Serpent. 


For my part, I said that the beginning of evil 
was envy, and that it arose from man’s being dis- 
tinguished by God with higher honour. Now 
evil is disobedience to the commandment of God. 


I Jer. xiii. 23. 


es okie) AE in a 
oe 
j 





FROM THE DISCOURSE ON THE RESURRECTION: 


PART I. 


1. Gop did not make evil,? nor is He at all in 
any way the author of evil; but whatever failed 
to keep the law, which He in all justice ordained, 
after being made by Him with the faculty of free- 
will, for the purpose of guarding and keeping it, 
is called evil. Now it is the gravest fault to dis- 
obey God, by overstepping the bounds of that 
righteousness which is consistent with free-will. 

11. Now the question has already been raised,3 

and answered,‘ that the “ coats of skins ’’ 5 are not 
bodies. Nevertheless, let us speak of it again, 
for it is not enough to have mentioned it once. 
Before the preparation of these coats of skins, 
the first man himself acknowledges that he has 
both bones and flesh; for when he saw the 
woman brought to him: “ This is now,” he cried,° 
“bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh.” And 
again: “She shall be called Woman, because 
she was taken out of man.” For this cause shall 
a man leave his father and mother, and shall be 
joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one 
flesh.” For I cannot endure the trifling of some 
who shamelessly do violence to Scripture, in 
order that their opinion, that the resurrection 
is without flesh, may find support; supposing 
rational bones and flesh, and in different ways 
changing it backwards and forwards by allego- 
rizing. And Christ confirms the taking of these 
things as they are written, when, to the question 
of the Pharisees about putting away a wife, He 
answers: “Have ye not read that He which 
made them at the beginning made them male 
and female ; and said, For this cause shall a man 
leave his father,’ ® and so on. 

i. But it is evidently absurd to think that the 
body will not co-exist with the soul in the eternal 
state, because it is a bond and fetters; in order 
that, according to their view, we who are to live 





1 [Compare Athenagoras, vol. ii. p. 149, and other Fathers 
passim.) 

2 [See p. 363, supra.] 

3 Cf. Anastasius, in Doctrina Patrum de Verbi [ncarnatione, 
c. 25. — JAHN. 

4 By Epiphanius, Her., lxiv. n. 22. — MIGNE. 

S Gen. tii. 21. 

& Gen. ii. 23, 24. 

7 [See vol. iv. p. 38, this series.] 

8 Matt. xix. 4, 5. 


364 





in the kingdom of light may not be for ever con- 
demned to be bondmen of corruption. For as 
the question has been sufficiently solved, and 
the statement refuted in which they defined the 
flesh to be the soul’s chain, the argument also is 
destroyed, that the flesh will not rise again, lest, 
if we resume it, we be prisoners in the kingdom 
of light. 

Iv. In order, then, that man might not be an 
undying or ever-living evil, as would have been 
the case if sin were dominant within him, as it 
had sprung up in an immortal body, and was 
provided with immortal sustenance, God for this 
cause pronounced him mortal, and clothed him 
with mortality. For this is what was meant by 
the coats of skins, in order that, by the dissolu- 
tion of the body, sin might be altogether de- 
stroyed from the very roots, that there might not 
be left even the smallest particle of root from 
which new shoots of sin might again burst forth. 

v. For as a fig-tree, which has grown in the 
splendid buildings 9 of a temple, and has reached 
a great size, and is spread over all the joints of 
the stones with thickly-branching roots, ceases 
not to grow, till, by the loosening of the stones 
from the place in which it sprung up, it is alto- 
gether torn away ; for it is possible for the stones 
to be fitted into their own places, when the fig- 
tree is taken away, so that the temple may be 
preserved, having no longer to support what was 
the cause of its own destruction ; while the fig- 
tree, torn away by the roots, dies; in the same 
way also, God, the builder, checked by the sea- 
sonable application of death, His own temple, 
man, when he had fostered sin, like a wild fig- 
tree, “killing,” ?° in the words of Scripture, “and 
making alive,” in order that the flesh, after sin 
is withered and dead, may, like a restored temple, 
be raised up again with the same parts, uninjured 
and immortal, while sin is utterly and entirely 
destroyed. For while the body still lives, before 
it has passed through death, sin must also live 
with it, as it has its roots concealed within us. 
even though it be externally checked by the 





9 [i.e., ‘in the courts of the Lord’s house; ” among the build- 


ings. | ; 
To Deut. xxxil. 39. 


ail 


FROM THE DISCOURSE ON THE RESURRECTION. 


365 





wounds inflicted by corrections and warnings ; 
since, otherwise, it would not happen that we do 
wrong after baptism, as we should be entirely 
and absolutely free from sin. But now, even after 
believing, and after the time of being touched 
by the water of sanctification, we are oftentimes 
found in sin. For no one can boast of being so 
free from sin as not even to have an evil thought. 
So that it is come to pass that sin is now re- 
strained and lulled to sleep by faith, so that it 
does not produce injurious fruits, but yet is not 
torn up by the roots. For the present we restrain 
its sprouts, such as evil imaginations, “lest any 
root of bitterness springing up trouble’’! us, not 
suffering its leaves to unclose and open into 
shoots ; while the Word, like an axe, cuts at its 
roots which grow below. But hereafter the very 
thought of evil will disappear. 

vi. But come now, since there is need of many 
examples in matters of this kind, let us examine 
them particularly from this point of view, with- 
out desisting till our argument ends in clearer 
explanation and proof. It appears, then, as if 
an eminent craftsman were to cast over again a 
noble image, wrought by himself of gold or other 
material, and beautifully proportioned in all its 
members, upon his suddenly perceiving that it 
had been mutilated by some infamous man, who, 
too envious to endure the image being beautiful, 
spoiled it, and thus enjoyed the empty pleasure 
of indulged jealousy. For take notice, most 
wise Aglaophon, that, if the artificer wish that 
that upon which he has bestowed so much pains 
and care and labour, shall be quite free from 
injury, he will be impelled to melt it down, and 
restore it to its former condition. But if he 
should not cast it afresh, nor reconstruct it, but 
allow it to remain as it is, repairing and restoring 
it, it must be that the image, being passed 
through the fire and forged, cannot any longer 
be preserved unchanged, but will be altered and 
wasted. Wherefore, if he should wish it to be 
perfectly beautiful and faultless, it must be broken 
up and recast, in order that all the disfigurements 
and mutilations inflicted upon it by treachery and 
envy, may be got rid of by the breaking up and 
recasting of it, while the image is restored again 
uninjured and unalloyed to the same form as 
before, and made as like itself as possible. For 
it is impossible for an image under the hands of 
the original artist to be lost, even if it be melted 
down again, for it may be restored; but it is 
possible for blemishes and injuries to be put off, 
for they melt away and cannot be restored ; be- 
cause in every work of art the best craftsman 
looks not for blemish or failure, but for symme- 
try and correctness in his work. Now God’s 
plan seems to me to have been the same as that 





1 Heb. xii. 15, 





which prevails among ourselves. For seeing 
man, His fairest work, corrupted by envious 
treachery, He could not endure, with His love 
for man, to leave him in such a condition, lest 
he should be for ever faulty, and bear the blame 
to eternity; but dissolved him again into his 
original materials, in order that, by remodelling, 
all the blemishes in him might waste away and 
disappear. For the melting down of the statue 
in the former case corresponds to the death and 
dissolution of the body in the latter, and the re- 
moulding of the material in the former, to the 
resurrection after death in the latter; as also 
saith the prophet Jeremiah, for he addresses che 
Jews in these words, ‘And I went down to the 
potter’s house ; and, behold, he wrought a work 
upon the stones. And the vessel which he made 
in his hands was broken; and again he made 
another vessel, as it pleased him to make it. 
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 
Cannot I do to you as this potter, O house of 
Israel? Behold, as the clay of the potter are ye 
in my hands.” ? 

vu. For I call your attention to this, that, as 
I said, after man’s transgression the Great Hand 
was not content to leave as a trophy of victory 


its own work, debased by the Evil One, who 


wickedly injured it from motives of envy; but 
moistened and reduced it to clay, as a potter 
breaks up a vessel, that by the remodelling of 
it all the blemishes and bruises in it may disap- 
pear, and it may be made afresh faultless and 
pleasing. 

vi. But it is not satisfactory to say that the 
universe will be utteriy destroyed, and sea and 
air and sky will be no longer. For the whole 
world will be deluged with fire from heaven, and 
burnt for the purpose of purification and re- 
newal; it will not, however, come to complete 
ruin and corruption. For if it were better for 
the world not to be than to be, why did God, 
in making the world, take the worse course? 
But God did not work in vain, or do that which 
was worst. God therefore ordered the creation 
with a view to its existence and continuance, as 
also the Book of Wisdom confirms, saying, “ For 
God created all things that they might have their 
being; and the generations of the world were 
healthful, and there is no poison of destruction 
in them.”’3 And Paul clearly testifies this, say- 
ing, “ For the earnest expectation of the crea- 
ture 4 waiteth for the manifestation of the sons 
of God. For the creature* was made subject 
to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him 
that subjected the same in hope: because the 
creature ¢ itself also shall be delivered from the 


2 Jer. xviii. 3-6. 
3 Wisd. i. r4. 
4 (Greek, creation, xTigts. 


The English version faulty and com 
fusing. ] 


366 


~ ha a, ee ae ie 


FROM THE DISCOURSE ON THE RESURRECTION. 





bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty 
of the children of God.” ! For the creation was 
made subject to vanity, he says, and he expects 
that it will be set free from such servitude, as 
he intends to call this world by the name of 
creation. For it is not what is unseen but what 
is seen that is subject to corruption. The crea- 
tion, then, after being restored to a better and 
more seemly state, remains, rejoicing and exult- 
ing over the children of God at the resurrection ; 
for whose sake it now groans and travails,? wait- 
ing itself also for our redemption from the cor- 
ruption of the body, that, when we have risen 
and shaken off the mortality of the flesh, accord- 
ing to that which is written, ‘‘ Shake off the dust, 
and arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem,” 3 and 
have been set free from sin, it also shall be freed 
from corruption and be subject no longer to 
vanity, but to righteousness. Isaiah says, too, 
“For as the new heaven and the new earth which 
I make, remaineth before me, saith the Lord, 
so shall your seed and your name be;’’+ and 
again, “Thus saith the Lord that created the 
heaven, it is He who prepared the earth and 
created it, He determined it ; He created it not 
in vain, but formed it to be inhabited.”5 For 
in reality God did not establish the universe in 
vain, or to no purpose but destruction, as those 
weak-minded men say, but to exist, and be in- 
habited, and continue. Wherefore the earth and 
the heaven must exist again after the conflagra- 
tion and shaking of all things. 
1x. But if our opponents say, How then is it, 
if the universe be not destroyed, that the Lord 
says that “heaven and earth shall pass away ;”’° 
and the prophet, that “the heaven shall perish 
as smoke, and the earth shall grow old as a gar- 
ment ;’’7 we answer, because it is usual for the 
Scriptures to call the change of the world from 
its present condition to a better and more glori- 
ous one, destruction ; as its earlier form is lost 
in the change of all things to a state of greater 
splendour; for there is no contradiction nor 
absurdity in the Holy Scriptures. For not “the 
world” but the “ fashion of this world”’ passeth 
away,® it is said; so it is usual for the Scrip- 
tures to call the change from an earlier form to 
a better and more comely state, destruction ; 
just as when one calls by the name of destruc- 
tion the change from a childish form into a 
perfect man, as the stature of the child is turned 
into manly size and beauty. We may expect 
that the creation will pass away, as if it were to 
perish in the burning, in order that it may be 





1 Rom. viii. 19-21. 

2 The reading and punctuation of Jahn are here adopted. 
3 Isa. lii, 2. 

4 Isa. Ixvi. 22. 

5 Isa, xlv. 18. 

6 Matt. xxiv. 35. 

7 Isa. li. 6. 

8 x Cor. vii. 31. 





renewed, not however that it will be destroyed, 
that we who are renewed may dwell in a renewed 
world without taste of sorrow; according as it 
is said, ‘‘ When Thou lettest Thy breath go forth, 
they shall be made, and Thou shalt renew the 
face of the earth ;” 9 God henceforth providing 
for the due temperature of that which surrounds 
it. For as the earth is to exist after the present 
age,’° there must be by all means inhabitants for 
it, who shall no longer be liable to death, nor 
shall marry, nor beget children, but live in all 
happiness, like the angels, without change or 
decay. Wherefore it is silly to discuss in what 
way of life our bodies will then exist, if there is 
no longer air, nor earth, nor anything else. 

x. But in addition to what has been said, 
there is this point worth consideration, since it 
misleads very much, if we may be outspoken 
about matters of such importance, Aglaophon. 
For you said that the Lord declared plainly '' 
that those who shall obtain the resurrection shall 
then be as the angels.'? You brought this objec- 
tion: The angels, being without flesh, are on 
this account in the utmost happiness and glory. 
We must then, as we are to be made equal to 
the angels, be like them stripped of flesh, and 
be angels. But you overlooked this, my excel- 
lent friend, that He who created and set in order 
the universe out of nothing, ordained the nature 
of immortal beings to be distributed not only 
among angels and ministers, but also among 
principalities, and thrones, and powers. For the 
race of angels is one, and that of principalities 
and powers another; because immortal beings 
are not all of one order, and constitution, and 
tribe, and family, but there are differences of 
race and tribe. And neither do the cherubim, 
departing from their own nature, assume the 
form of angels; nor, again, do angels assume 
the form of the others. For they cannot be any- 
thing but what they are and have been made. 
Moreover, man also having been appointed by 
the original order of things to inhabit the world, 
and to rule oyer all that is in it, when he is im- 
mortal, will never be changed from being a man 
into the form either of angels or any other ; for 
neither do angels undergo a change from their 
original form to another. For Christ at His 
coming did not proclaim that the human nature 
should, when it is immortal, be remoulded or 
transformed into another nature, but into what 
it was before the fall. For each one among 
created things must remain in its own proper 
place, that none may be wanting to any, but all 
may be full: heaven of angels, thrones of powers, 
luminaries of ministers; and the more divine 
spots, and the undefiled and untainted lumina- 





9 Ps. civ. 30. 

10 Or, ‘‘ dispensation.” 

11 When tempted by the Sadducees. 
12 Matt. xxii. 30. 


FROM THE DISCOURSE ON THE RESURRECTION. 


367 





ries, with seraphim, who attend the Supreme 
Council, and uphold the universe ; and the world 
of men. For if we granted that men are changed 
into angels, it would follow that we say that an- 
gels also are changed into powers, and these 
into one thing and the other, until our argument 
proceed too far for safety. 

xi. Neither did God, as if He had made man 
badly, or committed a mistake in the formation 
of him, determine afterwards to make an angel, 
repenting of His work, as the worst of craftsmen 
do; nor did He fashion man, after He had 
wished originally to make an angel, and failed ; 
for this would be a sign of weakness, etc. Why 
even then did He make man and not angels, 
if He wished men to be angels and not men? 
Was it because He was unable? It is blasphemy 
to suppose so. Or was He so busy in making 
the worse as to loiter about the better? This 
too is absurd. For He does not fail in making 
what is good, nor defers it, nor is incapable of 
it; but He has the power to act how and when 
He pleases, inasmuch as He is Himself power. 
Wherefore it was because He intended man to 
be man, that He originally made him so. But 
if He so intended —~since He intends what is 
good — man is good. Now man is said to be 
composed of soul and body; he cannot then 
exist without a body, but with a body, unless 
there be produced another man besides man. 
For all the orders of immortal beings must be 
preserved by God, and among these is man. 
“ For,” says the Book of Wisdom, “God created 
man to be immortal, and made him to be an 
image of His own eternity.’’! The body then 
perishes not ; for man is composed of soul and 
body. 


xu. Wherefore observe that these are the very | 


things which the Lord wished to teach to the 
Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrec- 
tion of the flesh. For this was the opinion of 
the Sadducees. Whence it was that, having 
contrived the parable about the woman and the 
seven brethren, that they might cast doubt upon 
the resurrection of the flesh, “There came to 
Him,”’? it is said, ‘‘ the Sadducees also, who say 
that there is no resurrection.” Christ, then, if 
there had been no resurrection of the flesh, but 


the soul only were saved, would have agreed | 


with their opinion as a right and excellent one. 
But as it was, He answered and said, “In the 
resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in 


marriage, but are as the angels in heaven,’’? not | 


on account of having no flesh, but of not marry- 
ing nor being married, but being henceforth in- 
corruptible. And He speaks of our being near 
the angels in this respect, that as the angels in 
heaven, so we also in paradise, spend our time 





} Wisd. ii. 23. 
2 Matt. xxii. 23. 





no more in marriage-feasts or other festivities, 
but in seeing God and cultivating life, under the 
direction of Christ. For He did not say “they 
shall be angels,’ but like angels, in being, for 
instance, crowned, as it is written, with glory and 
honour ; differing a little from the angels,3 while 
near to being angels. Just as if He had said, 
while observing the fair order of the sky, and 
the stillness of the night, and everything illu- 
mined by the heavenly light of the moon, “the 
moon shines like the sun.” We should not then 
say that He asserted that the moon was abso- 
lutely the sun, but like the sun. As also that 
which is not gold, but approaching the nature 
of gold, is said not to be gold, but to be like 
gold. But if it were gold, it would be said to 
be, and not to be like, gold. But since it is not 
gold, but approaching to the nature of it, and 
has the appearance of it, it is said to be like 
gold ; so also when He says that the saints shall, 
in the resurrection, be like the angels, we do 
not understand Him to assert that they will then 
be actually angels, but approaching to the con- 
dition of angels. So that it is most unreasonable 
to say, “Since Christ declared that the saints in 
the resurrection appear as angels, therefore their 
bodies do not rise,” although the very words 
employed give a clear proof of the real state of 
the case. For the term “resurrection” is not 
applied to that which has not fallen, but to that 
which has fallen and rises again; as when the 
prophet says, “I will also raise up again the 
tabernacle of David which has fallen down.’ 4 
Now the much-desired tabernacle of the soul is 
fallen, and sunk down into “the dust of the 
earth.” 5 For it is not that which is not dead, 
but that which is dead, that is laid down. But 
it is the flesh which dies ; the soul is immortal. 
So, then, if the soul be immortal, and the body 
be the corpse, those who say that there is a 
resurrection, but not of the flesh, deny any resur- 
rection ; because it is not that which remains 
standing, but that which has fallen® and been 
laid down, that is set up; according to that 
which is written, “ Does not he who falls rise 
again, and he who turns aside return?”’7 

xm. Since flesh was made to border on incor- 
ruption and corruption, being itself neither the 
one nor the other, and was overcome by corrup- 
tion for the sake of pleasure, though it was the 
work and property of incorruption ; therefore it 
became corruptible, and was laid in the dust of 
the earth. When, then, it was overcome by 
corruption, and delivered over to death through 
disobedience, God did not leave it to corruption, 
to be triumphed over as an inheritance; but, 





3 Ps. viii. 5. 

4 Amos ix, 11. 

5 Dan. xii. 2. 

6 [A play on the Greek avacracts, but good exegesis.] 
7 Jer. vili. 4. 


368 


FROM THE DISCOURSE ON THE RESURRECTION. 





after conquering death by the resurrection, de- 
livered it again to incorruption, in order that 
corruption might not receive the property of in- 
corruption, but incorruption that of corruption. 
Therefore the apostle answers thus, “ For this 
corruptible must put on incorruption, and this 
mortal must put on immortality.”! Now the 
corruptible and mortal putting on immortality, 
what else is it but that which is “ sown in cor- 
ruption and raised in incorruption,” 2 — for the 
soul is not corruptible or mortal ; but this which 
is mortal and corrupting is of flesh, — in order 
that, “as we have borne the image of the earthy, 
we shall also bear the image of the heavenly?” 3 
For the image of the earthy which we have 
borne is this, “ Dust thou art, and unto dust 
shalt thou return.” * But the image of the heav- 
enly is the resurrection from the dead, and in- 
corruption, in order that “‘as Christ was raised 
up from the dead by the glory of the Father, so 
we also should walk in newness of life.”5 But 
if any one were to think that the earthy image 
is the flesh itself, but the heavenly image some 
other spiritual body besides the flesh; let him 
first consider that Christ, the heavenly man, 
when He appeared, bore the same form of limbs 
and the same image of flesh as ours, through 
which also He, who was not man, became man, 
that “as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall 
all be made alive.”® For if He bore flesh for 
any other reason than that of setting the flesh 
free, and raising it up, why did He bear flesh 
superfluously, as He purposed neither to save it, 
nor to raise it up? But the Son of God does 
nothing superfluously. He did not then take 
the form of a servant uselessly, but to raise it 
up and save it. For He truly was made man, 
and died, and not in mere appearance, but that 
He might truly be shown to be the first begotten 
from the dead, changing the earthy into the 
heavenly, and the mortal into the immortal. 
When, then, Paul says that “flesh and blood 
cannot inherit the kingdom of God,”7 he does 
not give a disparaging opinion of the regeneration 
of the flesh, but would teach that the kingdom of 
God, which is eternal life, is not possessed by 
the body, but the body by the life. For if the 
kingdom of God, which is life, were possessed 
by the body, it would happen that the life would 
be consumed by corruption. But now the life 
possesses what is dying, in order that “death 
may be swallowed up in victory ’’® by life, and 
the corruptible may be seen to be the possession 
of incorruption and immortality, while it be- 


1 x Cor. xv: 53. 
2 x Cor. v. 42. 
3 1 Cor. xv. 49. 
4 Gen, iii, 19. 

5 Rom. vi. 4. 

6 x Cor. xv. 22. 
7 x Cor. xv. 50, 
§ x Cor. xv. 54. 





comes unbound and free from death and sin, 
but the slave and servant of immortality ; so that 
the body may be the possession of incorruption, 
and not incorruption that of the body. 

xiv. If, then, out of such a drop, small, and 
previously without any existence, in its actual 
state of moistness, contractedness, and insignifi- 
cance, in fact out of nothing, man is brought 
into being, how much rather shall man spring 
again into being out of a previously existing 
man? For it is not so difficult to make any- 
thing anew after it has once existed and fallen 
into decay, as to produce out of nothing that 
which has never existed. Now, in case we choose 
to exhibit the seminal fluid discharged from a 
man, and place by it a corpse, each by itself, 
which of them, as they both lie exposed to view, 
will the spectators think most likely to become 
a man—that drop, which is nothing at all, or 
that which has already shape, and size, and sub- 
stance? For if the very thing which is nothing 
at all, merely because God pleases, becomes a 
man, how much rather shall that which has ex- 
istence and is brought to perfection become 
again a man, if God pleases? For what was the 
purpose of the theologian Moses, in introducing, 
under a mystical sense, the Feast of Tabernacles 
in the Book of Leviticus? Was it that we may 
keep a feast to God, as the Jews with their low 
view of the Scriptures interpret it? as if God 
took pleasure in such tabernacles, decked out 
with fruits and boughs and leaves, which im- 
mediately wither and lose their verdure. We 
cannot say so. ‘Tell me, then, what was the 
object of the Feast of Tabernacles? It was in- 
troduced to point to this real tabernacle of ours, 
which, after it was fallen down to corruption 
through the transgression of the law, and broken 
up by sin, God promised to put together again, 
and to raise up in incorruptibility, in order that 
we may truly celebrate in His honour the great 
and renowned Feast of Tabernacles at the resur- 
rection ; when our tabernacles are put together 
in the perfect order of immortality and harmony, 
and raised up from the dust in incorruption ; 
when the dry bones,? according to the most true 
prophecy, shall hear a voice, and be brought to 
their joints by God, the Creator and Perfect Ar- 
tificer, who will then renew the flesh and bind it 
on, no more with such ties as those by which it 
was at first held together, but by such as shall 
be for ever undecaying and indissoluble. For I 
once saw '° on Olympus, which is a mountain of 
Lycia, fire bursting up from the ground spon- 
taneously on the summit of the mountain; and 
by it was standing an Agnos tree, so flourishing, 
green, and shady, that one might suppose a 





9 Ezek. xxxvii. 4. 
10 [See part ii. cap. viii., p. 375, 2#fra. What he testifies may be 
accepted, at least, as his genuine conviction. ] 





a 








FROM THE DISCOURSE ON THE RESURRECTION. 





369 





never-failing stream of water had nourished its 
growth, rather than what was really the case. 
For which cause, therefore, though the natures 
of things are corruptible, and their bodies con- 
sumed by fire, and it is impossible for things 
which are once of an inflammable nature to re- 
main unaffected by fire ; yet this tree, so far from 
being burnt, is actually more vigorous and green 
than usual, though it is naturally inflammable, 
and that too when the fire is glowing about its 
very roots. I certainly cast some boughs of 
trees from the adjoining wood on to the place 
where the fire burst forth, and they immediately 
caught fire and were burnt to ashes. Now, then, 
tell me why it is that that which cannot bear 
even to feel the heat of the sun, but withers up 
under it unless it be sprinkled with water, is not 
consumed when beset by such fiery heat, but 
both lives and thrives? What is the meaning of 
this marvel? God appointed this as an example 
and introduction to the day that is coming, in 
order that we may know more certainly that, 
when all things are deluged with fire from heav- 
en, the bodies which are distinguished by chastity 
and righteousness will be taken up by Him as 
free from all injury from the fire as from cold 
water. For truly, O beneficent and bountiful 
Lord, “the creature that serveth Thee, who art 
the Maker, increaseth his strength against the 
unrighteous for their punishment, and abateth 
his strength for the benefit of such as put their 
trust in Thee ;”’? and at Thy pleasure fire cools, 
and injures nothing that Thou determinest to be 
preserved ; and again, water burns more fiercely 
than fire, and nothing opposes Thine unconquer- 
able power and might. For Thou createdst all 
things out of nothing; wherefore also Thou 
changest and transformest all things as Thou 
wilt, seeing they are Thine, and Thou alone art 
God. 

xv. The apostle certainly, after assigning the 
planting and watering to art and earth and water, 
conceded the growth to God alone, where he 
says, “Neither is he that planteth anything, 
neither he that watereth; but God that giveth 
the increase.”2 For he knew that Wisdom, the 
first-born of God, the parent and artificer of all 
things, brings forth. everything into the world; 


whom the ancients called Nature and Providence, 


because she, with constant provision and care, 
gives to all things birth and growth. “ For,” 
says the Wisdom of God, ‘‘my Father worketh 
hitherto, and I work.’’3 Now it is on this ac- 
count that Solomon called Wisdom the artificer 
of all things, since God is in no respect poor, 
but able richly to create, and make, and vary, 
and increase all things. 





t Wisd, xvi. 24. | 
2 1 Cor. iii. 7. 


3 John vy. 17. 





xvi. God, who'created all things, and provides 
and cares for all things, took dust from the 
ground, and made our outer man. 


PART Il, 


THE SECOND DISCOURSE ON THE RESURRECTION.+? 


For instance, then, the images of our kings 
here, even though they be not formed of the 
more precious materials — gold or silver —are 
honoured by all. For men do not, while they 
treat with respect those of the far more precious 
material, slight those of a less valuable, but hon- 
our every image in the world, even though it be 
of chalk or bronze. And one who speaks against 
either of them, is not acquitted as if he had only 
spoken against clay, nor condemned for having 
despised gold, but for having been disrespectful 
towards the King and Lord Himself. The 
images of God’s angels, which are fashioned of 
gold, the principalities and powers, we make to 
His honour and glory. - 


PART III. 
I, FROM THE DISCOURSE ON THE RESURRECTION.5 


1. Read the Book on the Resurrection by 
St. Methodius, Bishop and Martyr, of which that 
which follows is a selection, that the body is 
not the fetter of the soul, as Origen thought, 
nor are souls called by the prophet Jeremiah 
“fettered’’ on account of their being within 
bodies. For he lays down the principle that 
the body does not hinder the energies of the 
soul, but that rather the body is carried about 
with it, and co-operates in whatever the soul 
commits to it. But how are we to understand 
the opinion of Gregory® the theologian, and 
many others? 

u. That Origen said that the body was given 
to the soul as a fetter after the fall, and that pre- 
viously it lived without a body; but that this 
body which we wear is the cause of our sins; 
wherefore also he called it a fetter, as it can hin- 
der the soul from good works. 

um. That if the body was given to the soul 
after the fall as a fetter, it must have been given 
as a fetter upon the evil or the good. Now it is 
impossible that it should be upon the good ; for 
no physician or artificer gives to that which has 
gone wrong a remedy to cause further error, 
much less would God do so. It remains, then, 
that it was a fetter upon evil. But surely we 
see that, at the beginning, Cain, clad in this 
body, committed murder ; and it is evident into 





4 From St. John Damascene, Orat. 2, De Jmagzn., tom. i. p. 389, 
ed. Paris, 1712. 

S From Photius, Bzb/zotheco, cod. 234. 

6 Gregory, surnamed Theo‘ogus, commonly known as Gregory 
Nazianzen. 


370 


what wickedness those who succeeded him ran. 


The body is not, then, a fetter upon evil, nor 
indeed a fetter at all; nor was the soul clothed 
in it for the first time after the fall. 

1v. That man, with respect to his nature, is 
most truly said to be neither soul without body, 
nor, on the other hand, body without soul; but 
a being composed out of the union of soul and 
body into one form of the beautiful. But Ori- 
gen said that the soul alone is man, as did Plato. 

v. That there is a difference between man and 
other living creatures; and to them are given 
varieties of natural form and shape, as many as 
the tangible and visible forces of nature pro- 
duced at the command of God; while to him 
was given the form and image of God, with 
every part accurately finished, after the very origi- 
nal likeness of the Father and the only-begotten 
Son. Now we must consider how the saint 
states this. 

vi. He says that Phidias the statuary, after he 
had made the Piszean image of ivory, ordered oil 
to be poured out before it, that, as far as he could 
secure it, it might be preserved imperishable. 

vu. He says, as was said also by Athenagoras,' 
that the devil is a spirit, made by God, in the 
neighbourhood of matter, as of course the rest 
of the angels are, and that he was entrusted 
with the oversight of matter, and the forms of 
matter. For, according to the original constitu- 
tion of angels, they were made by God, in His 
providence, for the care of the universe; in 
order that, while God exercises a perfect and 
general supervision over the whole, and keeps 
the supreme authority and power over all — for 
upon Him their existence depends — the angels 
appointed for this purpose take charge of par- 
ticulars. Now the rest of them remained in the 
positions for which God made and appointed 
them; but the devil was insolent, and having 
conceived envy of us, behaved wickedly in the 
charge committed to him; as also did those 
who subsequently were enamoured of fleshly 
charms, and had illicit intercourse with the 
daughters of men." For to them also, as was the 

case with men, God granted the possession of 
their own choice. And how is this to be taken? 

vil. He says that by the coats of skins is sig- 

nified death. For he says of Adam, that when 
the Almighty God saw that by treachery he, an 
immortal being, had become evil, just as his de- 
ceiver the devil was, He prepared the coats of 
skins on this account ; that when he was thus, as 
it were, clothed in mortality, all that was evil in 
him might die in the dissolution of the body. 
1x. He holds that St. Paul had two revelations. 
For the apostle, he says, does not suppose para- 
dise to be in the third heaven, in the opinion of 





I [Athenagoras, Plea, cap. xxiv, vol. ii, p. 142, this series. ] 





, RS Vee ere Se 


FROM THE DISCOURSE ON THE RESURRECTION. 





those who knew how to observe the niceties of 
language, when he says, “I know such a man 
caught up to the third heaven ; and I know such 
a man, whether in the body or out of the body, 
God knoweth, that was caught up into para. 
dise.”2 Here he signifies that he has seen two 
revelations, having been evidently taken up twice, 
once to the third heaven, and once into paradise. 
For the words, “I know such a man caught up,” 
make it certain that he was personally shown a 
revelation respecting the third heaven. And the 
words which follow, “And I know such a man, 
whether in the body or out of the body, God 
knoweth, that he was caught up into paradise,” 
show that another revelation was made to him re- 
specting paradise. Now he was led to make this 
statement by his opponent’s having laid it down 
from the apostle’s words that paradise is a mere 
conception, as it is above the heaven, in order 
to draw the conclusion that life in paradise is 
incorporeal.3 

x. He says that it is in our power to do, or to 
avoid doing, evil ; since otherwise we should not 
be punished for doing evil, nor be rewarded for 
doing well; but the presence or absence of 
evil thoughts does not depend upon ourselves. 
Wherefore even the sainted Paul says, “ For what 
I would, that do I not, but what I would not, 
that Ido;” 4 that is to say, “ My thoughts are 
not what I would, but what I would not.” Now 
he says that the habit of imagining evil is rooted 
out by the approach of physical death,’ — since 
it was for this reason that death was appointed 
by God for the sinner, that evil might not re- 
main for ever. i 

But what is the meaning of this statement? 
It is to be noted that it has been made by others 
of our Fathers as well. What is the meaning, 
seeing that those who meet death find in it at 
the time neither increase nor decrease of sins? 


Il. A SYNOPSIS OF SOME APOSTOLIC WORDS FROM 
THE SAME DISCOURSE.° 


1. Read a compendious interpretation of some 
apostolic words from the same discourse. Let 
us see, then, what it is that we have endeavoured 
to say respecting the apostle. For this saying 
of his, “I was alive without the law once,’’7 refers 
to the life which was lived in paradise before the 
law, not without a body, but with a body, by our 
first parents, as we have shown above; for we 
lived without concupiscence, being altogether 
ignorant of its assaults. For not to have a law 
according to which we ought to live, nor a power 
of establishing what manner of life we ought to 





2 2 Cor. xii. 2, 3. 

3 perceory opponent, not St. Paul’s.} 
4 Rom, vil. 15. 

5 [Gregory says. ] 

6 From Photius, Bzblzotheca, cod. 234. 
7 Rom, vii. 9. 











FROM THE DISCOURSE ON THE RESURRECTION. 371 





adopt, so that we might justly be approved or 
blamed, is considered to exempt. a person from 
accusation. Because one cannot lust after those 
things from which he is not restrained, and even 
if he lusted after them, he would not be blamed. 
For lust is not directed to things which are be- 
fore us, and subject to our power, but to those 
which are before us, and not in our power. For 
how should one care for a thing which is neither 
forbidden nor necessary to him? And for this 
reason it is said, “I had not known lust, except 
the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” ! For 
when (our first parents) heard, “ Of the tree of 
the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not 
eat of it; for in the day thou eatest thereof thou 
shalt surely die,” ? then they conceived lust, and 
gathered it. Therefore was it said, “I had not 
known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt 
not covet ;’’ nor would they have desired to eat, 
except it had been said, “Thou shalt not eat of 
it.” For it was thence that sin took occasion 
to deceive me. For when the law was given, 
the devil had it in his power to work lust in me ; 
“for without the law, sin was dead ;’’3 which 
means, “‘ when the law was not given, sin could 
not be committed.” » But I was alive and blame- 
less before the law, having no commandment in 
accordance with which it was necessary to live ; 
“but when the commandment came, sin revived, 
and I died. And the commandment, which was 
ordained to life, I found to be unto death.’ 4 
For after God had given the law, and had com- 
manded me what I ought to do, and what I 
ought not to do, the devil wrought lust in me. 
For the promise of God which was given to me, 
this was for life and incorruption, so that obeying 
it I might have ever-blooming life and joy unto 
incorruption ; but to him who disobeyed it, it 
would issue in death. But the devil, whom he 
calls sin, because he is the author of sin, taking 
occasion by the commandment to deceive me 
to disobedience, deceived and slew me, thus 
rendering me subject to the condemnation, “ In 
the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely 
die.”? “Wherefore the law is holy, and the 
commandment holy, and just and good ;’’ be- 
cause it was given, not for injury, but for safety ; 
for let us not suppose that God makes anything 
useless or hurtful. What then? “Was then that 
which is good made death unto me?’’® namely, 
that which was given as a law, that it might be 
the cause of the greatest good? “God forbid.” 
For it was not the law of God that became the 
cause of my being brought into subjection to 
corruption, but the devil ; that he might be made 


Rom. vii. 7. 
Gen, ii. 17. 
Rom, vii. 8. 
Rom. vii. 9, 10. 
Rom, vii. 12. 
Rom. vii. 13. 


Cua LHe 





manifested who, through that which is good, 
wrought evil ; that the inventor of evil might be- 
come and be proved the greatest of all sinners. 
“ For we know that the law is spiritual ;”7 and 
therefore it can in no respect be injurious to any 
one; for spiritual things are far removed from 
irrational lust and sin. ‘ But I am carnal, sold 
under sin ;”7 which means: But I being carnal, 
and being placed between good and evil as a 
voluntary agent, am so that I may have it in my 
power to choose what I will. For “behold I 
set before thee life and death ;”"® meaning that 
death would result from disobedience of the 
spiritual law, that is of the commandment; and 
from obedience to the carnal law, that is the 
counsel of the serpent ; for by such a choice “I 
am sold” to the devil, fallen under sin. Hence 
evil, as though besieging me, cleaves to me and 
dwells in me, justice giving me up to be sold to 
the Evil One, in consequence of having violated 
the law. Therefore also the expressions: “That 
which I do, I allow not,” and “ what I hate, that 
do I,” 9 are not to be understood of doing evil, 
but of only thinking it. For it is not in our 
power to think or not to think of improper 
things, but to act or not to act upon our thoughts. 
For we cannot hinder thoughts from coming into 
our minds, since we receive them when they are 
inspired into us from without; but we are able 
to abstain from obeying them and acting upon 
them. Therefore it is in our power to will not 
to think these things ; but not to bring it about 
that they shall pass away, so as not to come into 
the mind again; for this does not lie in our 
power, as I said; which is the meaning of that 
statement, “The good that I would, I do not ;”"'° 
for I do not will to think the things which injure 
me; for this good is altogether innocent. But 
“the good that I would, I do not; but the evil 
which I would not, that I do;” not willing to 
think, and yet thinking what I do not will. And 
consider whether it was not for these very things 
that David entreated God, grieving that’ he 
thought of those things which he did not will: 
“O cleanse Thou me from my secret faults. 
Keep Thy servant also from presumptuous sins, 
lest they get the dominion over me; so shall I 
be undefiled, and innocent from the great of- 
fence.” 1: And the apostle too, in another place : 
“Casting down imaginations, and every high 
thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge 
of God, and bringing into captivity every thought 
to the obedience of Christ.” 

i. But if any one should venture to oppose this 
statement, and reply, that the apostle teaches 





7 Rom. vii. 14. 

8 Jer, xxi. 8; Ecclus, xv. 8; Deut. xxx. 15. 
9 Rom. vil. 15. 

10 Rom. vii. 19. 

If Ps, xix, 12, 13. 

12 2 Cor. x. 5. 


372 


vai a a 


FROM THE DISCOURSE ON THE RESURRECTION. 





that we hate not only the evil which is in thought, 
but that we do that which we will not, and we 
hate it even in the very act of doing it, for he 
says, “ ‘The good which I would, I do not; but 
the evil which I would not, that I do;’’* if he 
who says so speaks the truth, let us ask him to 
explain what was the evil which the apostle hated 
and willed not to do, but did; and the good 
which he willed to do, but did not; and con- 
versely, whether as often as he willed to do good, 
so often he did not do the good which he willed, 
but did the evil which he willed not? And how 
he can say, when exhorting us to shake off all 
manner of sin, “Be ye followers of me, even as 
I also am of Christ?” ? Thus he meant the 
things already mentioned which he willed not to 
do, not to be done, but only to be thought of. 
For how otherwise could he be an exact imitation 
of Christ? It would be excellent then, and most 
delightful, if we had not those who oppose us, 
and contend with us ; but since this is impossible, 
we cannot do what we will. For we will not to 
have those who lead us to passion, for then we 
could be saved without weariness and effort ; 
but that does not come to pass which we will, 
but that which we will not. For it is necessary, 
as I said, that we should be tried. Let us not 
then, O my soul, let us not give in to the Evil 
One ; but putting on “ the whole armour of God,” 
which is our protection, let us have “ the breast- 
plate of righteousness, and your feet shod with 
the preparation of the Gospel (of peace). 
Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith 
ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of 
the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, 
and the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of 
God,” 3 that ye may be able to stand against the 
wiles of the devil; “ casting down imaginations, 
and every high thing that exalteth itself against 
the knowledge of Christ,’’4 ‘ for we wrestle not 
against flesh and blood ;”’5 for that which I do, 


' I allow not; for what I would, that do I not: 


but ‘what I hate, that do I. If then I do that 
which I would not, I consent unto the law that 
it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, 
but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in 
me—that is, in my flesh — dwelleth no good 
thing.”® And this is rightly said. For re- 
member how it has been already shown that, 
from the time when man went astray and dis- 
obeyed the law, thence sin, receiving its birth 
from his disobedience, dwelt inhim. For thus a 
commotion was stirred up, and we were filled 
with agitations and foreign imaginations, being 
emptied of the divine inspiration and filled with 


1 Rom. vii. 19. 

2-1 Cor xix. 

3 Eph. vi. 13, 14-17. 
42Cor. x. 5. 

S Eph. vi. 12. 

6 Rom, vii, 15-18. 





carnal desire, which the cunning serpent infused 
into us. And, therefore, God invented death for 
our sakes, that He might destroy sin, lest rising 
up in us immortals, as I said, it should be immor- 
tal. When the apostle says, “for I know that 
in me—that is, in my flesh —dwelleth no good 
thing,” by which words he means to indicate that 
sin dwells in us, from the transgression, through 
lust ; out of which, like young shoots, the ima- 
ginations of pleasure rise around us. For there 
are two kinds of thoughts in us; the one which 
arises from the lust which lies in the body, 
which, as I said, came from the craft of the Evil 
Spirit ; the other from the law, which is in ac- 
cordance with the commandment, which we had 
implanted in us as a natural law, stirring up our 
thoughts to good, when we delight in the law of 
God according to our mind, for this is the inner 
man; but in the law of the devil according to 
the lust which dwells in the flesh. For he who 
wars against and opposes the law of God, that is, 
against the tendency of the mind to good, is the 
same who stirs up the carnal and sensual impulses 
to lawlessness. 

m. For the apostle here sets forth clearly, as I 
think, three laws: One in accordance with the 
good which is implanted in us, which clearly he 
calls the law of the mind. One the law which 
arises from the assault of evil, and which often 
draws on the soul to lustful fancies, which, he 
says, “wars against the law of the mind.”7 And 
the third, which is in accordance with sin, settled 
in the flesh from lust, which he calls the ‘law of 
sin which dwells in our members ;”’7 which the 
Evil One, urging on, often stirs up against us, 
driving us to unrighteousness and evil deeds. 
For there seems to be in ourselves one thing 
which is better and another which is worse. 
And when that which is in its nature better is 
about to become more powerful than that which 
is worse, the whole mind is carried on to that 
which is good; but when that which is worse 
increases and overbalances, man is on the con- 
trary urged on to evil imaginations. On account 
of which the apostle prays to be delivered from 
it, regarding it as death and destruction ; as also 
does the prophet when he says, “ Cleanse Thou 
me from my secret faults.”® And the same is 
denoted by the words, “ For I delight in the law 
of God after the inward man; but I see another 
law in my members, warring against the law of 
my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the 
law of sin which is in my members. O wretched 
man that I am! who shall deliver me from the 
body of this death?’”?? By which he does not 
mean that the body is death, but the lawof sin 
which is in his members, lying hidden in us 





7 Rom. vii. 23. 
8 Ps. xix. 12. 
9 Rom. vii. 22-24. 











pide) heen lias 


FROM THE DISCOURSE ON THE RESURRECTION. 


313 





through the transgression, and ever deluding the 
soul to the death of unrighteousness. And he 
immediately adds, clearly showing from what 
kind of death he desired to be delivered, and 
who he was who delivered him, “I thank God, 
through Jesus Christ.”* And it should be.con- 
sidered, if he said that this body was death, O 
Aglaophon, as you supposed, he would not after- 
wards mention Christ as delivering him from so 
great an evil. For in that case what a strange 
thing should we have had from the advent of 
Christ? And how could the apostle have said 
this, as being able to be delivered from death 
by the advent of Christ ; when it was the lot of 
all to die before Christ’s coming into the world? 
And, therefore, O Aglaophon, he says not that 
this body was death, but the sin which dwells in 
the body through lust, from which God has deliv- 
ered him by the coming of Christ. “For the 
law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made 
me free from the law of sin and death ;”’ so that 
“He that raised up Jesus from the dead shall 
also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit 
that dwelleth in you ;”’ having “condemned sin ” 
which is in the body to its destruction ; “ that the 
righteousness of the law”? of nature which draws 
us to good, and is in accordance with the com- 
mandment, might be kindled and manifested. 
For the good which “ the law” of nature “ could 
not do, in that it was weak,” being overcome by 
the lust which lies in the body, God gave strength 
to accomplish, “sending His own Son in the 
likeness of sinful flesh ;” so that sin being con- 
demned, to its destruction, so that it should never 
bear fruit in the flesh, the righteousness of the 
law of nature might be fulfilled, abounding in 
the obedience of those who walk not according 
to the lust of the flesh, but according to the lust 
and guidance of the Spirit ; “for the law of the 
Spirit of life,” which is the Gospel, being different 
from earlier laws, leading by its preaching to obe- 
dience and the remission of sins, delivered us 
from the law of sin and death, having conquered 
entirely sin which reigned over our flesh. 

Iv. He3 says that plants are neither nourished 
nor increased from the earth. For he says, let 
any one consider how the earth can be changed 
and taken up into the substance of trees. For 
then the. place of the earth which lay around, 
and was drawn up through the roots into the 
whole compass of the tree, where the tree grew, 
must needs be hollowed out; so that such a 
thing as they hold respecting the flux of bodies 
is absurd. For how could the earth first enter 
in through the roots into the trunks of the plants, 
and then, passing through their channels into all 
their branches, be turned into leaves and fruit? 


I Rom. vii. 25. 
2 Rom. viii, 2, 11, 3, 4. 


3 Methodius. 





Now there are large trees, such as the cedar, 
pines, firs, which annually bear much leaves and 
fruit ; and one may see that they consume none 
of the surrounding earth into the bulk and sub- 
stance of the tree. For it would be necessary, 
if it were true that the earth went up through 
the roots, and was turned into wood, that the 
whole place where the earth lay round about 
them should be hollowed out; for it is not the 
nature of a dry substance to flow in, like a moist 
substance, and fill up the place of that which 
moves away. Moreover, there are fig-trees, and 
other similar plants, which frequently grow in the 
buildings of monuments, and yet they never con- 
sume the entire building into themselves. But 
if any one should choose to collect their fruit 
and leaves for many years, he would perceive 
that their bulk had become much larger than the 
earth upon the monuments. Hence it is absurd 
to suppose that the earth is consumed into the 
crop of fruits and leaves ; and even if they were 
all made by it, they would be so only as using it 
for their seat and place. For bread is not made 
without a mill, and a place, and time, and fire ; 
and yet bread is not made out of any of these 
things. And the same may be said of a thousand 
other things. 

v. Now the followers of Origen bring forward 
this passage, “‘ For we know that if our earthly 
house of this tabernacle were dissolved,” + and 
so forth, to disprove the resurrection of the body, 
saying that the “tabernacle”’ is the body, and 
the “house not made with hands” “in the 
heavens” is our spiritual clothing. Therefore, 
says the holy Methodius, by this earthly house 
must metaphorically 5 be understood our short- 
lived existence here, and not this tabernacle ; 
for if you decide to consider the body as being 
the earthly house which is dissolved, tell us what 
is the tabernacle whose house is dissolved? For 
the tabernacle is one thing, and the house of the 
tabernacle another, and still another we who have 
the tabernacle, “For,” he says, “if our earthly 
house of this tabernacle be dissolved’? — by 
which he points out that the souls are ourselves, 
that the body is a tabernacle, and that the house 
of the tabernacle figuratively represents the en- 
joyment of the flesh in the present life. If, 
then, this present life of the body be dissolved 
like a house, we shall have that which is not 
made with hands in the heavens. ‘ Not made 
with hands,” he says, to point out the difference ; 
because this life may be said to be made with 
hands, seeing that all the employments and pur- 
suits of life are carried on by the hands of men. 
For the body, being the workmanship of God, 
is not said to be made with hands, inasmuch as 





4 2 Cor. v. 1. : ; et 4 

5 The word means literally, ‘“by an abuse, or misapplication; ” 
but the author’s meaning is very nearly that expressed in the text. 
— Tr. 


374 


FROM THE DISCOURSE ON THE RESURRECTION. 





it is not formed by the arts of men. But if they 
shall say that it is made with hands, because it 
was the workmanship of God, then our souls 
also, and the angels, and the spiritual clothing in 
the heavens, are made with hands ; for all these 
things, also, are the workmanship of God. What, 
then, is the house which is made with hands? 
It is, as I have said, the short-lived existence 
which is sustained by human hands. For God 
said, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat 
bread ;”"' and when that life is dissolved, we 
have the life which is not made with hands. As 
also the Lord showed, when He said: “ Make 
to yourselves friends of the mammon of un- 
righteousness ; that, when ye fail, they may re- 
ceive you into everlasting habitations.”? For 
what the Lord then called “ habitations,’ 3 the 
apostle here calls “clothing.”* And what He 
there calls “friends” “of unrighteousness,”’ the 
apostle here calls “houses” “dissolved.” As 
then, when the days of our present life shall fail, 
those good deeds of beneficence to which we 
have attained in this unrighteous life, and in this 
“world” which “lieth in wickedness,” 5 will re- 
ceive our souls ; so when this perishable life shall 
be dissolved, we shall have the habitation which 
is before the resurrection—that is, our souls 
shall be with God, until we shall receive the new 
house which is prepared for us, and which shall 
never fall. Whence also “we groan,” “not for 
that we would be unclothed,” as to the body, 
“but clothed upon’’® by it in the other life. 
For the “house in heaven,” with which we de- 
sire to be “clothed,” is immortality ; with which, 
when we are clothed, every weakness and mor- 
tality will be entirely “swallowed up”’ in it, being 
consumed by endless life. ‘For we walk by 
faith, not by sight ;”’? that is, for we still go for- 
ward by faith, viewing the things which are be- 
yond with a darkened understanding, and not 
clearly, so that we may see these things, and 
enjoy them, and be in them. “ Now this I say, 
brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the 
kingdom of God; neither doth corruption in- 
herit incorruption.”* By flesh, he did not mean 
flesh itself, but the irrational impulse towards the 
lascivious pleasures of the soul. And therefore 
when he says, “ Flesh and blood cannot inherit 
the kingdom of God,” he adds the explanation, 
“ Neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.” 
Now corruption is not the thing which is cor- 
rupted, but the thing which corrupts. For when 
death prevails the body sinks into corruption ; 
but when life still remains in it, it stands uncor- 





I Gen. iii. 19. 
2 Luke xvi. 9. 
3 oxnvas. 


4 érevdvcacba, 
5 1 John v. 19. 

6 2 Cor. v. 4. 

7 2 Cor. v. 7. 

8 x Cor. xv. 50. 


2 Cor. v. 2) 3. 





rupted. Therefore, since the flesh is the boun- 
dary between corruption and incorruption, not 
being either corruption or incorruption, it was 
vanquished by corruption on account of pleasure, 
although it was the work and the possession of 
incorruption. Therefore it became subject to 
corruption. When, then, it had been overcome . 
by corruption, and was given over to death for 
chastisement, He did not leave it to be van- 
quished and given over as an inheritance to cor- 
ruption; but again conquering death by the 
resurrection, He restored it to incorruption, that 
corruption might not inherit incorruption, but in- 
corruption that which is corruptible. And there- 
fore the apostle answers, “This corruptible must 
put on incorruption, and this mortal immortal- 
ity.”9 But the corruptible and mortal putting 
on incorruption and immortality, what else is 
this, but that which is sown in corruption rising 
in incorruption?*%° For, “as we have borne the 
image of the earthly, we shall also bear the 
image of the heavenly.” *! For the “image of 
the earthly ” which we have borne refers to the 
saying, “ Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt 
return.” '? And the “image of the heavenly -is 
the resurrection from the dead and incorruption.” 
vi. Now Justin of Neapolis,’3 a man not far re- 
moved either from the times or from the virtues 
of the apostles, says that that which is mortal is 
inherited, but that life inherits ; and that flesh dies, 
but that the kingdom of heaven lives. When 
then, Paul says that “flesh and blood cannot 
inherit the kingdom of heaven,” '* he does not 
so speak as seeming to slight the regeneration 
of the flesh, but as teaching that the kingdom 
of God, which is eternal life, is not inherited by 
the body, but the body by life. For if the 
kingdom of God, which is life, were inherited 
by the body, it would happen that life was swal- 
lowed up by corruption. But now life inherits 
that which is mortal, that death may be swal- 
lowed up of life unto victory, and that which is 
corruptible appear the possession of incorrup- 
tion ; being made free from death and sin, and 
become the slave and subject of immortality, 
that the body may become the possession of in- 
corruption, and not incorruption of the body. 
vu. Now the passage, “The dead in Christ 
shall rise first: then we which are alive,’ St. 
Methodius thus explains: Those are our bodies ; 
for the souls are we ourselves, who, rising, re- 
sume that which is dead from the earth ; so that 
being caught up with them to meet the Lord, we 
may gloriously celebrate the splendid festival of 





9 x Cor. xv. 53. 

10 x Cor. xv. 42. 

11 x Cor. xv. 49. 

12 Gen. iii. 19. 

13 Commonly known as St. Justin Martyr. — Tr. 
On the Resurrection, vol. i. p. 295; also On Life, p. 
series. | 

14 x Cor, xv, 50. 


[See his treatise 
198, this 


FROM THE DISCOURSE ON THE RESURRECTION. 





375 





the resurrection, because we have received our 
everlasting tabernacles, which shall no longer 
die nor be dissolved. 

vi. I saw, he says, on Olympus‘? (Olympus 
is a mountain in Lycia), a fire spontaneously 
arising on the top of the mountain from the 
earth, beside which is the plant Puragnos, so 
flourishing, green, and shady, that it seemed 
rather as though it grew from a fountain. For 
what cause, although they are by nature corrup- 
tible, and their bodies consumed by fire, was 
this plant not only not burnt, but rather more 
flourishing, although in its nature it is easily 
burnt, and the fire was burning about its roots? 
Then I cast branches of trees out of the sur- 
rounding wood into the place where the fire 
streamed forth, and, immediately bursting up 
into flame, they were converted into cinders. 
What then is the meaning of this contradiction ? 
This God. appointed as a sign and prelude of 
the coming Day, that we may know that, when all 
things are overwhelmed by fire, the bodies which 
are endowed with chastity and righteousness 
shall pass through it as though it were cold water. 

1x. Consider, he says, whether too the blessed 
John, when he says, “And the sea gave up the 
dead which were in it: and death and hell de- 
livered up the dead which were in them,” ? does 
not mean the parts which are given up by the 
elements for the reconstruction of each one? 
By the sea is meant the moist element ; by hell,3 
the air, derived from detdés, because it is invisi- 
ble, as was said by Origen; and by death, the 
earth, because those who die are laid in it; 
whence also it is called in the Psalms the “ dust 
of death,’ + Christ saying that He is brought 
“into the dust of death.” 

x. For, he says, whatever is composed and 
consists of pure air and pure fire, and is of like 
substance with the angelic beings, cannot have 
the nature of earth and water; since it would 
then be earthy. And of such nature, and con- 
sisting of such things, Origen has shown that 
the body of man shall be which shall rise, which 
he also said would be spiritual. 

xi. And he asks what will be the appearance 
of the risen body, when this human form, as 
according to him useless, shall wholly disappear ; 


since it is the most lovely of all things which are | 


combined in living creatures, as being the form 
which the Deity Himself employs, as the most 
wise Paul explains: “For a man indeed ought 
not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the 
image and glory of God ;”’5 in accordance with 
which the rational bodies of the angels are set 
in order? will it be circular, or polygonal, or 





1 Ch p. 368, agen 
2 Rev. xx. 13 

3 Hades. 

4 Ps. xxii. 15. 

5 x Cor. xi. 7 


[Pyragnos = fire-proof agnos. | 





‘cubical, or pyramidal? For there are very many 


kinds of forms; but this is impossible.° Well 
then, what are we to think of the assertion, that 
the godlike shape is to be rejected as more igno- 
ble, for he himself allows that the soul is like 
the body, and that man is to rise again without 
hands or feet ? 

xu. The transformation, he says, is the restora- 
tion into an impassible and glorious state. For 
now the body is a body of desire and of humilia- 
tion,? and therefore Daniel was called “a man 
of desires.”* But then it will be transfigured 
into an impassible body, not by the change of 
the arrangement of the members, but by its not 
desiring carnal pleasures. 

Then he says, refuting Origen, Origen there- 
fore thinks that the same flesh will not be re- 
stored to the soul, but that the form of each, 
according to the appearance by which the flesh 
is now distinguished, shall arise stamped upon 
another spiritual body; so that every one will 
again appear the same in form ; and that this is 
the resurrection which is promised. For, he 
says, the material body being fluid, and in no 
wise remaining in itself, but wearing out and 
being replaced around the appearance by which 
its shape is distinguished, and by which the 
figure is contained, it is necessary that the resur- 
rection should be only that of the form. 

xu. Then, after a little, he says: If then, O 
Origen, you maintain that the resurrection of 
the body changed into a spiritual body is to be 
expected only in appearance, and put forth the 
vision of Moses and Elias as a most convincing 
proof of it; saying that they appeared after 
their departure from life, preserving no different 
appearance from that which they had from the 
beginning ; in the same way will be the resur- 
rection of all men. But Moses and Elias arose 
and appeared with this form of which you speak, 
before Christ suffered and rose. How then 
could Christ be celebrated by prophets and 
apostles as “the first begotten of the dead?’’9 
For if the Christ is believed to be the first be- 
gotten of the dead, He is the first begotten of 
the dead as having risen before all others. But 
Moses appeared to the apostles before Christ 
suffered, having this form in which you say the 
resurrection is fulfilled. Hence, then, there is 
no resurrection of the form without the flesh. 
For either there is a resurrection of the form as 
you teach, and then Christ is no longer “the 
first begotten of the dead,” from the fact that 
souls appeared before Him, having this form 
after death; or He is truly the first begotten, 
and it is quite impossible that any should have 





7 Bhi Martyr, vol. i. p. 295, this series.] 
hil. iti. 21. 

3 Dan. ix. 23, marginal reading. 

9 Rev. i. 5. 


See ee Ce eS ee ee 


376 





FROM THE DISCOURSE ON THE RESURRECTION. 





been thought meet for a resurrection before 
Him, so as not to die again. But if no one 
arose before Him, and Moses and Elias appeared 
to the apostles not having flesh, but only its ap- 
pearance, the resurrection in the flesh is clearly 
manifested. For it is most absurd that the 
resurrection should be set forth only in form, 
since the souls, after their departure from the 
flesh, never appear to lay aside the form which, 
he says, rises again. But if that remains with 
them, so that it cannot be taken away, as with 
the soul of Moses and Elias; and neither per- 
ishes, as you think, nor is destroyed, but is 
everywhere present with them; then surely that 
~ form which never fell cannot be said to rise again. 

xiv. But if any one, finding this inadmissible, 
answers, But how then, if no one rose before 
Christ went down into Hades, are several re- 
corded as having risen before Him? Among 
whom is the son of the widow of Sarepta, and 
the son of the Shunammite, and Lazarus. We 
must say: These rose to die again; but we are 
speaking of those who shall never die after their 
rising. Andif any one should speak doubtfully 
concerning the soul of Elias, as that the Scrip- 
tures say that he was taken up in the flesh, and 
we say that he appeared to the apostles divested 
of the flesh, we must say, that to allow that he 
appeared to the apostles in the flesh is more in 
favour of our argument. For it is shown by this 
case that the body is susceptible of immortality, 
as was also proved by the translation of Enoch. 
For if he could not receive immortality, he 
could not remain in a state of insensibility so 
long a time. If, then, he appeared with the 
body, that was truly after he was dead, but cer- 
tainly not as having arisen from the dead. And 
this, we may say, if we agree with Origen when 
he says that the same form is given to the soul 
after death ; when it is separated from the body, 
which is of all things the most impossible, from 
the fact that the form of the flesh was destroyed 
before by its changes, as also the form of the 
melted statue before its entire dissolution. Be- 
cause the quality cannot be separated from the 
material, so as to exist by itself; for the shape 
which disappears around the brass is separated 
from the melted statue, and has not longer a 
substantial existence. 

xv. Since the form is said to be separated in 
death from the flesh, come, let us consider in 
how many ways that which is separated is said 
to be separated. Now a thing is said to be 
separated from another either in act and sub- 
sistence, or in thought; or else in act, but not 
in subsistence. As if, for instance, one should 
separate from each other wheat and barley which 
had been mingled together; in as far as they 
are separated in motion, they are said to be 
scparated in act; in as far as they stand apart 








when separated, they are said to be separated 
in subsistence. They are separated in thought 
when we separate matter from its qualities, and - 
qualities from matter ; in act, but not in subsist- 
ence, when a thing separated from another no 
longer exists, not having a substantive existence. 
And it may be observed that it is so also in 
mechanics, when one looks upon a statue ora 
brazen horse melted. For, when he considers 
these things, he will see their natural form chan- 
ging; and they alter into another figure from 
which the original form disappears. For if any 
one should melt down the works formed into 
the semblance of a man or a horse, he will find 
the appearance of the form disappearing, but the 
material itself remaining. It is, therefore, un- 
tenable to say, that the form shall arise in nowise 
corrupted, but that the body in which the form 
was stamped shall be destroyed. 

xvi. But he says that it will be so; for it will 
be changed in a spiritual body. Therefore, it 
is necessary to confess that the very same form 
as at first does not arise, from its being changed 
and corrupted with the flesh. For although it 
be changed into a spiritual body, that will not be 
properly the original substance, but a certain 
resemblance of it, fashioned in an ethereal body. 
If, however, it is not the same form, nor yet the 
body which arises, then it is another in the place 
of the first. For that which is like, being differ- 
ent from that which it resembles, cannot be that 
very first thing in accordance with which it was 
made. 

xvi. Moreover, he says that that is the ap- 
pearance or form which shows forth the identity 
of the members in the distinctive character of 
the form. 

xvi. And, when Origen allegorises that which 
is said by the prophet Ezekiel concerning the 
resurrection of the dead, and perverts it to the 
return of the Israelites from their captivity in 
Babylon, the saint in refuting him, after many 
other remarks, says this also: For neither did 
they! obtain a perfect liberty, nor did they over- 
come their enemies by a greater power, and 
dwell again in Jerusalem; and when they fre- 
quently intended to build (the temple), they 
were prevented by other nations. Whence, also, 
they were scarce able to build that in forty-six 
years, which Solomon completed from the foun- 
dations in seven years. But what need we say 
on this subject? For from the time of Nebu- 
chadnezzar, and those who after him reigned 
over Babylon, until the time of the Persian ex- 
pedition against the Assyrians, and the empire 
of Alexander, and the war which was stirred up 
by the Romans against the Jews, Jerusalem was 
six times overthrown by its enemies. And this 


I The Israelites. 





ty eb ie od At all 
4 


FROM THE DISCOURSE ON THE RESURRECTION. 





is recorded by Josephus, who says: “ Jerusalem 
was taken in the second year of the reign of 
Vespasian. It had been taken before five times ; 
but now for the second time it was destroyed. 
For Asochzeus, king of Egypt, and after him 
Antiochus, next Pompey, and after these Sosius, 
with Herod, took the city and burnt it; but 
before these, the king of Babylon conquered and 
destroyed it.” 

xIx, He says that Origen holds these opinions 
which he refutes. And there may be a doubt 
concerning Lazarus and the rich man. The 
simpler persons think that these things were 
spoken as though both were receiving their due 
for the things which they had done in life in 
their bodies ; but the more accurate think that, 
since no one is left in life after the resurrection, 
these things do not happen at the resurrection. 
For the rich man says: “I have five brethren ; 

. . . lest they also come into this place of tor- 
ment, ’’’ send Lazarus, that he may tell them 
of those things which are here. And, therefore, 
if we ask respecting the “tongue,” and the “ fin- 
ger,” and “ Abraham’s bosom,” and the reclining 
there, it may perhaps be that the soul receives 
in the change a form similar in appearance to 
its gross and earthly body. If, then, any one 
of those who have fallen asleep is recorded as 
having appeared, in the same way he has been 
seen in the form which he had when he was in 
the flesh. Besides, when Samuel appeared, it 
is clear that, being seen, he was clothed in a 
body ; and this must especially be admitted, if 
we are pressed by arguments which prove that 
the essence of the soul is incorporeal, and is 
manifested by itself.3 But the rich man in tor- 
ment, and the poor man who was comforted in 
the bosom of Abraham, are said, the one to be 
punished in Hades, and the other to be com- 
forted in Abraham’s bosom, before the appearing 
of the Saviour, and before the end of the world, 
and therefore before the resurrection ; teaching 
that now already, at the change, the soul uses 
a body. Wherefore, the saint says as follows: 
Setting forth that the soul, after its removal 
hence, has a form similar in appearance to this 








Luke xvi. 28. : i 
Sam. xxviii,12. [See vol. v. p. 169, note rr, this series. ] 


1 
2" 
3 The reading of Jahn, ‘ xa" cavtyv,” is here adopted. — TR. 








on 





sensitive body ; does Origen represent the soul, 
after Plato, as being incorporeal? And how 
should that which, after removal from the world, 
is said to have need of a vehicle and a clothing, 
so that it might not be found naked, be in itself 
other than incorporeal? But if it be incorporeal, 
must it not also be incapable of passion? For 
it follows, from its being incorporeal, that it is 
also impassible and imperturbable. If, then, it 
was not distracted by any irrational desire, neither 
was it changed by a pained or suffering body. 
For neither can that which is incorporeal sym- 
pathize with a body, nor a body with that which 
is incorporeal, if,t indeed, the soul should seem 
to be incorporeal, in accordance with what has 
been said. But if it sympathize with the body, 
as is proved by the testimony of those who ap- 
pear, it cannot be incorporeal. Therefore God 
alone is celebrated, as the unbegotten, independ- 
ent, and unwearied nature; being incorporeal, 
and therefore invisible ; for “no man hath seen 
God.” 5 But souls, being rational bodies, are 
arranged by the Maker and Father of all things 
into members which are visible to reason, hav- 
ing received this impression. Whence, also, in 
Hades, as in the case of Lazarus and the rich 
man, they are spoken of as having a tongue, and 
a finger, and the other members ; not as though 
they had with them another invisible body, but 
that the souls themselves, naturally, when en- 
tirely stripped of their covering, are such accord- 
ing to their essence. 

xx. The saint says at the end: The words, 
“ For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and 
revived, that He might be Lord both of the 
dead and living,”® must be taken as referring 
to souls and bodies; the souls being the “ving, 
as being immortal, and the bodies being dead. 

xxi. Since the body of man is more honour- 
able than other living creatures, because it is 
said to have been formed by the hands of God, 
and because it has attained to be the vehicle of 
the reasonable soul ; how is it that it is so short- 
lived, shorter even than some of the irrational 
creatures? Is it not clear that its long-lived 
existence will be after the resurrection ? 


4 Jahn’s reading. 
5 John i. 18. 
6 Rom. xiv. 9. 


Veet St oe) eer 


FRAGMENTS. 


ON THE HISTORY OF JONAH. 


FROM THE BOOK ON THE RESURRECTION.! 


1. THE history of Jonah? contains a great mys- 
tery. For it seems that the whale signifies Time, 
which never stands still, but is always going on, 
and consumes the things which are made by 
long and shorter intervals. But Jonah, who 
fled from the presence of God, is himself the 
first man who, having transgressed the law, fled 
from being seen naked of immortality, having 
lost through sin his confidence in the Deity. 
And the ship in which he embarked, and which 
was tempest-tossed, is this brief and hard life in 
the present time ; just as though we had turned 
and removed from that blessed and secure life, 
to that which was most tempestuous and un- 
stable, as from solid land to a ship. For what 
a ship is to the land, that our present life is to 
that which is immortal. And the storm and the 
tempests which beat against us are the tempta- 
tions of this life, which in the world, as in a 
tempestuous sea, do not permit us to have a fair 
voyage free from pain, in a calm sea, and one 
which is free from evils. And the casting of 
Jonah from the ship into the sea, signifies the 
fall of the first man from life to death, who re- 
ceived that sentence because, through having 
sinned, he fell from righteousness: “ Dust thou 
art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”3 And his 
being swallowed by the whale signifies our in- 
evitable removal by time. For the belly in which 
Jonah, when he was swallowed, was concealed, 
is the all-receiving earth, which receives all 
things which are consumed by time. 

u. As, then, Jonah spent three days and as 








1 [A fragment given by Combefis, in Latin, in the Bié/otheca 
Conctonatoria, t. ii. p. 263, etc. Published in Greek from the Vat- 
ican Ms. (1611), by Simon de Magistris, in Acta Martyrum ad 
estia Tiberina sub Claudio Gothico. (Rome, 1792, folio. Append. 

. 462, 
¥ vs is att. xii. 40. This history comes to us virtually from the Son 
of God, who confirms the testimony of His prophet. See the very 
curious remarks of Edward King in his Morsels of Criticism, vol. 
i. p. 6or, ed. 1788.] 
3 Gen. iii. 19. 


378 





many nights in the whale’s belly, and was de- 
livered up sound again, so shall we all, who have 
passed through the three stages of our present 
life on earth —I mean the beginning, the middle, 
and the end, of which all this present time con- 
sists —rise again. For there are altogether three 
intervals of time, the past, the future, and the 
present. And for this reason the Lord spent so 
many days in the earth symbolically, thereby 
teaching clearly that when the fore-mentioned 
intervals of time have been fulfilled, then shall 
come our resurrection, which is the beginning of 
the future age, and the end of this. For in that 
age + there is neither past nor future, but only the 
present. Moreover, Jonah having spent three 
days and three nights in the belly of the whale, 
was not destroyed by his flesh being dissolved, 
as is the case with that natural decomposition 
which takes place in the belly, in the case of 
those meats which enter into it, on account of 
the greater heat in the liquids, that it might be 
shown that these bodies of ours may remain un- 
destroyed. For consider that God had images 
of Himself made as of gold, that is of a purer 
spiritual substance, as the angels ; and others of 
clay or brass, as ourselves. He united the soul 
which was made in the image of God to that 
which was earthy. As, then, we must here hon- 
our all the images of a king, on account of the 
form which is in them, so also it is incredible 
that we who are the images of God should be 
altogether destroyed as being without honour. 
Whence also the Word descended into our world, 
and was incarnate of our body, in order that, 
having fashioned it to a more divine image, He 
might raise it incorrupt, although it had been 
dissolved by time. And, indeed, when we trace 
out the dispensation which was figuratively set 
forth by the prophet, we shall find the whole 
discourse visibly extending to this. 








4 Or, dispensation. 








FRAGMENTS. 


37/9 





EXTRACTS FROM THE WORK ON THINGS CREATED.: 


1. This selection is made, by way of compen- 
dium or synopsis, from the work of the holy mar- 
tyr and bishop Methodius, concerning things 
created. The passage, “ Give not that which is 
holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls 
before swine,” ? is explained by Origen as signi- 
fying that the pearls are the more mystical teach- 
ings of our God-given religion, and the swine 
those who roll in impiety and in all kinds of 
pleasures, as swine do in mud; for he said that 
it was taught by these words of Christ not to 
cast about the divine teachings, inasmuch as they 
could not bear them who were held by impiety 
and brutal pleasures. The great Methodius says : 
If we must understand by pearls the glorious and 
divine teachings, and by swine those who are 
given up to impiety and pleasures, from whom 
are to be withheld and hidden the apostle’s 
teachings, which stir men up to piety and faith 
in Christ, see how you say that no Christians can 
be converted from their impiety by the teachings 
of the apostles. For they would never cast the 
mysteries of Christ to those who, through want 
of faith, are like swine. Either, therefore, these 
things were cast before all the Greeks and other 
unbelievers, and were preached by the disciples 
of Christ, and converted them from impiety to 
the faith of Christ, as we believers certainly con- 
fess, and then the words, “Cast not your pearls 
before swine,” can no longer mean what has 
been said; or meaning this, we must say that 
faith in Christ and deliverance from impiety have 
been accorded to none of the unbelievers, whom 
we compare to swine, by the apostolic instruc- 
tions enlightening their souls like pearls. But 
this is blasphemous. Therefore the pearls in this 
place are not to be taken to mean the deepest 
doctrines, and the swine the impious; nor are 
we to understand the words, “Cast not your 
pearls before swine,” as forbidding us to cast 
before the impious and unbelieving the deep 
and sanctifying doctrines of faith in Christ ; but 
we must take the pearls to mean virtues, with 
which the soul is adorned as with precious pearls ; 
and not to cast them before swine, as meaning 
that we are not to cast these virtues, such as 
chastity, temperance, righteousness, and truth, 
that we are not to cast these to impure pleasures, 
for these are like swine, lest they, fleeing from 
the virtues, cause the soul to live a swinish and 
a vicious life. 

u. Origen says that what he calls the Centaur 
is the universe which is co-eternal with the only 





1 From Photius, Bzd/zotheca, cod. 235. 
2 Matt, vii, 6, 








wise and independent God. For he says, since 
there is no workman without some work, or 
maker without something made, so neither is 
there an Almighty without an object of His 
power. For the workman must be so called 
from his work, and the maker from what he 
makes, and the Almighty Ruler from that which 
He rules over. And so it must be, that these 
things were made by God from the beginning, 
and that there was no time in which they did 
not exist. For if there was a time when the 
things that are made did not exist, then, as there 
were no things which had been made, so there 
was no maker; which you see to be an impious 
conclusion. And it will result that the unchange- 
able and unaltered God has altered and changed. 
For if He made the universe later, it is clear 
that He passed from not making to making. 
But this is absurd in connection with what has 
been said. It is impossible, therefore, to say 
that the universe is not unbeginning and co-eter- 
nal with God. To whom the saint replies, in 
the person of another, asking, “Do you not con- 
sider God the beginning and fountain of wisdom 
and glory, and in short of all virtue in substance 
and not by acquisition?” “Certainly,” he says. 
“And what besides? Is He not by Himself per- 
fect and independent?” “True; for it is im- 
possible that he who is independent should have 
his independence from another. For we must 
say, that all which is full by another is also im- 
perfect. For it is the thing which has its com- 
pleteness of itself, and in itself alone, which can 
alone be considered perfect.” ‘You say most 
truly. For would you pronounce that which is 
neither by itself complete, nor its own complete 
ness, to be independent?” “By no means 
For that which is perfect through anything else 
must needs be in itself imperfect.” ‘Well, then 
shall God be considered perfect by Himself, and 
not by some other?” ‘“ Mostrightly.” “Then 
God is something different from the world, and 
the world from God?” “Quite so.” “We must 
not then say that God is perfect, and Creator, 
and Almighty, through the world?” “No; for 
He must surely by Himself, and not by the world, 
and that changeable, be found perfect by Him- 
self.” “Quite so.” “But you will say that the 
rich man is called rich on account of his riches? 
And that the wise man is called wise not as being 
wisdom itself, but as being a possessor of sub- 
stantial wisdom?” “Yes.’”’ “ Well, then, since 
God is something different from the world, shall 
He be called on account of the world rich, 
and beneficent, and Creator?” “ By no means. 


viol 


Ter ee a. a) Sil Yak 


NErATee s 


380 


Away with such a thought!” 
is His own riches, and is by Himself rich and 
powerful.” ‘So it seems.” ‘He was then be- 
fore the world altogether independent, being 
Father, and Almighty, and Creator ; so that He 
by Himself, and not by another, was this.” “It 
must be so.” ‘Yes; for if He were acknowl- 
edged to be Almighty on account of the world, 
and not of Himself, being distinct from the world, 
—may God forgive the words, which the necessity 
of the argument requires, — He would by Him- 
self be imperfect and have need of these things, 
through which He is marvellously Almighty and 
Creator. We must not then admit this pestilent 
sin of those who say concerning God, that He is 
Almighty and Creator by the things which He 
controls and creates, which are changeable, and 
that He is not so by Himself. 

im. Now consider it thus: “If, you say, the 
world was created later, not existing before, then 
we must change the passionless and unchange- 
able God ; for it must needs be, that he who did 
nothing before, but afterwards, passes from not 
doing to doing, changes and is altered.” Then 
I said, “ Did God rest from making the world, 
or not?” “He rested.” “Because otherwise 
it would not have been completed.” “True.” 
“Tf, then, the act of making, after not making, 
makes an alteration in God, does not His ceas- 
ing to make after making the same?” “Of ne- 
cessity.”’ ‘But should you say that He is altered 
as not doing to-day, from what He was, when He 
was doing?” “By no means. There is no ne- 
cessity for His being changed, when He makes 


the world from what He was when He was not | 


making it ; and neither is there any necessity for 
saying that the universe must have co-existed 
with Him, on acgount of our not being forced to 
say that.He has changed, nor that the universe 
is co-eternal with Him.” 

Iv. But speak to me thus: “Should you call 
that a thing created which had no beginning of 
its creation?” “Not at all.” “But if there is 
no beginning of its creation, it is of necessity 
uncreated. But if it was created, you will grant 
that it was created by some cause. For it is 
altogether impossible that it should have a be- 
ginning without a cause.” ‘It is impossible.” 
“Shall we say, then, that the world and the things 
which are in it, having come into existence and 
formerly not existing, are from any other cause 
than God?” “It is plain that they are from 
God.” “Yes ; for it is impossible that that which 
is limited by an existence which has a beginning 
should be co-existent with the infinite.” “It is 
impossible.” ‘But again, O Centaur, let us 
consider it from the beginning. Do you say 
that the things which exist were created by Di- 
vine knowledge or not?” ‘Oh, begone, they 
will say ; not at all,” “Well, but was it from 


Fs 


FRAGMENTS. 


“Well, then, He | 











the elements, or from matter, or the firmaments, 
or however you choose to name them, for it 
makes no difference ; these things existing be- 
forehand uncreated and borne along in a state 
of chaos; did God separate them and reduce 
them all to order, as a good painter who forms 
one picture out of many colours?” “No, nor 
yet this.’ For they will quite avoid making a 
concession against themselves, lest agreeing that 
there was a beginning of the separation and 
transformation of matter, they should be forced 
in consistency to say, that in all things God began 
the ordering and adorning of matter which hith- 
erto had been without form. 

v. But come now, since by the favour of God 
we have arrived at this point in our discourse ; 
let us suppose a beautiful statue standing upon 
its base ; and that those who behold it, admiring 
its harmonious beauty, differ among themselves, 
some trying to make out that it had been made, 
others that it had not. I should ask them: For 
what reason do you say that it was not made? 
on account of the artist, because he must be 
considered as never resting from his work? or 
on account of the statue itself? If it is on ac- 
count of the artist, how could it, as not being 
made, be fashioned by the artist? But if, when 
it is moulded of brass, it has all that is needed 
in order that it may receive whatever impression 
the artist chooses, how can that be said not to 
be made which submits to and receives his 
labour? If, again, the statue is declared to be 
by itself perfect and not made, and to have no 
need of art, then we must allow, in accordance 
with that pernicious heresy, that it is self-made. 
If perhaps they are unwilling to admit this argu- 
ment, and reply more inconsistently, that they 
do not say that the figure was not made, but 
that it was always made, so that there was no 
beginning of its being made, so that artist might 
be said to have this subject of his art without 
any beginning. Well then, my friends, we will 
say to them, if no time, nor any age before can 
be found in the past, when the statue was not per- 
fect, will you tell us what the artist contributed 
to it, or wrought upon it? For if this statue 
has need of nothing, and has no beginning of 
existence, for this reason, according to you, a 
maker never made it, nor will any maker be 
found. And so the argument seems to come 
again to the same conclusion, and we must allow 
that it is self-made. For if an artificer is said 
to have moved a statue ever so slightly, he will 
submit to a beginning, when he began to move 
and adorn that which was before unadorned and 
unmoved. But the world neither was nor will 
be for ever the same. Now we must compare 
the artificer to God, and the statue to the world. 
But how then, O foolish men, can you imagine 
the creation to be co-eternal with its Artificer, 








FRAGMENTS. 


381 





and to have no need of an artificer? For it is’ 
of necessity that the co-eternal should never. 
have had a beginning of being, and should be | 
equally uncreated and powerful with Him. But 
the uncreated appears to be in itself perfect and 
unchangeable, and it will have need of nothing, | 
and be free from corruption. And if this be so, 
the world can no longer be, as you say it is, 
capable of change. 

vi. He says that the Church * isso called from 
being called out? with respect to pleasures. 

vu. The saint says: We said there are two 
kinds of formative power in what we have now 
acknowledged ; the one which works by itself 
what it chooses, not out of things which already 
exist, by its bare will, without delay, as soon 
as it wills. This is the power of the Father. 
The other which adorns and embellishes, by 
imitation of the former, the things which already 
exist. This is the power of the Son, the al- 
mighty and powerful hand of the Father, by 
which, after creating matter not out of things 
which were already in existence, He adorns it. 

vit. The saint says that the Book of Job is 
by Moses. He says, concerning the words, “ In 
the beginning God created the heaven and the 
earth,” 3 that one will not err who says that the 
“ Beginning”’ is Wisdom. For Wisdom is said 
by one of the Divine band to speak in this man- 
ner concerning herself: “The Lord created me 
the beginning of His ways for His works: of 
old He laid my foundation.’ It was fitting and 
more seemly that all things which came into ex- 
istence, should be more recent than Wisdom, 
since they existed through her. Now consider 
whether the saying: “In the beginning was the 
Word, and the Word was with God, and the 
Word was God. The same was in the begin- 
ning with God ;””5— whether these statements 
be not in agreement with those. For we must 
say that the Beginning, out of which the most 
upright Word came forth, is the Father and 
Maker of all things, in whom it was. And the 





l'ExxAngta, 

2 éxxexAnkévat, 
3 Gen. i. 1. 

4 Prov. viii. 22. 
S$ John i. 1, 2, 


words, ‘The same was in the beginning with 
God,” seem to indicate the position of authority 
of the Word, which He had with the Father be- 
fore the world came into existence ; “ beginning ” 


signifying His power. And so, after the peculiar 
unbeginning beginning, who is the Father, He 
is the beginning of other things, by whom all 
things are made. 

Ix. He says that Origen, after having fabled 
many things concerning the. eternity of the uni- 
verse, adds this also: Nor yet from Adam, as: 
some say, did man, previously not existing, first 
take his existence and come into the world. 
Nor again did the world begin to be made six 
days before the creation of Adam. But if any 
one should prefer to differ in these points, let. 
him first say, whether a period of time be not 
easily reckoned from the creation of the world, 
according to the Book of Moses, to those who 
so receive it, the voice of prophecy here pro-- 
claiming: “Thou art God from everlasting, and 
world without end. . . . For a thousand years 
in Thy sight are but as yesterday: seeing that is 
past as a watch in the night.”® For when a 
thousand years are reckoned as one day in the 
sight of God, and from the creation of the world 
to His rest is six days, so also to our time, six 
days are defined, as those say who are clever 
arithmeticians. ‘Therefore, they say that an age. 
of six thousand years extends from Adam to our 
time. For they say that the judgment will come 
on the seventh day, that is in the seventh thou- 
sand years. Therefore, all the days from our 
time to that which was in the beginning, in which 
God created the heaven and the earth, are com- 
puted to be thirteen days; before which God, 
because he had as yet created nothing according 
to their folly, is stripped of His name of Father 
and Almighty. But if there are thirteen days in 
the sight of God from the creation of the world, 
how can Wisdom say, in the Book of the Son of 
Sirach : ‘Who can number the sand of the sea, 
and the drops of rain, and the days of eternity ?”’? 
This is what Origen says seriously, and mark 
how he trifles. 





6 Psixe.:2;-4 
7 Eeclus, i, 2. 


382 


rT eon Oe ate ee x 
‘ ; i Po es 


FRAGMENTS. 





FROM THE WORKS OF METHODIUS AGAINST PORPHYRY. 


I.? 


This, in truth, must be called most excellent 
and praiseworthy, which God Himself considers 
excellent, even if it be despised and scoffed at 
by all. For things are not what men think them 
to be. 

I1.? 


Then repentance effaces every sin, when there 
is no delay after the fall of the soul, and the dis- 


moment of its being set down like a plant new- 
ly planted. 


mi.3 


In truth, our evil comes out of our want of 
resemblance to God, and our ignorance of Him ; 
and, on the other hand, our great good consists 
in’ our resemblance to Him. And, therefore, 
our conversion and faith in the Being who is in- 
corruptible and divine, seems to be truly our 


proper good, and ignorance and disregard of 
Him our evil; if, at least, those things which are 
produced in us and of us, being the evil effects 
of sin, are to be considered ours. 


ease is not suffered to go on through a long in- 
terval. For then evil will not have power to 
leave its mark in us, when it is drawn up at the 





1 From the Parallels of St. John Damascene, Ofera, tom. ii. p. 
778, ed. Lequien. 


2 "bid., p. 784, B. 3 [btd., p. 785, E. 


FROM HIS DISCOURSE CONCERNING MARTYRS.' 


For martyrdom is so admirable and desirable, | ouring it, testified, ‘““ He thought it not robbery 
that the Lord, the Son of God Himself, hon-|to be equal with God,”? that He might honour 


man to whom He descended with this gift. 
1 From Theodoretus, Dza/.,x,’Atpert. Off.,ed. Sirmond, tom. 


iv. p. 37 2 Phil. ii. 5. 


GENERAL NOTE. 


THE Banquet appears to me a genuine work, although, like other writings of this Father, it may 
have been corrupted. Tokens of such corruptions are not wanting, and there can be little doubt 
that Methodius the monkish artist and missionary of the ninth century has been often copied into 
the works of his earlier namesake.' 

In a fragment, for example, found on a preceding page,” there is a passage on God’s image 
in angels and men, which appears in its more probable form in another fragment,3. discovered 
by Combefis. As quoted by St. John Damascene, it is enough to say of it, with the candid Dupin, 
“I very much question whether the passage belongs to Methodius ; or, if it does, it must be taken 
in another sense‘ than that in which Damascene understood it, . . . as the words which imme- 
diately precede seem to intimate.’’ That it is a positive azachronism in any other sense, is proved 
by the history of Images, on which see Epiphanius, quoted by Faber, Difficulties of Romanism, 
p. 488, ed. 1830. He gives St. Jerome, Ofp., ii. p. 177. A learned friend suggests that the 
Rey. J. Endell Tyler’s popular work on Primitive Christian Worship may supply an accessible 
reference.5 It is a very good thought, for the whole book is worth reading, on other points also. 





1 Murdock’s Mosheim, Eccles. Hist, ii. 51. 
2 P, 369, note 4, supra. | 
3 The Yonah Fragment, p. 378, supra. 

4 The sense, that is, of the golden image of God in angels, and “ in clay or brass, as ourselves.” 
5 See pp. 131, 132, edition of the London Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge. 


See p. 378, supra. 


ORATION CONCERNING SIMEON AND ANNA 
ON THE DAY THAT THEY MET IN THE TEMPLE.: 


1, ALTHOUGH I have before, as briefly as possi- 
ble, in my dialogue on chastity, sufficiently laid 
the foundations, as it were, fora discourse on 
virginity, yet to-day the season has brought for- 
ward the entire subject of the glory of virginity, 
and its incorruptible crown, for the delightful 
consideration of the Church’s foster-children. 
For to-day the council chamber of the divine 
oracles is opened wide, and the signs prefiguring 
this glorious day, with its effects and issues, are 
by the sacred preachers read over to the assem- 
bled Church. To-day the accomplishment of 
that ancient and true counsel is, in fact and 
deed, gloriously manifested to the world. To- 
day, without any covering,? and with unveiled 
face, we see, as in a mirror, the glory of the 
Lord, and the majesty of the divine ark itself. 
To-day, the most holy assembly, bearing upon 
its shoulders the heavenly joy that was for gener- 
ations expected, imparts it to the race of man. 
“Old things are passed away ” 3— things new 
burst forth into flowers, and such as fade not 
away. No longer does the stern decree of the 
law bear sway, but the grace of the Lord reign- 
eth, drawing all men to itself by saving long- 
suffering. Nosecond time is an Uzziah# invisibly 
punished, for daring to touch what may not be 
touched ; for God Himself invites, and who will 
stand hesitating with fear? He says: “Come 
unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden.” 5 
Who, then, will not run to Him? Let no Jew 
contradict the truth, looking at the type which 
went before the house of Obededom.® The 
Lord has “ manifestly come to His own.”7 And 
sitting on a living and not inanimate ark, as upon 
the mercy-seat, He comes forth in solemn pro- 





1 The oration likewise treats of the Holy Theotocos. [Published 
by Pantinus, 1598, and obviously corrupt. Dupin states that it is 
““not mentioned by the ancients, nor even by Photius.” The style 
resembles that of Methodius in many places. ] 

2 2 Cor. iii. 18, 

3 2 Cor. v. 17. 

4 2 Sam. vi. 7. 

5 Matt. xi. 28, 

6 2 Sam, vi. ro. 

7 John i. 11; Ps. 1. 3. FAOev—eughaves. The text plainly re- 
quires this connection with evident allusion to Ps. 1. ‘‘ Our God will 
manifestly come” é€udavas néet, which passage our author connects 
with another from John i.— Tr, 





cession upon the earth. The publican, when he 
touches this ark, comes away just; the harlot, 
when she approaches this, is remoulded, as it 
were, and becomes chaste; the leper, when he 
touches this, is restored whole without pain. It 
repulses none ; it shrinks from none ; it imparts 
the gifts of healing, without itself contracting any 
disease ; for the Lord, who loves and cares for 
man, in it makes His resting-place. These are 
the gifts of this new grace. ‘This is that new and | 
strange thing that has happened under the sun® 
—a thing that never had place before, nor will 
have place again. That which God of His 
compassion toward us foreordained has come to 
pass, He hath given it fulfilment because of that 
love for man which is so becoming to Him. 
With good right, therefore, has the sacred trum- 
pet sounded, “ Old things are passed away, be- 
hold all things are become new.”3 And what 
shall I conceive, what shall I speak worthy of 
this day? I am struggling to reach the inacces- 
sible, for the remembrance of this holy virgin 
far transcends all words of mine. Wherefore, 
since the greatness of the panegyric required 
completely puts to shame our limited powers, 
let us betake ourselves to that hymn which is 
not beyond our faculties, and boasting in our 
own 9 unalterable defeat, let us join the rejoicing 
chorus of Christ’s flock, who are keeping holy- 
day. And do you, my divine and saintly audit- 
ors, keep strict silence, in order that through 
the narrow channel of ears, as into the harbour 
of the understanding, the vessel freighted with 
truth may peacefully sail. We keep festival, not 
according to the vain customs of the Greek 
mythology ; we keep a feast which brings with 
it no ridiculous or frenzied banqueting '° of the 
gods, but which teaches us the wondrous conde- 
scension to us men of the awful glory of Him 
who is God over all.™ 





8 Ecclus, i. 10. 

9 Thy axivyntov Hrrav eyeavxngadpevor, It seems better to retain 
this, Pantinus would substitute avixyntoy for axiyyntoyv, and render 
less happily ‘‘ invicto hoc certamine victos.” 

Io [See p. 309, note 1, sufva, and the reflection upon even the 
Banguet of Philosophers, the Symposium of Plato.] 

Il Rom, ix. 5. 


383 


_— Pa i a ie y © Be CA Ne ee ee) 


384 


ORATION CONCERNING SIMEON AND ANNA. 





1. Come, therefore, Isaiah, most solemn of 
preachers and greatest of prophets, wisely un- 
fold to the Church the mysteries of the congre- 
gation in glory, and incite our excellent guests 
abundantly to satiate themselves with enduring 
dainties, in order that, placing the reality which 
we possess over against that mirror of thine, 
truthful prophet as thou art, thou mayest joyfully 
clap thine hands at the issue of thy predictions. 
It came to pass, he says, “in the year in which 
king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon 
a throne, high and lifted up; and the house was 
full of His glory. And the seraphim stood round 
about him: each one had six wings. And one 
cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, 
is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of 
His glory. And the posts of the door were 
moved at the voice of him that cried, and the 
house was filled with smoke. And I said, Woe 
is me! Iam pricked to the heart, for I am a 
man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst 
of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have 
seen the King, the Lord of hosts. And one of 
the seraphim was sent unto me, having a live 
coal in his hand, which he had taken with the 
tongs from off the altar. And he touched my 
mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips ; 
and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is 
purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord, 
saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go unto 
this people? Then said I, Here am I; send 
me. And He said, Go, and tell this people, 
Hear ye indeed, but understand not ; and see ye 
indeed, but perceive not.”! These are the 
proclamations made beforehand by the prophet 
through the Spirit. Do thou, dearly beloved, 
consider the force of these words. So shalt 
thou understand the issue of these sacramental * 
symbols, and know both what and how great this 
assembling together of ourselves is. And since 
the prophet has before spoken of this miracle, 
come thou, and with the greatest ardour and 
exultation, and alacrity of heart, together with 
the keenest sagacity of thine intelligence, and 
therewith approach Bethlehem the renowned, 
and place before thy mind an image clear and 
distinct, comparing the prophecy with the actual 
issue of events. Thou wilt not stand in need 
of many words to come to a knowledge of the 
matter ; only fix thine eyes on the things which 
are taking place there. “All things truly are 
plain to them that understand, and right to them 
that find knowledge.”3 For, behold, as a throne 
high and lifted up by the glory of Him that fash- 
ioned it, the virgin-mother is there made ready, 
and that most evidently for the King, the Lord 
of hosts. Upon this, consider the Lord now 





1 Isa. vi. 1-9. The quotations are from LXX. version. 

2 wvotypov is, in the Greek Fathers, equivalent to the Latin 
Sacramentum, — TR. 

3 Prov. viii. 9. 





coming unto thee in sinful flesh. Upon this vir- 
ginal throne, I say, worship Him who now comes 
to thee by this new and ever-adorable way. 
Look around thee with the eye of faith, and 
thou wilt find around Him, as by the ordinance 
of their courses, the royal and priestly company 
of the seraphim. These, as His body-guard, are 
ever wont to attend the presence of their king. 
Whence also in this place they are not only said 
to hymn with their praises the divine substance 
of the divine unity, but also the glory to be 
adored by all of that one of the sacred Trinity, 
which now, by the appearance of God in the 
flesh, hath even lighted upon earth. They say: 
“The whole earth is full of His glory.” For we 
believe that, together with the Son, who was 
made man for our sakes, according to the good 
pleasure of His will,5 was also present the Father, 
who is inseparable from Him as to His divine 
nature, and also the Spirit, who is of one and the 
same essence with Him.®° For, as says Paul, the 
interpreter of the divine oracle,” “God was in 
Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not 
imputing their trespasses unto them.”® He thus 
shows that the Father was in the Son, because 
that one and the same will worked in them. 

1. Do thou, therefore, O lover of this festival, 
when thou hast considered well the glorious 
mysteries of Bethlehem, which were brought to 
pass for thy sake, gladly join thyself to the heav- 
enly host, which is celebrating magnificently thy 
salvation.? As once David did before the ark, 
so do thou, before this virginal throne, joyfully 
lead the dance. Hymn with gladsome song the 
Lord, who is always and everywhere present, and 
Him who from Teman,’°as says the prophet, hath 
thought fit to appear, and that in the flesh, to 
the race of men. Say, with Moses, “ He is my 
God, and I will glorify Him; my father’s God, 
and I will exalt Him.” ** Then, after thine hymn 
of thanksgiving, we shall usefully inquire what 
cause aroused the King of Glory to appear in 
Bethlehem. His compassion for us compelled 
Him, who cannot be compelled, to be born in a 
human body at Bethlehem. But what necessity 
was there that He, when a suckling infant,” that 





4 iepdrevua, Perhaps less definitely priesthood. Acc. Arist. it 
is » mept Tovs Ocovs emurédcta, The cult and ordinances of re- 
ligion to be observed especially by the priests, whose business it is to 
celebrate the excellence of God. — Tr. 

5 xata thy evdoxiav. Allusion is made to Eph, i. 5, According to 
the good pleasure of God, and His decree for the salvation of man. 
Less aptly Pantinus renders, ob propensam seczm in nos voluntatem, 
— Tr. 

6 “*One and the same essence.” This is the famous opoovatos 
of the Nicene Council. — Tr. 

7 iepopavrns, teacher of the divine oracles. This, which is the 
technical term for the presiding priest at Eleusis, and the Greek trans- 
lation of the Latin ‘‘ Pontifex Maximus,” is by our author applied to 
St. Paul. — Tr. ‘ 

8 2 Cor. v. 19. 

9 2 Sam. vi. 14. 

10 Hab, iii. 3. 

Il Exod. xv. 2. 

12 UnotitO.ov tuyxavovra, It is an aggravation, so to speak, that 
He not only willed to become an infant, and to take upon Him, of 
necessity, the infirmities of infancy, but even at that tender age to be 





ee 








ORATION CONCERNING SIMEON AND ANNA. 





He who, though born in time, was not limited 
by time, that He, who though wrapped in swad- 
dling clothes, was not by them held fast, what 
necessity was there that He should be an exile 
and a stranger from His country? Should you, 
forsooth, wish to know this, ye congregation most 
holy, and upon whom the Spirit of God hath 
breathed, listen to Moses proclaiming plainly to 
the people, stimulating them, as it were, to the 
knowledge of this extraordinary nativity, and 
saying, “Every male that openeth the womb, 
shall be called holy to the Lord.” ! O wondrous 
circumstance! ‘O the depth of the riches both 
of the wisdom and knowledge of God!”? It 
became indeed the Lord of the law and the 
prophets to do all things in accordance with His 
own law, and not to make void the law, but to 
fulfil it, and rather to connect with the fulfilment 
of the law the beginning of His grace. There- 
fore it is that the mother, who was superior to 
the law, submits to the law. And she, the holy 
and undefiled one, observes that time of forty 
days that was appointed for the unclean. And 
He who makes us free from the law, became 
subject to the law ; and there is offered for Him, 
who hath sanctified us, a pair of clean birds,3 in 
testimony of those who approach clean and 
blameless. Now that that parturition was un- 
polluted, and stood not in need of expiatory 
victims, Isaiah is our witness, who proclaims dis- 
tinctly to the whole earth under the sun: “ Be- 
fore she travailed,” he says, “she brought forth ; 
before her pains came, she escaped, and brought 
forth a man-child.”+ Who hath heard such a 
thing? Who hath seen such things? The most 
holy virgin mother, therefore, escaped entirely 
the manner of women even before she brought 
forth: doubtless, in order that the Holy Spirit, 
betrothing her unto Himself, and sanctifying her, 
she might conceive without intercourse with man. 
She hath brought forth her first-born Son, even 
the only-begotten Son of God, Him, I say, who 
in the heavens above shone forth as the only- 
begotten, without mother, from out His Father’s 
substance, and preserved the virginity of His 
natural unity undivided and inseparable; and 
who on earth, in the virgin’s nuptial chamber, 
joined to Himself the nature of Adam, like a 
bridegroom, by an inalienable union, and pre- 
served His mother’s purity uncorrupt and un 
injured — Him, in short, who in heaven was 
begotten without corruption, and on earth brought 





banished from His country, and to make a forcible change of resi- 
dence, néTorkos yevéoOav, péTovxot are those who, at the command 
of their princes, are transferred, by way of punishment, to another 
State. Their lands are confiscated. They are sometimes called 
avéonagrtot, Like to the condition of these was that of Jesus, who 
fled into Egypt soon after His birth. For the condition of the wéTovKor 
at Athens, see Art. Smzth’s Dict. Antig. —TR. 

1 Exod. xxxi. 19. 

2 Rom. xi. 33. 

3 Luke xi. 24. 

4 Isa. Ixvi. 7. 











385 


But to 





forth in a manner quite unspeakable. 
return to our subject. 

Iv. Therefore the prophet brought the virgin 
from Nazareth, in order that she might give birth 
at Bethlehem to her salvation-bestowing child, 
and brought her back again to Nazareth, in 
order to make manifest to the world the nope 
of life. Hence it was that the ark of God re- 
moved from the inn at Bethlehem, for there He 
paid to the law that debt of the forty days, due 
not to justice but to grace, and rested upon the 
mountains of Sion, and receiving into His pure 
bosom as upon a lofty throne, and one tran- 
scending the nature of man, the Monarch of all,5 
she presented Him there to God the Father, as 
the joint-partner of His throne and inseparable 
from His nature, together with that pure and 
undefiled flesh which he had of her substance 
assumed. The holy mother goes up to the 
temple to exhibit to the law a new and strange 
wonder, even that child long expected, who 
opened the virgin’s womb, and yet did not burst 
the barriers of virginity ; that child, superior to 
the law, who yet fulfilled the law; that child 
that was at once before the law, and yet after it ; 
that child, in short, who was of her incarnate 
beyond the law of nature.® For in other cases 
every womb being first opened by connection 
with a man, and, being impregnated by his seed, 
receives the beginning of conception, and by the 
pangs which make perfect parturition, doth at 
length bring forth to light its offspring endowed 
with reason, and with its nature consistent, in 
accordance with the wise provision of God its 
Creator. For God said, “Be fruitful, and multi- 
ply, and replenish the earth.” But the womb of 
this virgin, without being opened before, or being 
impregnated with seed, gave birth to an offspring 
that transcended nature, while at the same time 
it was cognate to it, and that without detriment 
to the indivisible unity, so that the miracle was 
the more stupendous, the prerogative of virginity 
likewise remaining intact. She goes up, there- 
fore, to the temple, she who was more exalted 
than the temple, clothed with a double glory — 
the glory, I say, of undefiled virginity, and that 
of ineffable fecundity, the benediction of the law, 
and the sanctification of grace. Wherefore he 
says who saw it: “And the whole house was full 
of His glory, and the seraphim stood round 
about him; and one cried unto another, and 
said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the 
whole earth is full of His glory.”7 As also the 
blessed prophet Habakkuk has charmingly sung, 
saying, “In the midst of two living creatures 
thou shalt be known: as the years draw nigh 


5S Cf. Luke ii. 22. 

6 [Here seems to me a deep and true insight regarding the scrip- 
tural topics and events touched upon.] 

7 Isa, vi. 3. 


386 


ORATION CONCERNING SIMEON AND ANNA. 





thou shalt be recognised —when the time is 
come thou shalt be shown forth.”! See, I pray 
you, the exceeding accuracy of the Spirit. He 
speaks of knowledge, recognition, showing forth. 
As to the first of these: “In the midst of two 
living creatures thou shalt be known,’’? he refers 
to that overshadowing of the divine glory which, 
in the time of the law, rested in the Holy of 
holies upon the covering of the ark, between the 
typical cherubim, as He says to Moses, “ There 
will I be known to thee.”3 But He refers like- 
wise to that concourse of angels, which hath now 
come to meet us, by the divine and ever adora- 
ble manifestation of the Saviour Himself in the 
flesh, although He in His very nature cannot be 
beheld by us, as Isaiah has even before declared. 
But when He says, “As the years draw nigh, 
thou shalt be recognised,” He means, as has 
been said before, that glorious recognition of our 
Saviour, God in the flesh, who is otherwise in- 
visible to mortal eye ; as somewhere Paul, that 
great interpreter of sacred mysteries, says : “ But 
when the fulness of the time was come, God sent 
forth His Son, made of a woman, made under 
the law, to redeem them that were under the 
law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.’’4 
And then, as to that which is subjoined, “ When 
the time is come, Thou shalt be shown forth,” 
what exposition doth this require, if a man dili- 
gently direct the eye of his mind to the festival 
which we are now celebrating? “For then shalt 


Thou be shown forth,” He says, “as upon aj 


kingly charger, by Thy pure and chaste mother, 
in the temple, and that in the grace and beauty 
of the flesh assumed by Thee.” All these things 
the prophet, summing up for the sake of greater 
clearness, exclaims in brief: “The Lord is in 
His holy temple ;”5 “ Fear before Him all the 
earth.” © 

v. Tremendous, verily, is the mystery con- 
nected with thee, O virgin mother, thou spiritual 
throne, glorified and made worthy of God.’ 
Thou hast brought forth, before the eyes of 
those in heaven and earth, a pre-eminent won- 
der. And it is a proof of this, and an irref- 
ragable argument, that at the novelty of thy 
supernatural child-bearing, the angels sang on 
earth, “Glory to God in the highest, and on 
earth peace, good-will towards men,’’® by their 
threefold song bringing in a threefold holiness.9 





1 The € quotation from the prophet Habakkuk is from the LXX. 
version. — TR. 

2 Hab. iii. 2. 

3 Exod. xxv. 22. 

4 Gal. iv. 4, 5. 

5 Hab. ii. 20, 

6 Ps. xcvi. 9. 

7 [Note ‘‘ sade worthy; ” so “ found grace” and ‘ 
in St. Luke. Hence not immaculate by nature. 

8 Luke ii. 14. 

9 Tov THiMAagLagMOV THs ayLoTyTOS, Pantinus translates tr7plicem 
sanctitatis rationem, but this is hardly theological. Allusion is 
made to the song of the seraphim, Isa. vi.; and our author contends 
that the threefold hymn sung by the angels at Christ’s birth answers to 
that threefold acclamation of theirs in sign of the triune Deity. — Tr. 


my Saviour,” 








|Blessed art thou among the generations of 


women, O thou of God most blessed, for by 
thee the earth has been filled with that divine 
glory of God; as in the Psalms it is sung: 
“ Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, and the 
whole earth shall be filled with His glory. 
Amen, Amen.’’'® And the posts of the door, 
says the prophet, moved at the voice of him 
that cried, by which is signified the veil of the 
temple drawn before. the ark of the covenant, 
which typified thee, that the truth might be laid 
open to me, and also that I might be taught, by 
the types and figures which went before, to 
approach with reverence and trembling to do 
honour to the sacred mystery which is connected 
with thee; and that by means of this prior 
shadow-painting of the law I might be restrained 
from boldly and irreverently contemplating with 
fixed gaze Him who, in His incomprehensibility, 
is seated far above all.'' For if to the ark, which 
was the image and type of thy sanctity, such 
honour was paid of God that to no one but to 
the priestly order only was the access to it open, 
or ingress allowed to behold it, the veil separat- 
ing it off, and keeping the vestibule as that of a 
queen, what, and what sort of veneration is due 
to thee from us who are of creation the least, to 
thee who art indeed a queen ; to thee, the living 
ark of God, the Lawgiver ; to thee, the heaven 
that contains Him who can be contained of 
none? For since thou, O holy virgin,’? hast 
dawned as a bright day upon the world, and hast 
brought forth the Sun of Righteousness, that 
hateful horror of darkness has been chased 
away ; the power of the tyrant has been broken, 
death hath been destroyed, hell swallowed up, 

and all enmity dissolved before the face of 
peace ; noxious diseases depart now that salva- 

tion looks forth; and the whole universe has 

been filled with the pure and clear light of truth. 

To which things Solomon alludes in the Book 

of Canticles, and begins thus: ‘ My beloved is 

mine, and I am his; he feedeth among the lilies 

until the day break, and the shadows flee away.’ "3 

Since then, the God of gods hath appeared in 

Sion, and the splendour of His beauty hath 

appeared in Jerusalem ; and “a light has sprung 

up for the nghteous, and joy for those who are 

true of heart.’”%4 According to the blessed 

David, the Perfecter and Lord of the perfected '5 

hath, by the Holy Spirit, called the teacher aad 


10 Ps, Ixxii. 18, 19. 
1 tov Ta TovTa ev akatadnwig Umeptdpupévor. Cf. x Tim. vi. 16, 
5 
das oixav ampdactoy, dv eldev ovdels avOpmmwy ovde idecy dvvarau. 
—Tr. 


12 [This apostrophe is not prayer nor worship. (See sec, xiv., 


infra.) It may be made by any orator. See Burgon’s pertinent 
references to Legh Richmond and Bishop Horne, Lett. from Rome, 
PP, 232, 238. ] 

ant. il, 16, 17. 


14 Ps, xcvil. 11. 

15 6 Tay Tedoupévay TEACLWTIS, initiator, consummator, 61a Tod 
Ivevmatos ayiov is to be referred to guvexadecer, rather than to Tov 
mpatTowéevwv,— TR. 





_ ORATION CONCERNING SIMEON AND ANNA. 


387 





minister of the law to minister and testify of 
those things which were done. 

vi. Hence the aged Simeon, putting off the 
weakness of the flesh, and putting on the strength 
of hope, in the face of the law hastened to re- 
ceive the Minister of the law, the Teacher‘! with 
authority, the God of Abraham, the Protector 
of Isaac, the Holy One of Israel, the Instructor 
of Moses; Him, I say, who promised to show 
him His divine incarnation, as it were His hinder 
parts ;? Him who, in the midst of poverty, was 
rich ; Him who in infancy was before the ages ; 
Him who, though seen, was invisible ; Him who 
in comprehension was incomprehensible ; Him 
who, though in littleness, yet surpassed all mag- 
nitude —at one and the same time in the tem- 
ple and in the highest heavens—on a royal 
throne, and on the chariot of the cherubim ; 
Him who is both above and below continuously ; 
Him who is in the form of a servant, and in the 
form of God the Father; a subject, and yet 
King of all. He was entirely given up to de- 
sire, to hope, to joy ; he was no longer his own, 
but His who had been looked for. The Holy 
Spirit had announced to him the joyful tidings, 
and before he reached the temple, carried aloft 
by the eyes of his understanding, as if even now 
he possessed what he had longed for, he exulted 
with joy. Being thus led on, and in his haste 
treading the air with his steps, he reaches the 
shrine hitherto held sacred; but, not heeding 
the temple, he stretches out his holy arms to 
the Ruler of the temple, chanting forth in song 
such strains as become the joyous occasion: I 
long for Thee, O Lord God of my fathers, and 
Lord of mercy, who hast deigned, of Thine own 
glory and goodness, which provides for all, of 
Thy gracious condescension, with which Thou in- 
clinest towards us, as a Mediator bringing peace, 
to establish harmony between earth and heaven. 
I seek Thee, the Great Author of all. With 
longing I expect Thee who, with Thy word, em- 
bracest all things. I wait for Thee, the Lord 
of life and death. For Thee I look, the Giver of 
the law, and the Successor of the law. I hunger 
for Thee, who quickenest the dead ; I thirst for 
Thee, who refreshest the weary ; I desire Thee, 
the Creator and Redeemer of the world.3 Thou 
art our God, and Thee we adore; Thou art our 
holy Temple, and in Thee we pray; Thou art 
our Lawgiver, and Thee we obey ; Thou art God 
of all things the First. Before Thee was no 
other god begotten of God the Father ; neither 
after Thee shall there be any other son consub- 
stantial and of one glory with the Father. And 
to know Thee is perfect righteousness, and to 
know Thy power is the root of immortality.‘ 





1 trav avOévrnv Stdacxadov. The allusion is to Mark i, 22. 
2 Exod. iii, 23. 
3 Isa. xliii. ro. 


4 Wisd, xv. 3. 





Thou art He who, for our salvation, was made 
the head stone of the corner, precious and hon- 
ourable, declared before toSion.5 For all things 
are placed under Thee as their Cause and 
Author, as He who brought all things into being 
out of nothing, and gave to what was unstable 
a firm coherence ; as the connecting Band and 
Preserver of that which has been brought into 
being ; as the Framer of things by nature differ- 
ent; as He who, with wise and steady hand, 
holds the helm of the universe; as the very 
Principle of all good order; as the irrefragable 
Bond of concord and peace. For in Thee we 
live, and move, and have our being.® Where- 
fore, O Lord my God, I will glorify Thee, I will 
praise Thy name; for Thou hast done wonder- 
ful things ; Thy counsels of old are faithfulness 
and truth; Thou art clothed with majesty and 
honour.? For what is more splendid for a king 
than a purple robe embroidered around with flow- 
ers, and a shining diadem? Or what for God, 
who delights in man, is more magnificent than 
this merciful assumption of the manhood, illumi- 
nating with its resplendent rays those who sit in 
darkness and the shadow of death?’ Fitly did 
that temporal king and Thy servant once sing of 
Thee as the King Eternal, saying, Thou art 
fairer than the children of men, who amongst 
men art very God and man.? For Thou hast 
girt, by Thy incarnation, Thy loins with right- 
eousness, and anointed Thy veins with faithful- 
ness, who Thyself art very righteousness and 
truth, the joy and exultation of all.*° Therefore 
rejoice with me this day, ye heavens, for the 
Lord hath showed mercy to His people. Yea, 
let the clouds drop the dew of righteousness 
upon the world ; let the foundations of the earth 
sound a trumpet-blast to those in Hades, for the 
resurrection of them that sleep is come.'' Let 
the earth also cause compassion to spring up to 
its inhabitants ; for I am filled with comfort; I 
am exceeding joyful since I have seen Thee, the 
Saviour of men.’? 

vu. While the old man was thus exultant, and 
rejoicing with exceeding great and holy joy, that 
which had before been spoken of in a figure by 
the prophet Isaiah, the holy mother of God now 
manifestly fulfilled. For taking, as from a pure 
and undefiled altar, that coal living and ineffable, 
with man’s flesh invested, in the embrace of her 
sacred hands, as it were with the tongs, she held 
Him out to that just one, addressing and exhort- 
ing him, as it seems to me, in words to this ef- 
fect: Receive, O reverend senior, thou of priests 





5 Ps. cxviii. 22; Isa. xxviii. 16; 1 Pet. ii. 6. 
6 Acts xviii. 28. 

7 Exod. xv. 2; Isa. xxv. 1; Ps. civ. 1. 

8 Isa. xlii. 7; Luke i. 79. 

9 1 Tim, i. 173 Ps. xlv.2. 

lo Isa. xi. 5. 

{1 Tsa. xlv. 8. 

12 2 Cor. vii. 4. 


ve. 


388 





ORATION CONCERNING SIMEON AND ANNA. 





the most excellent, receive the Lord, and reap 
the full fruition of that hope of thine which is 
not left widowed and desolate. Receive, thou 
of men the most illustrious, the unfailing treasure, 
and those riches which can never be taken away. 
Take to thine embrace, O thou of men most 
wise, that unspeakable might, that unsearchable 
power, which can alone support thee. Embrace, 
thou minister of the temple, the Greatness in- 
finite, and the Strength incomparable. Fold thy- 
self around Him who is the very life itself, and 
live, O thou of men most venerable. Cling 
closely to incorruption and be renewed, O thou 
of men most righteous. 
attempt ; shrink not from it then, O thou of men 
most holy. Satiate thyself with Him thou hast 
longed for, and take thy delight in Him who has 
been given, or rathér who gives Himself to thee, 
O thou of men most divine. Joyfully draw thy 
light, O thou of men most pious, from the 
Sun of Righteousness, that gleams around thee 
through the unsullied mirror of the flesh. Fear 
not His gentleness, nor let His clemency terrify 
thee, O thou of men most blessed. Be not 
afraid of His lenity, nor shrink from His kind- 
ness, O thou of men most modest. Join thyself 
to Him with alacrity, and delay not to obey Him. 
That which is spoken to thee, and held out to 
thee, savours not of over-boldness. Be not then 
reluctant, O thou of men the most decorous. 
The flame of the grace of my Lord does not 
consume, but illuminates thee, O thou of men 
most just.'' Let the bush which set forth me in 
type, with respect to the verity of that fire which 
yet had no subsistence, teach thee this, O thou 
who art in the law the best instructed.2 Let 
that furnace which was as it were a breeze dis- 
tilling dew persuade thee, O master, of the dis- 
pensation of this mystery. Then, beside all this, 
let my womb be a proof to thee, in which He 
was contained, who in nought else was ever con- 
tained, of the substance of which the incarnate 
Word yet deigned to become incarnate. The 
blast 3 of the trumpet does not now terrify those 
who approach, nor a second time does the moun- 
tain all on smoke cause terror to those who draw 
nigh, nor indeed does the law punish relentlessly 4 
those who would boldly touch. What is here 
present speaks of love to man; what is here 
apparent, of the Divine condescension. Thank- 
fully, then, receive the God who comes to thee, 
for He shall take away thine iniquities, and thor- 
oughly purge thy sins. In thee, let the cleans- 
ing of the world first, as in type, have place. In 
thee, and by thee, let that justification which is 
of grace become known beforehand to the Gen- 
tiles. Thou art worthy of the quickening first- 
1 Exod. iii. 2. 
2 Dan. iii, 21. 


3 Exod. xix, 16. 
4 Ps. vi. 6. 





Not too bold is the| 





fruits. Thou hast made good use of the law. 
Use grace henceforth. With the letter thou hast 
grown weary ; in the spirit be renewed. Put off 
that whic his old, and clothe thyself with that 
which is new. For of these matters I think not 
that thou art ignorant. 

vil, Upon all this that righteous man, ee 
bold and yielding to the exhortation of the 
mother of God, who is the handmaid of God in 
regard to the things which pertain to men, re- 
ceived into his aged arms Him who in infancy 
was yet the Ancient of days, and blessed God, 
and said, “ Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant 
depart in peace, according to Thy word: for 
mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou 
hast prepared before the face of all people; a 
light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of 
Thy people Israel.””5 I have received from Thee 
a joy unmixed with pain. Do thou, O Lord, 
receive me rejoicing, and singing of Thy mercy 
and compassion. ‘Thou hast given unto me this 
joy of heart. I render unto Thee with gladness 
my tribute of thanksgiving. I have known the 
power of the love of God. Since, for my sake, 
God of Thee begotten, in a manner ineffable, 
and without corruption, has become man. I 
have known the inexplicable greatness of Thy 
love and care for us, for Thou hast sent forth 
Thine own bowels to come to our deliverance. 
Now, at length, I understand what I had from 
Solomon learned: “ Strong as death is love: 
for by it shall the sting of death be done away, 
by it shall the dead see life, by it shall even 
death learn what death is, being made to cease 
from that dominion which over us he exercised. 
By it, also, shall the serpent, the author of our 
evils, be taken captive and overwhelmed.” ® 
Thou hast made known to us, O Lord, Thy sal- 
vation,’ causing to spring up for us the plant of 
peace, and we shall no longer wander in error. 
Thou hast made known to us, O Lord, that Thou 
hast not unto the end overlooked Thy servants ; 
neither hast Thou, O beneficent One, forgotten 
entirely the works of Thine hands. For out of 
Thy compassion for our low estate Thou hast 
shed forth upon us abundantly that goodness of 
Thine which is inexhaustible, and with Thy very 
nature cognate, having redeemed us by Thine 
only begotten Son, who is unchangeably like to 
Thee, and of one substance with Thee ; judging 
it unworthy of Thy majesty and goodness to en- 
trust to a servant the work of saving and bene- 
fiting Thy servants, or to cause that those who 
had offended should be reconciled by a minister, 
But by means of that light, which is of one sub- 
stance with Thee, Thou hast given light to those 
that sat in darkness*® and in the shadow of 





5 Luke ii. 29-32. 

6 Cant. viii. 6. 

7 Ps. xcviii. 2. 

8 Isa. ix. 2, xlii.7; Luke i. 79. 


ORATION CONCERNING SIMEON AND ANNA. 


389 





death, in order that in Thy light they might see 
the light of knowledge; and it has seemed 
good to Thee, by means of our Lord and Crea- 
tor, to fashion us again unto immortality ; and 
Thou hast graciously given unto us a return to 
Paradise by means of Him who separated us 
from the joys of Paradise ; and by means of Him 
who hath power to forgive sins Thou hast? 
blotted out the handwriting which was against 
us.3 Lastly, by means of Him who is a partaker 
of Thy throne, and who cannot be separated 
from Thy divine nature, Thou hast given unto 
us the gift of reconciliation, and access unto 
Thee with confidence, in order that, by the Lord 
who recognises the sovereign authority of none, 
by the true and omnipotent God, the subscribed 
sanction, as it were, of so many and such great 
blessings might constitute the justifying gifts of 
grace to be certain and indubitable rights to 
those who have obtained mercy. And this very 
thing the prophet before had announced in the 
words : No ambassador, nor angel, but the Lord 
Himself saved them; because He loved them, 
and spared them, and He took them up, and 
exalted them. And all this was, not of works 
of righteousness 5 which we have done, nor be- 
cause we loved Thee, — for our first earthly fore- 
father, who was honourably entertained in the 
delightful abode of Paradise, despised Thy di- 
vine and saving commandment, and was judged 
unworthy of that life-giving place, and mingling 
his seed with the bastard off-shoots of sin, he 
rendered it very weak ;—— but Thou, O Lord, of 
Thine own self, and of Thine ineffable love 
toward the creature of Thine hands, hast con- 
firmed Thy mercy toward us, and, pitying our 
estrangement from Thee, hast moved Thyself 
at the sight of our degradation ® to take us into 
compassion. Hence, for the future, a joyous 
festival is established for us of the race of Adam, 
because the first Creator of Adam of His own 
free-will has become the Second Adam. And 
the brightness of the Lord our God hath come 
down to sojourn with us, so that we see God 
face to face, and are saved. Therefore, O Lord, 
I seek of Thee to be allowed to depart. I have 
seen Thy salvation; let me be delivered from 
the bent yoke of the letter. I have seen the 
King Eternal, to whom no other succeeds ; let 
me be set free from this servile and burdensome 
chain. I have seen Him who is by nature my 
Lord and Deliverer; may I obtain, then, His 
decree for my deliverance. Set me free from 
the yoke of condemnation, and place me under 
the yoke of justification. Deliver me from the 


I Ps, xxxvie 9. 


2 Mark ii. 10, 

3 Col. ii. 

4 Isa, Ixiil, 9, Sept. version, 
5 Tit. iii. 5. 


© John iv. 9. 





yoke of the curse, and of the letter that killeth ; 7 
and enrol me in the blessed company of those 
who, by the grace of this Thy true Son, who is 
of equal glory and power with Thee, have been 
received into the adoption of sons. 

Ix. Let then, says he, what I have thus De 
said in brief, suffice for the present as my offer- 
ing of thanks to God. But what shall I say to 
thee, O mother-virgin and virgin-mother? For 
the praise even of her who is not man’s work 
exceeds the power of man. Wherefore the dim- 
ness of my poverty I will make bright with the 
splendour of the gifts of the spirits that around 
thee shine, and offering to thee of thine own, 
from the immortal meadows I will pluck a gar- 
land for thy sacred and divinely crowned head. 
With thine ancestral hymns will I greet thee, O 
daughter of David, and mother of the Lord and 
God of David. For it were both base and in- 
auspicious to adorn thee, who in thine own glory 
excellest with that which belongeth unto another. 
Receive, therefore, O lady most benignant, gifts 
precious, and such as are fitted to thee alone, O 
thou who art exalted above all generations, and 
who, amongst all created things, both visible 
and invisible, shinest forth as the most honour- 
able. Blessed is the root of Jesse, and thrice 
blessed is the house of David, in which thou 
hast sprung up. God is in the midst of thee, 
and thou shalt not be moved, for the Most High 
hath made holy the place of His tabernacle. 
For in thee the covenants and oaths made of 
God unto the fathers have received a most glori- 
ous fulfilment, since by thee the Lord hath ap- 
peared, the God of hosts with us. That bush 
which could not be touched,? which beforehand 
shadowed forth thy figure endowed with divine 
majesty, bare God without being consumed, who 
manifested Himself to the prophet just so far as 
He willed to be seen. Then, again, that hard 
and rugged rock,'° which imaged forth the grace 
and refreshment which has sprung out from thee 
for all the world, brought forth abundantly in the 
desert out of its thirsty sides a healing draught 
for the fainting people. Yea, moreover, the rod 
of the priest which, without culture, blossomed 
forth in fruit,'’ the pledge and earnest of a 
perpetual priesthood, furnished no ‘ contempt- 
ible symbol of thy supernatural child-bearing.” 
What, moreover? Hath not the mighty Moses 
expressly declared, that on account of these 
types of thee, hard to be understood," he delayed 
longer on the mountain, in order that he might 
learn, O holy one, the mysteries that with thee 





7 2 Cor. iii. 6. 
8 Ps, xlvi. 4, 5. 
9 Exod, iii. 2. 
10 Exod. xvii. 6. 
II Num. xvii. 8. 
12 Heb. ix. 4. 


13 Exod. xxv. 8 





are connected? For being commanded to build 
the ark as a sign and similitude of this thing, he 
was not negligent in obeying the command, al- 
though a tragic occurrence happened on his de- 
scent from the mount; but having made it in 
size five cubits and a half, he appointed it to be 
the receptacle of the law, and covered it with 
the wings of the cherubim, most evidently pre- 
signifying thee, the mother of God, who hast 
conceived Him without corruption, and in an 
ineffable manner brought forth Him who is Him- 
self, as it were, the very consistence of incorrup- 
tion, and that within the limits of the five and a 
half circles of the world. On thy account, and 
the undefiled Incarnation of God, the Word, 

which by thee had place for the sake of that 
flesh which immutably and indivisibly remains | 
with Him for ever.t. The golden pot also, as al 


Blessed art thou, all-blessed, and to be 
sired of all. Blessed of the Lord is thy 
full of divine grace, and grateful exceedingly 
God, mother of God, thou that givest light to 


the faithful. 
to speak, of Him who cannot be circumscribed ; 
the root® of the most beautiful flower; the 
mother of the Creator; the nurse of the Nour- 
isher; the circumference of Him who embraces 
all things; the upholder of Him? who upholds 


all things by His word ; the gate through which 


God appears in the flesh ; ;8 the tongs of that 
cleansing coal;° the bosom in small of that 


Thou art the circumscription, so 


bosom which is all-containing ; the fleece of 4 


wool,'® the mystery of which cannot be solved ; 


the well of Bethlehem," that reservoir of life ; 


which David longed for, out of which the draught 
of immortality gushed forth ; the mercy-seat * 


i 


8 
43 


most certain type, preserved the manna con- from which God in human form was made known a 


tained in it, which in other cases was changed | unto men; the spotless robe of Him who clothes ~ 
day by day, unchanged, and keeping fresh “for Himself with light as with a garment.3 Thou 
ages. The prophet Elijah? likewise, as prescient ) hast lent to God, who stands in need of nothing, 
of thy chastity, and being emulous of it through | that flesh which He had not, in order that the 
the Spirit, bound around “him the crown of that , Omnipotent might become that which it was his 


fiery life, being by the divine decree adjudged 
superior to death. Thee also, prefiguring his | 
successor Elisha,3 having been instructed by a 
wise master, and anticipating thy presence who 
wast not yet born, by certain sure indications of 
the things that would have place hereafter,* min- 
istered help and healing to those who were in) 
need of it, which was of a virtue beyond nature ; 
now with a new cruse, which contained healing | 
salt, curing the deadly waters, to show that the 
world was to be recreated by the mystery mani- 
fested in thee; now with unleavened meal, in 
type responding to thy child-bearing, without 
being defiled by the seed of man, banishing from | 
the food the bitterness of death ; and then again, 
by efforts which transcended nature, rising supe- | 
rior to the natural elements in the Jordan, and 
thus exhibiting, in signs beforehand, the descent 
of our Lord into Hades, and His wonderful de- 
liverance of those who were held fast in corrup- | 
tion. For all things yielded and succumbed to | 
that divine image which prefigured thee. 

x. But why do I digress, and lengthen out my 
discourse, giving it the rein with these varied | 
illustrations, and that when the truth of thy mat- 
ter stands like a column before the eye, in which 
it were better and more profitable to luxuriate | 
and delight in? Wherefore, bidding adieu to/| 
the spiritual narrations and wondrous deeds of} 
the saints throughout all ages, I pass on to thee | 
who art always to be had in remembrance, and | 
who holdest the helm, as it were, of this festival. | 
3 : Heb. ix. 4. | 

2 Kings ii, rr. 
3 Ecclus. xlviii. x. / 
4 2 Kings il. 20, iv. 41, Vv. 


5 [The feast of the Purification. Here follows an impassioned 
apostrophe, which apart from its Oriental extravagance is full of poet- ! 





| ical beauty. 


good pleasure to be. What is more splendid 
than this? What than this is more sublime? 
He who fills earth and heaven,'* whose are all 
things, has become in need of thee, for thou 
hast lent to God that flesh which He had not. 
Thou hast clad the Mighty One with that beau- 
teous panoply of the body by which it has be- 


-come possible for Him to be seen by mine eyes. 


And I, in order that I might freely approach to 
behold Him, have received that by which all the 


‘fiery darts of the wicked shall be quenched.'s 


Hail! hail! mother and handmaid of God. 
Hail! hail! thou to whom the great Creditor of 
all is a debtor. We are all debtors to God, but 
to thee He is Himself indebted. 

For He who said, “ Honour thy father and 
thy mother,” *° will have most assuredly, as Him- 
self willing to be proved by such proofs, kept 
inviolate that grace, and His own decree towards 
her who ministered to Him that nativity to 
which He voluntarily stooped, and will have 
glorified with a divine honour her whom He, as 


being without a father, even as she was without 


a husband, Himself has written down as mother. 
Even so must these things be. For the hymns 7 





Its language, however, like that of other parts of this 
uent to the Nestorian 


Oration, suggests at least interpolation, su 
no call for such 


controversy. Previously, there would have 
vehemence of protestation, ] 
6 Isa. xl. 3. 
7 Heb. i. 3. 
8 Ezek. xhv. 2. 
9 Isa. vi. 6. 
10 Judg. vi. 37. 
3 
II 2 Sam, xxii. 17. 
2 Exod. xxxv. 17. 
3 Ps. civ. 2. 
14 Jer. xxiti, 24. 
15 Ephes. vi. 16. 
16 Exod. XxX. 12. 


17 [Apostrophes like the above; panegyrical, not odes of worship.} 














ORATION CONCERNING SIMEON AND ANNA. 


391 





which we offer to thee, O thou most holy and every soul that will not hearken unto Him shall 


admirable habitation of God, are no merely use- 


be cut off from His people,5 should seek a 


less and ornamental words. Nor, again, is thy| peaceful discharge from the tutorship of the 


spiritual laudation mere secular trifling, or the 
shoutings of a false flattery, O thou who of God 
art praised ; thou who to God gavest suck ; who 
by nativity givest unto mortals their beginning 


of being, but they are of clear and evident his subjects should incline their ears. 


truth. But the time would fail us, ages and 
succeeding generations too, to render unto thee 


thy fitting salutation as the mother of the ad 


Eternal, even as somewhere the illustrious 
prophet says, teaching us how incomprehensi- 
ble thou art.2 How great is the house of God, 
and how large is the place of His possession ! 
Great, and hath none end, high and unmeasur- 
able. For verily, verily, this prophetic oracle, 
and most true saying, is concerning thy majesty ; 
for thou aJone hast been thought worthy to share 
with God the things of God; who hast alone | 
borne in the flesh Him, who of God the Father 
was the Eternally and Only-Begotten. So do 
they truly believe who hold fast to the pure faith.3 

x1. But for the time that remains, my most 
attentive hearers, let us take up the old man, the 
receiver of God, and our pious teacher, who | 
hath put in here, as it were, in safety from that | 
virginal sea, and let us refresh him, both satis- | 
fied as to his divine longing, and conveying to us | 
this most blessed theology ; and let us ourselves | 
follow out the rest of our discourse, directing | 
our course unerringly with reference to our pre- 
scribed end, and that under the guidance of 
God the Almighty, so shall we not be found 
altogether unfruitful and unprofitable as to what | 
is required of us. When, then, to these sacred 
rites, prophecy and the priesthood had been | 
jointly called, and that pair of just ones elected 
of God —Simeon, I mean, and Anna, bearing in 
themselves most evidently the images of both 
peoples — had taken their station by the side of 
that glorious and virginal throne, — for by the old 
man was represented the people of Israel, and | 
the law now waxing old; whilst the widow rep- 
resents the Church of the Gentiles, which had 
been up to this point a widow, —the old man, in- 
deed, as personating the law, seeks dismissal ; but 
the widow, as personating the Church, brought 
her joyous confession of faith,s and spake of 
Him to all that looked for redemption in Jeru- 
salem, even as the things that were spoken of 
both have been appositely and excellently re- 
corded, and quite in harmony with the sacred 
festival. For it was fitting and necessary that 
the old man who knew so accurately that decree 
of the law, in which it is said: Hear Him, and | 





1; Tim. i. 17. 

2 Baruch iii. 24, 25. 

3 [This must have been interpolated after the Council of Ephesus, | 
A.D. 431. The whole Oration is probably after that date. ] 

4 Luke ii. 38. 


law ; for in truth it were insolence and presump- 
tion, when the king is present and addressing 
the people, for one of his attendants to make a 
speech over against him, and that to this man 
It was 
necessary, too, that the widow who had been 
increased with gifts beyond measure, should in 
festal strains return her thanks to God; and so 
the things which there took place were agreeable 
to the law. But, for what remains, it is neces- 
sary to inquire how, since the prophetic types 
and figures bear, as has been shown, a certain 
analogy and relation to this prominent feast, it is 
said that the house was filled with smoke. Nor 
does the prophet say this incidentally, but with 
significance, speaking of that cry of the Thrice- 
Holy,° uttered by the heavenly seraphs. You 
will discover the meaning of this, my attentive 
hearer, if you do but take up and examine what 
follows upon this narration: For hearing, he 
says, ye shall hear, and shall not understand ; 
and seeing, ye shall see, and not perceive.7 
When, therefore, the foolish Jewish children had 
seen the glorious wonders which, as David sang, 
the Lord had performed in the earth, and had 
seen the sign from the depth* and from the 
height meeting together, without division or con- 
fusion; as also Isaiah had before declared, 
namely, a mother beyond nature, and an off- 
spring beyond reason; an earthly mother and a 
heavenly son; a new taking of man’s nature, I 
say, by God, and a child-bearing without mar- 


riage ; what in creation’s circuit could be more 


glorious and more to be spoken of than this! 
yet when they had seen this it was all one as if 
they had not seen it ; they closed their eyes, and 
in respect of praise were supine. Therefore the 
house in which they boasted was filled with 
smoke. 

xu. And in addition to this, when besides the 
spectacle, and even beyond the spectacle, they 
heard an old man, very righteous, very worthy of 
credit, worthy also of emulation, inspired by the 
Holy Spirit, a teacher of the law, honoured with 
the priesthood, illustrious in the gift of prophecy, 
by the hope which he had conceived of Christ, 
extending the limits of life, and putting off the 
debt of death — when they saw him, I say, leap- 
ing for joy, speaking words of good omen, quite 


transformed with gladness of heart, entirely rapt 


in a divine and holy ecstasy ; who from a man 
had been changed into an angel by a godly 
change, and, for the immensity of his joy, chant- 





5 Deut. xviii. 15-19. 

6 Isa. vi. 4. 

7 Isa. vi. 9; Acts xxviii. 26. 
8 Ps. xlvi. 8; Isa. vil. 13, 


392 


ed his hymn of thanksgiving, and openly pro- 


claimed the “ Light to lighten the Gentiles, and 
the glory of Thy people Israel.”! Not even 
then were they willing to hear what was placed 
within their hearing, and held in veneration by 
the heavenly beings themselves; wherefore the 
house in which they boasted was filled with 
smoke. Nowsmoke is a sign and sure evidence 
of wrath; as it is written, “There went up a 
smoke in His anger, and fire from His coun- 
tenance devoured ;”? and in another place, 
“Amongst the disobedient people shall the fire 
burn,’”’3 which plainly, in the revered Gospels, 
our Lord signified, when He said to the Jews, 
“ Behold your house is left unto you desolate.” 4 
Also, in another place, “The king sent forth his 
armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burnt 
up their city.”5 Of such a nature was the ad- 
verse reward of the Jews for their unbelief, which 
caused them to refuse to pay to the Trinity the 
tribute of praise. For after that the ends of the 
earth were sanctified, and the mighty house of 
the Church was filled, by the proclamation of the 
Thrice Holy, with the glory of the Lord, as the 
great waters cover the seas,° there happened to 
them the things which before had been declared, 
and the beginning of prophecy was confirmed 
by its issue, the preacher of truth signifying, as 
has been said, by the Holy Spirit, as it were in 
an example, the dreadful destruction which was 
to come upon them, in the words: “In the year 
in which king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord ” — 
Uzziah, doubtless, as an apostate, being taken 
as the representative of the whole apostate body 
— the head of which he certainly was — who also, 
paying the penalty due to his presumption, car- 
ried on his forehead, as upon a brazen statue, the 
divine vengeance engraved, by the loathsomeness 
of leprosy, exhibiting to all the retribution of 
their loathsome impiety. Wherefore with divine 
wisdom did he, who had foreknowledge of these 
events, oppose the bringing in of the thankful 
Anna to the casting out of the ungrateful syna- 
gogue. Her very name also presignifies the 
Church, that by the grace of Christ and God is 
justified in baptism, For Anna is, by interpre- 
tation, grace. 
xu. But here, as in port, putting in the vessel 
that bears the ensign of the cross, let us reef the 
sails of our oration, in order that it may be with 
itself commensurate. Only first, in as few words 
as possible, let us salute the city of the Great 
King,” together with the whole body of the 
Church, as being present with them in spirit, and 
keeping holy-day with the Father, and the breth- 








t Luke ii. 32. 

2 Ps. xviii. 8. 

3 Ecclus. xxii. 7. 

4 Matt. xxiii. 38. 

5 Matt. xvii. - 

6 Isa, vi. 3, 4, 

7 Ps. xlvil. 2; Matt. vy. 355 Isa. i, 26. 





Sa Rel ai vn ee 


ORATION CONCERNING SIMEON AND ANNA, 





ren most held in honour there. Hail, thou city 
of the Great King, in which the mysteries of our 
salvation are consummated. Hail, thou heaven — 
upon earth, Sion, the city that is for ever faithful 
unto the Lord. Hail, and shine thou Jerusalem, 
for thy light is come, the Light Eternal, the 
Light for ever enduring, the Light Supreme, the 
Light Immaterial, the Light of one substance 
with God and the Father, the Light which is in 
the Spirit, and in which is the Father; the Light 
which illumines the ages ; the Light which gives 
light to mundane and supramundane things, 
Christ our very God. Hail, city sacred and 
elect of the Lord. Joyfully keep thy festal days, 
for they will not multiply so as to wax old and 
pass away. Hail, thou city most happy, for 
glorious things are spoken of thee; thy priest 
shall be clothed with righteousness, and thy 
saints shall shout for joy, and thy poor shall be 
satisfied with bread.’ Hail! rejoice, O Jerusa- 
lem, for the Lord reigneth in the midst of thee.9 
That Lord, I say, who in His simple and imma- 
terial Deity, entered our nature, and of the vir- 
gin’s womb became ineffably incarnate; that 
Lord, who was partaker of nothing else save the 
lump of Adam, who was by the serpent tripped 
up. For the Lord laid not hold of the seed of 
angels '?— those, I say, who fell not away from 
that beauteous order and rank that was assigned 
to them from the beginning. To us He conde- 
scended, that Word who was always with the 
Father co-existent God. Nor, again, did He 
come into the world to restore; nor will He 
restore, as has been imagined by some impious 
advocates of the devil, those wicked demons 
who once fell from light ; but when the Creator 
and Framer of all things had, as the most divine 
Paul says, laid hold of the seed of Abraham, 
and through him of the whole human race, He 
was made man for ever, and without change, in 
order that by His fellowship with us, and our 
joining on to Him, the ingress of sin into us 
might be stopped, its strength being broken by 
degrees, and itself as wax being melted, by that 
fire which the Lord, when He came, sent upon 
the earth.’ Hail to thee, thou Catholic Church,” 
which hast been planted in all the earth, and do 
thou rejoice with us. Fear not, little flock, the 
storms of the enemy,'3 for it is your Father’s 
good pleasure to give you the kingdom, and that 
you should tread upon the necks of your ene- 
mies.4 Hail, and rejoice, thou that wast once 
barren, and without seed unto godliness, but who 





8 Isa, Ix. 1; Ps. Ixxxvii. 3; Ps. cxxxii. 16. 


9 Isa, xii. 6. 
19 Heb, 11.716. 
m t Luke xii. 49. 


Here i is an apostrophe to the Church, a hymn to “ the Elect 
3 oe See, illustrating note 17, p. 390, supra. 

15 tpxuuias, stormy waves. Latzn, decumani fluctus. Metho- 
dius perhaps alludes to Diocletian’s persecution, in which he perished 
as a martyr. — Tr. 

14 Luke xii. 32. 








WY 


ORATION CONCERNING SIMEON AND ANNA. 


393 





hast now many children of faith. Hail, thou 
people of the Lord, thou chosen generation, 
thou royal priesthood, thou holy nation, thou 
peculiar people — show forth His praises who 
hath called you out of darkness into His mar- 
vellous light ; and for His mercies glorify Him.? 

xIv. Hail to thee for ever, thou virgin mother 
of God, our unceasing joy, for unto thee do I 
again return. Thou art the beginning of our 
feast ; thou art its middle and end ;4 the pearl 
of great price that belongest unto the kingdom ; 
the fat of every victim, the living altar of the 
bread of life. Hail, thou treasure of the love 
of God. Hail, thou fount of the Son’s love 
for man. Hail, thou overshadowing mount 5 of 
the Holy Ghost. Thou gleamedst, sweet gift- 
bestowing mother, of the light of the sun; thou 
gleamedst with the insupportable fires of a most 
fervent charity, bringing forth in the end that 
which was conceived of thee before the begin- 
ning, making manifest the mystery hidden and 
unspeakable, the invisible Son of the Father — 
the Prince of Peace, who in a marvellous man- 
ner showed Himself as less than all littleness. 
Wherefore, we pray thee, the most excellent 





T Isa. liv. 2. 

2 x Pet. ii. 9. 

3 [He again apostrophizes the Blessed Theotocos, but in lan- 
guage hardly appropriate to the period preceding Cyril of Alexan- 

ria. 

4 [Not so, for he ezds with a noble strain of worship to the Son 
of God. This expression suggests interpolation. 

5 Hab. iii. 3. 


among women, who boastest in the confidence 
of thy maternal honours, that thou wouldest un- 
ceasingly keep us in remembrance. O holy 
mother of God, remember us, I say, who make 
our boast in thee, and who in hymns august 
celebrate the memory, which will ever live, and 
never fade away. And do thou also, O honoured 
and venerable Simeon, thou earliest host of our 
holy religion, and teacher of the resurrection of 
the faithful, be our patron and advocate with 
that Saviour God, whom thou wast deemed 
worthy to receive into thine arms. We, together 
with thee, sing our praises to Christ, who has the 
power of life and death, saying, Thou art the 
true Light, proceeding from the true Light; 
the true God, begotten of the true God; the 
one Lord, before Thine assumption of the hu- 
manity ; that One nevertheless, after Thine as- 
sumption of it, which is ever to be adored ; God 
of Thine own self and not by grace, but for our 
sakes also perfect man; in Thine own nature 
the King absolute and sovereign, but for us and 
for our salvation existing also in the form of a 
servant, yet immaculately and without defilement. 
For Thou who art incorruption hast come to set 
corruption free, that Thou mightest render all 
things uncorrupt. For Thine is the glory, and 
the power, and the greatness, and the majesty, 
with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever. 
Amen. 


ORATION ON 


1. BLessED be God; let us proceed, brethren, 
from wonders to the miracles of the Lord, and 
as it were, from strength to strength.2 For just 
as in a golden chain the links are so intimately 
joined and connected together, as that the one 
holds the other, and is fitted on to it, and so 
carries on the chain— even so the miracles that 
have been handed down by the holy Gospels, one 
after the other, lead on the Church of God, which 
delights in festivity, and refresh it, not with the 
meat that perisheth, but with that which endur- 
eth unto everlasting life.3 Come then, beloved, 
and let us, too, with prepared hearts, and with 
ears intent, listen to what the Lord our God 
shall say unto us out of the prophets and Gos- 
pels concerning this most sacred feast. Verily, 
He will speak peace unto His people, and to His 
saints, and to those which turn their hearts unto 
Him. To-day,‘ the trumpet-blast of the proph- 
ets have roused the world, and have made glad 
and filled with joyfulness the churches of God 
that are everywhere amongst the nations. And, 
summoning the faithful from the exercise of holy 
fasting, and from the palestra, wherein they 
struggle against the lusts of the flesh, they have 
taught them to sing a new hymn of conquest 
and a new song of peace to Christ who giveth 
the victory. Come then, every one, and let us 
rejoice in the Lord ; O come, all ye people, and 
et us clap our hands, and make a joyful noise 
to God our Saviour, with the voice of *melody.5 
Let no one be without portion in this grace; 
‘et no one come short of this calling; for the 
seed of the disobedient is appointed to destruc- 
tion. — Let no one neglect to meet the King, 
lest he be shut out from the Bridegroom’s 
chamber. — Let no one amongst us be found to 
receive Him with a sad countenance, lest he be 
condemned with those wicked citizens — the 





citizens, I mean, who refused to receive the Lord 
as King over them.® Let us all come together 

1 [Dupin hardly credits this oration to Methodius. See eluci- 
dation, p. 398. 

2 Ps, Ixxxiv. 8. 

3 John vi. 27. 


4 [Evidently a homily for Palm Sunday, the first day of the 
Paschal week. ] 
s. Ixxxv. 9, xcv. 1, xlvii. 1 
§ Luke xix. 27. 


394 











Te evi 


cheerfully ; let us all receive Him gladly, and 
hold our feast with all honesty. Instead of our 
garments, let us strew our hearts before Him,? 
In psalms and hymns, let us raise to Him our 
shouts of thanksgiving; and, without ceasing, 
let us exclaim, ‘“ Blessed is He that cometh in 
the name of the Lord ;’® for blessed are they 
that bless Him, and cursed are they that curse 
Him.? Again I will say it, nor will I cease ex- 
horting you to good, Come, beloved, let us bless 
Him who is blessed, that we may be ourselves 
blessed of Him. Every age and condition does 
this discourse summon to praise the Lord ; kings 
of the earth, and all people; princes, and all 
judges of the earth ; both young men and maid- 
ens '°— and what is new in‘this miracle, the 
tender and innocent age of babes and suck- 
lings hath obtained the first place in raising to 
God with thankful confession the hymn which 
was of God taught them in the strains in which 
Moses sang before to the people when they came 
forth out of Egypt — namely, “Blessed is He 
that cometh in the name of the Lord.” 

u. To-day, holy David rejoices with great joy, 
being by babes despoiled of his lyre, with whom 
also, in spirit, leading the dance, and rejoicing 
together, as of old, before the ark of God," he 
mingles musical harmony, and sweetly lisps out 
in stammering voice, Blessed is He that cometh 
in the name of the Lord. Of whom shall we 
inquire? Tell us, O prophet, who is this that 
cometh in the name of the Lord? He will say 
it is not my part to-day to teach you, for He 
hath consecrated the school to infants, who hath 
out of the mouth of babes and sucklings per- 
fected praise to. destroy the enemy and the 
avenger,’? in order that by the miracle of these 
the hearts of the fathers might be turned to the 
children, and the disobedient unto the wisdom of 
the just."3 Tell us, then, O children, whence is 
this, your beautiful and graceful contest of song? 





7 Ps. Ixii. 8. 
_, ® Ps. cxviii. 26; Matt. xxi. 9; Mark xi. 9; Luke xix. 38; John 
xis. 
9 Gen. xxvii. 29. 
Io Ps. cxlvili. 11, 12. 
It 2 Sam. vi. 14. 
12 Ps. viii. 2. 
13 Mal. iv. 6; Lukei. 17, 








ee 


ORATION ON 


THE PALMS. 395 





Who taught it you? Who instructed you? Who 
brought you together? What were your tablets? 
Who were your teachers? Do but you, they say, 
join us as our companions in this song and fes- 
tivity, and you will learn the things which were 
by Moses and the prophet earnestly longed for.’ 
Since then the children have invited us, and have 


given unto us the right hand of fellowship,? let 


us come, beloved, and ourselves emulate that 
holy chorus, and with the apostles, let us make 
way for Him who ascends over the heaven of 
heavens towards the East,3 and who, of His good 
pleasure, is upon the earth mounted upon an 
ass’s colt. Let us, with the children, raise the 
branches aloft, and with the olive branches make 
glad applaud, that upon us also the Holy Spirit 
may breathe, and that in due order we may raise 
the God-taught strain: “Blessed is He that 
cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in 
the highest.”’+ To-day, also, the patriarch Jacob 
keeps feast in spirit, seeing his prophecy brought 
to a fulfilment, and with the faithful adores the 
Father, seeing Him who bound his foal to the 


’ vine,5 mounted upon an ass’s colt. To-day the foal 


is made ready, the irrational exemplar of the 
Gentiles, who before were irrational, to signify 
the subjection of the people of the Gentiles ; 
and the babes declare their former state of 
childhood, in respect of the knowledge of God, 
and their after perfecting, by the worship of God 
and the exercise of the true religion. To-day, 
according to the prophet,° is the King of Glory 
glorified upon earth, and makes us, the inhabit- 
ants of earth, partakers of the: heavenly feast, 
that He may show Himself to be the Lord of 
both, even as He is hymned with the common 
praises of both. ‘Therefore it was that the heav- 
enly hosts sang, announcing salvation upon earth, 
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God of hosts ; 
the whole earth is full of His glory.”7 And 
those below, joining in harmony with the joyous 
hymns of heaven, cried : “ Hosanna in the high- 
est; Hosanna to the Son of David.” In heaven 
the doxology was raised, ‘“ Blessed be the glory 
of the Lord from His place;”® and on earth 
was this caught up in the words, “ Blessed is he 
that cometh in the name of the Lord.” 

im. But while these things were doing, and the 
disciples were rejoicing and praising God with a 
loud voice for all the mighty works that they had 
seen, saying, Blessed be the King that cometh 
in the name of the Lord ; peace in heaven, and 
glory in the highest ;9 the city began to inquire, 


t Luke x. 24, 

2 Gal. ii. 9. 

3 Ps. Ixvili. 4, 34. 
4 Matt. xxi. 5. 

5 Gen, xlix. ro. 

® Ps. cxlviii. g. 

7 Isa. vi. 3. 

8 Ezek. iit. 22. 

9 Luke xix. 37, 38 








saying, Who is this?'° stirring up its hardened 
and inveterate envy against the glory of the Lord. 
But when thou hearest me say the city, under- 
stand the ancient and disorderly multitude of the 
synagogue. They ungratefully and malignantly 
ask, Who is this? as if they had never yet seen 
their Benefactor, and Him whom divine miracles, 
beyond the power of man, had made famous 
and renowned ; for the darkness comprehended 
not '! that unsetting light which shone in upon it, 
Hence quite appositely with respect to them 
hath the prophet Isaiah exclaimed, saying, Hear, 
ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see. 
And who is blind, but my children? and deaf, 
but they that have the dominion over them?” 
And the servants of the Lord have become blind ; 
ye have often seen, but ye observed not; your 
ears are opened, yet ye hear not. See, beloved, 
how accurate are these words; how the Divine 
Spirit, who Himself sees beforehand into the 
future, has by His saints foretold of things future 
as if they were present. For these thankless 
men saw, and by means of His miracles handled 
the wonder-working God, and yet remained in 
unbelief."3_ They saw a man, blind from his birth, 
proclaiming to them the God who had restored 
his sight. They saw a paralytic, who had grown 
up, as it were, and become one with his infirmity, 
at His bidding loosed from his disease."*. They 
saw Lazarus, who was made an exile from the 
region of death.t5 ‘They heard that He had 
walked on the sea.'© ‘They heard of the wine 
that, without previous culture, was ministered ; '7 
of the bread that was eaten at that spontaneous 
banquet ; ‘8 they heard that the demons had been 
put to flight ; the sick restored to health.'9 Their 
very streets proclaimed His deeds of wonder ; 
their roads declared His healing power to those 
who journeyed on them. All Judea was filled 
with His benefit; yet now, when they hear the 
divine praises, they inquire, Who is this? O the 
madness of these falsely-named teachers! O 
incredulous fathers ! O foolish seniors! O seed 
of the shameless Canaan, and not of Judah the 
devout !?° The children acknowledge their Crea- 
tor, but their unbelieving parents said, Who is 
this? The age that was young and inexperienced 
sang praises to God, while they that had waxen old 
in wickedness inquired, Who is this? Sucklings 
praise His Divinity, while seniors utter blasphe- 
mies ; children piously offer the sacrifice of praise, 
whilst profane priests are impiously indignant.?! 





10 Matt. xxi. 10. 

II john 4. st 

12 Jsa. xlii. 18-20, 
13 John ix. 

14 John v. 5. 

15 John xi. 44. 

16 Matt. xiv. 26, 

17 John ii. 7. 

18 John vi. rr. 

19 Luke viii. 29, etc. 
20 Dan. iii. 56 (LXX.). 


2t Matt. xxi. 15. 


396 


tv. O ye disobedient as regards the wisdom 
of the just,’ turn your hearts to your children. 
Learn the mysteries of God ; the very thing it- 
self which is being done bears witness that it is 
God that is thus hymned by uninstructed tongues. 
Search the Scriptures, as ye have heard? from 
the Lord ; for they are they which testify of Him, 
and be not ignorant of this miracle. Hear ye 
men without grace, and thankless, what good 
tidings the prophet Zechariah brings to you. 
He says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion ; 
behold thy King cometh unto thee: just and 
having salvation ; lowly, and riding upon the foal 
of an ass.3 Why do ye repel the joy? Why, 
when the sun shineth, do ye love darkness? 
Why do ye against unconquerable peace medi- 
tate war? If, therefore, ye be the sons of Zion, 
join in the dance together with your children. 
Let the religious service of your children be to 
you a pretext for joy. Learn from them who 
was their Teacher; who called them together ; 
whence was the doctrine ; what means this new 
theology and old prophecy. And if no man 
hath taught them this, but of their own accord 
they raise the hymn of praise, then recognise 
the work of God, even as it is written in the 
law: “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings 
hast Thou perfected praise.” Redouble, there- 
fore, your joy, that you have been made the 
fathers of such children who, under the teaching 
of God, have celebrated with their praises things 
unknown to their seniors. Turn your hearts to 
your children,’ and close not your eyes against 
the truth. But if you remain the same, and 
hearing, hear not, and seeing, perceive not,° and 
to no purpose dissent from your children, then 
shall they be your judges,? according to the 
Saviour’s word. Well, therefore, even this thing 
also, together with others, has the prophet Isaiah 
spoken before of you, saying, Jacob shall not 
now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax 
pale. But when they see their children doing 
my works, they shall for me sanctify My name, 
and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall 
fear the God of Israel. They also that err in 
spirit shall come to understanding, and they that 
murmured shall learn obedience, and the stam- 
mering tongues shall learn to speak peace.® 
Seest thou, O foolish Jew, how from the begin- 
ning of his discourse, the prophet declares con- 
fusion to you because of your unbelief. Learn 
even from him how he proclaims the God- 
inspired hymn of praise that is raised by your 
children, even as the blessed David hath de- 


t Luke i. 17. 
2 John v. 39. 
3 Zech. ix. 9. 
4 Ps. viii. 2. 
S Luke i. 17. 
Isa. vi. to. 
7 Matt. xii. 27. 
8 Isa. xxix. 22, 24. 





ORATION ON THE PALMS. 


clared beforehand, saying, Out of the mouth of 
babes and sucklings hast Thou perfected praise, 
Either then, —as is right, — claim the piety of 
your children for your own, or devoutly give 
your children unto us. 
the dance, and to the new glory will sing in con- 
cert the divinely-inspired hymn. 

v. Once, indeed, the aged Simeon met the 
Saviour,? and received in his arms, as an infant, 
the Creator of the world, and proclaimed Him 
to be Lord and God ; but now, in the place of 
foolish elders, children meet the Saviour, even 
as Simeon did, and instead of their arms, strew 
under Him the branches of trees, and bless the 
Lord God seated upon a colt, as upon the cheru- 
bim, Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is 
He that cometh in the name of the Lord; and 
together with these let us also exclaim, Blessed 
is He that cometh, God the King of Glory, who, 
for our sakes, became poor, yet, in His own 
proper estate, being ignorant of poverty, that with 
His bounty He might make us rich. Blessed is 
He who once came in humility, and who will 
hereafter come again in glory: at the first, lowly, 
and seated upon an ass’s colt, and by infants ex- 
tolled. in order that it might be fulfilled which 
was written: Thy goings have been seen, O 
God ; even the goings of my God, my King, in 
the sanctuary ; but at the second time seated on 
the clouds, in terrible majesty, by angels and 
powers attended. O the mellifluous tongue of 
the children! O the sincere doctrine of those 
who are well pleasing to God! David in proph- 
ecy hid the spirit under the letter; children, 
opening their treasures, brought forth riches 
upon their tongues, and, in language full of 
grace, invited clearly all men to enjoy them. 
Therefore let us with them draw forth the un- 
fading riches. In our bosoms insatiate, and in 
treasure-houses which cannot be filled, let us lay 
up the divine gifts. Let us exclaim without 
ceasing, Blessed is He that cometh in the name 
of the Lord! Very God, in the name of the 
Very God, the Omnipotent from the Omnipotent, 
the Son in the name of the Father. The true 
King from the true King, whose kingdom, even 
as His who begat Him, is with eternity, coeval 
and pre-existent to it. For this is common to 
both; nor does the Scripture attribute this 
honour to the Son, as if it came from another 
source, nor as if it had a beginning, or could be 
added to or diminished — away with the thought ! 
— but as that which is His of right by nature, 
and by a true and proper possession. For the 
kingdom of the Father, of the Son, and of the 
Holy Ghost, is one, even as their substance is 
one and their dominion one. Whence also, with 
one and the same adoration, we worship the one 


9 Luke ii. 29, 


We with them will lead 


ial ae 








ORATION ON THE PALMS. 


397 





Deity in three Persons, subsisting without begin- 
ning, uncreate, without end, and to which there 
is no successor. For neither will the Father ever 
cease to be the Father, nor again the Son to be 
the Son and King, nor the Holy Ghost to be 
what in substance and personality He is. For 
nothing of the Trinity will suffer diminution, 
either in respect of eternity, or of communion, 
or of sovereignty. For not on that account is 
the Son of God called king, because for our sakes 
He was made man, and in the flesh cast down 
the tyrant that was against us, having, by taking 
this upon Him, obtained the victory over its 
cruel enemy, but because He is always Lord and 
God; therefore it is that now, both after His 
assumption of the flesh and for ever, He remains 
a king, even as He who begat Him. Speak not, 
O heretic, against the kingdom of Christ, lest 
thou dishonour Him who begat Him. If thou 
art faithful, in faith approach Christ, our very 
God, and not as using your liberty for a cloak 
of maliciousness. If thou art a servant, with 
trembling be subject unto thy Master; for he 
who fights against the Word is not a well-disposed 
servant, but a manifest enemy, as it is written: 
He that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not 
the Father which hath sent Him. 

vi. But let us, beloved, return in our discourse 
to that point whence we digressed, exclaiming, 
Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the 
Lord: that good and kind Shepherd, voluntarily 
to lay down His life for His sheep. That just 
as hunters take by a sheep the wolves that de- 
vour sheep, even so the Chief Shepherd, offer- 
ing Himself as man to the spiritual wolves and 
those who destroy the soul, may make His prey 
of the destroyers by means of that Adam who 
was once preyed on by them. Blessed is He 
that cometh in the name of the Lord: God 
against the devil; not manifestly in His might, 
which cannot be looked on, but in the weakness 
of the flesh, to bind the strong man? that is 
against us. Blessed is He that cometh in the 
name of the Lord: the King against the tyrant ; 
not with omnipotent power and wisdom, but with 
that which is accounted the foolishness3 of the 
cross, which hath reft his spoils from the serpent 
who is wise in wickedness. Blessed is He that 
cometh in the name of the Lord: the True One 
against the liar; the Saviour against the de- 
stroyer ; the Prince of Peace + against him who 
stirs up wars ; the Lover of mankind against the 
hater of mankind. Blessed is He that cometh 
in the name of the Lord: tne Lord to have 
mercy upon the creature of His hands. Blessed 
is He that cometh in the name of the Lord: 


ae 





Ty Pet. v. 4. 

2 Matt. xii. 29. 
3 1 Cor. i, 21. 
4 Isa, ix. 6. 





the Lord to save man who had wandered in 
error ; to put away error ; to give light to those 
who are in darkness; to abolish the imposture 
of idols; in its place to bring in the saving 
knowledge of God; to sanctify the world; to 
drive away the abomination and misery of the 
worship of false gods. Blessed is He that com- 
eth in the name of the Lord: the one for the 
many ; to deliver the poor 5 out of the hands of 
them that are too strong for him, yea, the poor 
and needy from him that spoileth him. Blessed 
is He that cometh in the name of the Lord, to 
pour wine and oil upon him who had fallen 
amongst thieves,° and had been passed by. 
Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the 
Lord: to save us by Himself, as says the proph- 
et; no ambassador, nor angel, but the Lord 
Himself saved us.7 Therefore we also bless 
Thee, O Lord; Thou with the Father and the 
Holy Spirit art blessed before the worlds and 
for ever. Before the world, indeed, and until 
now being devoid of body, but now and for ever 
henceforth possessed ef that divine humanity 
which cannot be changed, and from which Thou 
art never divided. 

vu. Let us look also at what follows. What 
says the most divine evangelist? When the 
Lord had entered into the temple, the blind and 
the lame came to Him; and He healed them. 
And when the chief priests and Pharisees saw 
the wonderful things that He did, and the chil- 
dren crying, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of 
David: Blessed is He that cometh in the name 
of the Lord,’ they brooked not this honour that 
was paid Him, and therefore they came to Him, 
and thus spake, Hearest Thou not what these 
say? Asif they said, Art Thou not grieved at 
hearing from these innocents things which befit 
God, and God alone? Has not God of old 
made it manifest by the prophet, ‘“ My glory will 
I not give unto another ;”’ 9 and how dost Thou, 
being a man, make Thyself God? *® But what 
to this answers the long-suffering One, He who 
is abundant in mercy,'! and slow to wrath?’?, He 
bears with these frenzied ones ; with an apology 
He keeps their wrath in check ; in His turn He 
calls the Scriptures to their remembrance ; He 
brings forward testimony to what is done, and 
shrinks not from inquiry. Wherefore He says, 
Have ye never heard Me saying by the prophet, 
Then shall ye know that I am He that doth 
speak ?'3 nor again, Out of the mouth of babes 
and sucklings hast Thou perfected praise be- 


5 Ps. xxxv. ro. 

6 Luke x. 34. 

7 Isa, Ixiii. 9. 

8 Matt. xxi. 14-16, 
9 Isa. xlii. 8. 

Io John x. 33. 

Ir Joel ii. 13. 

12 Jas. i. 18. 

13 Isa, lii, 6. 


398 


cause of Thine enemies, that Thou mightest still 
the enemy and the avenger? Which without 
doubt are ye, who give heed unto the law, and 
read the prophets, while yet ye despise Me who, 
both by the law and the prophets, have been 
beforehand proclaimed. Ye think, indeed, under 
a pretence of piety, to avenge the glory of God, 
not understanding that he that despiseth Me 
despiseth My Father also.!' I came forth from 
God, and am come into the world,2 and My 
glory is the glory of My Father also. Even 
thus these foolish ones, being convinced by our 
Saviour-God, ceased to answer Him again, the 
truth stopping their mouths ; but adopting a new 
and foolish device, they took counsel against 
Him. But let us sing, Great is our Lord, and 
great is His power ;3 and of His understanding 
there is no number. For all this was done that 
the Lamb and Son of God, that taketh away the 





ELUCIDATION. 


sins of the world, might, of His own will, and 


for us, come to His saving Passion, and might 
be recognised, as it were, in the market and 
place of selling; and that those who bought 
Him might for thirty pieces of silver covenant 
for Him who, with His life-giving blood, was to 
redeem the world; and that Christ, our pass- 
over, might be sacrificed for us, in order ‘that 
those who were sprinkled with His preciotis 
blood, and sealed on their lips, as the posts ‘of 
the door, might escape from the darts of the 
destroyer ; and that Christ having thus suffered 
in the flesh, and having risen again the third 
day, might, with equal honour and glory with 
the Father and the Holy Ghost, be by all created 
things equally adored ; for to Him every knee 
shall bow, of things in heaven, and things in 
earth, and things under the earth,5 sending up 
glory to Him, for ever and ever. Amen. 


T John xv. 23. 

2 Ton xvi, 28, 4 Exod, xi. 7. 

3 Ps, clxvii. 5. 5 Phil. ii, ro. 
ELUCIDATION. 


Tue candid Dupin ' says that we owe this to Pere Combefis,? on the authority of as. in the 


Royal Library of Paris. 
Father. 


of Methodius is Asiatic, diffuse, swelling, and abounding in epithet. 
He is full of similitudes and far-fetched allegories. His 


and the turn of his sentences artificial. 


thoughts are mysterious, and he uses many words to say a few things.” 


Dupin doubts as to parts of this homily, if not as to the whole. 


It appeared in Sir Henry Savile’s edition of Chrysostom ascribed to that 


He adds, “ The style 
His expressions are figurative, 


His doctrine, apart from 


these faults, is sound, and free from some errors common to the ancients: such faults as I have 
frequently apologized for in Origen, whom Methodius so generally condemns. 


l Ecclesiastical Writers, vol. i. p. 161. 


2 He was a Dominican, and learned in Greek. Died 1679. 





















THREE FRAGMENTS FROM THE HOMILY ON THE 
CROSS AND PASSION OF CHRIST. 


Tt 

MeEtuHopws, Bishop, to those who say: What 
doth it profit us that the Son of God was cruci- 
fied upon earth, and made man? And wherefore 
did He endure to suffer in the manner of the 
cross, and not by some other punishment? And 
what was the advantage of the cross? 

Christ, the Son of God, by the command of 
the Father, became conversant with the visible 
creature, in order that, by overturning the do- 
minion of the tyrants, the demons, that is, He 
might deliver our souls from their dreadful bond- 
age, by reason of which our whole nature, in- 
toxicated by the draughts of iniquity, had become 
full of tumult and disorder, and could by no 
means return to the remembrance of good and 
useful things. Wherefore, also, it was the more 
easily carried away to idols, inasmuch as evil had 
overwhelmed it entirely, and had spread over all 
generations, on account of the change which had 
come over our fleshy tabernacles in consequence 
of disobedience ; until Christ, the Lord, by the 
flesh in which He lived and appeared, weakened 
the force of Pleasure’s onslaughts, by means of 
which the infernal powers that were in arms 
against us reduced our minds to slavery, and 
freed mankind from all their evils. For with 
this end the Lord Jesus both wore our flesh, and 
became man, and by the divine dispensation was 
nailed to the cross; in order that by the flesh 
in which the demons had proudly and falsely 
feigned themselves gods, having carried our souls 
captive unto death by deceitful wiles, even by 
this they might be overturned, and discovered 
to be no gods. For he prevented their arrogance 
from raising itself higher, by becoming man; in 
order that by the body in which the race pos- 
sessed of reason had become estranged from the 
worship of the true God, and had suffered in- 
jury, even by the same receiving into itself in 
an ineffable manner the Word of Wisdom, the 
enemy might be discovered to be the destroyers 
and not the benefactors of our souls. 

For it had not been wonderful if Christ, by 





1 Apud. Gretserum, De Sancta Cruce, p. 401, tom. ii. Nov. 
edit. Ratisb.,1754. [Concerning which I quote from Dupin as fol- 
lows: ‘“‘ The Pére Combefis has collected some other fragments, a#- 
tributed to Methodtus, cited by St. John Damascene and by Nicetas 
as drawn out of his books against Porphyry. But, besides that, we 
cannot depend upon the authority of these two authors, who are not 
very exact; these fragments have nothing considerable, and we think 
if not worth while to say anything more concerning them.” ] 





the terror of His divinity, and the greatness of 
His invincible power, had reduced to weakness 
the adverse nature of the demons. But since 
this was to cause them greater grief and tor- 
ment, for they would have preferred to be over- 
come by one stronger than themselves, therefore 
it was that by a man He procured the safety of 
the race ; in order that men, after that very Life 
and Truth had entered into them in bodily form, 
might be able to return to the form and light of 
the Word, overcoming the power of the entice- 
ments of sin; and that the demons, being con- 
quered by one weaker than they, and thus brought 
into contempt, might desist from their over-bold 
confidence, their hellish wrath being repressed. 
It was for this mainly that the cross was brought 
in, being erected as a trophy against iniquity, 
and a deterrent from it, that henceforth man 
might be no longer subject to wrath, after that 
he had made up for the defeat which, by his 
disobedience, he had received, and had lawfully 
conquered the infernal powers, and by the gift 
of God had been set free from every debt. 
Since, therefore, the first-born Word of God thus 
fortified the manhood in which He tabernacled 
with the armour of righteousness, He overcame, 
as has been said, the powers that enslaved us 
by the figure of the cross, and showed forth 
man, who had been oppressed by corruption, as 
by a tyrant power, to be free, with unfettered 
hands. For the cross, if you wish to define it, 
is the confirmation of the victory, the way by 
which God to man descended, the trophy against 
material spirits, the repulsion of death, the foun- 
dation of the ascent to the true day; and the 
ladder for those who are hastening to enjoy the 
light that is there, the engine by which those 
who are fitted for the edifice of the Church are 
raised up from below, like a stone four square, 
to be compacted on to the divine Word. Hence 
it is that our kings, perceiving that the figure 
of the cross is used for the dissipating of every 
evil, have made vexil/as, as they are called in 
the Latin language. Hence the sea, yielding to 
this figure, makes itself navigable to men. For 
every creature, so to speak, has, for the sake’ of 
liberty, been marked with this sign ; for the birds 
which fly aloft, form the figure of the cross by 
the expansion of their wings; and man himself, 
also, with his hands outstretched, represents the 


399 


400 


same. Hence, when the Lord had fashioned 
him in this form, in which He had from the be- 
ginning framed him, He joined on his body to 
the Deity, in order that it might be henceforth 
an instrument consecrated to God, freed from all 
discord and want of harmony. For man can- 
not, after that he has been formed for the wor- 
ship of God, and hath sung, as it were, the 
incorruptible song of truth, and by this hath 
been made capable of holding the Deity, being 
fitted to the lyre of life as the chords and 
strings, he cannot, I say, return to discord and 
corruption. 
IL 
THE SAME METHODIUS TO THOSE WHO ARE 
ASHAMED OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 


Some think that God also, whom they meas- 
ure with the measure of their own feelings, judges 
the same thing that wicked and foolish men 
judge to be subjects of praise and blame, and 
that He uses the opinions of men as His rule 
and measure, not taking into account the fact 
that, by reason of the ignorance that is in them, 
every creature falls short of the beauty of God. 
For He draws all things to life by His Word, 
from their universal substance and nature. For 
whether He would have good, He Himself is 
the Very Good, and remains in Himself; or, 
whether the beautiful is pleasing to Him, since 
He Himself is the Only Beautiful, He beholds 
Himself, holding in no estimation the things 
which move the admiration of men. That, 
verily, is to be accounted as in reality the most 
beautiful and praiseworthy, which God Himself 
esteems to be beautiful, even though it be con- 
temned and despised by all else —not that which 
men fancy to be beautiful. Whence it is, that 
although by this figure He hath willed to deliver 
the soul from corrupt affections, to the signal 
putting to shame of the demons, we ought to 
receive it, and not to speak evil of it, as being 
that which was given us to deliver us, and set 
us free from the chains which for our disobedi- 
ence we incurred. For the Word suffered, being 
in the flesh affixed to the cross, that He might 
bring man, who had been deceived by error, to 
His supreme and godlike majesty, restoring him 
to that divine life from which he had become 
alienated. By this figure, in truth, the passions 
are blunted ; the passion of the passions having 
taken place by the Passion, and the death of 
death by the death of Christ, He not having 
been subdued by death, nor overcome by the 
pains of the Passion. For neither did the Pas- 
sion cast Him down from His equanimity, nor 
did death hurt Him, but He was in the passible 
remaining impassible, and in the mortal remain- 
ing immortal, comprehending all that the air, 





THREE FRAGMENTS ON THE PASSION OF CHRIST. 


and this middle state, and the heaven above 

contained, and attempering the mortal to the 

immortal divinity. Death was vanquished en- 
tirely ; the flesh being crucified to draw forth 
its immortality. 

IL? 

THE SAME METHODIUS: HOW CHRIST THE SON OF 
GOD, IN A BRIEF AND DEFINITE TIME, BEING EN- 
CLOSED BY THE BODY, AND EXISTING IMPASSIBLE, 
BECAME OBNOXIOUS TO THE PASSION. 


For since this virtue was in Him, now it is 
of the essence of power to be contracted in a 
small space, and to be diminished, and again to 
be expanded in a large space, and to be increased. 
But if it is possible for Him to be with the larger 
extended, and to be made equal, and yet not with 
the smaller to be contracted and diminished, 
then power is not in Him. For if you say that 
this is possible to power, and that impossible, 
you deny it to be power; as being infirm and 
incapable with regard to the things which it can- 
not do. Nor again, further, will it ever contain 
any excellence of divinity with respect to those 
things which suffer change. For both man and 
the other animals, with respect to those things 
which they can effect, energise ; but with respect 
to those things which they cannot perform, are 
weak, and fade away. Wherefore for this cause 
the Son of God was in the manhood enclosed, 
because this was not impossible to Him. For 
with power He suffered, remaining impassible ; 
and He died, bestowing the gift of immortality 
upon mortals. Since the body, when struck or 
cut by a body, is just so far struck or cut as the 
striker strikes it, or he that cuts it cut it. For 
according to the rebound of the thing struck, the 
blow reflects upon the striker, since it is neces- 
sary that the two must suffer equally, both the 
agent and the sufferer. If, in truth, that which 
is cut, from its small size, does not correspond to 
that which cuts it, it will not be able to cut it at 
all. For if the subject body does not resist 
the blow of the sword, but rather yields to it, the 
operation will be void of effect, even as one sees 
in the thin and subtle bodies of fire and air; 
for in such cases the impetus of the more solid 
bodies is relaxed, and remains without effect. 
But if fire, or air, or stone, or iron, or anything 
which men use against themselves for the pur- 
poses of mutual destruction — if it is not possi- 
ble to pierce or divide these, because of the 
subtle nature which they possess, why should 
not rather Wisdom remain invulnerable and 
impassible, in nothing injured by anything, even 
though it were conjoined to the body which was 
pierced and transfixed with nails, inasmuch as it 
is purer and more excellent than any other nature, 
if you except only that of God who begat Him? 








1 Apud. Gretserum, De Sancta Cruce, tom. ii. p. 403. 





2 Apud. Allatium, Diatr. de Methodiorum scriptis, p. 349. 


tea 


SOME OTHER FRAGMENTS OF 


THE SAME 


METHODIUS. 


I? 


But, perhaps, since the friends of Job imagined 
that they understood the reason why he suffered 
such things, that just man, using a long speech to 
them, confesses that the wisdom of the divine 
judgment is incomprehensible, not only to him, 
but also to every man, and declares that this 
earthly region is not the fitting place for under- 
standing the knowledge of the divine counsels. 
One might say, that perfect and absolute piety — 
a thing plainly divine, and of God alone given 
to man, is in this place called wisdom. But the 
sense of the words is as follows: God, he says, 
hath given great things unto men, sowing, as it 
were, in their nature the power of discovery, to- 
gether with wisdom, and the faculty of art. And 
men having received this, dig metals out of the 
earth, and cultivate it ; but that wisdom which is 
conjoined with piety, it is not possible in any 
place to discover. Man cannot obtain it from 
his own resources, nor can he give it unto others. 
Hence it was that the wise men of the Greeks, 
who in their own strength sought to search out 
piety, and the worship of the Deity, did not 
attain their end. For it is a thing, as we have 
said, which exceeds human strength, the gift and 
the grace of God; and therefore from the be- 
ginning, partly by visions, partly by the inter- 
vention of angels, partly by the discourses of the 
divinely-inspired prophets, God instructed man 
in the principles of true religion. Nay, moreover, 
that contemplative wisdom by which we are 
impelled to the arts, and to other pursuits, and 
with which we are all in common, just and unjust, 
alike endued, is the gift of God: if we have been 
made rational creatures, we have received this. 
Wherefore, also, in a former place it was said, 
as of a thing that is of God bestowed, “Is it not 
the Lord who teacheth understanding and 
knowledge ?”’? 

113 

Observe that the Lord was not wont from the 
begining to speak with man; but after that the 

1 Ex Nicetez Catena on ¥ob, cap. xix. p. 429, edit. Londin., 1637. 
All the shorter fragments collected in the editions of Migne and Jahn 
are here appended. 


2 yee xxi, 22, xxii, 21 : 
3 Ex Nicetz Catena on Fob, cap. xxvi. p. 538. 





soul was prepared, and exercised in many ways, 
and had ascended into the height by contempla- 
tion, so far as it is possible for human nature to 
ascend, then is it His wont to speak, and to re- 
veal His Word unto those who have attained 
unto this elevation. But since the whirlwind is 
the producer of the tempests, and Job, in the 
tempest of his afflictions, had not made ship- 
wreck of his faith, but his constancy shone forth 
the rather; therefore it was that He who gave 
him an answer answered him by the whirlwind, 
to signify the tempest of calamity which had be- 
fallen him ; but, because He changed the stormy 
condition of his affairs into one of serene tran- 
quillity, He spoke to him not only by the whirl- 
wind, but in clouds also. 


III.4 


Many have descended into the deep, not so as 
to walk on it, but so as to be by its bonds re- 
strained. Jesus alone walked on the deep, where 
there are no traces of walkers, as a free man. 
For He chose death, to which He was not sub- 
ject, that He might deliver those who were the 
bondslaves of death; saying to the prisoners, 
“Go forth; and to them that are in darkness, 
show yourselves.” 5 With which, also, the things 
which follow are consistent. 


Iv.6 


Seest thou how, at the end of the contest, with 
a loud proclamation he declares the praises of 
the combatant, and discovers that which was in 
his afflictions hidden, in the words: “ Thinkest 
thou that I had else answered thee, but that 
thou shouldest appear just?”’7 This is the salve 
of his wounds, this the reward of his patience. 
For as to what followed, although he received 
double his former possessions, these may seem to 
have been given him by divine providence as 
small indeed, and for trifling causes, even though 
to some they may appear great. 





4 Ex Nicetez Catena on ¥0b, p. 547. 

5 Isa. xlix. 9. 

6 Ex Nicetz Catena on $ob, cap. xxviii. p. 570. 
7 Job xl. 3 (LXX.). 


401 


402 





FRAGMENTS. 





FRAGMENT, UNCERTAIN. 


Thou contendest with Me, and settest thyself 
against Me, and opposest those who combat for 
Me. But where wert thou when I made the 
world? What wert thouthen? Hadst thou yet, 
says He, fallen from thy mother? for there was 
darkness, in the beginning of the world’s creation, 
He says, upon the face of the deep. Now this 
darkness was no created darkness, but one which 
of set purpose had place, by reason of the ab- 
sence of light. 

vii 


But Methodius: The Holy Spirit, who of God 
is given to all men, and of whom Solomon said, 
“ For Thine incorruptible Spirit is in all things,” ? 
He receives for the conscience, which condemns 
the offending soul. 

VI3 


THE SAME METHODIUS. 
I account it a greater good to be reproved than 


1 Ex Nicetz Catena on ¥ob, cap. xix. p. 418, ex Olympiodoro. 
2 Wisd. xii. t, [“ The Spirit of Christ,” given to all; John i. 9] 
3 Ex Parallelis. Damascen., Of#., tom. ii. p. 331, D. 


to reprove, inasmuch as it is more excellent to 
free oneself from evil than to free another. 


VII4 
THE SAME METHODIUS, 


Human nature cannot clearly perceive pure 
justice in the soul, since, as to many of its 
thoughts, it is but dim-sighted. . 


VII. 
THE SAME METHODIUS, 


Wickedness never could recognise virtue or its 
own self, 
IX. 
THE SAME METHODIUS. 


Justice, as it seems, is four square, on all sides 
equal and like. : 

The just judgment of God is accommodated 
to our affections ; and such as our estate is, pro- 
portionate and similar shall the retribution be 
which is allotted us. 





4 [bid., p. 488, B, 


TWO FRAGMENTS, UNCERTAIN. 


I 


The beginning of every good action has its 
foundation in our wills, but the conclusion is of 
God. 

Il. 


Perhaps these three persons of our ancestors, 
being in an image the consubstantial representa- 
tives of humanity, are, as also Methodius thinks, 
types of the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity,' 





I [Such is the fact, no doubt, as to the ancestors of the Jewish 
race; the fatherly character of Abraham, the filial character of Isaac, 
and the missionary offices of Jacob — whose wisdom and organizing 
faculties are so conspicuous — interpreting, in some degree, ‘“‘ the Holy 
and Consubstantial Trinity.” This seems to be hinted, indeed, in the 
formula, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the 





the innocent and unbegotten Adam being the 
type and resemblance of God the Father Al- 
mighty, who is uncaused, and the cause of all; 
his begotten son? shadowing forth the image of 
the begotten Son and Word of God ; whilst Eve, 
that proceedeth forth from Adam,3 signifies the 
person and procession of the Holy Spirit.4 





God of Jacob.” Isaac’s submission to be sacrificed upon Mount 
Moriah, and Jacob’s begetting and sending forth the twelve patriarchs, 


singularly identify them as types of the Atoning Son and the regen- 
erating Spirit, whose gifts and mission were imparted to the twelve 
Apoatek | 


2 [Abel. 
3 [Noe ue single procession. The formula of the Hebrews, how- 
ever, above noted, supplies a type of the Fzvzogue and the ab utrogue 
in the true sense of those terms. ] 

4 [Recur to chap. v. of The Banguet, p. 333, supra.] 


GENERAL NOTE. 


( Vexillas, — as they are called, p. 399.) 


It is very curious to note how certain ideas are inherited from the earliest Fathers, and travel 


down, as here, to find a new expression in a 
Martyr,’ and the Zadarum? itself is the outcrop 


distant age. Here our author reflects Justin 
of what Justin wrote to Antoninus Pius. 





1 See vol. i. p. 181, this series. 


2 See p. 285, supra, under the Emperors. 

























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AND HUGH CAMPBEL 


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INTRODUCTORY NOTICE 


TO 


ARNOBIUS. 


[a.D. 297-303.] Arnobius appears before us, not as did the earlier apologists, but as a token 
,that the great struggle was nearing its triumphant close. He is a witness that Minucius Felix and 
Tertullian had not preceded him in vain. He is a representative character, and stands forth boldly 
to avow convictions which were, doubtless, now struggling into light from the hearts of every reflect- 
ing pagan in the empire. In all probability it was the alarm occasioned by tokens that could not 
be suppressed — of a spreading and deepening sense of the nothingness of Polytheism—that 
stimulated the Cicumenical rage of Diocletian, and his frantic efforts to crush the Church, or, 
rather, to overwhelm it in a deluge of flame and blood. 

In our author rises before us another contributor to Latin Christianity, which was still North- 
African in its literature, all but exclusively. He had learned of Tertullian and Cyprian what he 
was to impart to his brilliant pupil Lactantius. Thus the way was prepared for Augustine, by 
whom and in whom Latin Christianity was made distinctly Occidental, and prepared for the 
influence it has exerted, to this day, under the mighty vestiges of his single name. 

And yet Arnobius, like Boethius afterwards, is much discredited, and has even been grudged 
the name of a Christian. Coleridge is one of the many who have disparaged Arnobius, but he 
always talked like an inspired madman, and often contradicted himself. Enough to say, that, 
emerging from gross heathenism in mature life, and forced to learn as he could what is now taught 
to Christian children, our author is a witness to the diffusion of truth in his day. He shows 
also such a faculty of assimilation, that, as a practical Christian, Coleridge himself does not shine 
in comparison ; and if, as is probable, he closed his life in martyrdom, we may well be ashamed 
to deny him our gratitude and the tribute of our praise. Our author is an interesting painter of 
many features of paganism in conflict with the Church, which we gain from no one else. Econo- 
mizing Clement of Alexandria, he advances to an assured position and form of assault. He per- 
sistently impeaches Jove himself in a daring confidence that men will feel his terrible charges to 
be true, and that the victory over heathenism is more than half gained already.’ I doubt not that, 
as a heathen, he was influenced by a dream to study Christianity. As a believer, he discarded 
dreams as vain. Converted late in life, we need not wonder at some tokens of imperfect knowl- 
edge; but, on the whole, he seems a well-informed disciple, and shows how thoroughly the 
catechumens were trained. But what does he prove? In short, he gives us a most fascinating 
insight into the mental processes by which he, and probably Constantine soon after him, came 
to the conclusion that heathenism was outworn and must disappear. He proves that the Church 
was salt that had not “lost its savour.”’ It is true, that, reasoning with pagans, he does not freely 
cite the Scriptures, which had no force with them; yet his references to the facts of Scripture 
show that he had studied them conscientiously, and could present the truths of the Gospel clearly 





I Lardner’s Testimony of Anctent Heathenism, Works, vol. vii. p. 17. 
495 





406 INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 





and with power. Lardner has demonstrated‘ this in a fair spirit and with conclusive evidence. 
Referring the reader to his admirable criticisms, I am glad to say that a full and satisfactory outline 
of his career is presented in the following : — 


TRANSLATOR’S INTRODUCTORY NOTICE: 


§ 1. Arnosius has been most unjustly neglected in modern times; but some excuse for this 
may be found in the fact that even less attention seems to have been paid to him in the ages 
immediately succeeding his own. We find no mention of him in any author except Jerome ; and 
even Jerome has left only a few lines about him, which convey very little information. 

In his list of ecclesiastical writers he says,? “ During the reign of Diocletian, Arnobius taught 
rhetoric with the greatest success, at Sicca, in Africa, and wrote against the heathen the books 
extant ;”’ and again speaks of this work more particularly when he says,3 “ Arnobius published 
seven books against the heathen.” In his Chronicon, however, he writes under the year 2342,4 
“Arnobius is considered a distinguished rhetorician in Africa, who, while engaged at Sicca in 
teaching young men rhetoric, was led by visions to the faith; and not being received by the 
bishop as hitherto a persistent enemy to Christ, composed very excellent books against his former 
belief.” It must at once be seen that there is here a mistake, for Arnobius is put some twenty- 
three years later than in the former passage. Jerome himself shows us that the former date is the 
one he meant, for elsewhere 5 he speaks of Lactantius as the disciple of Arnobius. Lactantius, in 
extreme old age,° was appointed tutor of Constantine’s son Crispus ; and this, we are told in the 
Chronicon,’ was in the year 317. No one will suppose that if the disciple was a very old man in 
317, his master could have been in his prime in 326. It is certain, therefore, that this date is not 
correct ; and it seems very probable that Oehler’s conjecture is true, who supposes that Jerome 
accidentally transposed his words from the year 303 to the place where we find them, misled by 
noticing the vwicenaka of Constantine when he was looking for those of Diocletian. 

It is with some difficulty that we can believe that Arnobius was led to embrace Christianity 
by dreams, as he speaks of these with little respect,3—.which he could hardiy have done if by 
them the whole course of his life had been changed ; but in our utter ignorance we cannot say 
that this may not have been to some extent the case. The further statement, that his apology for 
Christianity was submitted as a proof of his sincerity to the bishop of Sicca, is even less credible, 
— for these two reasons, that it is evidently the fruit not of a few weeks’ but of protracted labour, 
and that it is hardly likely that any bishop would have allowed some parts of it to pass into circu- 
lation. It is just possible that the first or third books may have been so presented ; but it is not 

credible that any pledge would be required of a man seeking to cast in his lot with the persecuted 
and terrified Church referred to in the fourth. 


§ 2. If we learn but little from external sources as to the life of Arnobius, we are not more 
fortunate when we turn to his own writings. One or two facts, however, are made clear; and 
these are of some importance. “But lately,” he says, ““O blindness, I worshipped images just 
brought from the furnaces, gods made on anvils and forged with hammers: now, led by so great 
a teacher into the ways of truth, I know what all these things are.”’9 We have thus his own 
assurance of his conversion from heathenism. He speaks of himself, however, as actually a Chris- 
tian, — not as a waverer, not as one purposing to forsake the ancient superstitions and embrace 
the new religion, but as a firm believer, whose faith is already established, and whose side has 





T Credib,, iii. 463. 5 Cat. Script. Eccl., \xxx., f. 121, ep. lxxxiii. 
2 Cat. Script. Eccl., \xxix. f. 121, Bened. ed. tom. iv. 6 Cat. Script. Eccl., \xxx. 

3 Ep. Ixxxiii. f. 656. 7 Anno 2333. 

4 ie., A.D. 326. 8 As “vain.” [But see p. 405, supra.] 


9 Book i. sec. 39,,.p. 423, 24/ra. 


INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 407 





been taken and stedfastly maintained. In a word, he refers to himself as once lost in error, but 
now a true Christian. 

Again, in different passages he marks pretty accurately the time or times at which he wrote. 
Thus, in the first book? he speaks of about three hundred years as the time during which Chris- 
tianity had existed ; and in the second,? of a thousand and fifty, or not many less, having elapsed 
since the foundation of Rome. There has been much discussion as to what era is here referred 
to; and it has been pretty generally assumed that the Fabian must be -intended, —in which case 
303 would be the year meant. If it is observed, however, that Arnobius shows an intimate ac- 
quaintance with Varro, and great admiration for him, it will probably be admitted that it is most 
likely that the Varronian, or common, era was adopted by him; and in this case the year referred 
to will be 297 A.D. ‘This coincides sufficiently with the passage in the first book, and is in har- 
mony with the idea which is there predominant,—the thought, that is, of the accusation so 
frequently on the lips of the heathen, that Christianity was the cause of the many and terrible 
afflictions with which the empire was visited. These accusations, ever becoming more bitter and 
threatening, would naturally be observed with care and attention by thoughtful Christians towards 
the close of the third century; and accordingly we find that the words with which Arnobius 
begins his apology, express the feeling of awakening anxiety with which he viewed the growth of 
this fear and hatred in the minds of the heathen. He declares, in effect, that one great object — 
indeed the main object — which he had proposed to himself, was to show that it was not because 
of the Christians that fresh evils and terrible calamities were continually assailing the state. And 
it must be remembered that we cannot refer such a proposal to a later period than that assigned. 
It would certainly not have occurred to a Christian in the midst of persecution, with death over- 
hanging him, and danger on every side, to come forward and attempt calmly to show the heathen 
that there was no reason for their complaints against the Christians. In the later books there is 
a change in tone, upon which we cannot now dwell, although it is marked. In one passage he 
asks indignantly,3 ““Why should our writings be given to the flames, our meetings be cruelly 
broken up, in which prayer is offered to the supreme God, peace and pardon are asked for all in 
authority, for soldiers, kings, friends, enemies?” In the calm tranquillity of the last half of the 
third century these words could hardly have been written, but they are a striking testimony to the 
terms of the imperial edict issued in the year 303 A.D. So, too, the popular expression of anger 
and disgust at the anti-pagan character of some of Cicero’s works+ belongs to the incipient 
stages of persecution. 

Nor must it be supposed that the whole work may be referred to the era which ensued after 
the abdication of Diocletian, in 305. From this time an apology for Christianity with such a 
design would have been an anachronism, for it was no longer necessary to disarm the fears of the 
heathen by showing that the gods could not be enraged at the Christians. It has further to be 
noticed, that although it is perfectly clear that Arnobius spent much time on his apology, it has 
never been thoroughly revised, and does not seem to have been ever finished.5 

We surely have in all this sufficient reason to assign the composition of these books adversus 
Gentes to the end of the third and beginning of the fourth centuries. Beyond this we cannot go, 
tor we have no da/a from which to derive further inferences. 


§ 3. We have seen that the facts transmitted to us are very few and scanty indeed ; but, few 
as they are, they suggest an interesting picture. Arnobius comes before us in Sicca; we are 
made spectators of two scenes of his life there, and the rest — the beginning and the end — are 








I i. 13, p. 417. 

2 ii. 71, p. 461. 

3 iv. 36. 

4 Noticed in iii. 7, 2nfra.- 

S$ Cf. note on book vii. sec. 36, 7zfra. [It is not at all improbable that some sketch of his convictions, written to assure the bishop 
of his conversion, was the foundation of what afterwards grew into a work.] - 


0 


408 | INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 





shrouded in darkness. Sicca Veneria was an important town, lying on the Numidian border, to 
the south-west of Carthage. As its name signifies, it was a seat of that vile worship of the goddess 
of lust, which was dear to the Phcenician race. The same cultus was found there which disgraced 
Corinth ; and in the temple of the goddess the maidens of the town were wont to procure for 
themselves, by the sacrifice of their chastity, the dowries which the poverty of their parents could 
not provide. 

In the midst of traditions of such bestial foulness Arnobius found himself, — whether as a 
native, or as one who had been led to settle there. He has told us himself how true an idolater 
he was, how thoroughly he complied with the ceremonial demands of superstition; but the fre- 
quency and the vehemence of language with which his abhorrence of the sensuality of heathenism 
is expressed, tell us as plainly that practices so horrible had much to do in preparing his mind to 
receive another faith. 

In strong contrast to the filthy indulgences with which paganism gratified its adherents, must 
have appeared the strict purity of life which was enjoined by Christianity and aimed at by its 
followers ; and perhaps it was in such a place as Sicca that considerations of this nature would 
have most influence. There, too, the story of Cyprian’s martyrdom must have been well known, 
— may indeed have been told in the nursery of the young Arnobius, — and many traditions must 
have been handed down about the persistency with which those of the new religion had held fast 
their faith, in spite of exile, torture, and death. However distorted such tales might be, there 
would always remain in them the evidence of so exalted nobility of spirit, that every disclosure of 
the meanness and baseness of the old superstition must have induced an uneasy feeling as to 
whether that could be impiety which ennobled men, —that piety which degraded them lower 
than the brutes. 

For some time all went well with Arnobius. He was not too pure for the world, and his learn- 
ing and eloquence won him fame and success in his profession. But in some way, we know not 
how, a higher learning was communicated to him, and the admired rhetorician became first a 
suspected, then a persecuted Christian. He has left us in no doubt as to the reason of the 
change. Upon his darkness, he says, there shone out a heavenly light,’ a great teacher appeared 
to him and pointed out the way of truth ; and he who had been an earnest worshipper of images, 
of stones, of unknown gods, was now as earnest, as zealous in his service of the true God. Of 
the trials which he must have endured we know nothing. A terrible persecution swept over the 
world, and many a Christian perished in it. Such a man as Arnobius must have been among the 
first to be assailed, but we hear of him no more. With his learning and talents he could not have 
failed to make himself a name in the Church, or outside its pale, if he had lived. The conclusion 
seems inevitable, that he was one of the victims of that last fiery trial to which Christians under 
the Roman empire were exposed. 


§ 4. The vast range of learning shown in this apology has been admitted on all sides. Even 
Jerome says that it should at times be read on account of the learning displayed in it. In 
another passage Jerome says,3 ‘‘ Arnobius is unequal and prolix, confused from want of arrange- 
ment.” This may be admitted to a certain extent; but although such defects are to be found 
in his work, they are certainly not characteristic of Amobius. So, too, many passages may be 
found strangely involved and mystical, and it is at times hard to understand what is really meant. 
Solecisms and barbarisms are also met with, as Nourry has objected, so that it cannot be said 
that Amobius writes pure Latin. Still we must not be misled into supposing that by enumerating 
these defects we have a fair idea of his style. 

If we remember that no man can wholly escape the influences of his age, and that Arnobius 
was so warm an admirer of Varro and Lucretius that he imitated their style and adopted their 


ee 


1 [Conf. Constantine’s “ vision.” ] 2 Ep. lxii. ad Tranguill. 3 Ep. xlix. ad Paulinus. 





INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. _ 409 





vocabulary, we shall be able to understand in what way he may be fairly spoken of as a geod 
writer, although not free from defects. His style is, in point of fact, clear and lucid, rising at 
times into genuine eloquence ; and its obscurity and harshness are generally caused by an attempt 
to express a vague and indefinite idea. Indeed very considerable power of expression is mani- 
fested in the philosophical reasonings of the second book, the keen satire of the fourth and fifth, 
and the vigorous argument of the sixth and seventh. 

Jerome’s last stricture is scarcely applicable. Arnobius wrote adversus Gentes ; he addressed 
himself to meet the taunts and accusations of the heathen, and in so doing he retorts upon them 
the charges which they preferred against the Christians. His work must therefore be criticised 
from this standpoint, not as a systematic exposition or vindication of Christianity. Christianity is 
indeed defended, but it is by attacking heathenism. We must consider, also, that evidently the 
work was not revised as a whole, and that the last book would have been considerably altered 
had Arnobius lived or found opportunity to correct it.' If we remember these things, we shall 
find little to object to in the arrangement. 

After making all deductions, it may be said fairly that in Arnobius the African Church found 
no unfitting champion. Living amidst impurity and corruption, and seeing on every side the 
effects of a superstitious and sensual faith, he stands forward to proclaim that man has a nobler 
ideal set before him than the worship of the foul imaginations of his depraved fancy, to call his 
fellows to a purer life, and to point out that the Leader who claims that men should follow Him 
is both worthy and able to guide. This he does with enthusiasm, vigour, and effect; and in 
doing this he accomplishes his end. 


§ 5. Various opinions have been entertained as to the position which Arnobius occupied with 
regard to the Bible. We cannot here enter into a discussion of these, and shall merely present 
a brief statement of facts. 

It is evident that with regard to the Jews and the Old Testament Arnobius was in a state of 
perfect ignorance ; for he confounds the Sadducees with the Pharisees,? makes no allusion to the 
history of the Israelites, and shows that he was not acquainted with their forms of sacrifice. 

He was evidently well acquainted with the life of Christ and the history of the Church, and 
alludes at times to well-known Christian sayings ; but how far in so doing he quotes the Gospels 
and Epistles, is not easily determined. Thus it has been supposed, and with some probability, 
that in referring to the miracles of Christ he must allude to the Gospels as recording them. But 
it must be observed that he ascribes to Christ a miracle of which the New Testament makes no 
mention, —of being understood by men of different nations, as though He spoke in several 
languages at the same moment.‘ So, too, his account’ of the passion differs from that of the 
New Testament. On the other hand, we find that he speaks of Christ as having taught men 
“not to return evil for evil,’”’® as “the way of salvation, the door of life, by whom alone there is 
access to the light,”7 and as having been seen by “ countless numbers of men” after His resur- 
rection.’ Still further, he makes frequent references to accounts of Christ written by the apostles 
and handed down to their followers,? and asks why their writings should be burned.'? In one 
place,"* also, he asks, “ Have the well-known words never rung in your ears, that the wisdom of 
man is foolishness with God?” where the reference seems to be very distinct ; ‘2 but he nowhere 
says that he is quoting, or mentions any books. 

This is, however, less remarkable when we take into account his mode of dealing with 
Clemens Alexandrinus and Cicero. The fourth, fifth, and sixth books are based on these two 





1 Cf. book vii. cap. 36, note, and /é. cap. 51, note, with the Appendix. 7 Book ii. cap. 65, note. 

2 Book iii. cap. 12, note. 8 Book i. cap. 46; cf. x Cor. xv. 6. 
3 Cf. book vii., on sacrifices generally. [Proves nothing. ] 9 i. 55, 56, 58, 59. 

4 Book i. cap. 46, note. 10 iv. 36. 

5 Book i. cap. 53, note. IT ii, 6, note. 


6 Book i. cap. 6. 12 Cf, 1 Cor. iii. 19. 





410 INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 





authors, and from Clement, in particular, whole sentences are taken unchanged.’ Yet the only 
reference made to either is the very general allusion in the third and fourth books.” 

On the other hand, he quotes frequently and refers distinctly to many authors, and is espe- 
cially careful to show that he has good authority for his statements, as will be seen by observing 
the number of books to which he refers on the mysteries and temples. If we bear this in mind, 
the principle which guided him seems to have been, that when he has occasion to quote an author 
once or twice, he does so by name, but that he takes it for granted that every one knows what 
are the great sources of information, and that it is therefore unnecessary to specify in each case 
what is the particular authority. 

There are many interesting questions connected with his subject, but these we must for the 
present leave untouched. 


§ 6. No other works by Arnobius have been preserved, and only two mss. are known to exist. 
Of these, the one in Brussels is merely a transcript of that preserved in the public library at Paris, 
on which all editions have been based. This is a Ms. of the ninth or tenth century, and contains 
the Octavius of Minucius Felix immediately after the seventh book adversus Gentes, in conse- 
quence of which that treatise was at first printed as the eighth book of Arnobius. Although it has 
been collated several times, we are still in doubt as to its true readings, — Hildebrand, who last 
examined it, having done so with too little care. 

The first edition was printed at Rome in 1542, and was followed by that of Gelenius,‘ in 
which much was done for the emendation of the text; but arbitrary conjectures were too fre- 
quently admitted. Next in order follow those of Canterus,5 who did especial service by pointing 
out what use Arnobius has made of Clement, Ursinus,® Elmenhorst,7 Stewechius,® Heraldus,9 
and the Leyden "° variorum edition, based on a recension of the text by Salmasius."* The later 
editions are those of Oberthiir,’? whose text is adopted by Orelli,'3 Hildebrand,'4 and Oehler.'s 
Oberthiir’s edition is of little importance, and that of Orelli is valuable solely as a collection of 
notes gathered from many sources into a crude and undigested mass. Hildebrand seems to have 
taken too little pains with his work ; and Oehler, whose critical sagacity and industry might have 
given us a most satisfactory edition, was unfortunately hampered by want of space. 

No edition of Arnobius has been published in England; and the one Englishman who has 
taken any pains with this author seems to be John Jones, who, under the pseudonym of Leander 
de St. Martino, prepared summaries, which were added to a reprint of Stewechius at Douay, 1634. 
As this edition has not come into our hands, we are unable to speak of it more particularly. 


§ 7. It will be observed that adversus Gentes is the title of this work in all editions except 
those of Hildebrand and Oehler, in which it is adversus Nationes. The difference is very slight, 
but it may be well to mention that neither can be said with certainty to be correct. The first is 
the form used by Jerome in two passages of his writings ;'° and as he must have seen earlier Mss. 








1 (Compare the E-xrhortation of Clement, vol. ii. p. 171, assim ; and Tertullian, vol. iii. and passim.] 

2 Book iii. cap. 7, and book iv. cap. 13, note. 

3 Arnobii Disputationum adversus Gentes, libri octo, nunc primum in lucem editi Rome, apud Franc. Priscianum Florentinum, 1542, 

4 Basilez, 1546. 

5 Antverpiz, 1582. 

6 Rome, 1583. This is the second Roman edition, and restores the Octavius to Minucius Felix. 

7 Hanoviz, 1603; dedicated to Joseph Scaliger. 

8 Antverpiz, 1604. 

9 Paris, 1605. This edition, which is of great value, and shows great learning and ability, was completed in two months, as Heraldus 
himself tells us. 

10 Lugduni Batavorum 1651, containing the notes of Canterus, Elmenhorst, Stewechius, and Heraldus. 

11 Salmasius purposed writing commentaries for this edition, but died without doing more than beginning them. 

12 Wirceburgi, 1783, 8vo, preceded by a rambling introductory epistle. 

13 Lipsiz, 1816-17, 8vo. 

14 Halis Saxonum, 1844, 8vo. 

1S Lipsiz, 1846, 8vo. 

36 Cf. § x, notes 2 and 3. 


a 


INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 411 





than that now extant, he is supposed to give the title which he found in them. In the Paris 


Ms., however, at the end of the second book, the subscription is, “The second book of Arnobius 
adversus Nationes ends ;” and it has been argued that, as the copyist would hardly have gone 
so far astray, while it is quite possible that Jerome did not attempt to do more than indicate 
generally the purpose of the book without quoting its titlepage, this must be the true title. The 
first page of the existing MS. is torn away, and the question remains therefore undecided : fortu- 
nately its decision is not of the slightest importance. 


§ 8. This translation of Arnobius was begun in the hope that it would be possible to adhere 
throughout to the text of Orelli, and that very little attention to the various readings would be 
found necessary. This was, however, found to be impossible, not merely because Hildebrand’s 
collation of the Paris ms. showed how frequently liberties had been taken with the text, but on 
account of the corrupt state of the text itself. 

It has therefore been thought advisable to lay before the reader a close translation founded on 
the Ms., so far as known. A conjectural reading has in no case been adopted without notice. 

Throughout the Work use has been made of four editions, — Oehler’s, Orelli’s, Hildebrand’s, 
and that of Leyden; other editions being consulted only for special reasons. 

It is to be regretted that our knowledge of the single ms. of Arnobius is still incomplete ; but 
it is hoped that this will soon be remedied, by the publication of a revised text, based upon a 
fresh collation of the Ms., with a complete apparatus and a carefully digested body of notes.: 


1 [This section (8) appears as a ‘‘ Preface” to the Edinburgh edition.] 








THE SEVEN BOOKS OF ARNOBIUS AGAINST 
THE BEATEN. 


(ADVERSUS GENTES.) 


BOOK I. 


1. SincE I have found some who deem them- 
selves very wise in their opinions, acting as if 
they were inspired,’ and announcing with all the 
authority of an oracle,? that from the time when 
the Christian people began to exist in the world 
the universe has gone to ruin, that the human 
race has been visited with ills of many kinds, 
that even the very gods, abandoning their ac- 
customed charge, in virtue of which they were 
wont in former days to regard with interest our 
affairs, have been driven from the regions of 
earth,—TI have resolved, so far as my capacity 
and my humble power of language will allow, to 
oppose public prejudice, and to refute calumnious 
accusations ; lest, on the one hand, those per- 
sons should imagine that they are declaring some 
weighty matter, when they are merely retailing 
vulgar rumours ;3 and on the other, lest, if we 
refrain from such a contest, they should suppose 
that they have gained a cause, lost by its own 
inherent demerits, not abandoned by the silence 
of its advocates. For I should not deny that 
that charge is a most serious one, and that we 
fully deserve the hatred attaching to public ene- 
mies,‘ if it should appear that to us are attributa- 
ble causes by reason of which the universe has 
deviated from its laws, the gods have been driven 
far away, and such swarms of miseries have been 
inflicted on the generations of men. 

2. Let us therefore examine carefully the real 
significance of that opinion, and what is the na- 


1 The words znsantre, bacchari, refer to the appearance of the 
ancient seers when under the influence of the deity. So Virgil says, 
Insanam vatem aspictes (42n., iii. 443), and, Bacchatur vates 
(4@n., vi. 78). The meaning is, that they make their asseverations 
with all the confidence of a seer when filled, as he pretended, with the 
influence of the god. 

2 Et velut quiddam promptum ex oraculo dicere, i.e., to de- 
clare a matter with boldness and majesty, as if most certain and 
undoubted. 

3 Popularia verba, i.e., rumours arising from the ignorance of 
the common people. 

te The Christians were regarded as ‘‘ public enemies,” and were so 
called. 


s 








ture of the allegation ; and laying aside all de- 
sire for wrangling,’ by which the calm view of 
subjects is wont to be dimmed, and even inter- 
cepted, let us test, by fairly balancing the con- 
siderations on both sides, whether that which is 
alleged be true. For it will assuredly be proved 
by an array of convincing arguments, not that 
we are discovered to be more impious, but that 
they themselves are convicted of that charge 
who profess to be worshippers of the deities, 
and devotees of an antiquated superstition. And, 
in the first place, we ask this of them in friendly 
and calm language : Since the name of the Chris- 
tian religion began to be used on the earth, what 
phenomenon, unseen before,° unheard of before, 
what event contrary to the laws established in 
the beginning, has the so-called ‘Nature of 
Things ”’ felt or suffered? Have these first ele- 
ments, from which it is agreed that all things 
were compacted, been altered into elements of 
an opposite character? Has the fabric of this 
machine and mass of the universe, by which we 
are all covered, and in which we are held en- 
closed, relaxed in any part, or broken up? Has 
the revolution of the globe, to which we are ac- 
customed, departing from the rate of its primal 
motion, begun either to move too slowly, or to 
be hurried onward in headlong rotation? Have 
the stars begun to rise in the west, and the 
setting of the constellations to take place in 
the east? Has the sun himself, the chief of the 
heavenly bodies, with whose light all things are 
clothed, and by whose heat all things are vivified, 
blazed forth with increased vehemence? has he 
become less warm, and has he altered for the 
worse into opposite conditions that well-regulated 
temperature by which he is wont to act upon the 
earth? Has the moon ceased to shape herself 





5 Or, “all party zeal.” igey 5 
6 So Meursius, — the ms. reading is zamsitetum, ‘‘ extraordi- 
nary.” 


413 


414 


, hai Len" 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





anew, and to change into former phases by the 
constant recurrence of fresh ones? Has the cold 
of winter, has the heat of summer, has the mod- 
erate warmth of spring and autumn, been modi- 
fied by reason of the intermixture of ill-assorted 
seasons? Has the winter begun to have long 
days? has the night begun to recall the very 
tardy twilights of summer? Have the winds at 
all exhausted their violence? Is the sky not 
collected’ into clouds by reason of the blasts 
having lost their force, and do the fields when 
moistened by the showers not prosper? Does 
the earth refuse to receive the seed committed 
to it, or will not the trees assume their foliage ? 
Has the flavour of excellent fruits altered, or has 
the vine changed in its juice? Is foul blood 
pressed forth from the olive berries, and is 02/7 no 
longer supplied to the lamp, now extinguished ? 
Have animals of the land and of the sea no 
sexual desires, and do they not conceive young? 
Do they not guard, according to their own habits 
and their own instinct, the offspring generated 
in their wombs? In fine, do men themselves, 
whom an active energy with its first impulses has 
scattered over habitable lands, not form mar- 
riages with due rites? Do they not beget dear 
children? do they not attend to public, to in- 
dividual, and to family concerns? Do they not 
apply their talents, as each one pleases, to varied 
occupations, to different kinds of learning? and 
do they not reap the fruit of diligent applica- 
tion? Do those to whom it has been so allotted, 
not exercise kingly power or military authority ? 
Are men not every day advanced in posts of 
honour, in offices of power? Do they not pre- 
side in the discussions of the law courts? Do 
they not explain the code of law? do they not 
expound the principles of equity? All other 
things with which the life of man is surrounded, 
in which it consists, do not all men in their own 
tribes practise, according to the established order 
of their country’s manners ? 

3. Since this is so, and since no strange influ- 
ence has suddenly manifested itself to break the 
continuous course of events by interrupting their 
succession, what is the ground of the allegation, 
that a plague was brought upon the earth after 
the Christian religion came into the world, and 
after it revealed the mysteries of hidden truth? 
But pestilences, say my opponents, and droughts, 
wars, famines, locusts, mice, and hailstones, and 
other hurtful things, by which the property of 
men is assailed, the gods bring upon us, incensed 
as they are by your wrong-doings and by your 
transgressions. If it were not a mark of stu- 
pidity to linger on matters which are already 


clear, and which require no defence, I should | 


certainly show, by unfolding the history of past 





I So Gelenius; MS., coartatur, “‘ pressed together.” 





ages, that those ills which you speak of were not 
unknown, were not sudden in their visitation ; 
and that the plagues did not burst upon us, and 
the affairs of men begin to be attacked by a 
variety of dangers, from the time that our sect? 
won the honour of this appellation. For if we 
are to blame, and if these plagues have been de- 
vised against our sin, whence did antiquity know 
these names for misfortunes? Whence did she 
give a designation to wars? By what concep- 
tion could she indicate pestilence and hailstorms, 
or how could she introduce these terms among 
her words, by which speech was rendered plain? 
For if these ills are entirely new, and if they 
derive their origin from recent transgressions, 
how could it be that the ancients coined terms 
for these things, which, on the one hand, they 
knew that they themselves had never experi- 
enced, and which, on the other, they had not 
heard of as occurring in the time of their an- 
cestors? Scarcity of produce, say my oppo- 
nents, and short supplies of grain, press more 
heavily onus. For, / would ask, were the former 
generations, even the most ancient, at any period 
wholly free from such an inevitable calamity? 
Do not the very words by which these ills are 
characterized bear evidence and proclaim loudly 
that no mortal ever escaped from them with 
entire immunity? But if the matter were diffi- 
cult of belief, we might urge, on the testimony 
of authors, how great nations, and what indi- 
vidual nations, and how often such nations 
experienced dreadful famine, and perished by 
accumulated devastation. Very many hailstorms 
fall upon and assail all things. For do we not 
find it contained and deliberately stated in 
ancient literature, that even showers of stones +4 
often ruined entire districts? Violent rains 
cause the crops to perish, and proclaim barren- 
ness to countries: — were the ancients, indeed, 
free from these ills, when we have known of5 
mighty rivers even being dried up, and the mud 
of their channels parched? ‘The contagious in- 
fluences of pestilence consume the human race : 
—ransack the records of history written in 
various languages, and you will find that all 
countries have often been desolated and de- 
prived of their inhabitants. Every kind of crop 
is consumed, and devoured by locusts and by’ 
mice :— go through your own annals, and you 
will be taught by these plagues how often former 
ages were visited by them, and how often they 
were brought to the wretchedness of poverty. 





2 Ors 

3 The verb merert, used in this passage, has in Roman writers 
the idea of merit or excellence of some kind in a person, in virtue of 
which he is deemed worthy of some favour or advantage; but in 
ecclesiastical Latin it means, as here, to gain something by the mere 
favour of God, without any merit of one’s own. 

4 See Livy, i. 3t, etc.; and Pliny, Vat, H7st., ii. 38. 

5 The ms. reads, fiumina cognoverimus ingentia lim-in-ts in- 
“that mighty rivers shrunk up, leaving the mud,” 


“race,” gens, i,e., the Christian people. 


gentia siccatis, 
etc, 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





- Cities shaken by powerful earthquakes totter to 


their destruction : — what! did not bygone days | 


witness cities with their populations engulphed 
py huge rents of the earth? or did they pag 
a condition exempt from such disasters ? 

4. When was the human race destroyed by a 
flood? was it not before us? When was the 
world set on fire,2 and reduced to coals and 
ashes? was it not before us? When were the 
greatest cities engulphed in the billows of the 
sea? was it not before us? When were wars 
waged with wild beasts, and battles fought with 
lions ?3 was it not before us? When was ruin 
brought on whole communities by poisonous 
serpents?* was it not before us? For, inasmuch 
as you are wont to lay to our blame the cause 
of frequent wars, the devastation of cities, the 
irruptions of the Germans and the Scythians, 
allow me, with your leave, to say,—In your 
eagerness to calumniate us, you do not perceive 
the real nature of that which is alleged. 

5. Did we bring it about, that ten thousand 
years ago a vast number of men burst forth from 
the island which is called the Atlantis of Nep- 
tune,5 as Plato tells us, and utterly ruined and 
blotted out countless tribes? Did this form a 
prejudice against us, that between the Assyrians 
and Bactrians, under the leadership of Ninus and 
Zoroaster of old, a struggle was maintained not 
only by the sword and by physical power, but 
also by magicians, and by the mysterious learn- 
ing of the Chaldeans? Is it to be laid to the 
charge of our religion, that Helen was carried 
off under the guidance and at the instigation of 
the gods, and that she became a direful destiny 
to her own and to after times? Was it because 
of our name, that that mad-cap Xerxes let the 
ocean in upon the land, and that he marched 
over the sea on foot? Did we produce and stir 





I So Tertullian, Apologet., 40, says, — ‘‘ We have read that the 
islands Hiera, Anaphe, Delos, Rhodes, and Cos were destroyed, to- 
gether with many human beings.” 

2 Arnobius, no doubt, speaks of the story of Phaethon, as told 
by Ovid; on which, cf. Plato, 7z9., st. p. 22. 

3 Nourry thinks that reference is here made to the contests of 
gladiators.and athletes with lions and other beasts in the circus. But 
it is'more likely that the author is thinking of African tribes who were 
harassed by lions. Thus Elian (de Nat Anzm., xvii, 24) tells of 
a Libyan people, the Nomzi, who were entirely destroyed by lions. 

4 The city of Amyclz in Traly i is referred to, which was destroyed 
by serpents. 

5 In the Tzmeus of Plato, c. vi. st. p. 24, an old priest of Sais, 
in Egypt, is represented as telling Solon that in times long gone by 
the Athenians were a very peaceful and very brave people, and that 
9,000 years before that time they had overcome a mighty host which 
came rushing from the Atlantic Sea, and which threatened to subju- 
gate all Europe and Asia. The sea was then navigable; and in front 
of the pillars of Hercules (Strait of Gibraltar) lay an island larger 
than Africa and Asia together:. from it travellers could pass to other 
islands, and from these again to the opposite continent. In this 
island great kings arose, who made themselves masters of the whole 
island, as well as of ‘other islands; and parts of the continent. 
Having already possessions in Libya and Europe, which they wished 
to increase, they gathered an immense host; but it was. repelled by 
the Athenians. reat earthquakes and storms ensued, in which the 
island of Atlantis was submerged, and the sea ever after rendered 
impassable by shoals of mud produced by the sunken island, For 
other forms of this legend, and explanations of it, see Smith’s Dzc- 
tionary of Geography, under Atlantis; [also Ancient America, 
Pp: 175) Harpers, 1872. This volume, littl known, seems to me 

stranger than fiction,” and far more interes, ng]. 





415 


into action the causes, by reason of which one 
youth, starting from Macedonia, subjected the 
kingdoms and peoples of the East to captivity 
and to bondage? Did we, forsooth, urge the 
deities into frenzy, so that the Romans lately, 
like some swollen torrent, overthrew all nations, 
and swept them beneath the flood? Butif there 
is no man who would dare to attribute to our 
times those things which took place long ago, 
how can we be the causes of the present mis- 
fortunes, when nothing new is occurring, but all 
things are old, and were unknown to none of 
the ancients ? 

6. Although you allege that those wars which 
you speak of were excited through hatred of our 
religion, it would not be difficult to prove, that 
after the name of Christ was heard in the world, 
not only were they not increased, but they were 
even in great measure diminished by the restrain- 
ing of furious passions. or since we,a numer- 
ous band of men as we are, have learned from 
His teaching and His laws that evil ought not to 
be requited with evil,° that it is better to suffer 
wrong than to inflict it, that we should rather 
shed our own blood than stain our hands and our 
conscience with that of another, an ungrateful 
world is now for a long period enjoying a bene- 
fit from Christ, inasmuch as by His means the 
rage of savage ferocity has been softened, and 
has begun to withhold hostile hands from the 
blood of a fellow-creature. But if all without 
exception, who feel that they are men not in 
form of body but in power of reason, would lend 
an ear for a little to His salutary and peaceful 
rules, and would not, in the pride and arrogance 
of enlightenment, trust to their own senses rather 
than to His admonitions, the whole world, hav- 
ing turned the use of steel into more peaceful 
occupations, would now be living in the most 
placid tranquillity, and would unite in blessed 
harmony, maintaining inviolate the sanctity of 
treaties. 

7. But if, say my opponents, no damage is 
done to human affairs by you, whence arise those 
evils by which wretched mortals are now op- 
pressed .and overwhelmed? You ask of me a 
decided statement,” which is by no means neces- 
sary to this cause. For no immediate and pre- 
pared discussion regarding it has been undertaken 
by me, for the purpose of showing or proving 
from what causes and for what reasons each 
event took place; but in order to demonstrate 
that the reproaches of so grave a charge are far 
removed from our door. And if I prove this, if 
by examples and*® by powerful arguments the 
truth of the matter is made clear, I care not 








6 Cf, Matt. v. 39. 

7 The ms. here inserts a mark of interrogation. 

8 So the Ms., sz facto et, corrected, however, by a later copyist, 
st facto ut, ‘if I cause that,” etc. 


416 





whence these evils come, or from what sources 
and first beginnings they flow. 

8. And yet, that I may not seem to have no 
opinion on subjects of this kind, that I may not 
appear when asked to have nothing to offer, I 
may say, What if the primal matter which has 
been diffused through the four elements of the 
universe, contains the causes of all miseries in- 
herent in its own constitution? What if the 
movements of the heavenly bodies produce these 
evils in certain signs, regions, seasons, and tracts, 
and impose upon things placed under them the 
necessity of various dangers? What if, at stated 
intervals, changes take place in the universe, and, 
as in the tides of the sea, prosperity at one time 
flows, at another time ebbs, evils alternating with 
it? What if those impurities of matter which we 
tread under our feet have this condition imposed 
upon them, that they give forth the most noxious 
exhalations, by means of which this our atmos- 
phere is corrupted, and brings pestilence on our 
_ bodies, and weakens the human race? What if 
—and this seems nearest the truth — whatever 
appears to us adverse, is in reality not an evil to 
the world itself? And what if, measuring by 
our own advantages all things which take place, 
we blame the results of nature through ill-formed 
judgments? Plato, that sublime head and pillar 
of philosophers, has declared in his writings, that 
those cruel floods and those conflagrations of the 
world are a purification of the earth; nor did 
that wise man dread to call the overthrow of the 
human race, its destruction, ruin, and death, a 
renewal of things, and to affirm that a youthful- 
hess, as it were, was secured by this renewed 
strength.' 

g. It rains not from heaven, my opponent says, 
and we are in distress from some extraordinary 
deficiency of grain crops. What then, do you 
demand that the elements should be the slaves 
of your wants? and that you may be able to live 
more softly and more delicately, ought the com- 
pliant seasons to minister to your convenience ? 
What if, in this way, one who is intent on voy- 
aging complains that now for a long time there 
are no winds, and that the blasts of heaven have 
for ever lulled? Is it therefore to be said that 
that peacefulness of the universe is pernicious, 
because it interferes with the wishes of traders? 
What if one, accustomed to bask himself in the 
sun, and thus to acquire dryness of body, simi- 
larly complains that by the clouds the pleasure 
of serene weather is taken away? Should the 
clouds, therefore, be said to hang over with an 
injurious veil, because idle lust is not permitted 
to scorch itself in the burning heat, and to devise 
excuses for drinking? All these events which 
are brought to pass, and which happen under 


“<< Plato, 7¥s., st. p. 2a. 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 











this mass of the universe, are not to be regarded 
as sent for our petty advantages, but as consist- 
ent with the plans and arrangements of Nature 
herself. 

10. And if anything happens which does not 
foster ourselves or our affairs with joyous success, 
it is not to be set down forthwith as an evil, and 
as a pernicious thing. The world rains or does 
not rain: for itself it rains or does not rain ; and, 
though you perhaps are ignorant of it, it either 
diminishes excessive moisture by a_ burning 
drought, or by the outpouring of rain moderates 
the dryness extending over a very long period. 
It raises pestilences, diseases, famines, and other 
baneful forms of plagues: how can you tell 
whether it does not thus remove that which is in 
excess, and whether, through loss to themselves, it 
does not fix a limit to things prone to luxuriance ? 

11. Would you venture to say that, in this 
universe, this thing or the other thing is an evil, 
whose origin and cause you are unable to explain 
and to analyze?? And because it interferes with 
your lawful, perhaps even your unlawful pleasures, 
would you say that it is pernicious and adverse ? 
What, then, because cold is disagreeable to your 
members, and is wont to chill3 the warmth of 
your blood, ought not winter on that account to 
exist in the world? And because you are unable‘ 
to endure the hottest rays of the sun, is summer 
to be removed from the year, and a different 
course of nature to be instituted under different 
laws? Hellebore is poison to men; should it 
therefore not grow? The wolf lies in wait by 
the sheepfolds ; is nature at all in fault, because 
she has produced a beast most dangerous to 
sheep? ‘The serpent by his bite takes away life ; 
a reproach, forsooth, to creation, because it has 
added to animals monsters so cruel. 

12. It is rather presumptuous, when you are 
not your own master, even when you are the 
property of another, to dictate terms to those 
more powerful ; to wish that that should happen 
which you desire, not that which you have found 
fixed in things by their original constitution. 
Wherefore, if you wish that your complaints 
should have a basis, you must first inform us 
whence you are, or who you are; whether the 
world was created and fashioned for you, or 
whether you came into it as sojourners from 
other regions. And since it is not in your power 
to say or to explain for what purpose you live 
beneath this vault of heaven, cease to believe 
that anything belongs to you ; since those things 
which take place are not brought about in favour 
of a part, but have regard to the interest of the 
whole. 

2 “ To analyze” — dissolvere — is in the MS. marked as spurious. 

3 In the ms. we find ‘‘to chill and numb” —congelare, con- 
stringere,; but the last word, too, is marked as spurious. 


4 ms. sustinere (marked as a gloss), “‘ to sustain;” perferre, 
“to endure.” 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


4t7 





13. Because of the Christians, my opponents 
say, the gods inflict upon us all calamities, and 
ruin is brought on our crops by the heavenly 
deities. I ask, when you say these things, do 
you not see that you are accusing us with bare- 
faced effrontery, with palpable and clearly proved 
falsehoods? It is almost three hundred years ' 
— something less or more — since we Christians? 
began to exist, and to be taken account of in 
the world. During all these years, have wars 
been incessant, has there been a yearly failure 
of the crops, has there been no peace on earth, 
has there been no season of cheapness and 
abundance of all things? For this must first be 
proved by him who accuses us, that these calami- 
ties have been endless and incessant, that men 
have never had a breathing time at all, and that 
without any relaxation’ they have undergone 
dangers of many forms. 

14. And yet do we not see that, in these years 
and seasons that have intervened, victories in- 
numerable have been gained from the conquered 
enemy,— that the boundaries of the empire 
have been extended, and that nations whose 
names we had not previously heard, have been 
brought under our power, — that very often there 
have been the most plentiful yields of grain, 
seasons of cheapness, and such abundance of 
commodities, that all commerce was paralyzed, 
being prostrated by the standard of prices? For 
in what manner could affairs be carried on, and 
how could the human race have existed*+ even 
to this time, had not the productiveness of nature 
continued to supply all things which use de- 
manded? 

15. Sometimes, however, there were seasons 
of scarcity; yet they were relieved by times of 
plenty. Again, certiin wars were carried on 
contrary to our wishes.5 But they were after- 
wards compensated by victories and successes. 
What shall we say, then? — that the gods at one 
time bore in mind our acts of wrong-doing, at 
another time again forgot them? If, when there 
is a famine, the gods are said to be enraged at 
us, it follows that in time of plenty they are not 
wroth, and ill-to-be-appeased ; and so the matter 
comes to this, that they both lay aside and resume 
anger with sportive whim, and always renew their 
wrath afresh by the recollection of the causes of 
offence. 

16. Yet one cannot discover by any rational 
process of reasoning, what is the meaning of 
these statements. If the gods willed that the 


1 See Introduction. 

2 [ore author thus identifies himself with Christians, and was, 
doubtless, baptized when he wrote these words. | : 

3 Sine ullis ferits,'a proverbial expression, “ without any holi- 
days;” i.e., without any intermixture of good. ; 

4 For gui durare Ursinus would read gurret durare,; but this 
seems to have no Ms. authority, though giving better sense and an 
easier construction. 

5 That is, unsuccessfully. 





Alemanni° and the Persians should be overcome 
because Christians dwelt among their tribes, how 
did they grant victory to the Romans when Chris- 
tians dwelt among their peoples also? If they 
willed that mice and locusts should swarm forth 
in prodigious numbers in Asia and in Syria be- 
cause Christians dwelt among their tribes too, 
why was there at the same time no such phe- 
nomenon in Spain and in Gaul, although innu- 
merable Christians lived in those provinces also ?7 
If among the Geetuli and the Tinguitani® they 
sent dryness and aridity on the crops on account 
of this circumstance, why did they in that very 
year give the most bountiful harvest to the Moors 
and to the Nomads, when a similar religion had 
its abode in these regions as well? If in any 
one state whatever they have caused many to die 
with hunger, through disgust at our name, why 
have they in the same state made wealthier, ay, 
very rich, by the high price of corn, not only 
men not of our body, but even Christians them- 
selves? Accordingly, either all should have had 
no blessing if we are the cause of the evils, for 
we are in all nations ; or when you see blessings 
mixed with misfortunes, cease to attribute to us 
that which damages your interests, when we in 
no respect interfere with your blessings and pros- 
perity. For if I cause it to be ill with you, why 
do I not prevent it from being well with you? 
If my name is the cause of a great dearth, why 
am I powerless to prevent the greatest produc- 
tiveness? If I am said to bring the 7Z@ luck 
of a wound being received in war, why, when 
the enemy are slain, am I not an evil augury ; 
and why am I not set forth against good hopes, 
through the ill luck of a bad omen? 

17. And yet, O ye great worshippers and 
priests of the deities, why, as you assert that 
those most holy gods are enraged at Christian 
communities, do you not likewise perceive, do 
you not see what base feelings, what unseemly 
frenzies, you attribute to your deities? For, to 
be angry, what else is it than to be insane, to 
rave, to be urged to the lust of vengeance, and 
to revel in the troubles of another’s grief, through 
the madness of a savage disposition? Your 
great gods, then, know, are subject to and feel 
that which wild beasts, which monstrous brutes 
experience, which the deadly plant natrix con- 
tains in its poisoned roots. That nature which 
is superior to others, and which is based on the 
firm foundation of unwavering virtue, experi- 
ences, as you allege, the instability which is in 
man, the faults which are in the animals of 
earth. And what therefore follows of necessity, 


6 Alemanni, i.e., the Germans; hence the French Adlemagne. 
The ms. has Alamannz. 

7 [‘‘Innumerable Christians: ” let this be noted.] 

8 The Getulz and Tinguttand were African tribes. For 7ingus- 
tanos, another reading is tunc Aguitanos; but Tinguttanos is much 
to be preferred on every ground. 


418 


eh ty wet ee Wee aoe 
r ; A, ee ee ue p 4 
, 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





but that from their eyes flashes dart, flames burst 
forth, a panting breast emits a hurried breathing 
from their mouth, and by reason of their burn- 
ing words their parched lips become pale ? 

18. But if this that you say is true, — if it has 
been tested and thoroughly ascertained both 
that the gods boil with rage, and that an impulse 
of this kind agitates the divinities with excite- 
ment, on the one hand they are not immortal, 
and on the other they are not to be reckoned as 
at all partaking of divinity. For wherever, as 
the philosophers hold, there is any agitation, 
there of necessity passion must exist. Where 
passion is situated, it is reasonable that mental 
excitement follow. Where there is mental excite- 
ment, there grief and sorrow exist. Where grief 
and sorrow exist, there is already room for weaken- 
ing and decay ; and if these two harass them, ex- 
~ tinction is at hand, viz. death, which ends all things, 
and takes away life from every sentient being.’ 

19. Moreover, in this way you represent them 
as not only unstable and excitable, but, what all 
agree is far removed from the character of deity, 
as unfair in their dealings, as wrong-doers, and, in 
fine, as possessing positively no amount of even 
moderate fairness. For what is a greater wrong 
than to be angry with some, and to injure others, 
to complain of human beings, and to ravage the 
harmless corn crops, to hate the Christian name, 
and to ruin the worshippers of Christ with every 
kind of loss? 

20. ‘Do they on this account wreak their 
wrath on you too, in order that, roused by your 
own private wounds, you may rise up for their 
vengeance? It seems, then, that the gods seek 
the help of mortals; and were they not pro- 
tected by your strenuous advocacy, they are not 
able of themselves to repel and to avenge? the 
insults offered them. Nay rather, if it be true 
that they burn with anger, give them an oppor- 
tunity of defending themselves, and let them 
put forth and make trial of their innate powers, 
to take vengeance for their offended dignity. 
By heat, by hurtful cold, by noxious winds, by 
the most occult diseases, they can slay us, they 
can consume 3 us, and they can drive us entirely 
from all intercourse with men ; or if it is impoli- 
tic to assail us by violence, let them give forth 
some token of their indignation,# by which it 
may be clear to all that we live under heaven 
subject to their strong displeasure. 

21. To you let them give good health, to us 
bad, ay, the very worst. Let them water your 
farms with seasonable showers ; from our little 
fields let them drive away all those rains which 
are gentle. Let them see to it that your sheep 
are multiplied by a numerous progeny; on our 





I The ms, reads az#, “‘ but.” 

2 Defendere is added in the Ms., but marked as a gloss. 
3 Consumere is in like manner marked as a gloss. 

4 So Orelli, for the Ms. judicationis, “‘ judgment.” 





flocks let them bring luckless barrenness. From 
your olive-trees and vineyards let them bring 
the full harvest ; but let them see to it that from 
not one shoot of ours one drop be expressed. 
Finally, and as their worst, let them give orders 
that in your mouth the products of the earth 
retain their natural qualities; but, on the con- 
trary, that in ours the honey become bitter, the 
flowing oil grow rancid, and that the wine when 
sipped, be in the very lips suddenly changed 
into disappointing vinegar. 

22. And since facts themselves testify that this 
result never occurs, and since it is plain that to 
us no less share of the bounties of life ac- 
crues, and to you no greater, what inordinate 
desire is there to assert that the gods are unfa- 
vourable, nay, inimical to the Christians, who, 
in the greatest adversity, just as in prosperity, 
differ from you in no respect? If you allow the 
truth to be told you, and that, too, without re- 
serve, these allegations are but words, — words, 
I say ; nay, matters believed on calumnious re- 
ports not proved by any certain evidence. 

23. But the true5 gods, and those who are 
worthy to have and to wear the dignity of this 
name, neither conceive anger nor indulge a 
grudge, nor do they contrive by insidious de- 
vices what may be hurtful to another party. 
For verily it is profane, and surpasses all acts of 
sacrilege, to believe that that wise and most 
blessed nature is uplifted in mind if one pros- 
trates himself before it in humble adoration ; 
and if this adoration be not paid, that it deems 
itself despised, and regards itself as fallen from 
the pinnacle of its glory. It is childish, weak, 
and petty, and scarcely becoming for those whom 
the experience of learned men has for a long 
time called demigods and heroes,° not to be 
versed in heavenly things, and, divesting them- 
selves of their own proper state, to be busied 
with the coarser matter of earth. 

24. These are your ideas, these are your sen- 
timents, impiously conceived, and more impious- 
ly believed. Nay, rather, to speak out more 
truly, the augurs, the dream interpreters, the 
soothsayers, the prophets, and the priestlings, 
ever vain, have devised these fables ; for they, 
fearing that their own arts be brought to nought, 
and that they may extort but scanty contribu. 
tions from the devotees, now few and infrequent, 
whenever they have found you to be willing? 


5 The carelessness of some copyist makes the Ms. read ve-st-7?, 
your,” corrected as above by Ursinus, 

6 So Ursinus, followed by Heraldus, LB., and Orelli, for the ms. 
errores, which Stewechius would change into ervrones—‘‘ va- 
grants” —referring to the spirits wandering over the earth: most 
other edd., following Gelenius, read, ‘‘ called demigods, that these 
indeed” — demonas apfpellat, et hos, etc. 

7 So the Ms., which is corrected in the first ed. “ us to be willing” 
— nos velle; Stewechius reads, ‘‘ us to be making good progress, are 
envious, enraged, and cry aloud, etc. — nos belle provenire com- 
pererunt, invident, indignantur, declamitantqgue, etc.; to both 
of which it is sufficient objection that they do not improve the passage 
by their departure from the ms. 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


419 





that their craft should come into disrepute, cry 
aloud, The gods are neglected, and in the tem- 
ples there is now a very thin attendance. Former 
ceremonies are exposed to derision, and the 
time-honoured rites of institutions once sacred 
have sunk before the superstitions of new reli- 
gions. Justly is the human race afflicted by so 
many pressing calamities, justly is it racked by 
the hardships of so many toils. And men—a 
senseless race — being unable, from their inborn 
blindness, to see even that which is placed in 
open light, dare to assert in their frenzy what 
you in your sane mind do not blush to believe. 
25. And lest any one should suppose that we, 
through distrust in our reply, invest the gods 
with the gifts of serenity, that we assign to them 
minds free from resentment, and far removed 
from all excitement, let us allow, since it is pleas- 
ing to you, that they put forth their passion upon 
us, that they thirst for our blood, and that now 
for a long time they are eager to remove us from 
the generations of men. But if it is not trouble- 
some to you, if it is not offensive, if it is a 
matter of common duty to discuss the points 


-of this argument not on grounds of partiality, 


but on those of truth, we demand to hear from 
you what is the explanation of this, what the 
cause, why, on the one hand, the gods exercise 
cruelty on us alone, and why, on the other, men 
burn against us with exasperation. You follow, 
our opponents say, profane religious systems, 
and you practise rites unheard of throughout 
the entire world. What do you, O men, en- 
dowed with reason, dare to assert? What do 
you dare to prate of? What do you try to bring 
forward in the recklessness of unguarded speech ? 
To adore God as the highest existence, as the 
Lord of all things that be, as occupying the high- 
est place among all exalted ones, to pray to Him 
with respectful submission in our distresses, to 
cling to Him with all our senses, so to speak, 
to love Him, to look up to Him with faith, — is 
this an execrable and unhallowed religion,’ full 
of impiety and of sacrilege, polluting by the 
superstition of its own novelty ceremonies insti- 
tuted of old? 

26. Is this, I pray, that daring and heinous 
iniquity on account of which the mighty powers 
of heaven whet against us the stings of passion- 
ate indignation, on account of which you your- 
selves, whenever the savage desire has seized 
you, spoil us of our goods, drive us from the 
homes of our fathers, inflict upon us capital 
punishment, torture, mangle, burn us, and at the 
last expose us to wild beasts, and give us to be 
torn by monsters? Whosoever condemns that 
in us, or considers that it should be laid against 
us as a charge, is he deserving either to be called 





1 [A beautiful appeal, and one sufficient to show that our author 
was no longer among catechumens. 








by the name of man, though he seem so to him- 
self? or is he to be believed a god, although he 
declare himself to be so by the mouth of a thou- 
sand? prophets? Does Trophonius,3 or Jupiter 
of Dodona, pronounce us to be wicked? And 
will he himself be called god, and be reckoned 
among the number of the deities, who either 
fixes the charge of impiety on those who serve 
the King Supreme, or is racked with envy be- 
cause His majesty and His worship are preferred’ 
to his own? 

Is Apollo, whether called Delian or Clarian, 
Didymean, Philesian, or Pythian, to be reckoned 
divine, who either knows not the Supreme Ruler, 
or who is not aware that He is entreated by us 
in daily prayers? And although he knew not 
the secrets of our hearts, and though he did not 
discover what we hold in our inmost thoughts, 
yet he might either know by his ear, or might 
perceive by the very tone of voice which we use 
in prayer, that we invoke God Supreme, and 
that we beg from Him what we require. 

27. This is not the place to examine all our 
traducers, who they are, or whence they are, 
what is their power, what their knowledge, why 
they tremble at the mention of Christ, why they 
regard his disciples as enemies and as hateful 
persons ; but wth regard to ourselves to state 
expressly to those who will exercise common 
reason, in terms applicable to all of us alike, — 
We Christians are nothing else than worshippers 
of the Supreme King and Head, under our Mas- 
ter, Christ. If you examine carefully, you will 
find that nothing else is implied in that religion. 
This is the sum of all that we do; this is the 
proposed end and limit of sacred duties. Be- 
fore Him we all prostrate ourselves, according 
to our custom ; Him we adore in joint prayers ; 
from Him we beg things just and honourable, 
and worthy of His ear. Not that He needs our 
supplications, or loves to see the homage of so 
many thousands laid at His feet. This is our 
benefit, and has a regard to our advantage. For 
since we are prone to err, and to yield to various 
lusts and appetites through the fault of our innate 
weakness, He allows Himself at all times to be 
comprehended in our thoughts, that whilst we 
entreat Him and strive to merit His bounties, we 
may receive a desire for purity, and may free 
ourselves from every stain by the removal of all 
our shortcomings. 

28. What say ye, O interpreters of sacred and 
of divine law?5 Are they attached to a better 
cause who adore the Lares Grundules, the Aii 


2 So LB, and Orelli; but the Ms. reads, ‘ himself to be like a god 
by 42s prophets,” etc. — se esse similem profiteatur in vatibus. 

3 So corrected by Pithceus for the ms. profanus. 

4 [Evidences of our author’s Christian s¢tatzs abound in this fine 





passage-| : 
5 So Gelenius, followed by Orelli and others, for the Ms., reading 
divint interpretes viri (instead of surzs )—‘*O men, interpreters 


of the sacred and divine,” which is retained by the 1st ed., Hilde 
brand, and Oehler. 


420 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





Locutii,'! and the Limentini,? than we who wor- 
ship God the Father of all things, and demand 
of Him protection in danger and distress? They, 
too, seem to you wary, wise, most sagacious, and 
not worthy of any blame, who revere Fauni and 
Fatue, and the genii of states,3 who worship 
Pausi and Bellone :—we are pronounced dull, 
doltish, fatuous, stupid, and senseless, who have 
given ourselves up to God, at whose nod and 
pleasure everything which exists has its being, 
and remains immoveable by His eternal decree. 
Do you put forth this opinion? Have you or- 
dained this law? Do you publish this decree, 
that he be crowned with the highest honours 
who shall worship your slaves? that he merit 
the extreme penalty of the cross who shall offer 
prayers to you yourselves, his masters? In the 
greatest states, and in the most powerful nations, 
sacred rites are performed in the public name to 
harlots, who in old days earned the wages of 
impurity, and prostituted themselves to the lust 
of all;4+ and yet for this there are no swellings 
of indignation on the part of the deities. Tem- 
ples have been erected with lofty roofs to cats, 
to beetles, and to heifers :5 — the powers of the 
deities thus insulted are silent; nor are they 
affected with any feeling of envy because they 
see the sacred attributes of vile animals put in 
rivalry with them. Are the deities inimical to 
us alone? To us are they most unrelenting, be- 
cause we worship their Author, by whom, if they 
do exist, they began to be, and to have the es- 
sence of their power and their majesty, from 
whom, having obtained their very divinity, so to 
speak, they feel that they exist, and realize that 
they are reckoned among things that be, at 
whose will and at whose behest they are able 
both to perish and be dissolved, and not to be 
dissolved and not to perish?® For if we all 
grant that there is only one great Being, whom 
in the long lapse of time nought else precedes, 
it necessarily follows that after Him all things 
were generated and put forth, and that they 
burst into an existence each of its kind. But if 
this is unchallenged and sure, you? will be com- 
pelled as a consequence to confess, on the one 





1 Aii Locutii. Shortly before the Gallic invasion, B.c. 390, a voice 
was heard at the dead of mght announcing the approach ah ie Gauls, 
but the warning was unheeded. After the departure of the Gauls, the 
Romans dedicated an altar and sacred enclosure to Aius Locutius, or 
Loquens, i.e., “‘ The Announcing Speaker,” at a spot on the Via 
Nova, where the voice was heard. The ms. reads azaceos boetios, 
which Gelenius emended Aios Locutios. 

2 So emended by Ursinus for the Ms. /bentznos, which is retained 
in the 1st ed., and by Gelenius, Canterus, and others. Cf. iv. 9, 
where Libentina is spoken of as presiding over lusts. 

3 As a soul was assigned to each individual at his birth, so a gen- 
ius was attributed to a state. The genius of the Roman people was 
often represented on ancient coins. 

4 Thus the Athenians paid honours to Lezna, the Romans to Acca 
Laurentia and Flora. 

S The superstitions of the Egyptians are here specially referred to. 

6 That is, by whose pleasure and at whose command they are pre- 
served from annihilation. 

os So Orelli, adopting a conjecture of Meursius, for the ms. 
sobis. 











hand, that the deities are created,’ and on the 
other, that they derive the spring of their exist-_ 
ence from the great source of things. And if 
they are created and brought forth, they are also 
doubtless liable to annihilation and to dangers ; 
but yet they are believed to be immortal, ever- 
existent, and subject to no extinction. This is 
also a gift from God their Author, that they have 
been privileged to remain the same through 
countless ages, though by nature they are fleet- 
ing, and liable to dissolution. 

2g. And would that it were allowed me to de- 
liver this argument with the whole world formed, 
as it were, into one assembly, and to be placed 
in the hearing of all the human race! Are we 
therefore charged before you with an impious 
religion? and because we approach the Head 
and Pillar? of the universe with worshipful ser- 
vice, are we to be considered — to use the terms 
employed by you in reproaching us — as persons 
to be shunned, and as godless ones? And who 
would more properly bear the odium of these 
names than he who either knows, or inquires 
after, or believes any other god rather than this 
of ours? To Him do we not owe this first, that 
we exist, that we are said to be men, that, being 
either sent forth from Him, or having fallen from 
Him, we are confined in the darkness of this 
body?'® Does it not come from Him that we 
walk, that we breathe and live? and by the very 
power of living, does He not cause us to exist 
and to move with the activity of animated being ? 
From this do not causes emanate, through which 
our health is sustained by the bountiful supply 
of various pleasures? Whose is that world in 
which you live? or who hath authorized you to 
retain its produce and its possession? Who 
hath given that common light, enabling us to 
see distinctly all things lying beneath it, to handle 
them, and to examine them? Who has ordained 
that the fires of the sun should exist for the 
growth of things, lest elements pregnant with 
life should be numbed by settling down in the 
torpor of inactivity? When you believe that the 
sun is a deity, do you not ask who is his founder, 
who has fashioned him? Since the moon is a 
goddess in your estimation, do you in like man- 
ner care to know who is her author and framer? 

30. Does it not occur to you to reflect and to 
examine in whose domain you live? on whose 
property you are? whose is that earth which you 
till?"' whose is that air which you inhale, and 








; . That is, not self-existent, but sprung from something previously 
in being. 

9 Columen is here regarded by some as equal to culdmen; but 
the term “‘ pillar” makes a good sense likewise. 

to This is according to the doctrine of Pythagoras, Plato, Origen, 
and others, who taught that the souls of men first existed in heavenly 
beings, and that on account of sins of long standing they were trans 
ferred to earthly bodies to suffer punishment. Cf. Clem. Alex. 
Strom. iii. p. 433- 

11 The Peripatetics called God the locus rerum, tomos mavtwr, 
the ‘locality and the area of all things; ”’ that is, the being in whom 
all else was contained, 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


421 





return again in breathing? whose fountains do 
you abundantly enjoy? whose water? who has 
regulated the blasts of the wind? who has con- 
trived the watery clouds? who has discriminated 
the productive powers of seeds by special char- 
acteristics, Does Apollo give you rain? Does 
Mercury send you water from heaven? Has 
ésculapius, Hercules, or Diana devised the plan 
of showers and of storms? And how can this 
be, when you give forth that they were born on 
earth, and that at a fixed period they received 
vital perceptions? For if the world preceded 
them in the long lapse of time, and if before they 
were born nature already experienced rains and 
storms, those who were born later have no right 
of rain-giving, nor can they mix themselves up 
with those methods which they found to be in 
operation here, and to be derived from a greater 
Author. 

31. O greatest, O Supreme Creator of things 
invisible ! O Thou who art Thyself unseen, and 
who art incomprehensible! Thou art worthy, 
Thou art verily worthy —if only mortal tongue 
may speak of Thee — that all breathing and in- 
telligent nature should never cease to feel and 
to return thanks ; that it should throughout the 
whole of life fall on bended knee, and offer sup- 
plication with never-ceasing prayers. For Thou 
art the first cause; in Thee created things exist, 
and Thou art the space in which rest the founda- 
tions of all things, whatever they be. Thou art 
illimitable, unbegotten, immortal, enduring for 
aye, God Thyself alone, whom no bodily shape 
may represent, no outline delineate ; of virtues 
inexpressible, of greatness indefinable ; unre- 
stricted as to locality, movement, and condition, 
concerning whom nothing can be clearly ex- 
pressed by the significance of man’s words. 
That Thou mayest be understood, we must be 
silent ; and that erring conjecture may track Thee 
through the shady cloud, no word must be ut- 
tered. Grant pardon, O King Supreme, to those 
who persecute Thy servants ; and in virtue of Thy 
benign nature, forgive those who fly from the 
worship of Thy name and the observance of Thy 
religion. It is not to be wondered at if Thou art 
unknown ; it is a cause of greater astonishment 
if Thou art clearly comprehended.: 

But perchance some one dares —for this re- 
mains for frantic madness to do—to be uncer- 
tain, and to express doubt whether that God 
exists or not ; whether He is believed in on the 
proved truth of reliable evidence, or on the im- 
aginings of empty rumour. For of those who 
have given themselves to philosophizing, we have 
heard that some? deny the existence of any di- 


1 [ibs prayer of Arnobius is surely worthy of admiration. ] 

2 Diagoras of Melos and Theodorus of Cyrene, called the Atheists. 
The former flourished about B.c. 430, the latter about B.c. 310. See 
Cic., Vat. Deor.,i, 2, [Note the wxzversal faith, cap. 34, 7nfra.] 








vine power, that others3 inquire daily whether 
there be or not ; that others+ construct the whole 
fabric of the universe by chance accidents and by 
random collision, and fashion it by the concourse 
of atoms of different shapes ; with whom we. by 
no means intend to enter at this time on a dis- 
cussion of such perverse convictions.5 For those 
who think wisely say, that to argue against things 
palpably foolish, is a mark of greater folly. 

32. Our discussion deals with those who, ac: 
knowledging that there is a divine race of beings, 
doubt about those of greater rank and power, 
whilst they admit that there are deities inferior 
and more humble. What then? Do we strive 
and toil to obtain such results by arguments? 
Far hence be such madness ; and, as the phrase 
is, let the folly, say I, be averted from us. For 
it is as dangerous to attempt to prove by argu- 
ments that God is the highest being, as it is to 
wish to discover by reasoning of this kind that 
He exists. It is a matter of indifference whether 
you deny that He exists, or affirm it and admit 
it; since equally culpable are both the assertion 
of such a thing, and the denial of an unbelieving 
opponent. 

33. Is there any human being who has not 
entered on the first day of his life with an idea 
of that Great Head? In whom has it not been 
implanted by nature, on whom has it not been 
impressed, aye, stamped almost in his mother’s 
womb even, in whom is there not a native in- 
stinct, that He is King and Lord, the ruler of all 
things that be? In fine, if the dumb animals 
even could stammer forth their thoughts, if they 
were able to use our languages ; nay, if trees, if 
the clods of the earth, if stones animated by 
vital perceptions were able to produce vocal 
sounds, and to utter articulate speech, would 
they not in that case, with nature as their guide 
and teacher, in the faith of uncorrupted inno- 
cence, both feel that there is a God, and pro- 
claim that He alone is Lord of all? 

34. But in vain, says one, do you assail us 
with a groundless and calumnious charge, as if 
we deny that there is a deity of a higher kind, 
since Jupiter is by us both called and esteemed 
the best and the greatest; and since we have 
dedicated to him the most sacred abodes, and 
have raised huge Capitols. You are endeavour- 
ing to connect together things which are dissimi- 
lar, and to force them into one class, thereby 
introducing confusion. For by the unanimous 
judgment of all, and by the common consent of 
the human race, the omnipotent God is regarded 
as having never been born, as having never been 
brought forth to new light, and as not having 





3 Protagoras of Abdera, b. B.c. 480, d. 411. 

4 Democritus of Abdera, b. B.c. 460, and Epicurus, b. B.c. 342, 
d. 270. 
5 Obstinatione, literally ‘‘ stubbornness;” Walker conjectures 
opinatione, *‘ imaginings,” which Orelli approves. 


422 





begun to exist at any time or century. For He 
Himself is the source of all things, the Father 
of ages and of seasons. For they do not exist of 
themselves, but from His everlasting perpetuity 
they move on in unbroken and ever endless flow. 
Yet Jupiter indeed, as you allege, has both father 
and mother, grandfathers, grandmothers, and 
brothers ; now lately conceived in the womb of 
his mother, being completely formed and per- 
fected in ten months, he burst with vital sensa- 
tions into light unknown to him before. If, then, 
this is so, how can Jupiter be God supreme, when 
it is evident that He is everlasting, and the for- 
mer is represented by you as having had a natal 
day, and as having uttered a mournful cry, 
through terror at the strange scene? 

35. But suppose they be one, as you wish, 
and not different in any power of deity and in 
majesty, do you therefore persecute us with un- 
deserved hatred? Why do you shudder at the 
mention of our name as of the worst omen, if we 
too worship the deity whom you worship? or 
why do you contend that the gods are friendly 
to you, but inimical, aye, most hostile to us, 
though our relations to them are the same? For 
if one religion is common to us and to you, the 
anger of the gods is stayed;' but if they are 
hostile to us alone, it is plain that both you and 
they have no knowledge of God. And that that 
God is not Jove, is evident by the very wrath of 
the deities. 

36. But, says my opponent, the deities are not 
inimical to you, because you worship the om- 
nipotent God ; but because you both allege that 
one born as men are, and put to death on the 
cross, which is a disgraceful punishment even for 
worthless men, was God, and because you be- 
lieve that He still lives, and because you worship 
Him in daily supplications. If it is agreeable to 
you, my friends, state clearly what deities those 
are who believe that the worship of Christ by us 
has a tendency to injure them? Is it Janus, the 
founder of the Janiculum, and Saturn, the author 
of the Saturnian state? Is it Fauna Fatua,? the 
wife of Faunus, who is called the Good Goddess, 
but who is better and more deserving of praise 
in the drinking of wine? Is it those gods Jn- 
digetes who swim in the river, and live in the 
channels of the Numicius, in company with frogs 
and little fishes? Is it Atsculapius and father 

Bacchus, the former born of Coronis, and the 
other dashed by lightning from his mother’s 
womb? Is it Mercury, son of Maia, and what is 
more divine, JZaza the beautiful? Is it the bow- 
bearing deities Diana and Apollo, who were com- 





1 So the ms.; for which Meursius would read, nobzs vobisque, 
communis esset (for cessat) — “is to us and to you, the anger of the 
gods would be shared zx common.’ 

2 So Ursinus, followed by most edd., for the reading of the Ms. 
Fenta Fatua,cf. v.18. A later writer has corrected the MS. Fanda, 
which, Rigaltius says, an old gloss renders ‘‘ mother.” 





URE Oe 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN, 





panions of their mother’s wanderings, and who 
were scarcely safe in floating islands? Is it 
Venus, daughter of Dione, paramour of a man 
of Trojan family, and the prostituter of her secret 
charms? Is it Ceres, born in Sicilian territory, 
and Proserpine, surprised while gathering flowers ? 
Is it the Theban or the Phcenician Hercules, — 
the latter buried in Spanish territory, the other 
burned by fire on Mount Gita? Is it the broth- 
ers Castor and Pollux, sons of Tyndareus, — the 
one accustomed to tame horses, the other an 
excellent boxer, and unconquerable with the 
untanned gauntlet? Is it the Titans and the 
Bocchores of the Moors, and the Syrian 3 deities, 
the offspring of eggs? Is it Apis, born in the 
Peloponnese, and in Egypt called Serapis? Is 
it Isis, tanned by Ethiopian suns, lamenting her 
lost son and husband torn limb from limb? 
Passing on, we omit the royal offspring of Ops, 
which your writers have in their books set forth 
for your instruction, telling you both who they 
are, and of what character. Do these, then, hear 
with offended ears that Christ is worshipped, and 
that He is accepted by us and regarded as a 
divine person? And being forgetful of the grade 
and state in which they recently were, are they 
unwilling to share with another that which has 
been granted to themselves? Is this the justice 
of the heavenly deities? Is this the righteous 
judgment of the gods? Is not this a kind of 
malice and of greed? is it not a species of base 
envy, to wish their own fortunes only to rise, — 
those of others to be lowered, and to be trodden 
down in despised lowliness ? 

37. We worship one who was born a man. 
What then? do you worship no one who was 
born a man? Do you not worship one and an- 
other, aye, deities innumerable? Nay, have you 
not taken from the number of mortals all those 
whom you now have in your temples; and have 
you not set them in heaven, and among the con- 
stellations? For if, perchance, it has escaped 
you that they once partook of human destiny, 
and of the state common to all men, search the 
most ancient literature, and range through the 
writings of those who, living nearest to the days 
of antiquity, set forth all things with undisguised 
truth and without flattery: you will learn in de- 
tail from what fathers, from what mothers they 
were each sprung, in what district they were 
born, of what tribe ; what they made, what they 
did, what they endured, how they employed 
themselves, what fortunes they experienced of 





3 So restored by Salmasius for Dzoscur?, and understood by him 
as meaning Dea Syria, i.e., Venus, because it is said that a large egg 
having been foun by the fish in the Euphrates, was pushed up by 
them to the dry land, when a dove came down, and sat upon it until 
the goddess came forth. Such was the form of the legend according 
to Nigidius; but Eratosthenes spoke of both Venus and Cupid as 
being produced in this manner. The Syrian deities were therefore 
Venus, Cupid, and perhaps Adonis. It should be remembered, how- 
ever, that the Syrians paid reverence to pigeons and fish as gods 
(Xen., Anaéd., i. 4, 9), and that these may therefore be meant. 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


423 





an adverse or of a favourable kind in dischar- 
ging their functions. But if, while you know that 
they were born in the womb, and that they lived 
on the produce of the earth, you nevertheless 
upbraid us with the worship of one born like 
ourselves, you act with great injustice, in regard- 
ing that as worthy of condemnation in us which 
you yourselves habitually do; or what you allow 
to be lawful for you, you are unwilling to be in 
like manner lawful for others. 

38. But in the meantime let us grant, in sub- 
mission to your ideas, that Christ was one of us 
—similar in mind, soul, body, weakness, and 
condition ; is He not worthy to be called and to 
be esteemed God by us, in consideration of His 
bounties, so numerous as they are? For if you 
have placed in the assembly ' of the gods Liber, 
because he discovered the use of wine; Ceres, 
because she discovered the use of bread ; Atscu- 
lapius, because he discovered the use of herbs ; 
Minerva, because she produced the olive ; Trip- 
tolemus, because he invented the plough; Her- 
cules, because he overpowered and restrained 
wild beasts and robbers, and water-serpents of 
many heads, — with how great distinctions is He 
to be honoured by us, who, by instilling His truth 
into our hearts, has freed us from great errors ; 
who, when we were straying everywhere, as if 
blind and without a guide, withdrew us from 
precipitous and devious paths, and set our feet 
on more smooth places; who has pointed out 
what is especially profitable and salutary for the 
human race ; who has shown us what God is,? 
who He is, how great and how good; who has 
permitted and taught us to conceive and to 
understand, as far as our limited capacity can, 
His profound and inexpressible depths ; who, in 
in His great kindness, has caused it to be known 
by what founder, by what Creator, this world was 
established and made; who has explained the 
nature of its origin3 and essential substance, 
never before imagined in the conceptions of 
any ; whence generative warmth is added to the 
rays of the sun ; why the moon, always uninjured + 
in her motions, is believed to alternate her light 
and her obscurity from intelligent causes ;5 what 
is the origin of animals, what rules regulate 
seeds ; who designed man himself, who fashioned 








1 So all edd., except those of Hildebrand and Oehler, for the ms. 
censum —“‘ list.” 

2 That is, that God is a Spirit. 
in Christ. ] 

3 Orell: would refer these words to God; he thinks that with those 
immediately following they may be understood of God’s spiritual 
nature, — an idea which he therefore supposes Arnobius to assert had 
never been grasped by the heathen. 

4 So Gelenius, followed by Orelli and others, for the corrupt read- 
ing of the Ms., zdem ne guts; but possibly both this and the preced- 
ing clause have crept into the text from the margin, as in construction 
they differ from the rest of the sentence, both that which precedes, 
and that which follows. 

5 The phrase antmalibus causts is regarded by commentators as 
equal to anzmatzs causis, and refers to the doctrine of the Stoics, 
that in the sun, moon, stars, etc., there was an intelligent nature, or a 
tertain impulse of mind, which directed their movements. 


[Note our author's spirit of faith 








him, or from what kind of material did He com- 
pact the very build of bodies ; what the percep- 
tions are ; what the soul, and whether it flew to 
us of its own accord, or whether it was generated 
and brought into existence with our bodies them- 
selves ; whether it sojourns with us, partaking of 
death, or whether it is gifted with an endless 
immortality ; what condition awaits us when we 
shall have separated from: our bodies relaxed in 
death ; whether we shall retain our perceptions,° 
or have no recollection of our former sensations 
or of past memories ;7 who has restrained § our 
arrogance, and has caused our necks, uplifted 
with pride, to acknowledge the measure of their 
weakness ; who hath shown that we are creatures 
imperfectly formed, that we trust in vain expecta- 
tions, that we understand nothing thoroughly, that 
we know nothing, and that we do not see those 
things which are placed before our eyes ; who 
has guided us from false superstitions to the true 
religion, —a blessing which exceeds and tran- 
scends all His other gifts; who has raised our 
thoughts to heaven from brutish statues formed 
of the vilest clay, and has caused us to hold con- 
verse in thanksgiving and prayer with the Lord 
of the universe. 

39. But lately, O blindness, I worshipped im- 
ages produced from the furnace, gods made on 
anvils and by hammers, the bones of elephants, 
paintings, wreaths on aged trees ;9 whenever I 
espied an anointed stone and one bedaubed with 
olive oil, as if some power resided in it I wor- 
shipped it, I addressed myself to it and begged 
blessings from a senseless stock.'° And these 
very gods of whose existence I had convinced 
myself, I treated with gross insults, when I be- 
lieved them to be wood, stone, and bones, or 
imagined that they dwelt in the substance of 
such objects. Now, having been led into the 
paths of truth by so great a teacher, I know 
what all these things are, I entertain honourable 
thoughts concerning those which are worthy, I 
offer no insult to any divine name; and what 
is due to each, whether inferior ‘' or superior, 
I assign with clearly-defined gradations, and on 
distinct authority. Is Christ, then, not to be 
regarded by us as God? and is He, who in other 
respects may be deemed the very greatest, not 





6 Lit. ‘ shall see” — vzsurt, the reading of the ms.; changed in 
the first ed. and others to wictwrt — “ shall live.” 

7 Some have suggested a different construction of these words — 
memoriant nullam nostri sensus et recordationts habtturt, thus 
—‘*have no memory of ourselves and senses of recollection; ” but 
that adopted above is simpler, and does not force the words as thig 
seems to do. 

8 The ms. and 1st and 2d Roman edd. read, guz constringtt— 
‘* who restrains.’ 

9 It was a common practice with the Romans to hang the spoils 
of an enemy on a tree, which was thus consecrated to some deity, 
Hence such trees were "sacred, and remained unhurt even to old age, 
Some have supposed that the epithet “‘ old” is applied from the faq 
that the heathen used to offer to their gods objects no longer of us¢ 
to themselves; thus it was only old trees, past bearing fruit, which 
were enerally selected to hang the sfo/za upon. 

of This interesting personal confession deserves especial note.] 
Il Vel persone vel capiti. 


Ag 


oe eee, 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





to be honoured with divine worship, from whom 
we have already received while alive so great 
gifts, and from whom, when the day comes, we 
expect greater ones? 

40. But He died nailed to the cross. What 
is that to the argument? For neither does the 
kind and disgrace of the death change His words 
or deeds, nor will the weight of His teaching 
appear less ; because He freed Himself from the 
shackles of the body, not by a natural separation, 
but departed by reason of violence offered to 
Him. Pythagoras of Samos was burned to death 
in a temple, under an unjust suspicion of aiming 
at sovereign power. Did his doctrines lose their 
peculiar influence, because he breathed forth 
his life not willingly, but in consequence of a 
savage assault? In like manner Socrates, con- 
demned by the decision of his fellow-citizens, 
suffered capital punishment: have his discus- 
sions on morals, on virtues, and on duties been 
rendered vain, because he was unjustly hurried 
from life? Others without number, conspicuous 
by their renown, their merit, and their public 
character, have experienced the most cruel forms 
of death, as Aquilius, Trebonius, and Regulus: 
were they on that account adjudged base after 
death, because they perished not by the com- 
mon law of the fates, but after being mangled 
and tortured in the most cruel kind of death? 
No innocent person foully slain is ever disgraced 
thereby ; nor is he stained by the mark of any 
baseness, who suffers severe punishment, not 
from his own deserts, but by reason of the sav- 
age nature of his persecutor.' 

41. And yet, O ye who laugh because we 
worship one who died an ignominious death, 
do not ye too, by consecrating shrines to him, 
honour father Liber, who was torn limb from 
limb by the Titans? Have you not, after his 
punishment and his death by lightning, named 
Atsculapius, the discoverer of medicines, as the 
guardian and protector of health, of strength, 
and of safety? Do you not invoke the great 
Hercules himself by offerings, by victims, and 
by kindled frankincense, whom you yourselves 
allege to have been burned alive after his pun- 
ishment,? and to have been consumed on the 
fatal pyres? Do you not, with the unanimous 
approbation of the Gauls, invoke as a propitious 3 
and as a holy god, in the temples of the Great 
Mother,‘ that Phrygian Atys5 who was mangled 





1 So all the later edd.: but in the ms., rst and 2d Roman edd., 
and in those of Gelenius and Canterus, this clause reads, cruciator?s 
perpetitur sevitatem —“‘ but suffers the cruelty of his persecutor.” 

2 The words fost penas in the text are regarded as spurious by 
Orelli, who supposes them to have crept in from the preceding sen- 
tence; but they may be defended as sufficiently expressing the agonies 
which Hercules suffered through the fatai shirt of Nessus. 

3 The words deum propittum are indeed found in the Ms., but 
according to Rigaltius are not in the same handwriting as the rest of 
the work. 

4 Cybele, whose worship was conjoined with that of Atys. 

5 So Orelli, but the ms. .4 #25, 








and deprived of his virility? Father Romulus 
himself, who was torn in pieces by the hands of 
a hundred senators, do you not call Quirinus 
Martius, and do you not honour him with priests 
and with gorgeous couches,° and do you not 
worship him in most spacious temples ; and in 
addition to all this, do you not affirm that he 
has ascended into heaven? Either, therefore, 
you too are to be laughed at, who regard as 
gods men slain by the most cruel tortures ; or 
if there is a sure ground for your thinking that 
you should do so, allow us too to feel assured 
for what causes and on what grounds we do this. 

42. You worship, says my opponent, one who 
was born a mere human being. Even if that 
were true, as has been already said in former pas- 
sages, yet, in consideration of the many liberal 
gifts which He has bestowed on us, He ought to 
be called and be addressed as God. Sut since 
He is God in reality and without any shadow of 
doubt, do you think that we will deny that He 
is worshipped by us with all the fervour we are 
capable of, and assumed as the guardian of our 
body? Is that Christ of yours a god, then? 
some raving, wrathful, and excited man will say. 
A god, we will reply, and “he god of the inner 
powers ;7 and — what may still further torture 
unbelievers with the most bitter pains — He was 
sent to us by the King Supreme for a purpose 
of the very highest moment. My opponent, 
becoming more mad and more frantic, will per- 
haps ask whether the matter can be proved, as 
we allege. There is no greater proof than the 
credibility of the acts done by Him, than the 
unwonted excellence of the virtues He exhibited, 
than the conquest and the abrogation of all 
those deadly ordinances which peoples and tribes 
saw executed in the light of day,® with no object- 
ing voice ; and even they whose ancient laws or 
whose country’s laws He shows to be full of 
vanity and of the most senseless superstition, 
(even they) dare not allege these things to be 
false. 


6 This refers to the practice of placing the images of the gods on 
pillows at feasts. In the temples there were Judvzxarza, or couches, 
specially for the purpose. 

7 The phrase fotentiarum intertorum is not easily understood. 
Orelli is of opinion that it means those powers which in the Bible are 
called the ‘‘powers of heaven,” the ‘*army of heaven,” i.e., the 
angels. The Jews and the early Fathers of the Church divided the 
heaven into circles or zones, each inhabited by its peculiar powers or 
intelligent natures, differing in dignity and in might. The central 
place was assigned to God Himself, and to Christ, who sat on His 
right hand, and who is called by the Fathers of the Church the 
‘Angel of the Church,” and the ‘‘ Angel of the New Covenant.” 
Next in order came ‘ Thrones,” ‘‘ Archangels,” “ Cherubim and 
Seraphim,” and most remote from God’s throne, the ‘‘ Chorus of 
Angels,” the tutelar genii of men. The system of zones and powers 
seems to have been derived from the Chaldeans, who made a similar 
division of the heavens. According to this idea, Arnobius speaks of 
Christ as nearest to the Father, and God of the “inner powers,” who 
enjoyed God’s immediate presence. Reference is perhaps made to 
some recondite doctrine of the Gnostics. It may mean, however, 
the more subtile powers of nature, as affecting both the souls of men 
and the physical universe. 

8 So Orelli with most edd., following Urfsinus, for the Ms. suo ge- 
ne-v7-s sub limitne, which might, however, be retained, as if the 
sense were that these ordinances were coeval with man’s origin, and 
translated, ‘‘ tribes saw at the beginning of their race.” 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


425 





' 43. My opponent will perhaps meet me with 
many other slanderous and childish charges 
which are commonly urged. Jesus was a Ma- 
gian ;* He effected all these things by secret arts. 
From the shrines of the Egyptians He stole the 
names of angels of might,? and the religious 
system of a remote country. Why, O witlings, 
do you speak of things which you have not ex- 
amined, and which are unknown to you, prating 
with the garrulity of a rash tongue? Were, then, 
those things which were done, the freaks of 
demons, and the tricks of magical arts? Can 
you specify and point out to me any one of all 
those magicians who have ever existed in past 
ages, that did anything similar, in the thousandth 
degree, to Christ? Who has done this without 
any power of incantations, without the juice of 
herbs and of grasses, without any anxious watch- 
ing of sacrifices, of libations, or of seasons? 
For we do not press it, and inquire what they 
profess to do, nor in what kind of acts all their 
learning and experience are wont to be com- 
prised. For who is not aware that these men 
either study to know beforehand things impend- 
ing, which, whether they will or not, come of 
necessity as they have been ordained? or to in- 
flict a deadly and wasting disease on whom they 
choose ; or to sever the affections of relatives ; 
or to open without keys. places which are locked ; 
or to seal the mouth in silence ; or in the chariot 
race to weaken, urge on, or retard horses ; or to 
inspire in wives, and in the children of strangers, 
whether they be males or females, the flames 
and mad desires of illicit love?’ Or if they 
seem to attempt anything useful, to be able to 
do it not by their own power, but by the might 
of those deities whom they invoke. 

44. And yet it is agreed on that Christ per- 
formed all those miracles which He wrought 
without any aid from external things, without 
the observance of any ceremonial, without any 
definite mode of procedure, du¢ solely by the 
inherent might of His authority ; and as was the 
proper duty of ze true God, as was consistent with 
His nature, as was worthy of Him, in the generos- 
ity of His bounteous power He bestowed nothing 
hurtful or injurious, but oxy that which ts helpful, 
beneficial, and full of blessings good + for men. 

45. What do you say again, oh youS ? 
Is He then a man, is He one of us, at whose com- 





mand, at whose voice, raised in the utterance of 
audible and intelligible words,° infirmities. dis- 
eases, fevers, and other ailments of the body 
fled away? Was He one of us, whose presence, 
whose very sight, that race of demons which 
took possession of men was unable to bear, and 
terrified by the strange power, fled away? Was 
He one of us, to whose order the foul leprosy, at 
once checked, was obedient, and left sameness 
of colour to bodies formerly spotted? Was He 
one of us, at whose light touch the issues of 
blood were stanched, and stopped their exces- 
sive flow?? Was He one of us, whose hands the 
waters of the lethargic dropsy fled from, and that 
searching ® fluid avoided ; and did the swelling 
body, assuming a healthy dryness, find relief? 
Was He one of us, who bade the lame run? Was 
it His work, too, that the maimed stretched forth 
their hands, and the joints relaxed the rigidity? 
acquired even at birth; that the paralytic rose 
to their feet, and persons now carried home their 
beds who a little before were borne on the shoul- 
ders of others ; the blind were restored to sight, 
and men born without eyes now looked on the 
heaven and the day? 

46. Was He one of us, I say, who by one act 
of intervention at once healed a hundred or more 
afflicted with various infirmities and diseases ; 
at whose word only the raging and maddened 
seas were still, the whirlwinds and tempests were 
lulled ; who walked over the deepest pools with 
unwet foot ; who trod the ridges of the deep, the 
very waves being astonished, and nature coming 
under bondage ; who with five loaves satisfied 
five thousand of His followers ; and who, lest it 
might appear to the unbelieving and hard of 
heart to be an illusion, filled twelve capacious 
baskets with the fragments that remained? Was 
He one of us, who ordered the breath that had 
departed to return to the body, persons buried 
to come forth from the tomb, and after three 
days to be loosed from the swathings of the un- 
dertaker? Was He one of us, who saw clearly in 
the hearts of the silent what each was ponder- 
ing,‘ what each had in his secret thoughts? Was 
He one of us, who, when He uttered a single 
word, was thought by nations far removed from 
one another and of different speech to be using 
well-known sounds, and the peculiar language of 
each?'! Was He one of us, who, when He was 





I Magus, almost equivalent to sorcerer. 

2 Arnobius uses zomzuza, “‘names,” with special significance, 
because the Magi in their incantations used barbarous and fearful 
names of angels and of powers, by whose influence they thought 
strange and unusual things were brought to pass. 

3 All these different effects the magicians of old attempted to 
produce: to break family ties by bringing plagues into houses, or by 
poisons; open doors and unbind chains by charms (Orig., contra 
Cels., ii.); affect horses in the race—of which Hieronymus in his 
Life of Hilarion gives an example; and use philters and love 
potions to kindle excessive and unlawful desires, 

4 So Orelli and most edd., following a marginal reading of Ursi- 
nus, auxiliaribus plenum bouts (for the Ms. 2odzs). 

5 In the height of his indignation and contempt, the wriier stops 
short and does not apply to his opponents any new epithet. 





6 This is contrasted with the mutterings and strange words used 
by the magicians. 

7 So the ms. according to Oehler, and seemingly Heraldus; but 
according to Orelli, the ms. reads z#zmoderatz (instead of —os) co- 
hibebant fluores, which Meursius received as equivalent to “‘ the ex- 
cessive flow stayed itself.” 

8 Penetrabzlis, “‘ searching,” i.e., finding its way to all parts of 
the body. 

9 So Orelli, LB., Elmenhorst, and Stewechius, adopting a mar- 
ginal reading of Ursinus, which prefixes z#z— to the Ms. mobslitates 
— ‘looseness ”” — retained by the other edd. 

to Cf, John ii. 25. [He often replies to thoughts not uttered.] _ 

11 No such miracle is recorded of Christ, and Oehler suggests with 
some probability that Arnobius may have here fallen into confusiog 
as to what is recorded of the apostles on the day of Pentecost. 


426 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





teaching His followers the duties of a religion 
that could not be gainsaid, suddenly filled the 
whole world, and showed how great He was and 
who He was, by unveiling the boundlessness of 
His authority? Was He one of us, who, after His 
body had been laid in the tomb, manifested Him- 
self in open day to countless numbers of men; 
who spoke to them, and listened to them; who 
taught them, reproved and admonished them ; 
who, lest they should imagine that they were de- 
ceived by unsubstantial fancies, showed Himself 
once, a second time, aye frequently, in familiar 
conversation ; who appears even now to right- 
eous men of unpolluted mind who love Him, not 
in airy dreams, but in a form of pure simplicity ; « 
whose name, when heard, puts to. flight evil 
spirits, imposes silence on soothsayers, prevents 
men from consulting the augurs, causes the 
efforts of arrogant magicians to be frustrated, not 
by the dread of His name, as you allege, but by 
the free exercise of a greater power? 

47. These facts set forth in summary we have 
put forward, not on the supposition that the 
greatness of the agent was to be seen in these 
virtues alone. For however great these things 
be, how excessively petty and trifling will they 
be found to be, if it shall be revealed from what 
realms He has come, of what God He is the min- 
ister! But with regard to the acts which were 
done by Him, they were performed, indeed, not 
that He might boast Himself into empty ostenta- 
tion, but that hardened and unbelieving men 
might be assured that what was professed was 
not deceptive, and that they might now learn to 
imagine, from the beneficence of His works, what 
a true god was. At the same time we wish this 
also to be known,3 when, as was said, an enu- 
meration of His acts has been given in summary, 
that Christ was able to do not only those things 
which He did, but that He could even overcome 
the decrees of fate. 
as is agreed by all, infirmities and bodily suffer- 
ings, if deafness, deformity, and dumbness, if 
shrivelling of the sinews and the loss of sight 
happen to us, and are brought on us by the de- 
crees of fate, and if Christ alone has corrected 
this, has restored and cured man, it is clearer 
than the sun himself that He was more power- 
ful than the fates are when He has loosened and 
overpowered those things which were bound 
with everlasting knots, and fixed by unalterable 
necessity. 

48. But, says some one, you in vain claim so 
much for Christ, when we now know, and have 
in past times known, of other gods both giving 


For if, as is evident, and | 


remedies to many who were sick, and healing 
the diseases and the infirmities of many men. 
I do not inquire, I do not demand, what god did 
so, or at what time ; whom he relieved, or what 
shattered frame he restored to sound health: 
this only I long to hear, whether, without the 
addition of any substance — that is, of any medi- 
cal application — he ordered diseases to fly away 
from men at a touch; whether he commanded 
and compelled the cause of ill health to be 
eradicated, and the bodies of the weak to re- 
turn to their natural strength. For it is known 
that Christ, either by applying His hand to the 
parts affected, or by the command of His voice 
only, opened the ears of the deaf, drove away 
blindness from the eyes, gave speech to the 
dumb, loosened the rigidity of the joints, gave 
the power of walking to the shrivelled, — was 
wont to heal by a word and by an order, lepro- 
sies, agues, dropsies, and all other kinds of ail- 
ments, which some fell power* has willed that 
the bodies of men should endure. What act 
like these have all these gods done, by whom 
you allege that help has been brought to the 
sick and the imperilled? for if they have at any 
time ordered, as is reported, either that medi- 
cine or a special diet be given to some, or that 
a draught be drunk off, or that the juices of 
plants and of blades be placed® on that which 
causes uneasiness or have ordered that persons 
should walk, remain at rest, or abstain from 
something hurtful,—and that this is no great 
matter, and deserves no great admiration, is evi- 
dent, if you will attentively examine it —a simi- 
lar mode of treatment is followed by physicians 
also, a creature earth-born and not relying on 
true science, but founding on a system of con- 
jecture, and wavering in estimating probabilities. 
Now there is no sfecia’ merit in removing by 
remedies those ailments which affect men: the 
healing qualities belong to the drugs — not vir- 
tues inherent in him who applies them; and 
though it is praiseworthy to know by what medi- 
cine or by what method it may be suitable for 
persons to be treated, there is room for this 
credit being assigned to man, but not to the 
deity. For it is, a¢ deast, no discredit that he? 
should have improved the health of man by 
things taken from without: it isa disgrace to a 
god that he is not able to effect it of himself, but 
that he gives soundness and safety omdy by the aid 
of external objects. 

49. And since you compare Christ and the 
other deities as to the blessings of health be- 
stowed, how many thousands of infirm persons 





I The Latin is, per pura spectem stmplicttatis, which is not 
sasily understood, and is less easily expressed. 

2 [1 have already directed attention to Dominic Diodati’s essay, 
De Christo Grece loguente, ed. London, 1843. 

3 So almost all edd.; but thems. and rst an 
scetre—“‘ to know,” etc. 


ad Roman edd. read 





4 See book ii. chap. 36, 7%/ra. 

5 The gods in whose temples the sick lay ordered remedies 
through the priests. 

6 & all edd except LB., which reads with the Ms. sugerponers 
—‘‘that (one) place the juices,” etc. 

7 That is, the physician, 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


427 





_ do you wish to be shown to you by us; how 
many persons affected with wasting diseases, 
whom no appliances whatever restored, although 
they went as suppliants through all the temples, 
although they prostrated themselves before the 
gods, and swept the very thresholds with their 
lips —though, as long as life remained, they 
wearied with prayers, and importuned with most 
piteous vows A®sculapius himself, the health- 
giver, as they call him? Do we not know that 
some died of their ailments? that others grew 
old by the torturing pain of their diseases? that 
others began to live a more abandoned life after 
they had wasted their days' and nights in in- 
cessant prayers, and in expectation of mercy ?? 
Of what avail is it, then, to point to one or an- 
other who may have been healed, when so many 
thousands have been left unaided, and the shrines 
are full of all the wretched and the unfortunate ? 
Unless, perchance, you say that the gods help 
the good, but that the miseries of the wicked are 
overlooked. And yet Christ assisted the good 
and the bad alike ; nor was there any one re- 
jected by Him, who in adversity sought help 
against violence and the ills of fortune. For 
this is the mark of a true god and of kingly 
power, to deny his bounty to none, and not to 
consider who merits it or who does not; since 
natural infirmity and not the choice of his desire, 
or of his sober judgment, makes a sinner. To 
say, moreover, that aid is given by the gods to 
the deserving when in distress, is to leave un- 
decided and render doubtful what you assert: 
so that both he who has been made whole may 
seem to have been preserved by chance, and he 
who is not may appear to have been unable to 
banish infirmity, not because of his demerit, but 
by reason of a heaven-sent weakness.3 

50. Moreover, by His own power He not only 
performed those miraculous deeds which have 
been detailed by us in summary, and not as the 
importance of the matter demanded ; but, what 
was more sublime, He has permitted many others 
to attempt them, and to perform them by the 
use of Hisname. For when He foresaw that you 
were to be the detractors of His deeds and of His 
divine work, in order that no lurking suspicion 
might remain of His having lavished these gifts 
and bounties by magic arts, from the immense 
multitude of people, which with admiring wonder 
strove to gain His favour, He chose fishermen, 
artisans, rustics, and unskilled persons of a simi- 
lar kind, that they being sent through various 
nations should perform all those miracles without 
any deceit and without any material aids. By a 





1 So the edd., reading ¢7z-v-erunt, for the ms. trz-bu-erunt — | 

og} ” c4 - | - fi 
given up,” which is retained in the first ed. ? ; 

2 Pzetatzs, ‘‘of mercy,” in which sense the word is often used in | 
late writers. Thus it was from his clemency that Antoninus, the 
Roman emperor, received the title of Pzws. : ‘i 

3 So most edd., following a marginal reading of Ursinus, which 
prefixes zx— to the Ms. frrmitate. 


word He assuaged the racking pains of the aching 
members; and by a word they checked the 
writhings of maddening sufferings. By one com- 
mand He drove demons from the body, and re- 
stored their senses to the lifeless; they, too, by 
no different command, restored to health and to 
soundness of mind those labouring under the 
inflictions of these demons.4 By the applica- 
tion of His hand He removed the marks of lep- 
rosy ; they, too, restored to the body its natural 
skin by a touch not dissimilar.. He ordered the 
dropsical and swollen flesh to recover its natural 
dryness ; and His servants in the same manner 
stayed the wandering waters, and ordered them 
to glide through their own channels, avoiding 
injury to the frame. Sores of immense size, 
refusing to admit of healing, He restrained from 
further feeding on the flesh, by the interposition 
of one word; and they in like manner, by re- 
stricting its ravages, compelled the obstinate and 
merciless cancer to confine itself to a scar. To 
the lame He gave the power of walking, to the 
dark eyes sight, the dead He recalled to life ; and 
not less surely did they, too, relax the tightened 
nerves, fill the eyes with light already lost, and 
order the dead to return from the tombs, revers- 
ing the ceremonies of the funeral rites. Nor was 
anything calling forth the bewildered admiration 
of all done by Him, which He did not freely 
allow to be performed by those humble and rustic 
men, and which He did not put in their power. 
51. What say ye, O minds incredulous, stub- 
born, hardened? Did that great Jupiter Capi- 
tolinus of yours give to any human being power 
of this kind? Did he endow with this right any 
| priest of acuria, the Pontifex Maximus, nay, 
even the Dialis, in whose name he is revealed as 
the god of life?s I shall not say, ad he impart 
power to raise the dead, to give light to the blind, 
restore the normal condition of their members 
to the weakened and the paralyzed, but aid he 
even enable any one to check a pustule, a hang- 
nail, a pimple, either by the word of his mouth 
or the touch of his hand? Was this, then, a 
power natural to man, or could such a right be 
granted, could such a licence be given by the 
mouth of one reared on the vulgar produce of 
earth ; and was it not a divine and sacred gift? 
or if the matter admits of any hyperbole, was it 





4 “ They, too, . . . those labouring under the inflictions of these: ” 
so LB., with the warm approval of Orelli (who, however, with pre- 
vious edd., retains the Ms. reading in his text) and others, reading 
sub eorum t-ortantes (for MS. J—) et tll? se casthbus; Heraldus 
having suggested rotantes, This simple and elegant emendation 
makes it unnecessary to notice the harsh and forced readings of earlier 
edd. 

5 So understood by Orelli, who reads guo Dzus est, adopting the 
explanation of Dialis given by Festus. The ms., however, according 
to Crusius, reads, Dialem, quod ejus est, flaminem isto ure dona- 
zt, in which case, from the position of the gzod, the meaning might 
be, ‘‘ which zex#z is his,” or possibly, ‘‘ because he (i.e., the priest) 
is his,” only that in the latter case a pronoun would be expected: the 
commentators generally refer it to the succeeding jure, with this 
“‘ right,” which is his. Canterus reads, guod mazus est, i.e., than the 
Pontifex Maximus. [Compare vol. iv. p. 74, note 7.] 





428 


— a) Pe et. | CS) & eg 
Pe) 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





not more than divine and sacred? For if you 
do that which you are able to do, and what is 
compatible with your strength and your ability, 
there is no ground for the expression of astonish- 
ment; for you will have done that which you 
were able, and which your power was bound to 
accomplish, in order that there should be a per- 
fect correspondence? between the deed and the 
doer. To be able to transfer to a man your own 
power, share with the frailest being the ability to 
perform that which you alone are able to do, is 
a proof of power supreme over all, and holding 
in subjection the causes of all things, and the 
natural laws of methods and of means. 

52. Come, then, let some Magian Zoroaster? 
arrive from a remote part of the globe, crossing 
over the fiery zone, if we believe Hermippus as 
an authority. Let these join him too— that 
Bactrian, whose deeds Ctesias sets forth in the 
first book of his History ; the Armenian, grand- 
son of Hosthanes ;+ and Pamphilus, the intimate 
friend of Cyrus ; Apollonius, Damigero, and Dar- 
danus; Velus, Julianus, and Bebulus; and if 
there be any other one who is supposed to have 
especial powers and reputation in such magic 
arts. Let them grant to one of the people to 
adapt the mouths of the dumb for the purposes 
of speech, to unseal the ears of the deaf, to give 
the natural powers of the eye to those born 
without sight, and to restore feeling and life to 
bodies long cold in death. Or if that is #o diffi- 
cult, and if they cannot impart to others the 
power to do such acts, let themselves perform 
them, and with their own rites. Whatever nox- 
ious herbs the earth brings forth from its bosom, 
whatever powers those muttered words and ac- 
companying spells contain — these let them add, 
we envy them not; ¢hose let them collect, we 
forbid them not. We wish to make trial and to 
discover whether they can effect, with the aid 
of their gods, what has often been accomplished 
by unlearned Christians with a word only. 





I So the Ms. reading e@gualztas, which is retained by Hild. and 
Oehler; all other editions drop e—‘‘ that the quality of deed and 
doer might be one.” 

2 This passage has furnished occasion for much discussion as to 
text and interpretation. In the text Orelli’s punctuation has been 
followed, who regards Arnobius as mentioning four Zoroasters — the 
Assyrian or Chaldean, the Bactrian (cf. c. 5 of this book), the 
Armenian, and finally the Pamphylian, or Pamphilos, who, according 
toClem. Alex. (Strom. [vol. ii. p. 469}), is referred to in Plato’s Repub- 
dic, book x., under the name Er; Meursius and Salmasius, however, 
regarding the whole as one sentence, consider that only three persons 
are so referred to, the first being either Libyan or Bactrian, and the 
others as with Orelli. To seek to determine which view is most 
plausible even, would be a fruitless task, as will be evident on con- 
sidering what is said in the index under Zoroaster. [Jowett’s Plato, 
ii, 121. 

3 So Orelli, reading venztat gu-zs su-per igneam zonam. LB. 
reads for the second and third words, gu@-so per —‘‘let there come, 
I pray you, through,” etc., from the ms. gu@ super, while Heraldus 
would change the last three words into Azonaces, the name of the 
supposed teacher of Zoroaster. By the ‘fiery zone” Salmasius 
would understand Libya; but the legends should be borne in mind 
which spoke of Zoroaster as having shown himself to a wondering 
multitude from a hill blazing with fire, that he might teach them new 
ceremonies of worship, or as being otherwise distinguished in con- 
mection with fire. [Plato, Res., p. 446, Jowett’s trans. ] 

4 So Stewechius, Orelli, and others, for the Ms. Zostriant— 

‘grandson of Zos.rianus,” retained in the rst ed. and LB. 





53- Cease in your ignorance to receive such 
great deeds with abusive language, which will in 
no wise injure him who did them, but which will 
bring danger to yourselves — danger, I say, by 
no means small, but one dealing with matters of 
great,5 aye, even the greatest importance, since 
beyond a doubt the soul is a precious thing, and 
nothing can be found dearer to a man than him- 
self. ‘There was nothing magical, as you sup- 
pose, nothing human, delusive, or crafty in Christ ; 
no deceit lurked in Him,° although you smile in 
derision, as your wont is, and though you split 
with roars of laughter. He was God on high, 
God in His inmost nature, God from unknown 
realms, and was sent by the Ruler of all as a 
Saviour God ; whom neither the sun himself, nor 
any stars, if they have powers of perception, not 
the rulers and princes of the world, nor, in fine, 
the great gods, or those who, feigning themselves 
so, terrify the whole human race, were able to 
know or to guess whence and who He was— and 
naturally so. But? when, freed from the body, 
which He carried about as but a very small part 
of Himself, He allowed Himself to be seen, and 
let it be known how great He was, all the ele- 
ments of the universe bewildered by the strange 
events were thrown into confusion. An earth- 
quake shook the world, the sea was heaved up 
from its depths, the heaven was shrouded in 
darkness, the sun’s fiery blaze was checked, and 
his heat became moderate ;® for what else could 
occur when He was discovered to be God who 
heretofore was reckoned one of us? 

54. But you do not believe these things; yet 
those who witnessed their occurrence, and who 
saw them done before their eyes—the very best 
vouchers and the most trustworthy authorities — 
both believed them themselves, and transmitted 
them to us who follow them, to be believed with 
no scanty measure of confidence. Who are these? 
you perhaps ask. ‘Tribes, peoples, nations, and 
that incredulous human race ; but 9 if the matter 
were not plain, and, as the saying is, clearer than 
day itself, they would never grant their assent 
with so ready belief to events of such a kind. 
But shall we say that the men of that time were 
untrustworthy, false, stupid, and brutish to such 
a degree that they pretended to have seen what 
they never had seen, and that they put forth un- 


5 So the edd., reading 2 rebus eximits for the MS. ex7-gu-7s, 
which would, of course, give an opposite and wholly unsuitable 
meaning. 

6 So generally, Heraldus having restored delétu-2t in Christo 
from the ms., which had omitted -z¢, for the reading of Gelenius, Can- 
terus, and Ursinus, dedzctz — ‘‘ no deceit, no sin was,” etc. 

7 So emended by Salmasius, followed by most later edd. In the 
earlier edd. the reading is et.werito exutus a corpore (Salm. read- 
ing @¢ instead of a, and inserting a period after #zer.) —‘‘ and when 
rightly freed from the body,” etc. 

8 It may be instructive to notice how the simpler narrative of the 
Gospels is amplified. Matthew (xxvii. 51) says that the earth 
trembled, and Luke (xxiii. 45) that the sun was darkened; but they 
gono further. [See p. 301, note 4, sufra.] 

9 Or, “‘ which if . . . itself, would never,” etc. 


[Note the confi- 
dence of this appeal to general assent. ] 


4 
: 
, 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


429 





der false evidence, or alleged with childish assev- 
eration things which never took place, and that 
when they were able to live in harmony and to 
maintain friendly relations with you, they wan- 
tonly incurred hatred, and were held in execra- 
tion? 

55. But if this record of events is false, as you 
say, how comes it that in so short a time the 
whole world has been filled with such a religion? 
or how could nations dwelling widely apart, and 
separated by climate and by the convexities of 
heaven,’ unite in one conclusion? They have 
been prevailed upon, say my opponents, by mere 
assertions, been led into vain hopes ; and in their 
reckless madness have chosen to incur volunta- 
rily the risks of death, although they had hitherto 
seen nothing of such a kind as could by its won- 
derful and strange character induce them to 
adopt this manner of worship. Nay, because 
they saw all these things to be done by Chrzs¢ 
Himself and by His apostles, who being sent 
throughout the whole world carried with them 
the blessings of the Father, which they dispensed 
in benefiting? as well the minds as the bodies of 
men; overcome by the force of the very truth 
itself they both devoted themselves to God, and 
reckoned it as but a small sacrifice to surrender 
their bodies to you and to give their flesh to 
be mangled. 

56. But our writers, we shall be told, have put 
forth these statements with false effrontery ; they 
have extolled’ small matters to an inordinate 
degree, and have magnified trivial affairs with 
most pretentious boastfulness. And+* would that 
all things could have been reduced to writing, — 
both those which were done by Himself, and 
those which were accomplished by His apostles 
with equal authority and power. Such an as- 
semblage of miracles, however, would make you 
more incredulous ; and perhaps you might be 
able to discover a passage from which$ it would 
seem very probable, both that additions were 
made to facts, and that falsehoods were inserted 
in writings and commentaries. But in nations 
which were unknown to the writers, and which 
themselves knew not the use of letters, all that 
was done could not have been embraced in the 


records or even have reached the ears of all | 


men ; or, if any were committed to written and 
connected narrative, some insertions and addi- 
tions would have been made by the malevolence 





1 That is, by the climate and the inclination of the earth’s sur- 
face. 

2 So the rst ed., Ursinus, Elmenhorst, Orelli, and Hildebrand, 
reading munerandis, which is found in the MS, in a later handwrit- 
ing, for the original reading of the Ms. munera dis. 

3 According to Rigaltius the ms. reads zsta promtserunt tn tm- 


immense degree falsely, small matters and trivial affairs have magni- 
fied, etc ; while by ig be hand has been superscribed over 7% zm- 
mensum, in ink of a different colour, extudere —‘‘ have extolled.” 

4 So ‘the MS., 1st ed., and Hildebrand, while all others read 
atgu-t —‘‘ but.” 

5 So LB., reading quo for the MS. guod. 





of the demons and of men like to them, whose 
care and study it is to obstruct® the progress of 
this truth: there would have been some changes 
and mutilations of words and of syllables, at. once 
to mar the faith of the cautious and to impair the: 
moral effect of the deeds. But it will never 
avail them that it be gathered from written tes- 
timony ovZy who and what Christ was; for His 
cause has been put on such a basis, that if what 
we say be admitted to be true, He is by the con- 
fession of all proved to have been God. 

57- You do not believe our writings, and we 
do not believe yours. We devise falsehoods 
concerning Christ, you say, and you put forth 
baseless and false statements concerning your 
gods: for no god has descended from heaven, 
or in his own person and life has sketched out 
your system, or in a similar way thrown discredit 
on our system and our ceremonies. ‘These were 
written by men ; those, too, were written by men 
—set forth in human speech ; and whatever you 
seek to say concerning our writers, remember 
that about yours, too, you will find these things 
said with equal force. What is contained in 
your writings you wish to be treated as true; 
those things, also, which are attested in our 
books, you must of necessity confess to be true. 
You accuse our system of falsehood ; we, too, 
accuse yours of falsehood. But ours is more 
ancient, say you, therefore most credible and 
trustworthy ; as if, indeed, antiquity were not the 
most fertile source of errors, and did not herself 
put forth those things which in discreditable 
fables have attached the utmost infamy to the 
gods. For could not falsehoods have been both 
spoken and believed ten thousand years ago, or 
is it not most probable that that which is near 
to our own time should be more credible than 
that which is separated by a long term of years? 
For these of ours are brought forward on the 
faith of witnesses, those of yours on the ground 
of opinions; and it is much more natural that 
there should be less invention in matters of re- 
cent occurrence, than in those far removed in 
the darkness of antiquity. 

58. But they were written by unlearned and 
ignorant men, and should not therefore be 
readily believed. See that this be not rather a 
stronger reason for believing that they have not 
been adulterated by any false statements, but 
were put forth by men of simple mind, who 
knew not how to trick out their tales with mere- 
tricious ornaments. But the language is mean 
and vulgar. For truth never seeks deceitful 
polish, nor in that which is well ascertained and 


certain does it allow itself to be led away into 
mensum—“‘ have put forth (i.e., exaggerated) these things to an | 


excessive prolixity. Syllogisms, enthymemes, 
definitions, and all those ornaments by which 





6 So most edd., reading zutercip-ere _. 


the MS. ztercipi—“* 
is that the progress be obstructed,” etc. 


430 


AKNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





men seek to establish their statements, aid those 
groping for the truth, but do not clearly mark 
its great features. But he who really knows the 
subject under discussion, neither defines, nor 
deduces, nor seeks the other tricks of words by 
which an audience is wont to be taken in, and 
to be beguiled into a forced assent to a propo- 
sition. 

59. Your narratives, my opponent says, are 
overrun with barbarisms and solecisms, and dis- 
figured by monstrous blunders. A censure, 
truly, which shows a childish and petty spirit ; 
for if we allow that it is reasonable, let us cease 
to use certain kinds of fruit because they grow 
with prickles on them, and other growths useless 
for food, which on the one hand cannot support 
us, and yet do not on the other hinder us from 
enjoying that which specially excels, and which 
nature has designed to be most wholesome for 
us. For how, I pray you, does it interfere with 
or retard the comprehension of a statement, 
whether anything be pronounced smoothly ! cr 
with uncouth roughness? whether that have the 
grave accent which ought to have the acute, or 
that have the acute which ought to have the 
grave? Or how is the truth of a statement 
diminished, if an error is made in number or 
case, in preposition, participle, or conjunction? 
Let that pomposity of style and strictly regulated 
diction be reserved for public assemblies, for 
lawsuits, for the forum and the courts of justice, 
and by all means be handed over to those who, 
striving after the soothing influences of pleasant 
sensations, bestow all their care upon splendour 
of language. ut when we are discussing mat- 
ters far removed from mere display, we should 
consider what is said, not with what charm it is 
said nor how it tickles the ears, but what bene- 
fits it confers on the hearers, especially since we 
know that some even who devoted themselves 
to philosophy, not only disregarded refinement 
of style, but also purposely adopted a vulgar 
meanness when they might have spoken with 
greater elegance and richness, lest forsooth they 
might impair the stern gravity of speech and 
revel rather in the pretentious show of the Soph- 
ists. For indeed it evidences a worthless heart 
to seek enjoyment in matters of importance ; 
and when you have to deal with those who are 
sick and diseased, to pour into their ears dulcet 
sounds, not to apply a remedy to their wounds. 
Yet, if you consider the true state of the case, 
no language is naturally perfect, and in like 
manner none is faulty. For what natural reason 
is there, or what law written in the constitution 
of the world, that parzes should be called hic,’ 
and sella hec?—since neither have they sex 








t So Orelli and Hildebrand, reading g/adrve from a conjecture of 
Grotius, for the MS, grave. 
2 i.e., that the one should be masculine, the other feminine. 





distinguished by male and female, nor can the 
most learned man tell me what Azc and ec are, 
or why one of them denotes the male sex while 
the other is applied to the female. These con- 
ventionalities are man’s, and certainly are not 
indispensable to all persons for the use of form- 
ing their language; for pavies might perhaps 
have been called ec, and sella hic, without any 
fault being found, if it had been agreed upon at 
first that they should be so called, and if this 
practice had been maintained ‘by following gen- 
erations in their daily conversation. And yet, 
O you who charge our writings with disgraceful 
blemishes, have you not these solecisms in those 
most perfect and wonderful books of yours? 
Does not one of you make the plur. of wer, utria ? 
another w¢res ?3_ Do you not also say ce/us and 
celum, filus and filum, crocus and crocum, fretus 
and fretum ? Also hoc pane and hic pants, hic 
sanguis and hoc sanguen? Are not candela- 
brum and jugulum in like manner written yugulus 
and candelaber ? For if each noun cannot have 
more than one gender, and if the same word 
cannot be of this gender and of that, for one 

gender cannot pass into the other, he commits 

as great a blunder who utters masculine genders 

under the laws of feminines, as he who applies 

masculine articles to feminine genders. And 

yet we see you using masculines as feminines, 

and feminines as masculines, and those which 

you call neuter both in this way and in that, 

without any distinction. Either, therefore, it is 

no blunder to employ them indifferently, and 7 

that case it is vain for you to say that our works 

are disfigured with monstrous solecisms ; or if 

the way in which each ought to be employed is 

unalterably fixed, you also are involved in simi- 

lar errors, although you have on your side all the 

Epicadi, Ceesellii, Verrii, Scauri, and Nisi. 

60. But, say my opponents, if Christ was 
God, why did He appear in human shape, and 
why was He cut off by death after the manner 
of men? Could that power which is invisible, 
and which has no bodily substance, have come 
upon earth and adapted itself to the world and 
mixed in human society, otherwise than by tak- 
ing to itself some covering of a more solid 
substance, which might bear the gaze of the 
eyes, and on which the look of the least obser- 
vant might fix itself? For what mortal is there 
who could have seen Him, who could have dis- 
tinguished Him, if He had decreed to come upon 
the earth such as He is in His own primitive 
nature, and such as He has chosen to be in His 
own proper character and divinity? He took 
upon Him, therefore, the form of man; and 
under the guise of our race He imprisoned His 
power, so that He could be seen and carefully 





3 i.e., does not one of you make the plural of «tex masc., another 
neut.? {N ote the opponent’s witness to the text of the Gospels. | 


Vs ek 


ae 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


431 





‘regarded, might speak and teach, and without 


encroaching on the sovereignty and government 
of the King Supreme, might carry out all those. 
objects for the accomplishment of which He 
had come into the world. 

61. What, then, says my opponent, could not 
the Supreme Ruler have brought about those 
things which He had ordained to be done in the 
world, without feigning Himself a man? If it 
were necessary to do as you say, He perhaps 
would have done so; because it was not neces- 
sary, He acted otherwise. The reasons why He 
chose to do it in this way, and did not choose to 
do it in that, are unknown, being involved in so 
great obscurity, and comprehensible by scarcely 
any ; but these you might perhaps have under- 
stood if you were not already prepared not to 
understand, and were not shaping your course 
to brave unbelief, before that was explained to 
you which you sought to know and to hear. 

62. But, you will say, He was cut off by death 
as men are. Not Christ Himself; for it is 
impossible either that death should befall what 
is divine, or that that should waste away and 
disappear in death which is one 7” z#s substance, 
and not compounded, nor formed by bringing 
together any parts. Who, then, you ask, was 
seen hanging on the cross? Who dead? The 
human form," Z reply, which He had put on,? 
and which He bore about with Him. It is a 
tale passing belief, you say, and wrapt in dark 
obscurity ; if you will, it is not dark, and zs 
established by a very close analogy.3 If the 
Sibyl, when she was uttering and pouring forth 
her prophecies and oracular responses, was 
filled, as you say, with Apollo’s power, had been 
cut down and slain by impious robbers,* would 
Apollo be said to have been slain in her? If 
Bacis,5 if Helenus, Marcius,° and other sooth- 
sayers, had been in like manner robbed of life 
and light when raving as inspired, would any 
one say that those who, speaking by their 
mouths, declared to inquirers what should be 
done,’ had perished according to the conditions 
of human life? The death of which you speak 
was that of the human body which He had as- 
sumed,® not His own — of that which was borne, 





I So the ms., followed by Hildebrand and Oehler, reads and punc- 
tuates guzs mortuus ? homo, for which all edd. read mortuus est ? 
“Who died ?” 

2 Here, as in the whole discussion in the second book on the ori- 
gin and nature of the soul, the opinions expressed are Gnostic, Cerin- 
thus saying more precisely that Christ having descended from heaven 
in the form of a dove, dwelt in the body of Jesus during His life, but 
removed from it before the crucifixion. 

3 So the ms. by changing a single letter, with LB. and others, 
stmilitudine proxtm-a (MS. 0) constitutum, while the first ed., 
Gelenius, Canterus, Ursinus, Orelli, and others, read -dint proxime 
— ‘‘settled very closely to analogy.” 

4 In the original /atrvonzbus ; here, as in the next chapter, used 
boacenl to denote lawless men. 

5 So emended by Mercerus for the Ms. vatzs. 

6 So read in the Ms. — not -¢7zs, as in LB. and Orelli. 

7 Lit., “ the ways of things” — vias rerum. 

8 The ms. reads unintelligibly assumpti?-0 homints fuit, which 
was, however, retained in both Roman edd., although Ursinus sug- 
gested the dropping of the 0, which has been done by all later edd. 





not of the bearer ; and not even this death would 
He? have stooped to suffer, were it not that 
a matter of such importance was to be dealt 
with, and the inscrutable plan of fate '? brought 
to light in hidden mysteries, 

63. What are these hidden and unseen mys- 
teries, you will say, which neither men can 
know, nor those even who are called gods of 
the world can in any wise reach by fancy and 
conjecture ; which none can discover," except 
those whom Christ Himself has thought fit to 
bestow the blessing of so great knowledge upon, 
and to lead into the secret recesses of the inner 
treasury of wisdom? Do you then see that if 
He had determined that none should do Him 
violence, He should have striven to the utmost 
to keep off from Him His enemies, even by 
directing His power against them?‘ Could not 
He, chen, who had restored their sight to the 
blind, make As enemzes blind if it were neces- 
sary? Was it hard or troublesome for Him to 
make them weak, who dad given strength to the 
feeble? Did He who bade ?3 the lame walk, not 
know how to take from them all power to move 
their limbs,'4 by making their sinews stiff? 's 
Would it have been difficult for Him who drew 
the dead from their tombs to inflict death on 
whom He would? But because reason required 
that those things which had been resolved on 
should be done here also in the world itself, and 
in no other fashion than was done, He, with 
gentleness passing understanding and belief, re- 
garding as but childish trifles the wrongs which 
men did Him, submitted to the violence of sav- 
age and most hardened robbers ; '© nor did He 
think it worth while to take account of what 
their daring had aimed at, if He only showed to 
His disciples what they were in duty bound to 
look for from Him. For when many things 
about the perils of souls, many evils about their 
. . .3 on the other hand, the Introducer,’7 the 





9 The ms, reads, guam nec ipsam perpett succubutsset vis — 
“would his might,” 1.e., ‘‘ would He with His great power have 
stooped.” Orelli simply omits vzs as Canterus, and seemingly the 
other later edd. do. 

lo The Ms. and rst ed. read sa#z-s, which has clearly arisen from 
JS being confounded with the old form of s. 

11 The construction is a little involved, gue null: nec homines 
sctre nec tpst quit appellantur dit mundt gueunt — “ which none, 
neither men can know, nor those . . . of the world can reach, except 
those whom,” etc. 

12 In the Latin, vel potestate inversa, which according to Oehler 
is the Ms. reading, while Orelli speaks of it as an emendation of LB. 
(where it is certainly found, but without any indication of its source), 
and with most edd. reads zz1'versa — “‘ by His universal power.” 

13 So the Ms. according to Hildebrand, reading pr@czfz-bat. Most 
edd., however, following Gelenius, read factebat—‘‘ made them lame.” 

14 Lit., ‘‘ to bind fast the motions of the members,” adopting the 
reading of most edd., motus alligare membrorum (MS, c-al-igare) 

Is The ms. reads nervorum duritia-nt, fer which Ursinus, with 
most edd., reads as above, merely dropping  ,; Hildebrand and 
Oehler insert zz, and read, from a conjecture of Ursinus adopted by 
Elmenhorst, c-ol-/igare — “‘ to bind into stiffness.” 

16 Ursinus suggested dz-, “ most terrible,” for the Ms. durizssimts. 

17 So the Ms. reading, #zulta mala de illarum contra tnsinua- 
tor (mala is perhaps in the abl., agreeing with a lost word), which 
has been regarded by Heraldus and Stewechius, followed by Orelli, 
as mutilated, and is so read in the first ed., and by Ursinus and LB. 
The passage is in all cases left obscure and doubtful, and we may 
therefore be excused discussing ®s meaning here, 


432 


Master and Teacher directed His laws and ordi- 
nances, that they might find their end in fitting 
duties ;' did He not destroy the arrogance of 
the proud? Did He not quench the fires of 
lust? Did He not check the craving of greed? 
Did He not wrest the weapons from their hands, 
and rend from them all the sources? of every: 
Jorm of corruption? To conclude, was He not 
Himself gentle, peaceful, easily approached, 
friendly when addressed?3 Did He not, griev- 
ing at men’s miseries, pitying with His unexam- 
pled benevolence all in any wise afflicted with 
troubles and bodily ills,t bring them back and 
restore them to soundness ? 

64. What, then, constrains you, what excites 
you to revile, to rail at, to hate implacably Him 
whom no man5 can accuse of any crime? ® 
Tyrants and your kings, who, putting away a@// 
fear of the gods, plunder and pillage the treas- 
uries of temples ; who by proscription, banish- 
ment,’ and slaughter, strip the state of its nobles? 
who, with licentious violence, undermine and 
wrest away the chastity of matrons and maidens, 
— these men you name indigites and divi; and 
you worship with couches, altars, temples, and 
other service, and by celebrating their games 
and birthdays, those whom it was fitting that 
you should assail with keenest ® hatred. And all 
those, too, who by writing books assail in many 
forms with biting reproaches public manners ; 
who censure, brand, and tear in pieces your lux- 
urious habits and lives ; who carry down to pos- 
terity evil reports of their own times 9 in their 
enduring writings; who seek /o persuade men 
that the rights of marriage should be held in 
common ;*° who lie with boys, beautiful, lustful, 
naked ; who declare that you are beasts, runa- 
ways, exiles, and mad and frantic slaves of the 
most worthless character, — al/ these with won- 
der and applause you exalt to the stars of heaven, 
you place in the shrines of your libraries, you 
present with chariots and statues, and as much 
as in you lies, gift with a kind of immortality, 





I Lit., “‘ to the ends of fitting duties.’’ 

2 In the original, sesinaria abscrdit, — the former word used of 
nurseries for plants, while the latter may be either as above (from 
abscindo), or may mean “ cut off” (from adsezdo); but in both cases 
the general meaning is the same, and the metaphor is in either slight- 
ly confused. 

3 Lit., ‘‘ familiar to be accosted,” — the supine, as in the preced- 
ing clause. 

4 So the edd., reading corforalibus affectos malis, but the Ms. 
inserts after sza/zs the word morézs (‘ with evil bodily diseases”) ; 
but according to Hildebrand this word is marked as spurious. 

5 So the edd., reading emo h-om-t-n-um, except Hildebrand 
and Oehler, who retain the MSs. om-n-2-1422 — “‘ no one of all.” 

© John viii. 46: ‘ Which of you convinceth me of sin?” 

7 So Heraldus and LB., followed by later edd., reading exz/z7's for 
the ms. e2x-x7s, for which Gelenius, 
suzs —“‘ and by their slaughters.” 

8 Here, as frequently in Arnobius, the comparative is used instead 
of the superlative. 

9 “To posterity evil reports of their own time” — saz temporis 
PY notas —so emended by Ursinus, followed by Orelli and 

ildebrand, for the Ms. 2% temporzs postert-s, retained by LB., and 
with the omission of s in the rst ed.; but this requires our looking on 
the passage as defective. 

10 The reference is clearly to the well-known passage in Plato’s 
Republic. [See the sickening details, book v. p, 282, Jowett’s trans. ] 


anterus, and Ursinus read et 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





a 
bear to them. Christ alone you would tear in 
pieces,’ you would rend asunder, if you could 
do so toa god; nay, Him alone you would, were 
it allowed, gnaw with bloody mouths, and break 
His bones in pieces, and devour Him like beasts 
of the field. For what that He has done, tell, 
I pray you, for what crime? ‘? What has He done 
to turn aside the course of justice, and rouse you 
to hatred made fierce by maddening torments? 
Is i¢ because He declared that He was sent by 
the only “we King 4 de your soul’s guardian, 
and to bring to you the immortality which you 
believe that you a/veady possess, relying on the 
assertions of a few men? But even if you were 
assured that He spoke falsely, that He even held 
out hopes without the slightest foundation, not 
even in this case do I see amy reason that you 
should hate aza@ condemn Him with bitter re- 
proaches. Nay, if you were kind and gentle in 
spirit, you ought to esteem Him even for this 
alone, that He promised to you things which you 
might well wish and hope for; that He was the 
bearer of good news ; that His message was such 
as to trouble no one’s mind, nay, rather to fill 
all with less anxious expectation."3 

65. Oh ungrateful and impious age, prepared "4 
for its own destruction by its extraordinary obsti- 
nacy! If there had come to you a physician 
from lands far distant and unknown to you before, 
offering some medicine to keep off from you 
altogether every kind of disease and sickness, 
would you not all eagerly hasten to Azm? Would 
you not with every kind of flattery and honour 
receive him into your houses, and treat him 
kindly? Would you not wish that that kind 
of medicine should be quite swve, ad should be 
genuine, which promised that even to the utmost 
limits of life you should be free from such count- 
less bodily distresses? And though it were a 
doubtful matter, you would yet entrust yourselves 
to him, nor would you hesitate to drink the 
unknown draught, incited by the hope of health 
set before you and by the love of safety.‘5 Christ 
shone out and appeared to tell us news of the 
utmost importance, bringing an omen of pros- 
perity, and a message of safety to those who 


s it were, by the witness which immortal titles 








11 So Gelenius, LB., and Orelli, reading con-v-ell-e-re for the Ms. 
con-p-ell-a-re, ‘‘ to accost”’ or ‘‘ abuse,” which is out of place here, 
Canterus suggested com-p-zl-are, “‘ to plunder,” which also occurs in 
the sense “‘ to cudgel.” 

12 Supply, ‘“‘do you pursue Him so fiercely ?”” 

13 These words are followed in the edition of Gelenius by ch. 2-5 
of the second book, seemingly without any mark to denote transposi- 
tion; while Ursinus inserted the same chapters — beginning, how- 
ever, with the last sentence of the first chapter (read as mentioned in 
the note on it) — but prefixed an asterisk, to mark a departure from 
the order of the ms. The later editors have not adopted either 
change. 

14 So Ursinus suggested in the margin, followed by LB. and Orelli, 
reading 71 privatam perniciem p-a-r-atum for the MS. p-r-20-alum, 
which is clearly derived from the preceding Jrzvatam, but is, though 
unintelligible also, retained in the two Roman edd. The conclusion 
of the sentence is, literally, “‘ obstinacy of spirit.” 

Is In the original, spe salutis propostta atgue amore tncolumt- 
tatis. 








. 





believe. What, I pray you, means’ this cruelty, 
what such barbarity, nay rather, to speak more 
truly, scornful? pride, not only to harass the 
messenger and bearer of so great a gift with 
taunting words ; but even to assail Him with fierce 
hostility, and with all the weapons which can be 
showered upon Him, and wth all modes of de- 
struction? Are His words displeasing, and are 
you offended when you hear them? Count them 
as but a soothsayer’s empty tales. Does He 
speak very stupidly, and promise foolish gifts? 
Laugh with scorn as wise men, and leave Him 
in His folly’ to be tossed about among His errors. 
What means this fierceness, to repeat what has 
been said more than once; what a passion, so, 
murderous? to declare implacable hostility to- 
wards one who has done nothing to deserve it at 
your hands ; to wish, if it were allowed you, to 
tear Him limb from limb, who not only did no 
man any harm, but with uniform kindness ¢ told 





T Lit., “is” — est. 

2 So all the edd., reading fastidz-os-um supercilium, which 
Crusius says the Ms. reads with os omitted, 1.e., ‘‘ pride, scorn,” 

3 So the edd., reading fatuzta-tem, for the ms. fatucta-n-tem, 
which may, however, point to a verb not found elsewhere. 

4 i.e., to friends and foes alike. The Ms. reads egualiter benig- 


. ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





433 


His enemies what salvation was being brought 
to them from God Supreme, what must be done 
that they might escape destruction and obtain 
an immortality which they knew not of? . And 
when the strange and unheard-of things which 
were held out staggered the minds of those who 
heard Him, and made them hesitate to believe, 
though master of every power and destroyer of 
death itself He suffered His human form to be 
slain, that from the result 5 they might know that 
the hopes were safe which they had long enter- 
tained about the soul’s salvation, and that in no 
other way could they avoid the danger of 
death. 





nus hostibus dicere, which is retained by Orelli, SEDpOSES an ellipsis 
of fuerit, t.e., ‘ He was kind to say,” which might be received; but 
it is more natural to suppose that -¢ has dropped off, and read dzceret 
as above, with the two Roman editions and LB. Gelenius, followed 
by Ursinus, emended omnzbus docuerit —‘‘ with uniform kindness 
taught to all.” It may be well to give here an instance of the very 
insufficient grounds on which supposed references to Scripture are 
sometimes based. Orelli considers that Arnobius here refers (vide- 
tur respexisse, he says) to Col. i. 21, 22, ‘‘ You, that were some- 
times alienated and enemies in mind by wicked works, yet now hath 
He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death,” to which, 
though the words which follow might indeed be thought to have a 





very distant resemblance, they can in no way be shown to refer. 
5 i.e., from His resurrection, which showed that death’s power 
was broken by Him. 





BOOK II: 


1. Here, if any means could be found, I power as king, fill the whole world with bands 


should wish to converse thus with all those who 
hate the name of Christ, turning aside for a lit- 
tle from the defence primarily set up: —If you 


think it no dishonour to answer when asked a. 


question, explaiti to us and say what is the cause, 
what the reason, that you pursue Christ with so 
bitter hostility ? or what offences you remember 
which He did, that at the mention of His name 
you are roused to bursts of mad and savage 
fury ?? 


1 There has been much confusion in dealing with the first seven 
chapters of this book, owing to the leaves of the ms. having been ar- 
ranged in wrong order, as was pointed out at an early period by some 
one who noted on the margin that there was some ¢ransfosition. To 


this circumstance, howeve):, Oehler alone seems to have called atten- | 


tion; but the corruption was so manifest, that the various editors gave 
themselves full liberty to re-arrange and dispose the text more cor- 
rectly. The first leaf-of the Ms. concludes with the words szxe udlzus 


Did He ever, in claiming for Himself, 


persone discriminibus inrogavit, ‘ without any distinction of per- | 
son,” and is followed by one which begins with the words (A, end of | 


c. 5) ef non omntum virtutum, “and (not) by an eager longing,” 
and ends tanta expertatur examina, “ undergoes such countless 
ills’”” (middle of c. 7). The third and fourth leaves begin with the 
words (B, end of c.1) utrusm tn cunctos. . .amovertt? quit st 
dignos, ‘‘ Now if He was not worthy ” (see notes), and run on to end 
of c. 5, guadam dulcedine, ‘‘ by some charm;”’ while the fifth (C, 
middle of c. 7) begins atgue ne (or utrummne) zilum, ‘ whether the 
earth,” and there is no further difficulty. This order is retained in 
the first ed., and also by Hildebrand, who supposes three lacunz at 


A, B, and Ci to account for the abruptness and want of connection; | 


but it is at once seen that, on changing the order of the leaves, so 


that they shall run B A C, the argument and sense are perfectly re- | 


stored. This arrangement seems to have been first adopted in LB., 
and is followed by the later editors, with the exception of Hildebrand. 
2 Lit., ‘‘ boil up with the ardours of furious spirits.” 


of the fiercest soldiers ; and of nations at peace 
from the beginning, did He destroy and put an 
end to some, avd compel others to submit to His 
yoke and serve Him? Did He ever, excited by 
grasping 3 avarice, claim as His own by right all 
that wealth to have abundance of which men 
strive eagerly? Did He ever, transported with 
lustful passions, break down by force the barriers 
of purity, or stealthily lie in wait for other men’s 
wives? Did He ever, puffed up with haughty 
| arrogance, inflict at random injuries and insults, 
without any distinction of persons? (B) And 
if He was not worthy that you should listen to 
and believe Aim, yet He should not have been 
| despised by you even on this account, that He 
showed to you things concerning your salvation, 
that He prepared for you a path ‘ to heaven, and 
the immortality for which you long; although $5 








3 Lit., “by the heats of.” eee 4 a 

4 So Meursius, reading @- for the Ms. o-staret, which is retained 
by LB., Orelli, and others. The ms. reading is explained, along with 
the next words vota zmmortalitatzs, by Orelli as meaning ‘ sought 
by His prayers,” with reference to John xvii. 24, in which he is clearly 
mistaken. NHeraldus conjectures f-0-7-ta-s a-p-er-taret, ‘‘ opened 
paths. . . and the gates of immortality.” 

5 The words which follow, #¢ zon 7% cunctos, etc., have been thus 
transposed by Heraldus, followed by later editors; but formerly they 
preceded the rest of the sentence, and, according to Oehler, the ms. 
gives «¢xu, thus: ‘‘ (You ask) whether He has both extended to all 
. .. ignorance? who, if He was not,” etc. Cf. book i, (this page) 
note 3, supra, 


ol ene 


434 ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





He neither extended the light of life to all, nor 
delivered a// from the danger which threatens 
them through their ignorance.' 

2. But indeed, some one will say, He deserved 
our hatred because He has driven religion? from 
the world, because He has kept men back from 
seeking to honour the gods.3 Is He then de- 


nounced as the destroyer of religion and pro- 


moter of impiety, who brought true religion into 
the world, who opened the gates of piety to men 
blind and verily living in impiety, and pointed 
out to whom they should bow themselves? Or 
is there any truer religion — ome more service- 
able,* powerful, avd right — than to have learned 
to know the supreme God, to know how to pray 
to God Supreme, who alone is the source and 
fountain of all good, the creator,5 founder, and 
framer of all that endures, by whom all things 
on earth and all in heaven are quickened, and 
filled with the stir of life, and without whom 
there would assuredly be nothing to bear any 
name, and have amy substance? But perhaps 
you doubt whether there is that ruler of whom 
we speak, and rather zucine zo believe in the 
existence of Apollo, Diana, Mercury, Mars. 
Give a true judgment ;°® and, looking round on 
all these things which we see, azy one will rather 
doubt whether @// the other gods exist, than hes- 
itate with regard to the God whom we all know 
by nature, whether when we cry out, O God, 
or when we make God the witness of wicked 
deeds,7 and raise our face to heaven as though 
He saw us. 

3. But He did not permit men to make sup- 
plication to the lesser gods. Do you, then, 
know who are, or where are the lesser gods? Has 





1 So the Ms., reading periculum 7-g-n-ora-tionts, for which 
Meursius suggests 2-2-terz-tionzs — ‘‘ danger of destruction.” 
2 Pl. 


3 This seems the true rationale of the sentence, viewed in rela- 
tion to the context. Immediately before, Arnobius suggests that the 
hatred of Christ by the heathen is unjustifiable, because they had 
suffered nothing at His hands; now an opponent is supposed to Tejoin, 
“But He has deserved our hatred by assailing our religion.” The 
introductory particles af exzm fully bear this out, from their being 
regularly used to introduce a rejoinder. Still, by Orelli and other 
editors the sentence is regarded as interrogative, and in that case 
would be, ‘‘ Has He indeed merited our hatred by driving out,” etc., 
which, however, not merely breaks away from what precedes, but also 
makes the next sentence somewhat lame, ‘The older editors, too, 
read it without any mark of interrogation. 

4 i.e., according to Orelli, to the wants of men; but possibly it 
may here have the subjunctive meaning of ‘‘ more "full of service,” 
ive., to God. 

35 So the s. , reading perpetuarum pater, Sundator conditor 
rerum, but all the editions fa-ri-ter, “‘ alike,” which has helped to 
lead Orelli astray. He suggests et fons est perpetu us pariter, etc., 

“* perpetual fountain, . . . of all things alike the founder and framer.” 
It has been also proposed by Oehler (to get rid of the difficulty felt 
here) to transfer per metathestn, the idea of “ enduring,” to God; 
but the reference is surely quite clear, viewed as a distinction between 
the results of God’s working and that of all other beings. 

6 So the Ms. and almost all edd., reading da verum judictum, for 
which Heraldus suggested da Her or verum anime Judictum, 

‘ give the judgment of nature,” “the true judgment of the soul,” 
as if appeal were made to the inner sense; but in his later observa- 
tions he proposed da puerum judicem, “ give a boy as judge,” 
which is adopted by Orelli. | Meursius, merely transposing d-a, reads 
much more naturally ad — “‘ a¢a true judgment.” 

7 The ms. reading is ee testem d-e-um constttutmus tmipro- 
Sarum, retained in the edd. with the change of -arum into -orum 
Perhaps for deum should be read 7-e-7-wm, *‘ make him witness of 
wicked things.” With this passage compare iii. 31-33. 








mistrust of them, or the way in which they were 
mentioned, ever touched you, so that you are 
justly indignant that their worship has been done 
away with and deprived of all honour?® But if 
haughtiness of mind and arrogance,? as it is 
called by the Greeks, did not stand in your way 
and hinder you, you might long ago have been 
able to understand what He forbade to be done, 
or wherefore ; within what limits He would have 
true religion lie ;'° what danger arose to you from 
that which you thought obedience? or from what 
evils you would escape if you broke away from 
your dangerous delusion. 

4. But all these things will be more clearly and 
distinctly noticed when we have proceeded fur- 
ther. For we shall show that Christ did not 
teach the nations impiety, but delivered ignorant 
and wretched men from those who most wickedly 
wronged them.'' We do not believe, you say, 
that what He says is true. What, then? Have 
you no doubt as to the things which * you say are 
not true, while, as they are ody at hand, and not 
yet disclosed,'3 they can by no means be dis- 
proved? But He, too, does not prove what He 
promises. It is so; for, as I said, there can be 
no proof of ¢hzngs still in the future. Since, then, 
the nature of the future is such that it cannot be 
grasped and comprehended by any anticipation,'+ 
is it not more rational,‘5 or two things uncertain 
and hanging in doubtful suspense, rather to be- 
lieve that which carries wz¢h zt some hopes, than 
that which é77mgs none at all? For in the one 
case there is no danger, if that which is said to 
be at hand should prove vain and groundless ; 
in the other there is the greatest loss, even '® the 
loss of salvation, if, when the time has come, it 
be shown that there was nothing false 2” what 
was declared.'7 

5. What say you, O ignorant ones, for whom 
we might well weep and be sad?'® Are you so 
void of fear that these things may be true which 
are despised by you and turned to ridicule? and 
do you not consider with yourselves at least, in 
your secret thoughts, lest that which to-day with 
perverse obstinacy you refuse to believe, time 





8 It seems necessary for the sake of the argument to read this 
interrogatively, but in all the edd. the sentence ends without any 
mark of interrogation, 


phus — tud¢os. 
10 Lit., “‘ He chose . . . to stand.” 
1 Lit., “‘the ignorance of wretched men from the worst robbers,” 


, the false prophets and teachers, who made a prey of the ignorant 
and credulous. John vii. 46. 
2 Lit., “Are the things clear with you which,” etc, 

13 So the s. , followed by both Roman edd., Hildebrand and Oeh- 
ler, reading passa, which Cujacius (referring it to patior, as the edit- 
ors seem to have done generally) would explain as meaning “‘ past,” 
while in all other editions cassa, ‘‘ vain,” is read. 


14 Lit., “ ‘ the touching of no anticipation.’ 
15 Lit., “ purer reasoning.’ 
16 Lit., ‘that is” This clause Meursius rejects as a gloss. 


Rey, "If you believe Christ’s promises, your belief makes you lose 
nothing APE dit prove groundless; but if you disbelieve them, then 
the consequences to you will be terrible if they are sure. This would 
seem too clear to need remark, were it not for the confusion of Orelli 
in particular as to the meaning of the passage. 

Id Lit., ‘‘ most worthy even of weeping and pity.” 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





435 





may too late show to be true,: and ceaseless re- 
morse punish you? Do not even these proofs at 
least give you faith to believe,” vzz., that already, 
in so short and brief a time, the oaths of this vast 
army have spread abroad over all the earth? that 
already there is no nation so rude and fierce that 
it has not, changed by His love, subdued its 
fierceness, and with tranquillity hitherto unknown, 
become mild in disposition ?3 that men endowed 
with so great abilities, orators, critics, rhetoricians, 
lawyers, and physicians, those, too, who pry into 
the mysteries of philosophy, seek to learn these 
things, despising those in which but now they 
trusted ? that slaves choose to be tortured by their 
masters as they please, wives to be divorced, chil- 
dren to be disinherited by their parents, rather 
than be unfaithful to Christ and cast off the oaths 
of the warfare of salvation? that although so ter- 
rible punishments have been denounced by you 
against those who follow the precepts of this re- 
ligion, it4 increases even more, and a great host 
strives more boldly against all threats and the ter- 
rors which would keep it back, and is roused to 
zealous faith by the very attempt to hinder it? 
Do you indeed believe that these things happen 
idly and at random? that these feelings are adopt- 
ed on being met with by chance?5 Is not this, 
then, sacred and divine? Ordo you beheve that, 
without God’s grace, their minds are so changed, 
that although murderous hooks and other tor- 
tures without number threaten, as we said, those 
who shall believe, they receive the grounds of 
faith with which they have become acquainted,° 
as if carried away (A) by some charm, and by an 
eager longing for all the virtues,7 and prefer the 
friendship of Christ to all that is in the world ?® 

6. But perhaps those seem to you weak- 
minded and silly, who even now are uniting all 
over the world, and joining together to assent 





1 Redarguat. This sense is not recognised by Riddle and White, 
and would thereiore seem to be, if not unique, at least extremely rare. 
The derivative redargutzo, however, is in late Latin used for *‘ dem- 
onstration,” and this is evidently the meaning here. 

2 Fidem vobts factuntargumenta credendt. UHeraldus, joining 
the two last words, naturally regards them as a gloss from the margin; 
but read as above, joining the first and last, there is nothing out of 

lace. 
R 3 Lit., “ tranquillity being assumed, passed to placid feelings.” 

+ Res, “the thing.” 

5 Lit., ‘on chance encounters.” 

© Rationes cognitas. There is some difficulty as to the meaning 
of these words, but it seems best to refer them to the avgusmenta cre- 
d@endz (beginning of chapter, “‘ do not even these proofs ”’), and render 
as above. Hildebrand, however, reads tortzones, ‘‘ they accept the 
tortures which they know will befall them.” 

7 The MS. reads et non omnium, ‘and by a love vot of all the 
virtues,” changed in most edd. as above into atgue omnzum, while 
Oehler proposes et novo omnzum, ‘‘ and by fresh love of all,” etc. 
It will be remembered that the transposition of leaves in the ms. 
(note on ii. t)occurs here, and this seems to account for the arbitrary 
reading of Gelenius, which has no ms. authority whatever, but was 
added by himself when transposing these chapters to the first book (cf. 
Pp. 432, n. 14), atgue nectare ebrit cuncta contemnant —“ As if in- 
toxicated with a certain sweetness and nectar, they despise all things.” 
The same circumstance has made the restoration of the passage by 


Canterus a connecting of fragments of widely separated sentences and | 


arguments. 

8 Lit., “all the things of the world.” Here the argument breaks 
off, and passes into a new phase, but Orelli includes the next sentence 
also in de fifth chapter, 





with that readiness of belief at which you mock. 
What then? Do you alone, imbued '° with the 
true power of wisdom and understanding, see 
something wholly different ‘' and profound? Do 
you alone perceive that all these things are 
trifles? you alone, that those things are mere 
words .and childish absurdities which we declare 
are about to come to us from the supreme 
Ruler? Whence, pray, has so much wisdom 
been given to you? whence so much subtlety 
and wit? Or from what scientific training have 
you been able to gain so much wisdom, to derive 
so much foresight? Because you are skilled in 
declining verbs and nouns by cases and tenses, 
and in avoiding barbarous words and expres- 
sions ; because you have learned either to express 
yourselves in ‘3 harmonious, and orderly, and fitly- 
disposed language, or to know when it is rude 
and unpolished ; ‘4 because you have stamped on 
your memory the Fornix of Lucilius,‘5 and Mar- 
syas of Pomponius ; because you know what the 
issues to be proposed in lawsuits are, how many 
kinds of cases there are, how many ways of 
pleading, what the genus is, what the species, 
by what methods an opposite is distinguished 
from a contrary,—do you therefore think that 
you know what is false, what true, what can or 
cannot be done, what is the nature of the lowest 
and highest? Have the well-known words never 
rung in? your ears, that the wisdom of man is 
foolishness with God? 

7. In the first place, you yourselves, too,'7 see 
clearly that, if you ever discuss obscure subjects, 
and seek to lay bare the mysteries of nature, on 
the one hand you do not know the very things 





9 Lit., “‘ to the assent of that credulity.” 

10 So the MS., reading conditz vt mera, for which Orelli would 
read with Oudendorp, covdzte —‘‘ by the pure force of recondite 
wisdom.” The ms., however, is supported by the similar phrase in 
the beginning of chap. 8, where ¢zzc¢z is used. 

Il So the ms., reading e/zzd, for which Stewechius, adopting a 
suggestion of Canterus, conjectures, altzus et profundius —“* some- 
thing deeper and more profound.” Others propose readings further 
removed from the text; while Obbarius, retaining the MS. reading, 
explains it as “‘ not common.” 

12 Lit., “ because you are,” etc. 

13 Lit., “either yourselves to utter,” etc. 

14 Incomptus, for which Heraldus would read zuconditus, as m 
opposition to ‘‘ harmonious.” This is, however, unnecessary, as the 
clause is evidently opposed to the zwo/e of the preceding one. 

15 No trace of either of these works has come down to us, and 
therefore, though there has been abundance of conjecture, we can 
reach no satisfactory conclusion about them. It seems most natural 
to suppose the former to be probably part of the lost satires of Lucili- 
us, which had dealt with obscene matters, and the author of the latter 
to be the Atellane poet of Bononia. As to this there has been some 
discussion; but, in our utter ignorance of the work itself, it is as well 
to allow that we must remain ignorant of its author also. The scope 
of both works is suggested clearly enough by their titles —the statue 
of Marsyas in the forum overlooking nightly licentious orgies; and 
their mention seems intended to suggest a covert argument against 
the heathen, in the implied indecency of the knowledge on which they 
prided themselves. For Mornicem Lucilianum (Ms. Luctalinum) 
Meursius reads Cecilianum. 

16 Lit., ‘‘ Has that ¢4zwg published never struck,” etc. There is 
clearly a reference to x Cor. iil. 19, “ the wisdom of this world.” The 
argument breaks off here, and is taken up from a different point in the 
next sentence, which is included, however, in this chapter by Orelli. 

17 So Gelenius, followed by Canterus and Orelli, reading przmnum 
et ipst, by rejecting one word of the Ms. (e¢ gue). Canterus plausi- 
bly combines both words into ztagwe — ‘‘therefore’’ LB. reads 


, ecgutd — “do you at all,” etc., with which Orelli so far agrees, that 


he makes the whole sentence interrogative. 


el? ees 2 a ii ba 


a 
% 


435 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





which you speak of, which you affirm, which 
you uphold very often with especial zeal, and 
that each one defends with obstinate resistance 
his own suppositions as though they were proved 
and ascertained “uths. For how can we of 
ourselves know whether we‘ perceive the truth, 
even if all ages be employed in seeking out 
knowledge — we whom some envious power? 
brought forth, and formed so ignorant and 
proud, that, although we know nothing at all, we 
yet deceive ourselves, and are uplifted by pride 
and arrogance so as to suppose ourselves pos- 
sessed of knowledge? For, to pass by divine 
things, and those plunged in natural obscurity, 
can any man explain that which in the Pheedrus3 
the well-known Socrates cannot comprehend — 
what man is, or whence he is, uncertain, change- 
able, deceitful, manifold, of many kinds? for 
what purposes he was produced? by whose in- 
genuity he was devised? what he does in the 
world? (C) why he undergoes such countless 
ills? whether the earth gave life to him as to 
worms and mice, being affected with decay 
through the action of some moisture; or 
whether he received’ these outlines of body, 
and ¢his cast of face, from the hand of some 
maker and framer? Can he, I say, know these 
things, which lie open to all, and are recognisa- 
ble by® the senses common # ad/,— by what 
causes we are plunged into sleep, by what we 
awake? in what ways dreams are produced, in 
what they are seen? nay rather —as to which 
Plato in the Zheezetus7 is in doubt — whether 


we are ever awake, or whether that very state} 


which is called waking is part of an unbroken 
slumber? and what we seem to do when we say 
that we see a dream? whether we see by means 
of rays of light proceeding towards the object,® 
or images of the objects fly to and alight on the 
pupils of our eyes? whether the flavour is in 
the things /aséed, or arises from their touching 





I So restored by Stewechius; in the first ed. Jersfrcvam (instead 
of am-us) ‘if I perceive the truth,” etc. 

2 So the ms. very intelligibly and forcibly, ves . . . zxvzda, but 
the common reading is zxvzd-7-a —‘‘ whom something .. . with 
envy.” The train of thought which is merely started here is pursued 
at some length a little later. 

'3 The ms. gives fedro, but all editions, except the first, Hilde- 
brand, and Oehler, read Phedone, referring, however, to a passage 
in the first Alcibiades (st. p. 129), which is manifestly absurd, as in 
it, while Alcibiades ‘‘ cannot tell what man is,” Socrates at once pro- 
ceeds to lead him to the required knowledge by the usual dialectic. 
Nourry thinks that there is a general reference to Phedr., st. p. 230, 
—a passage in which Socrates says that he disregards mythological 
questions that he may study himself. [P. 447, note 2, 7zfra. 

4 Lit., “‘ changed with the rottenness of some moisture.” The 
reference is probably to the statement by Socrates (Phedo, st. p. 
96) of the questions with regard to the origin of life, its progress and 
development, which interested him as a young man. 

5 So the ms., LB., and Oehler, but the other edd. make the verb 
plural, and thus break the connection. 

6 Lit., ‘‘ established in the common senses.” 

7 Arnobius overstates the fact here. In the passage referred to 
(Th., st. p. 158), Socrates is represented as developing the Protago- 
rean theory from its author's standpoint, not as stating his own 
opinions. 

8 Lit., “by the stretching out of rays and of light.” This, the 
doctrine of the Stoics, is naturally contrasted in the next clause with 
that of Epicurus. 


the palate? from what causes hairs lay aside 
their natural darkness, and do not become gray 
all at once, but by adding little by little? why 
it is that all fluids, on mingling, form one whole ; 
that oil, on the contrary, does not suffer the 
others to be poured into it,? but is ever brought 
together clearly into its own impenetrable '° sub- 
stance? finally, why the soul also, which is said 
by you to be immortal and divine," is sick in 
men who are sick, senseless in children, worn 
out in doting, silly,'? and crazy old age? Now 
the weakness and wretched ignorance of these 
theories is greater on this account, that while it 
may happen that we at times say something | 
which is true,‘3 we cannot be sure even of this 
very thing, whether we have spoken the truth at 
all. 

8. And since you have been wont to laugh at 
our faith, and with droll jests to pull to pieces 
our readiness of belief too, say, O wits, soaked 
and filled with wisdom’s pure draught, is there 
in life any kind of business demanding diligence 
and activity, which the doers '* undertake, engage 
in, and essay, without believing ¢hat zt can be 
done? Do you travel about, do you sail on the 
sea without believing that you will return home 
when your business is done? Do you break up 
the earth with the plough, and fill it with differ- 
ent kinds of seeds without believing that you 
will gather in the fruit with the changes of the 
seasons? Do you unite with partners in mar- 
riage,'5 without believing that it will be pure, and 
a union serviceable to the husband? Do you 
beget children without believing that they will 
pass '° safely through the different stages of life 
to the goal of age? Do you commit your sick 
bodies to the hands of physicians, without. be- 
lieving that diseases can be relieved by their 
severity being lessened? Do you wage wars 
with your enemies, without believing that you 
will carry off the victory by success in battles ? ‘7 
Do you worship and serve the gods without 
believing that they are, and that they listen 
graciously to your prayers? + 

g. What, have you seen with your eyes, and 
handled '® with your hands, those things which 
you write yourselves, which you read from time 





9 Lit., “oil refuses to suffer immersion into itself,” i.e., of other 
fluids. 

10 So LB., followed by Orelli, reading zpenetrabil-em for the 
MS. zvtpenetrabit-is, which is corrected in both Roman edd, by Ge- 
lenius, Canterus, and Elmenhorst -e, to agree with the subject o/eum 
—‘‘ being impenetrable is ever,” etc, 

II Lit., ‘a god.” 

12 So the edd., generally reading fatwa for the ms. futura, which 
is clearly corrupt. Hildebrand turns the three adjectives into corre- 
sponding verbs, and Heinsius emends de/zvet (MS. -ra) et fatue et 


insane —‘‘ dotes both sillily and crazily.” Arnobius here follows 
Lucr., iii. 445 sqq. 
13 Lit., ‘‘ something of truth,” 


14 The ms. has a ¢-¢or-o-s, corrected by a later writer a-c-tor-e-s, 
which is received in LB. and by Meursius and Orelli. 

1s Lit., “ unite marriage partnerships.” 

16 Lit., ‘be safe and come.” 





17 Or, “‘ in successive battles” —praliorum successtontbus. 
13 Lit., “ with lar i ti d held hed.” 
it., ‘‘ with ocular inspection, and held touched. 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





- to time on subjects placed beyond human knowl- 


edge? Does not each one trust this author or 
that? That which any one has persuaded him- 
self is said with truth by another, does he not 
defend with a kind of assent, as it were, Ze that 
of faith? Does not he who says that fire‘ or 
water is the origin of all things, pin his faith to 
Thales or Heraclitus? he who places the cause 
of ail in numbers, to Pythagoras of Samos, and 
to Archytas? he who divides the soul, and sets 
up bodiless forms, to Plato, the disciple of Soc- 
rates? he who adds a fifth element? to the 
primary causes, to Aristotle, the father of the 
Peripatetics? he who threatens the world with 
destruction by fire, and says that when the time 
comes it will be se¢ on fire, to Panzetius, Chry- 
sippus, Zeno? he who is always fashioning worlds 
from atoms,3 and destroying ¢hem, to Epicurus, 
Democritus, Metrodorus? he who says that noth- 
ing is comprehended by man, and that all things 
are wrapt in dark obscurity,+ to Archesilas,5 to 
Carneades ? — to some teacher, in fine, of the 
old and later Academy ? 

10. Finally, do not even the leaders and 
founders of the schools ° already mentioned, say 
those very things? which they do say through 
belief in their own ideas? For, did Heraclitus 
see things produced by the changes of fires? 
Thales, by the condensing of water?® Did 
Pythagoras see ¢hem spring from number?? Did 
Plato see the bodiless forms? Democritus, the 
meeting together of the atoms? Or do those 
who assert that nothing at all can be compre- 
hended by man, know whether what they say 
is true, so as to '° understand that the very prop- 





1 “Wire” is wanting in the Ms. 

2 Arnobius here allows himself to be misled by Cicero (Tvsc., i. 
10), who explains évreAéxeva. as a kind of perpetual motion, evidently 
confusing it with évSeAéxera (cf. Donaldson, Vew Crat., § 339 sqq-), 
and represents Aristotle as making it a fifth primary cause. The 
word has no such meaning, and Aristotle invariably enumerates only 
four primary causes: the material from which, the form in which, the 
power by which, and the end for which anything exists (Physics, il. 
3; Metaph., iv. 2, etc.). 

3 es “with indivisible bodies.” 

4 Pl. 

5 So the ms., LB., and Hildebrand, reading A rcheszl@, while the 
others read Archeszlao, forgetting that Arcesilas is the regular Latin 
form, although Archesilaus is found. 

6 Sententiarum is read in the first ed. by Gelenius, Canterus, and 
Ursinus, and seems from Crusius to be the ms. reading. The other 
edd., however, have received from the margin of Ursinus the reading 
of the text, sectarum. 

7 In the first ed., and that of Ursinus, the reading is, vonne apud 
ea, “‘in those things which they say, do they not say,” etc., which 
Gelenius emended as in the text, zoune ipsa ea. 

8 Cf. Diog. Laert. ix. 9, where Heraclitus is said to have taught 
that fire — the first principle — condensing becomes water, water earth, 
and conversely; and on Thales, Arist., JZe¢., A, 3, where, however, as 
in other places. Thales is merely said to have referred the. generation 
and maintenance of all things to moisture, although by others he is 
represented as teaching the doctrine ascribed to him above. Cf. Cic., 
de Nat. Deor.,i. 10, and Heraclides, Adleg. Hom., c. 22, where water 
evaporating is said to become air, and settling, to become mud. 

9 There is some difficulty as to the reading: the Ms., first ed., and 
Ursinus give 2nmero s-c-tre, explained by Canterus as meaning 
“that numbers have understanding,” i.e., so as to be the cause of all. 
Gelenius, followed by Canterus, reads -os scz¢— “‘ does Pyth. know 
numbers,” which is absurdly out of place. Heraldus approved of a 
reading in the margin of Ursinus (merely inserting o after c), “ that 
numbers unite,’ which seems very plausible. The text follows an 
emendation of Gronovius adopted by Orelli, -o ex-zre. 3 

10 So the MsS., reading u#, but Orelli, and all edd. before him, aut 
—“ or do they.” 





437 


osition which they lay down is a declaration of 
truth? '! Since, then, you have discovered and 
learned nothing, and are led by credulity to 
assert all those things which you write, and com- 
prise in thousands of books ; what kind of judg- 
ment, pray, is this, so unjust that you mock at 
faith in us, while you see that you have it in 
common with our readiness of belief??? But you 
say you believe wise men, well versed in all 
kinds of learning !—those, forsooth, who know 
nothing, and agree in nothing which they say ; 
who join battle with their opponents on behalf 
of their own opinions, and are always contending 
fiercely with obstinate hostility ; who, overthrow- 
ing, refuting, and bringing to nought the one the 
other’s doctrines, have made all things doubtful, 
and have shown from their very want of agree- 
ment that nothing can be known. 

11. But, supposing that these things do not 
at all hinder or prevent your being bound to 
believe and hearken to them in great measure ; '3 
and what veason is there either that you should 
have more “erty in this respect, or that we 
should have \ess? You believe Plato,'4 Cronius,'5 
Numenius, or any one you please; we believe 
and confide in Christ." How unreasonable it is, 
that when we both abide ’7 by teachers, and have 
one and the same thing, belief, in common, you 
should wish it to be granted to you to receive 
what is so '8 said by them, 4u¢ should be unwill- 
ing to hear and see what is brought forward by 
Christ! And yet, if we chose to compare cause 
with cause, we are better able to point out what 
we have followed in Christ, than you to point 
out what you have followed in the philosophers, 
And we, indeed, have followed in him these 
things — those glorious works and most potent 
virtues which he manifested and displayed in 
diverse miracles, by which any one might be led 
to feel the necessity of believing, and mzgh¢ de- 
cide with confidence that they were not such as 
might be regarded as man’s, but such as showed 
some divine and unknown power. What virtues 





Il i e., that truth knowable by man exists. 

I: So the Ms. reading nostra zn-credulitate, for which Ursinus, 
followed by Stewechius, reads xostra cum. Heraldus conjectured 
vestra, i.e., “in your readiness of belief,” you are just as much ex- 
posed to such ridicule. 

15 Heraldus has well suggested that p/z7zeu is a gloss arising 
out of its being met with in the next clause. 

14 So the ms. and edd., reading Platonz , but Ursinus suggested 
Plotino, which Heraldus thinks most probably correct, There is, 
indeed, an evident suitableness in introducing here the later rathet 
than the earlier philosopher, which has great weight in dealing with 
ae next name, and should therefore, perhaps, have some in this case 
also. 

1s The ms. and both Roman edd. give Crotonzo, rejected by the 
others because no Crotonius is known (it has been referred, however, 
to Pythagoras, on the ground of his having taught in Croton), In 
the margin of Ursinus Cvonzus was suggested, received by LB. and 
Orelli, who is mentioned by Eusebius (A7s¢. Zeccd., vi. 19, 3) with 
Numenius and others as an eminent Pythagorean, and by Porphyry 
(de Ant. Nymph., xxi.), as a friend of Numenius, and one of those 
who treated the Homeric poems as allegories. Gelenius substitutes 
Plotinus, followed by most edd. 

16 (Thus everywhere he writes as a Christian. ] 

17 Stemus, the admirable correction of Gelenius for the Ms. fem 


US. 
18 Orelli, following Stewechius, would omit za. 


438 


ny 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





did you follow in the philosophers, that it was 
more reasonable for you “0 deeve them than for 
us to believe Christ? Was any one of them ever 
able by one word, or by a single command, [| 
will not say to restrain, to check* the madness 
of the sea or the fury of the storm ; to restore 
their sight to the blind, or give it to men blind 
from their birth; to call the dead back to life ; 
to put an end to the sufferings of years; but — 
and this is much easier ?— to heal by one rebuke 
a boil, a scab, or a thorn fixed in the skin? Not 
that we deny either that they are worthy of praise 
for the soundness of their morals, or that they 
are skilled in all kinds of studies and learning ; 
for we know that they both speak in the most 
elegant language, and shat their words flow in 
polished periods ; that they reason in syllogisms 
with the utmost acuteness; that they arrange 
their inferences in due order ;3 that they express, 
divide, distinguish principles by definitions ; that 
they say many things about the afferent kinds 
of numbers, many things about music; that by 
their maxims and precepts‘ they settle the prob- 
lems of geometry also. But what Aas that to 
do with the case? Do enthymemes, syllogisms, 
and other such things, assure us that these men 
know what is true? or are they therefore such 
that credence should necessarily be given to 
them with regard to very obscure subjects? A 
comparison of persons must be decided, not by 
vigour of eloquence, but by the excellence of 
the works which they have done. He must not 5 
be called a good teacher who has expressed 
himself clearly,®° but he who accompanies his 
promises with the guarantee of divine works. 

12. You bring forward arguments against us, 
and speculative quibblings,? which — may I say 
this without displeasing Him — if Christ Himself 
were to use in the gatherings of the nations, who 
would assent? who would listen? who would 
say that He decided ® anything clearly? or who, 
though he were rash and utterly? credulous, 
would follow Him when pouring forth vain and 
baseless statements? His virtues have deen made 








I Hildebrand thinks compescere here a gloss, but it must be re- 
membered that redundancy is a characteristic of Arnobius. 

2 The superlative is here, as elsewhere, used by Arnobius instead 
of the comparative. 

3 i.e., so as to show the relations existing between them. 

4 Perhaps ‘‘ axioms and postulates,” 

$ According to Crusius, 07 is not found in the ms. 

6 White and Riddle translate candzdule, ‘‘ sincerely,” but give 
no other instance of its use, and here the reference is plainly to the 

revious statement of the literary excellence of the philosophers. 
Feesldee suggests cad/idu/e, cunningly,” of which Orelli approves; 
but by referring the adv. to this well-known meaning of its primitive, 
all necessity for emendation is obviated. 

7 Lit., ‘‘ subtleties of suspicions.” This passage is certainly 
doubtful. The reading translated, e¢ suspictonum argutias profer- 
tis, is that of LB., Orelli, and the later edd. generally; while the ms. 
reads -at7s —“* Bring forward arguments to us, and” (for which 
Heraldus conjectures very plausibly, ec, ‘‘ and not”) ‘‘ subtleties,” 
etc., which, by changing a single letter, reads in the earlier edd. pxo- 
Jer-etis —‘ Will you,” or, “ You will bring forward,” etc. 

8 Meursius conjectures 7#- (for Ms. 7u-) dicare — “‘ pointed out,” 
of which Orelli approves. 

9 So the Ms and both Roman edd., supported by Heraldus, read- 
ing solide facilitatrs, changed by the edd. into stod/ide — “ stupid.” 





manifest to you, and that unheard-of power over 
things, whether that which was openly exercised 
by Him, or that which was used '° over the whole 
world by those who proclaimed Him: it has sub- 
dued the fires of passion, and caused races, and 
peoples, and nations most diverse in character 
to hasten with one accord to accept the same 
faith. For the deeds can be reckoned up and 
numbered which have been done in India,'* 
among the Seres, Persians, and Medes; in Ara- 
bia, Egypt, in Asia, Syria; among the Galatians, 
Parthians, Phrygians; in Achaia, Macedonia, 
Epirus ; in all islands and provinces on which 
the rising and setting sun shines ; in Rome her- 
self, finally, the mistress of the world, in which, 
although men are ” busied with the practices in- 
troduced by king '3 Numa, and the superstitious 
observances of antiquity, they have nevertheless 
hastened to give up their fathers’ mode of life, 
and attach themselves to Christian truth. For 
they had seen the chariot '5 of Simon Magus, and 
his fiery car, blown into pieces by the mouth of 
Peter, and vanish when Christ was named. They 
had seen Aim, I say, trusting in false gods, and 
abandoned by them in their terror, borne down 
headlong by his own weight, lie prostrate with 
his legs broken; amd then, when he had been 
carried to Brunda,'© worn out with anguish and 
shame, again cast himself down from the roof 
of a very lofty house. But all these deeds you 
neither know nor have wished to know, nor did 
you ever consider that they were of the utmost 
importance to you ; and while you trust your own 
judgments, and term ¢a¢ wisdom which is over- 
weening conceit, you have given to deceivers — 
to those guilty oves, I say, whose interest it is 
that the Christian name be degraded — an op- 
portunity of raising clouds of darkness, and con- 
cealing truths of so much importance ; of robbing 
you of faith, and putting scorn in its place, in 
order that, as they already feel that an end such 
as they deserve threatens them, they might excite 
in you also a feeling through which you should 


Io So all the edd. except Oehler; but as the first verb is plural in 
the Ms., while the second is singular, it is at least as probable that 
the second was plural originally also, and that therefore the relative 
should be made to refer both to “‘ virtues ” and ‘‘ power.” 

Il Orelli notes that by India is here meant Ethiopia. If so, it 
may be well to remember that Lucan (x. 29 sq-) makes the Seres 
neighbours of the Ethiopians, and dwellers at the sources of the 
Nile. 

12 Instead of szzt, Stewechius would read essent — ‘‘ were.” 

13 Instead of the ms. reading, Vume regis artibus et antiguis 
superstitionibus, Stewechius, followed by Heraldus, would read 


ritibus —‘‘ with the rites of Numa,” etc. ; 
14 So the Ms., reading ves fatrias, for which Heraldus, rztus 
patrios — ‘ rites.” 


1s So the Ms., although the first five edd., by changing ~ into s, 
read cur-s-um —‘“‘ course.” This story is of frequent occurrence in 
the later Fathers, but is never referred to by the earlier, or by any ex- 
cept Christian writers, and is derived solely from the Apostolic Con- 
stitutions. In the Greek version of the Apost. Const. the sixth book 
opens with a dissertation on schisms and heresies, in which the story 
of Simon and others is told; but that this was interpolated by some 
compiler seems clear from the arguments brought forward by Bunsen 
(Hippolytus and his Age, more particularly vol. ii. pt. 2, § 2, and 
the second appendix), 

16 Brunda or Brenda, i.e., Brundisium, 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





run into danger, and be deprived of the divine 
mercy. 

13. Meantime, however, O you who wonder 
and are astonished at the doctrines of the learned, 
and of philosophy, do you not then think it most 
unjust to scoff, to jeer at us as though we say 
foolish and senseless things, when you too are 
found to say either these or just such things 
which you laugh at when said and uttered by 
us? Nor do I address those who, scattered 
through various bypaths of the schools, have 
formed this and that znsignificant party through 
diversity of opinion. You, you I address, who 
zealously follow Mercury,’ Plato, and Pythagoras, 
and the rest of you who are of one mind, and 
walk in unity in the same paths of doctrine. Do 
you dare to laugh at us because we? revere and 
worship the Creator and Lord: of the universe, 
and because we commit and entrust our hopes to 
Him? What does your Plato say in the Zheete- 
tus, to mention him especially? Does he not 
exhort the soul to flee from the earth, and, as 
much as in it lies, to be continually engaged in 
thought and meditation about Him?* Do you 
dare to laugh at us, because we say that there 
will be a resurrection of the dead? And this 
indeed we confess that we say, but maznain that 
it is understood by you otherwise than we hold 
it. What says the same Plato in the Polhticus ? 
Does he not say that, when the world has begun 
to rise out of the west and tend towards the 
east,5 men will again burst forth from the bosom 
of the earth, aged, grey-haired, bowed down with 
years ; and that when the remoter® years begin 
to draw near, they will gradually sink down? to 
the cradles of their infancy, through the same 
steps by which they now grow to manhood ?® 





t Hermes Trismegistus. See index. 

2 So the ms., Elmenh., LB., Hildebrand, and Oehler, reading 
quod, for which the other edd. read gz — ‘‘ who.” 

3 This seems to be the reading intended by the ms., which accord- 
ing to Hild. gives dom, i.e., probably dominum,. which Oehler 
adopts, but all other edd. read deumn —“ god.” 

4 Arnobius rather exaggerates the force of the passage referred to 
(st. p. 173), which occurs in the beautiful digression on philosophers. 
Plato there says that only the philosopher’s body is here on earth, 
while his mind, holding politics and the ordinary business and amuse- 
ments of life unworthy of attention, is occupied with what is above 
and beneath the earth, just as Thales, when he fell into a ditch, was 
looking at the stars, and not at his steps. 

5 In cardinem vergere qui ortentis est solis-seems to be the 
reading of all edd.; but according to Crusius the Ms. reads vertere 

“to turn.” Hildebrand, on the contrary, affirms that instead of 
Fs the Ms. gives c. 

6 i,e., originally earlier. 

7 So most edd. , reading deszturos, for which Stewechius suggests 
desulturos — ‘leap down;” LB. exzturos —‘* go out 

8 Reference is here made to one of the most extraordinary of the 
Platonic myths (Po/., 269-274), in which the world is represented as 
not merely material, ‘but as being further possessed of intelligence. 
It is ever in motion, but not always in the same way. For at one 
time its motion is directed by a divine governor (Tov mavrods 0 peév 
xuBepyytns); but this does not continue, for he withdraws from his 
task, and thereupon the world loses, or rather gives up its previous 
bias, and begins to revolve in the opposite direction, causing among 
other results a reverse development of the phenomena which occurred 
before, such as Arnobius describes. Arnobius, however, gives too 
much weight to the myth, as in the introduction it is more than 
ainted that it may be addressed to the young Socrates, as boys like 
such stories, and he is not much more than a boy. W ith it should be 
contrasted the “ great year” of the Stoics, in which the universe ful- 
filled its course, and then began afresh to pass through the same ex- 
perience as before (Nemesius, de Vaz. Hovt., c. 38). 





439 





Do you dare to laugh at us because we see to 
the salvation of our souls?—that is, ourselves 
care for ourselves : for what are we men, but souls 
shut up in bodies? — You, indeed, do not take 
every pains for their safety,? in that you do not 
refrain from all vice and passion ; about this you 
are anxious, that you may cleave to your bodies 
as though inseparably bound to them.'® — What 
mean those mystic rites,"' in which you beseech 
some wzuknown powers to be favourable to you, 
and not put any hindrance in your way to 
impede you when returning to your native 
seats ? 

14. Do you dare to laugh at us when we speak 
of hell, and fires 3 which cannot be quenched, 
into which we have learned that souls are cast by 
their foes and enemies? What, does not your 
Plato also, in the book which he wrote on the 
immortality of the soul, name the rivers Acheron, 
Styx,™* Cocytus, and Pyriphlegethon, and assert 
that in them souls are rolled along, engulphed, 
and burned up? But ¢hough a man of no little 
wisdom,'S and of accurate judgment and discern- 
ment, he essays a problem which cannot be 
solved ; so that, while he says that the soul is 
immortal, everlasting, and without bodily sub- 
stance, he yet says that they are punished, and 
makes them suffer pain."° But what man does. 
not see that that which is immortal, which zs 
simple,'7 cannot be subject to any pain ; that that, 
on the contrary, cannot be immortal which does 
suffer pain? And yet his opinion is not very far 
from the truth. For although the gentle and 
kindly disposed man thought it inhuman cruelty 
to condemn souls to death, he yet not unreason- 
ably '® supposed that they are cast into rivers 
blazing with masses of flame, and loathsome from 
their foul abysses. For they are cast in, and 
being annihilated, pass away vainly in '9 everlast- 
ing destruction. For theirs is an intermediate 7° 
state, as has been learned from Christ’s teach- 
ing; and “hey ave such that they may on the 
one hand perish if they have not known God, 
and on the other be delivered from death if they 


— 





9 LB. makes these words interrogative, but the above arrange- 
ment is clearly vindicated by the tenor of the argument: You laugh 
at our care for our souls’ salvation; and truly you do not see to their 
safety by such precautions as a virtuous life, but do you not seek that 
hich you think salvation by mystic rites ? 

Io Lit., ‘‘ fastened with beam” (i.e., large and strong) “ nails.” 

11 Cf, on the i intercessory prayers of the Magi, c. 62, infra. 

12 P|. Cf. Milman’s note on Gibbon, vol. 2, c. xi. p. 7. 

13 Lit., ‘‘ certain fires.” 

14 Plato, in the passage referred to (Pi@do, st. p. 113, § 61), speaks 
of the Styx not as a river, but as the lake into which the Cocytus 
falls. The fourth river which he mentions in addition to the Acheron, 
Pyriphlegethon, and Cocytus, which he calls Stygian, is the Ocean 
stream. 

1s So the ms., according to Hild., reading parve ; but acc. to 
Rigaltius and Crusius, it gives rave — ‘‘ of no mean. 

6 So LB., Hild., and Oehler, reading dolorts affictat sensu, by 
eal dropping m from the MS. sensu-ms while all the other 
edd. read doloribus sensuum — ‘affects with the pains of the 
senses.’ 

17 i,e., not compounded of soul and body. 

18 Or, ‘‘not unsuitably,” adsonxe. 

19 Lit., ‘‘ in the failure (or ‘ disappointment’ ) of,” ete. 

20 j,e., neither immortal nor necessarily mortal. 


440 


have given heed to His threats' and proffered 
favours. And to make manifest? what is un- 
known, this is man’s real death, this which leaves 
nothing behind. For that which is seen by the 
eyes is ondy a separation of soul from body, not 
the last end—annihilation:3 this, I say, is 
man’s real death, when souls which know not 
God shall+ be consumed in long-protracted tor- 
ment with raging fire, into which certain fiercely 
cruel deings shall 4 cast them, who were unknown 5 
before Christ, and brought to light only by His 
wisdom. 

15. Wherefore there is no reason that that°® 
should mislead us, should hold out vain hopes to 
us, which is said by some men till now unheard 
of,7 and carried away by an extravagant opinion 
of themselves, that souls are immortal, next in 
point of rank to the God and ruler of the world, 
descended from that parent and sire, divine, 
wise, learned, and not within reach of the body 
by contact. Now, because this is true and cer- 
tain, and because we have been produced by Him 
who is perfect without flaw, we live unblame- 
ably, Z suppose, and therefore without blame ; 
are good, just, and upright, in nothing depraved ; 
no passion overpowers, no lust degrades us; we 
maintain vigorously the unremitting practice of 
all the virtues. And because all our souls have 
one origin, we therefore think exactly alike ; we do 
not differ in manners, we do not differ in beliefs ; 
we all know God; and there are not as many 
opinions as there are men in the world, nor are 
these divided in infinite variety. 

16. But, “hey say, while we are moving swiftly 
down towards our mortal bodies,'° causes pursue 
us from the world’s circles,‘! through the working 
of which we become bad, ay, most wicked ; 
burn with lust and anger, spend our life in shame- 
ful deeds, and are given over to the lust of all 





1 So Gelenius emended the unintelligible ms. reading se-mzxa by 
merely adding Ss; followed by all edd., although Ursinus in the margin 
suggests se miiam, i. e., mt- -sericordiam — pity;” and Heraldus 
conjectures munza — “‘ gifts,” 

2 So almost all edd., from a conjecture of Gelenius, supplying z?, 
which is wanting in the’ MS., first ed., and Oehler. 

3 It is worth while to contrast Augustine’ s words: ‘* The death 
which men fear is the separation of the soul from the body. The 
true death, which men do not fear, is the separation of the soul from 
God” (Aug. in Ps. xlvili., quoted by Elmenhorst). 

4 In the first ed., Gelenius, Canterus, Ursinus, and Orelli, both 
verbs are made present, but all other edd. follow the Ms. as above. 

5 Lit., “and unknown.” Here Arnobius shows himself ignorant 
of Jewish teaching, as in iii, 12. 

6 So the ms. and LB., followed by Oehler; in the edd. 
omitted. 

7 The ms. reading i is a no-b-1s guibusdamt, for which LB. reads 
nobis a gu.—*to us,” and Hild. a xotZs —‘‘ by certain known; 
but all ies, as above, from a conjecture of Gelenius, 2 7o-v-zs, al- 
though Orelli’ shows his critical Sagacity by preferring an emendation 
in the margin of Ursinus, @ donz's —“‘ by certain good men,” in which 
he sees a happy irony! 

8 Lit., “not touchable by any contact of body,” xegue udlla cor- 
ports attrectatione contiguas, 

9 Arnobius considers the reductio ad absurdum so very plain, 
that he does not trouble himself to state his argument more directly. 

10 There has been much confusion as to the meaning of Arnobius 
throughout this discussion, which would have been obviated if it had 
been remembered that his main purpose in it is to show how unsatis- 
factory and unstable are the theories of the philosophers, and that he 
is not therefore to be identified with the views brought forward, but 
rather with the objections raised to them. 

11 Cf. c. 28, p. 440, note 2. 


td is 





Toul Tew Le 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





by the prostitution of our bodies for hire. And 
how can the material unite with the immaterial ? 
or how can that which God has made, be led 
by weaker causes to degrade itself through the 
practice of vice? Will you lay aside your habit- . 
ual arrogance,'? O men, who claim God as your 
Father, and maintain that you are immortal, just 
as He is? Will you inquire, examine, search what 
you are yourselves, whose you are, of what par- 
entage you are supposed 7 de, what you do in 
the world, in what way you are born, how you 
leap to life? Will you, laying aside a/ partiality, 
consider in the silence of your thoughts that we 
are creatures either quite like the rest, or sepa- 
rated by no great difference? For what is there 
to show that we do not resemble them? or what 
excellence is in us, such that we scorn to be 
ranked as creatures? Their bodies are built up 
on bones, and bound closely together by sinews ; 
and our bodies are in like manner built up on 
bones, and bound closely together by sinews. 
They inspire the air through nostrils, and in 
breathing expire it again; and we in like man- 
ner drew in the air, and breathed it out with 
frequent respirations. They have been arranged 
in classes, female and male; we, too, have been 
fashioned by our Creator into the same sexes.'3 
Their young are born from the womb, and are 
begotten through union of the sexes; and we 
are born from sexual embraces, and are brought 
forth and sent into life from our mothers’ wombs. 
They are supported by eating and drinking, and 
get rid of the filth which remains by the lower 
parts ; and we are supported by eating and drink- 
ing, and that which nature refuses we deal with 
in the same way. Their care is to ward off 
death-bringing famine, and of necessity to be on 
the watch for food. What else is our aim in the 
business of life, which presses so much upon us,"¢ 
but to seek the means by which the danger of 
starvation may be avoided, and carking anxiety 
put away? ‘They are exposed to disease and 
hunger, and at last lose their strength by reason 
of age. What, then? are we not exposed to 
these evils, and are we not in like manner weak- 
ened by noxious diseases, destroyed by wasting 
age? But if that, too, which is said in the more 
hidden mysteries is true, that the souls of wicked 
men, on leaving their human bodies, pass into 
cattle and other creatures,"5 it is eve more clearly 
shown that we are allied to them, and not sepa- 
rated by any great interval, since it is on the 
same ground that both we and they are said to 
be living creatures, and to act as such. 





12 So the ms., followed by Orelli and others, reading zustitutum 
superciliumgque — “‘habit and arrogance,” for the first word of which 
LB. reads zstum typhum— ab pride of yours; ” Meursius, zs¢# 
typhum — “ Lay aside pride, O y: 

13 So the edd., reading in Dien sexus for the MS. sexu — 
“into so many kinds in sex.’ 

14 Lit., “fin so great occupations of life.” 

Is Cf, Plato, Phaedo, st. p. 81. 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


17. But we have reason, one will say, and ex- 
cel the whole race of dumb animals in under- 
standing. I might believe that this was quite 
true, if all men lived rationally and wisely, never 
swerved aside from their duty, abstained from 
what is forbidden, and withheld themselves from 
baseness, and 7f no one through folly and the 
blindness of i ignorance demanded what is inju- 
rious and dangerous to himself. I should wish, 
however, to know what this reason is, through 
which we are more excellent than all the tribes 
of animals. /s z¢ because we have made for 
ourselves houses, by which we can avoid the 
cold of winter and heat of summer? What! do 
not the other animals show forethought in this 
respect? Do we not see some build nests as 
dwellings for themselves in the most convenient 
situations ; others shelter and secure shemselves 
in rocks and lofty crags; others burrow in the 
ground, and prepare for themselves strongholds 
and lairs in the pits which they have dug out? 
But if nature, which gave them life, had chosen 
to give to them also hands to help them, they 
too would, without doubt, raise lofty buildings 
and strike out new works of art. Yet, even in 
those things which they make with beaks and 
claws, we see that there are many appearances 
of reason and wisdom which we men are unable 
to copy, however much we ponder them, al- 
though we have hands to serve us dexterously in 
every kind of work. 

18. They have not learned, 7 wz be told, to 
make clothing, seats, ships, and ploughs, nor, in 
fine, the other furniture which family life requires. 
These are not the gifts of science, but the sug- 
gestions of most pressing necessity ; nor did the 
arts descend with men’s souls from the inmost 
heavens, but here on earth have they all been 
painfully sought out and brought to light,? and 
gradually acquired in process of time by careful 
thought. But if the soul3 had zz ztself the 
knowledge which it is fitting that a race should 
have indeed whzch zs divine and immortal, all 
men would from the first know everything ; nor 
would there be an age unacquainted with any 
art, or not furnished with practical knowledge. 
But now a life of want and in need of many 
things, noticing some things happen accidentally 
to its advantage, while it imitates, experiments, 
and tries, while it fails, remoulds, changes, from 
continual failure has procured for itself* and 


1 So, by a later writer in the margin of the Ms., who gives artzjt- 
ctosa-s novitates, adopted by Stewechius and Oehler, the s being 
omitted in the text of the ms. itself, as in the edd., which drop the 
final s in the next word also— “would raise and with unknown art 
strike out lofty buildings.” 

2 Lit., “ born.” 

3 Throughout this discussion, Arnobius generally uses the plural, 
animz — “‘ souls.” 

4 So Elmenhorst, Oberthiir, and Orelli, reading ar-a-v-zt stbz 
et for the ms. farv-as et, “ from continual failure has wrought out 
indeed slight smattering of the arts,” etc., which is retained in both 
Roman edd., LB., and Hild.; while Gelenius and (Canterus merely 
substitute s7d7 for et, ‘ * wrought out for itself slight,” etc. 





441 





wrought out some slight acquaintance with the 
arts, and brought to one issue the advances of 
many ages. 

19. But if men either knew themselves thor- 
oughly, or had the slightest knowledge of God,5 
they would never claim as their own a divine 
and immortal nature; nor would they think 
themselves something great because they have 
made for themselves gridirons, basins, and bowls,°® 
because ¢hey have made under-shirts, outer-shirts, 
cloaks, plaids, robes of state, knives, cuirasses 
and swords, mattocks, hatchets, ploughs. Never, 
I say, carried away by pride and arrogance, 
would they believe themselves to be deities of 
the first rank, and fellows of the highest in his 
exaltation,” because they® had devised the arts 
of grammar, music, oratory, and geometry. For 
we do not see what is so wonderful in these arts, 
that because of their discovery the soul should 
be believed to be above the sun as well as all 
the stars, to surpass both in grandeur and essence 
the whole universe, of which these are parts. 
For what else do these assert that they can 
either declare or teach, than that we may learn 
to know the rules and differences of nouns, the 
intervals in the sounds of azfferen¢ tones, that we 
may speak persuasively in lawsuits, that we may 
measure the confines of the earth? Now, if the 
soul had brought these arts with it from the 
celestial regions, and it were impossible not to 
know them, all men would long before this be 
busied with them over all the earth, nor would 
any race of men be found which would not be 
equally and similarly instructed in them all. But 
now how few musicians, logicians, and geometri- 
cians are there in the world! how few orators, 
poets, critics! From which it is clear, as has 
been said pretty frequently, that these things 
were discovered under the pressure of time and 
circumstances, and that the soul did not fly 
hither divinely? taught, because neither are all 
learned, nor can all learn; and’° there are very 
many among them somewhat deficient in shrewd- 
ness, and stupid, and they are constrained to 
apply themselves to learning ony by fear of 
stripes. But if it were a fact that the things 
which we learn are but reminiscences '! — as has 
been maintained in the systems of the ancients — 
as we start from the same truth, we should all have 
learned alike, and remember alike — not have di- 
verse, very numerous, and inconsistent opinions. 





5 Lit., ‘‘or received understanding of God by the breath of any 
suspicion,” 

6 The MS. gives c-etera-que, ‘‘and the rest,” which is retained 
in both Roman edd., and by Gelenius and Canterus, though rather 
out of place, as the enumeration goes on. 

7 Lit., * equal to the highness (s«mztatz) of the prince.” 

8 So LB. and Orelli, reading guz-a; the rest, gaz — ‘‘ who,” 

9 So Gelenius, reading divinztus for the Ms. ‘divinas, i.e., with 
a divine nature and origin,” which is retained in the first ed. and 
Orelli. 

10 The mMs., both Roman edd., Hild., and Oehler, read x##, ‘so 
that there are.” 

11 Cf. an this Platonic doctrine, ch. 24, p. 443, 2/fra. 


442 








ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 








Now, however, seeing that we each assert differ- 
ent things, it is clear and manifest that we have 
brought nothing from heaven, but become ac- 
guainted with what has arisen here, and main- 
tain what has taken firm root in our thoughts. 

20. And, that we may show you more clearly 

and distinctly what is the worth of man, whom 
you believe to be very like the higher power, con- 
ceive this idea; and because it can be done if 
we come into direct contact with it, let us con- 
ceive it just as if we came into contact. Let 
us then imagine a place dug out in the earth, 
fit for dwelling in, formed into a chamber, en- 
closed by a roof and walls, not cold in winter, 
not too warm in summer, but so regulated and 
equable that we suffer neither cold! nor the vio- 
lent heat of summer. To this let there not 
come any sound or cry whatever,? of bird, of 
beast, of storm, of man—of any noise, in fine, 
or of the thunder’s3 terrible crash. Let us next 
devise a way in which it may be lighted not by 
the introduction of fire, nor by the sight of the 
sun, but let there be some counterfeit4 to imitate 
sunlight, darkness being interposed.5 Let there 
not be one door, nor a direct entrance, dz let it 
be approached by tortuous windings, and let it 
never be thrown open unless when it is abso- 
lutely necessary. 

21. Now, as we have prepared a place for our 
idea, let us next receive some one born to dwell 
there, where there is nothing but an empty 
void,°— one of the race of Plato, namely, or 
Pythagoras, or some one of those who are re- 
garded as of superhuman wit, or have been 
declared most wise by the oracles of the gods. 
And when this has been done, he must then be 
nourished and brought up on suitable food. Let 
us therefore provide a nurse also, who shall come 
to him always naked, ever silent, uttering not a 
word, and shall not open her mouth and lips to 
speak at all, but after suckling him, and doing 
what else is necessary, shall leave him fast asleep, 
and remain day and night before the closed 
doors ; for it is usually necessary that the nurse’s 
care should be near at hand, and that she should 
watch his varying motions. But when the child 
begins to need to be supported by more substan- 
tial food, let it be borne in by the same nurse, still 
undressed, and maintaining the same unbroken 
silence. Let the food, too, which is carried in 
be always precisely the same, with no difference 
in the material, and without being re-cooked by 





means of different flavours ; but let it be either 
pottage of millet, or bread of spelt, or, in imita- 
tion of the ancients, chestnuts roasted in the hot 
ashes, or berries plucked from forest trees. Let 
him, moreover, never learn to drink wine, and 
let nothing else be used to quench his thirst than 
pure cold water from the spring, and shat if pos- 
sible raised to his lips in the hollow of his hands. 
For habit, growing into second nature, will be- 
come familiar from custom; nor will his desire 
extend? further, not knowing that there is any- 
thing more to be sought after. 

22. To what, then, you ask, do these things 
tend? We have brought them forward in order 
that —as it has been believed that the souls of 
men are divine, and therefore immortal, and that 
they come to their human bodies with all knowl- 
edge — we may make trial from this ¢hz/¢, whom 
we have supposed to be brought up in this way, 
whether this is credible, or has been rashly be- 
lieved and taken for granted, in consequence of 
deceitful anticipation. Let us suppose, then, 
that he grows up, reared in a secluded, lonely 
spot, spending as many years as you choose, 
twenty or thirty, — nay, let him be brought into 
the assemblies of men when he has lived through 
forty years ; and if it is true that he is a part of 
the divine essence, and ® lives here sprung from 
the fountains of life, before he makes acquaint- 
ance with anything, or is made familiar with hu- 
man speech, let him be questioned and answer 
who he is, or from what father ; in what regions 
he was born, how or in what way brought up ; 
with what work or business he has been engaged 
during the former part of his life. Will he not, 
then, stand sfeechless, with less wit and sense 
than any beast, block, stone? Will he not, when 
brought into contact with? strange and previ- 
ously unknown things, be above all ignorant of 
himself? If you ask, will he be able to say what 
the sun is, the earth, seas, stars, clouds, mist, 
showers, thunder, snow, hail? Will he be able 
to know what trees are, herbs, or grasses, a 
bull, a horse, or ram, a camel, elephant, or 
kite ? '° 

23. If you give a grape to him when hungry, 
a must-cake, an onion, a thistle,"! a cucumber, a 
fig, will he know that his hunger can be appeased 
by all these, or of what kind each should be fo 
be fit for eating? If you made a very great fire, 
or surrounded him with venomous creatures, will 
he not go through the midst of flames, vipers, 





1 Lit., “a feeling of cold.” 

2 Lit., ‘‘ sound of voice at all.” 

3 Lit., ‘‘ of heaven terribly crashing.” 

4 So the later edd., adopting the emendation of Scaliger, noth 
—‘‘spurious,” which here seems to approach in meaning to its use 
by Lucretius (v. 574 sq.), of the moon’s light as borrowed from the 
sun. The ms. and first four edd. read xotumm, ‘“‘ known.” 

5 According to Huet (quoted by Oehler), ‘‘ between that spurious 
and the true light;’’ but perhaps the idea is that of darkness inter- 
posed at intervals to resemble the recurrence of night. 

6 Lit., ‘‘ born, and that, too (¢¢ wanting in almost all edd.), into 
the hospice of that place which has nothing, and is inane and empty.” 





7 So most edd., reading forrigetur for the MS. corrigetur — ‘be 
corrected,” i.e., need to be corrected, which is retained in the first ed. 

8 So Gelenius, followed by Canterus, Elmenh., and Oberthiir, 
reading fortione-m et, while the words tam letam, ‘‘ that he is so 
joyous a part,” are inserted before e¢ by Stewechius and the rest, 
except both Roman edd., which retain the ms. fortione jam leta. 

9 Lit., ‘‘ sent to.” 

10 So the ms., reading mzlvus, for which all edd. (except Ober- 
thuer) since Stewechius read sz/zs, “a mule.” 

11 Carduus, no doubt the esculent thistle, a kind of artichoke. 

12 So, according to an emendation in LB., est, adopted by Orelli 
and others, instead of the Ms. reading e¢ s472. 











ot ah 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 443 


tarantule, without knowing that they are dan- 
gerous, and ignorant even of fear? But again, 
if you set before him garments and furniture, 
both for city and country life, will he indeed be 
able to distinguish? for what each is fitted? to 
discharge what service they are adapted? Will 
he declare for what purposes of dress the stragula 3 
was made, the coif,* zone,5 fillet, cushion, hand- 
kerchief, cloak, veil, napkin, furs,° shoe, sandal, 
boot? What, if you go on to ask what a wheel 
is, or a sledge,? a winnowing-fan, jar, tub, an oil- 
mill, ploughshare, or sieve, a mill-stone, plough- 
tail, or light hoe; a curved seat, a needle, a 
strigil, a laver, an open seat, a ladle, a platter, a 
candlestick, a goblet, a broom, a cup, a bag; 
a lyre, pipe, silver, brass, gold,® a book, a rod, a 
roll,? and the rest of the equipment by which 
the life of man is surrounded and maintained? 
Will he not in such circumstances, as we said, 
like an ox '° or an ass, a pig, or any beast more 
senseless, look '* at these indeed, observing their 
various shapes, but '? not knowing what they all 
are, and ignorant of the purpose for which they 
are kept? If he were in any way compelled to 
utter a sound, would he not with gaping mouth 
shout something indistinctly, as the dumb usually 
do? 

24. Why, O Plato, do you in the Meno ™ put 
to a young slave certain questions relating to the 
doctrines of number, and strive to prove by his 
answers that what we learn we do not learn, but 
that we merely call back to memory those things 
which we knew in former times? Now, if he 
answers you correctly, — for it would not be be- 
coming that we should refuse credit to what you 
say, — he is led % do so not by his real knowl- 
edge,'* but by his intelligence; and it results 
from his having some acquaintance with num- 
bers, through using them every day, that when 
questioned he follows your meaning, and that the 
very process of multiplication always prompts 
him. But if you are really assured that the souls 


1 There has been much discussion as to whether the solifuga or 
solipuga here spoken of is an ant or spider. 
2 The ms. reads discriminare, discernere, with the latter word, 
however, marked as spurious. 
3 A kind of rug. 
4 Mitra. 
5 Strophtum, passing round the breast, by some regarded as a 
kind of corset. 
6 Mastruca, a garment made of the skins of the /Zone, a Sar- 
dinian wild shee 
7 Tribula, be rubbing out the corn, 
8 Aurum is omitted in all edd., except those of LB., Hild., and 
Oehler. 
9 Liber, a roll of parchment or papyrus, as opposed to the pre- 
ceding codex, a book of pages. 
10 The Ms. reads voédzs unintelligibly, corrected by Meursius Jovzs. 
13 So Orelli and modern edd.; but rusius gives as the Ms. reading 
conspict-etur (not -e¢), as given by Ursinus, and commonly received 
— ‘Will he not . be seen ?” 
re The ms. and first five edd. read e¢—“ 
se 
13 In this dialogue (st. p. 8r) Socrates brings forward the doctrine 
of reminiscence as giving a reasonable ground for the pursuit of 
knowledge, and then proceeds to give a practical illustration of it 
by leading an uneducated slave to solve a mathematical problem by 
means of question and answer. 
4 Lit., ‘‘his knowledge of things,” 


and,” changed in LB. to 








of men are immortal and endowed with knowl- 
edge when they fly hither, cease to question that 
youth whom you see to be ignorant "5 and accus- 
tomed to the ways of men:’® call to you that 
man of forty years, and ask of him, not anything 
out of the way or obscure about triangles, about 
squares, zo¢ what a cube is, or a second power,’7 
the ratio of nine to eight, or finally, of four to 
three ; but ask him that with which all are ac- 
quainted — what twice two are, or twice three. 
We wish to see, we wish to know, what answer 
he gives when questioned — whether he solves 
the desired problem. In such a case will he per- 
ceive, although his ears are open, whether you 
are saying anything, or asking anything, or re- 
quiring some answer from him? and will he not 
stand like a stock, or the Marpesian rock,’* as the 
saying is, dumb and speechless, not understand- 
ing or knowing even this — whether you are talk- 
ing with him or with another, conversing with 
another or with him ;'9 whether that is intelligi- 
ble speech which you utter, or merely a cry hav- 
ing no meaning, but drawn out and protracted 
to no purpose ? 

25. What say you, O men, who assign to your- 
selves too much of an excellence not your own? 
Is this the learned soul which you describe, im- 
mortal, perfect, divine, holding the fourth place 
under God the Lord of the universe, and under 
the kindred spirits,?° and proceeding from the 
fountains of life? 2: This is that precious dezng 
man, endowed ”? with the loftiest powers of rea- 
son, who is said zo é¢ a microcosm, and 4/0 ée 
made and formed after the fashion of the whole 
universe, superior, as has been seen, to no brute, 
more senseless than stock or stone; for he is 
unacquainted with men, and always lives, loiters 
idly in the still deserts although he were rich,?3 
lived years without number, and never escaped 
from the bonds of the body. But when he goes 
to school, you say, and is instructed by the teach- 
ing of masters, he is made wise, learned, and 
lays aside the ignorance which till now clung to 
him. And an ass, and an ox as well, if com- 





15 So the ms. and edd., reading zgnuarum rerum, except LB., 
which by merely omitting the z gives the more natural meaning. 

“ acquainted with the things,” etc, 

16 Lit., “‘ established in the limits of humanity.” 

17 ie., a square numerically or algebraically, The ms., both Ro- 
man edd., and Canterus read d2-us aut dynam-us, the former word 
being defended by Meursius as equivalent to dzxzo, weg doubling,” — 
a sense, however, in which it does not occur. In the other edd., cudus 
aut dynamis has been received from the margin of Ursinus. 

18 Anerd, vi. 472. 

19 This clause is with reason rejected by Meursius as a gloss, 

20 Founded on Plato’s words (Phedrus, st. p. 247), T) 5 (i.e. 
Zeus) éwerau otpatia Oe@y Te Kai datnovwy, the doctrine became 
prevalent that under the supreme God were lesser gods made by Him, 
beneath whom again were demons, while men stood next. ‘To this 
Orelli supposes that Arnobius here refers. 

21 The vessels in which, according to Plato (7zmeus, st. p. 41), 
the Supreme Being mixed the vital essence of all being. Cf. c. 52. 

22 Lit., “and endowed.” 

23 The text and meaning are both rather doubtful, and the edd. vary 
exceedingly. The reading of Orelli, demoretur tners, valeat in 
@re quamuis, has been translated as most akin to the ms., with 
which, according to Oehler, it agrees, although Orelli himself’ gives 
the Ms. reading as ae7-70, 


444 





pelled by constant practice, learn to plough and 
grind ; a horse, to submit to the yoke, and obey 
the reins in running ;* a camel, to kneel down 
when being either loaded or unloaded ; a dove, 
when set free, to fly back to its master’s house ; 
a dog, on finding game, to check and repress its 
barking ; a parrot, too, to articulate words ; and 
a crow to utter names. 
26. But when I hear the soul spoken of as 
something extraordinary, as akin and very nigh 
to God, and as coming hither knowing all about 
past times, I would have it teach, not learn ; and 
not go back to the rudiments, as the saying is, 
after being advanced in knowledge, but hold 
fast the truths it has learned when it enters its 
earthly body.2_ For unless it were so, how could 
it be discerned whether ¢he sow/ recalls to mem- 
ory or learns for the first time that which it hears ; 
seeing that it is much easier to believe that it 
learns what it is unacquainted with, than that it 
has forgot what it knew du¢ a little before, and 
that its power of recalling former things is lost 
through the interposition of the body? And 
what becomes of the doctrine that souls, deing 
bodiless, do not have substance? For that which 
is not connected with3 any bodily form is not 
hampered by the opposition of another, nor can 
anything be led‘ to destroy that which cannot 
be touched by what is set against it. 
proportion established in bodies remains un- 
affected and secure, though it be lost to sight in 
a thousand cases ; so must souls, if they are not 
material, as is asserted, retain their knowledge 5 
of the past, however thoroughly they may have 
been enclosed in bodies.° Moreover, the same 
reasoning not only shows that they are not incor- 
poreal, but deprives them of all? immortality 
even, and refers them to the limits within which 
life is usually closed. For whatever is led by 
some inducement to change and alter itself, so 
that it cannot retain its natural state, must of 
necessity be considered essentially passive. But 
that which is liable and exposed to suffering, is 
declared to be corruptible by that very capacity 
of. suffering. 

27. So then, if souls lose all their knowledge 
on being fettered with the body, they must expe- 
rience something of such a nature that it makes 
them become blindly forgetful.2 For they can- 
not, without becoming subject to anything what- 





t Lit., ‘‘ acknowledge turnings in the course.” 


2 Lit., ‘but retaining its own things, bind itself in earthly 
bodies.” 

Shits of? 

4 So the ms. and edd., reading sua-de-»z, for which Oehler reads 
very neatly swa de vi — “can anything of its own power destroy,” 


etc. 

S Lit., ‘ not suffer forgetfulness.” 

6 Lit , ‘‘ however the most solid unions of bodies may have bound 
them round.” 

7 So. the edd., reading privat tmmortalitate has omnt, for 
which, according to Hildebrand, the Ms. reads -tatem has omnis — 
** all these of immortality.” 

8 Lit., *‘ put on the blindness of oblivion.” 


For as a| 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





ever, either lay aside their knowledge while they 
maintain their natural state, or without change 
in themselves pass into a different state. Nay, 
we rather think that what is one, immortal, sim- 
ple, in whatever it may be, must always retain its 
own nature, and that it neither should nor could 
be subject to anything, if indeed it purposes to 
endure and abide within the limits of true immor- 
tality. For all suffering is a passage for death 
and destruction, a way leading to the grave, and 
bringing an end of life which may not be escaped 
from ; and if souls are liable to it, and yield to 
its influence and assaults, they indeed have life 
given to them only for present use, not as a 
secured possession,? although some come to 
other conclusions, and put faith in their own 
arguments with regard to so important a matter. 
28. And yet, that we may not be as ignorant 
when we leave you as defore, let us hear from 
you '° how you say that the soul, on being en- 
wrapt in an earthly body, has no recollection of 
the past; while, after being actually placed in 
the body itself, and rendered almost senseless by 
union with it, it holds tenaciously and faithfully 
the things which many years before, eighty if 
you choose to say so, or even more, it either 
did, or suffered, or said, or heard. For if, 
through being hampered by the body, it does 
not remember those things which it knew long 
ago, and before it came into this world," there is 
more reason that it should forget those things 
which it has done from time to time since being 
shut up in the body, than those which 7¢ dd be- 
fore entering it,’ while not yet connected with 
men. For the same body which*® deprives of 
memory the soul which enters it,'¢ should cause 
what is done within itself also to be wholly for- 
gotten ; for one cause cannot bring about two 
results, and; hese opposed to each other, so as to 
make some things to be forgotten, aud allow 
others to be remembered by him who did them. 
But if souls, as you call them, are prevented and 
hindered by their #7eshZy members from recalling 
their former knowledge,'5 how do they remember 
what has been arranged" in ¢hese very bodies, 





9 Cf. Lucretius, iii. 969, where life is thus spoken of. 

Io The Ms. reads ze videamu-s, changed in both Roman edd. into 
-amur — ‘that we may not be seen by you (as ignorant), how say 
you,” etc. Gelenius proposed the reading of the text, audiamus, 
which has been received by Canterus and Orelli, It is clear from the 
next words — guemadmodum dtcttis—that in this case the verb 
must be treated as a kind of interjection, ‘‘ How say you, let us hear.” 
LB. reads, to much the same purpose, sctrve avemus, “we desire to 
know.” 

Il Lit., ‘‘ before man.” 

12 Lit., ‘* placed outside.” 

13 pend enim, 
14 Rebus tugressts. 

15 So read by Orelli, axtes suas antiguas, omitting atgue, which, 
he says, follows in the ms. It is read after swas, however, in the first 
ed., and those of Gelenius, Canterus, Hildebrand; and according to 
Oehler, it is so given in the Ms., “its own and ancient.” Oberthiir 
would supply ~es — “ its own arts and ancient things.” 

16 So the Ms., reading constztut-a, followed by all edd. except those 
of Ursinus, Hildebrand, and Oehler, who read -@, ‘‘ how do they 
remember when established in the bodies,” which is certainly more in 
accordance with the context. 


3} 
Re 
sh 
Wy 
a 


se 


ete Sr 


— =— 


Pe ee eer ae 


a a 





ee ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN, 445 








and know that they are spirits, and have no 
bodily substance, being exalted by their condi- 
tion as immortal beings?! how do they know 
what rank they hold in the universe, in what 
order they have been set apart from other beings ? 
how they have come to these, the lowest parts 
of the universe? what properties they acquired, 
and from what circles,” in gliding along towards 
these regions? How, I say, do they know that 
they were very learned, and have lost their knowl- 
edge by the hindrance which their bodies afford 
them? For of this very thing also they should 
have been ignorant, whether their union with the 
body had brought any stain upon them ; for to 
know what you were, and what to-day you are 
not, is no sign that you have lost your mem- 
ory,’ but a proof and evidence that it is quite 
sound. 

29. Now, since it is so, cease, I pray you, cease 
to rate trifling and unimportant things at immense 
values. Cease to place man in the upper ranks, 
since he is of the lowest; and in the highest 
orders, seeing that his person only is taken ac- 
count of,5 that he is needy, poverty-stricken in 
his house and dwelling,° and was never entitled 
to be declared of illustrious descent. For while, 
as just men and upholders of righteousness, you 
should have subdued pride and arrogance, by 
the evils 7 of which we are all uplifted and puffed 
up with empty vanity; you not only hold that 
these evils arise naturally, but — and this is much 
worse — you have also added causes by which 
vice should increase, and wickedness remain in- 
corrigible. For what man is there, although of 
a disposition which ever shuns what is of bad 
repute and shameful, who, when he hears it said 
by very wise men that the soul is immortal, and 
not subject to the decrees of the fates,® would 
not throw himself headlong into all kinds of vice, 
and fearlessly 9 engage in and set about unlawful 
things? who would not, in short, gratify his de- 
sires in all things demanded by his unbridled 
lust, strengthened even further by its security 
and freedom from punishment?!° For what will 
hinder him from doing so? The fear of a power 
above and divine judgment? And how shall he 
be overcome by any fear or dread who has been 
persuaded that he is immortal, just as the su- 
preme God Himself, and that no sentence can 
be pronounced upon him by God, seeing that 
there is the same immortality in both, and that 





I Lit., “of immortality.” 

2 Cf. ch. 16, p. 440. 

3 Lit., ‘of a lost memory.” 

4 Lit., ‘‘of (a memory) preserved.” 

5 Capite cum censeatur. 

© Lit., “ poor in hearth, and of a poor hut.” 

7 So the Ms., reading #alzs, for which Ursinus suggested ads, 
“on the wings of which.” 

8 i.e., to death. 

9 The s. reads securus, intrepidus — “ heedless, fearless; ” the 
former word, however, being marked asa gloss, It is rejected in all 
edd., except LB. 

To Lit,, ‘‘ by the freedom of impunity.” 





the one immortal being cannot be troubled by 
the other, which is ony its equal? ™ 

30. But well he not be terrified by the punish- 
ments in Hades, of which we have heard, assum- 
ing also, as they do, many forms of torture? And 
who '3 will be so senseless and ignorant of conse- 
quences,“ as to believe that to imperishable spirits 
either the darkness of Tartarus, or rivers of fire, 
or marshes with miry abysses, or wheels sent 
whirling through the air,'5 can in any wise do 
harm? For that which is beyond reach, and not 
subject to the laws of destruction, though it be 
surrounded by all the flames of the raging streams, 
be rolled in the mire, overwhelmed by the fall 
of overhanging rocks and by the overthrow of 
huge mountains, must remain safe and untouched 
without suffering any deadly harm. 

Moreover, that conviction not only leads on 
to wickedness, from the very freedom to sin 
which it suggests, but even takes away the ground 
of philosophy itself, and asserts that it is vain to 
undertake its study, because of the difficulty of 
the work, which leads to no result. For if it is 
true that souls know no end, and are ever’® ad- 
vancing with all generations, what danger is there 
in giving themselves up to the pleasures of sense 
— despising and neglecting the virtues by regard 
to which life is more stinted 27 7¢¢s pleasures, and 
becomes less attractive—and in letting loose 
their boundless lust to range eagerly and un- 
checked through ‘7 all kinds of debauchery? Js 
it the danger of being worn out by such pleas- 
ures, and corrupted by vicious effeminacy? And 
how can that be corrupted which is immortal, 
which always exists, and zs subject to no suffer- 
ing? Ls zt the danger of being polluted by foul 
and base deeds? And how can that be defiled 
which has no corporeal substance ; or where can 
corruption seat itself, where there is no place on 
which the mark of this very corruption should 
fasten ? 

But again, if souls draw near to the gates of 
death," as is laid down in the doctrine of Epicu- 





II Lit., ‘the one (immortality) . . . in respect of the equality of 
condition of the other” — ec zm altertus (?immortalitat?s) altera 
(mmortalitatas) posstt equalitate conditionts vexari ; the refer- 
ence being clearly to the immediately preceding clause, with which it 
is so closely connected logically and grammatically. Orelli, however, 
would supply ax%zma, aro Tov Kotvov, as he puts it, of which nothing 
need be said. Meursius, with customary boldness, emends sec vi 
altertus altera, ‘‘ nor by the power of one can the other,” etc. 

12 So the ellipse is usually supplied, but it seems simpler and is 
more natural thus: ‘‘ But punishments (have been) spoken of” (me- 
morate), etc. 

13 So ms. and Oehler, for which the edd. read ec guzs, “will any 
one.” 

14 Lit., “ the consequences of things.” 

15 Lit, ‘‘ the moving of wheels whirling.” 

16 Lit., ‘in the unbroken course of ages” — ferfeturtate evorum. 

17 Lit., ‘‘ and to scatter the unbridled eagerness of boundless lust 
through,” etc. 

18 Lucretius (ili. 417 sqq.) teaches at great length that the soul and 
mind are mortal, on the ground that they consist of atoms smaller than 
those of vapour, so that, like it, on the breaking of their case, they 
will be scattered abroad; next, on the ground of the analogy between 
them and the body in regard to disease, suffering, etc.; of their igno- 
rance of the past, and want of developed qualities; and finally, on the 
ground of the adaptation of the soul to the body, as of a fish to the 
sea, so that life under other conditions would be impossibly 


446 


Cee 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





rus, in this case, too, there is no sufficient reason 
why philosophy should be sought out, even if it 
is true that by it’ souls are cleansed and made 
pure from all uncleanness.? For if they all3 die, 
and even in the body‘ the feeling characteristic 
of life perishes, and is lost ; 5 it is not only a very 
great mistake, but shows stupid blindness, to 
curb innate desires, to restrict your mode of life 
within narrow limits, not yield to your inclina- 
tions, and do what our passions have demanded 
and urged, since no rewards await you for so 
great toil when the day of death comes, and 
you shall be freed from the bonds of the 
body. 

31. A certain neutral character, then, and 
undecided and doubtful nature of the soul, has 
made room for philosophy, and found out a rea- 
son for its being sought after: while, that is, that 
tellow® is full of dread because of evil deeds 
of which he is guilty; another conceives great 
hopes if he shall do no evil, and pass his life in 
obedience to”? duty and justice. Thence it is 
that among learned men, and men endowed with 
excellent abilities, there is strife as to the nature 
of the soul, and some say that it is subject to 
death, and cannot take upon itself the divine 
substance ; while others maznfain that it is im- 
mortal, and cannot sink under the power of 
death. But this is brought about by the law 
of the soul’s neutral character :9 because, on the 
one hand, arguments present themselves to the 
one party by which it is found that the soul °° is 
capable of suffering, and perishable ; and, on the 
other hand, are not wanting to their opponents, 
by which it is shown that the soul is divine and 
immortal. 

32. Since these things are so, and we have 
been taught by the greatest teacher that souls 
are set not far from the gaping '* jaws of death ; 
that they can, nevertheless, have their lives pro- 
longed by the favour and kindness of the Supreme 
Ruler if only they try and study to know Him, 
—for the knowledge of Him is a kind of vital 





1 The ms. and first four edd. read kas, “that these souls,” etc. ; 
in the other edd., 4ac is received as above from the margin of Ursi- 


s. 

2 Cf. Plato, Phedo (st. p. 64 sq.), where death is spoken of as 
only a carrying further of that separation of the soul from the pleas- 
ures and imperfections of the body which the philosopher strives to 
effect in this life, 

3 Lit., ‘in common.” 

1. 


5 This refers to the second argument of Lucretius noticed above. 

© i.e., the abandoned and dissolute immortal spoken of in last 
chapter. 

7 Lits; with, 

8 Lit., ‘‘ degenerate into mortal nature.” 

9 Arnobius seems in this chapter to refer to the doctrine of the 
Stoics, that the soul must be material, because, unless body and soul 
were of one substance, there could be no common feeling or mutual 
affection (so Cleanthes in Memes. de Nat. Hom., ii. p 33); and to 
that held by some of them, that only the souls of the wise remained 
after death, and these only till the conflagration (Stob., Ec/. Phys., 
P. 372) which awaits the world, and ends the Stoic great year or 
cycle. Others, however, held that the souls of the wise came 
dzmons and demigods (Diog., Laert., vii. 157 and 151). 

10 Lit., ‘‘ they” — eas. 

II Lit., “from the gapings and,” etc. 





leaven '? and cement to bind together that which 
would otherwise fly apart,—let them," then, 
laying aside their savage and barbarous nature, 
return to gentler ways, that they may be able to 
be ready for that which shall be given.'* What 
reason is there that we should be considered by 
you brutish, as it were, and stupid, if we have 
yielded and given ourselves up to God our de- 
liverer, because of these fears? We often seek 
out remedies for wounds and the poisoned bites 
of serpents, and defend ourselves by means of 
thin plates '5 sold by Psylli'® or Marsi, and other 
hucksters '?7 and impostors ; and that we may not 
be inconvenienced by cold or intense heat,'® we 
provide with anxious and careful diligence cov- 
erings in '9 houses and clothing. 

33. Seeing that the fear of death, that is, the 
ruin of our souls, menaces?° us, in what are we 
not acting, as we all are wont, from a sense of 
what will be to our advantage,’ in that we hold 
Him fast who assures us that He will be our 
deliverer from such danger, embrace Am, and 
entrust our souls to His care,?? if only that?3 inter- 
change is right? You rest the salvation of your 
souls on yourselves, and are assured that by your 
own exertions alone?* you become gods ; but we, 
on the contrary, hold out no hope to ourselves 
from our own weakness, for we see that our na- 
ture has no strength, and is overcome by its own 
passions in every strife for anything.25 You think 
that, as soon as you pass away, freed from the 
bonds of your fleshly members, you will find 
wings 7° with which you may rise to heaven and 
soar to the stars. We shun such presumption, 
and do not think?’ that it is in our power to reach 
the abodes?’ above, since we have no certainty 
as to this even, whether we deserve to receive 





12 There may be here some echo of the words (John xvii. 3), ‘‘ This 
is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God,” etc.; 
but there is certainly not sufficient similarity to found a direct refer- 
ence on, as has been done by Orelli and others. 

I3 i.e., souls. 

14 This passage presents no difficulty in itself, its sense being ob- 
viously that, as by God's grace life is given to those who serve Him, 
we must strive to fit ourselves to receive His blessing. The last 
words, however, have seemed to some fraught with mystery, and have 
been explained by Heraldus at some length as a veiled or confused 
reference to the Lord’s Supper, as following upon baptism and bap- 
tismal regeneration, which, he supposes, are referred to in the preced- 
ing words, “ laying aside,” etc. [It is not, however, the language of 
a mere catechumen. 

1s These “‘ thin plates,” Zaazzu@, Orelli has suggested, were amu- 
lets worn as a charm against serpents. 

16 ms. Phyllis. 

17 So the edd., reading zzstzt-orzbus for the MS. znstit-ut-oribus, 
“makers.” 

18 Lit., “‘ that colds and violent suns may not,” etc. 

19. Lit., ‘ of.” 

20 Lit., “is set before.” 

21 So the s., first ed., Gelenius, Canterus, Hildebrand, reading 
ex commodi sensu, for which all the other edd., following Ursinus 


and Meursius, read ex communz—‘‘from common sense,” i.e., 
wisely. 

22 Perhaps, as Orelli evidently understands it, ‘‘ prefer Him to our 
own souls” — anzmzs preponimus., 


23 So Oehler, reading ea for the ms. #¢, omitted in all edd. 
24 Lit., ‘‘ by your own and internal exertion.” 
"25 Lit., “ of things,” 
26 Lit., ‘‘ wings will be at hand.” 
27 The Ms. reads @z-cimus, ‘‘ say;” corrected du, as above, 
28 The first four edd. read ves, ‘‘ things above,” for which Stewe- 
chius reads, as above, sedes. 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


447 





life and be freed from the law of death. You 
suppose that without the aid of others‘ you will 
return to the master’s palace as if to your own 
home, no one hindering you, but we, on the 
contrary, neither have any expectation that this 
can be unless by the wil of the Lord of all, nor 
think that so much power and licence are given 


‘to any man. 


34. Since this is the case, what, pray, is so 
unfair as that we should be looked on by you as 
silly in that readiness of belief at which you scoff, 
while we see that you both have like beliefs, and 
entertain the same hopes? If we are thought 
deserving of ridicule because we hold out to our- 
selves such a hope, the same ridicule awaits you 
too, who claim for yourselves the hope of im- 
mortality. If you hold and follow a rational 
course, grant to us also a share in it. If Plato 
in the PAedrus,? or another of this band of phi- 
losophers, had promised these joys to us — that 
is, a way to escape death, or were able to provide 
it and bring ws to the end which he had prom- 
ised,3 it would have been fitting that we should 
seek to honour him from whom we look for so 
great a gift and favour. Now, since Christ has 
not only promised it, but also shown by His vir- 
tues, which were so great, that it can be made 
good, what strange thing do we do, and on what 
grounds are we charged with folly, if we bow 
down and worship His name‘# and majesty from 
whom we expect “ receive both these blessings, 
that we may at once escape a death of suffering, 
and be enriched with eternal life ? 5 

35. But, say my opponents, if souls are mortal 
and ° of neutral character, how can they from 
their neutral properties become immortal? If 
we should say that we do not know this, and 
only believe it because said by? Onze mightier 
than we, when will our readiness of belief seem 
mistaken if we believe® that to the almighty 
King nothing is hard, nothing difficult, and 
that 9 what is impossible to us is possible to 
Him and at His command?’® For is there 
anything which may withstand His will, or does 


it not follow’! of necessity that what He has 
willed mus¢ be done? Are we to infer from our 
distinctions what either can or cannot be done ; 
and are we not to consider that our reason is as 
mortal as we ourselves are, and is of no im- 
portance with the Supreme? And yet, O ye 
who do not believe that the soul is of a neutral 
character, and that it is held on the line midway 
between life and death, are not all whatever 
whom fancy supposes to exist, gods, angels, 
dzemons, or whatever else is their name, them- 
selves too of a neutral character, and liable to 
change * in the uncertainty of their future? '3 
For if we all agree that there is one Father of 
all, who alone zs immortal and unbegotten, and 
zf nothing at all is found before Him which 
could be named," it follows as a consequence 
that all these whom the imagination of men 
believes to be gods, have been either begotten 
by Him or produced at His bidding. Are they''s 
produced and begotten? they are also later in 
order and time: if later in order and time, they 
must have an origin, and beginning of birth and 
life; but that which has an entrance zz/o and 
beginning of life in its first stages, it of neces- 
sity follows, should have an end also. 

36. But the gods are said to be immortal. 
Not by nature, then, but by the good-will and 
favour of God their Father. In tne same way, 
then, in which the boon * of immortality is God’s 
gift to these who were assuredly produced,’ will 
He deign to confer eternal life upon souls also, 
although fell death seems able to cut them off 
and blot them out of existence in utter anni- 
hilation.'® The divine Plato, many of whose 
thoughts are worthy of God, and not such as 
the vulgar hold, in that discussion and treatise 
entitled the Zzmceus, says that the gods and the 
world are corruptible by nature, and in no wise 
beyond the reach of death, but that their being 
is ever maintained 9 by the will of God, their 
King and Prince : ?° for that that evex which has 
been duly clasped and bound together by the 
surest bands is preserved only by God’s good- 








1 one 

2 Here, as in c. 7, p. 436, n. 3, the edd. read Phedone, with the 
exception of the first ed., LB., Hildebrand, and Oehler, who follow 
the MS. as above. 

3 Lit., ‘‘ to the end of promising.” 

4 Meursius suggests zumznz, ‘‘ deity,” on which it may be well 
to remark once for all, that zomen and numen are in innumerable 
places interchanged in one or other of the edd. The change, how- 
ever, is usually of so little moment, that no further notice will be 
taken of it. 

5 So the Ms., according to Rigaltius and Hildebrand, reading vzte 
aternitate, while Crusius asserts that the Ms gives vita et —‘‘ with 
life and eternity.” 

6 The Ms. reading is, #ortalts est gualitatis. The first five edd. 
merely drop est —‘‘ of mortal, of neutral,” etc.; LB. and the others 
read, es et, as above. 

7 Lit., “heard from.” 

8 So the MS., according to Crusius, the edd. reading cred-zd-tmus 

— “‘ have believed.” 

9 Lit , “if we delzeve that.” 

10 So the MS., reading ad modum obsecutionts paratum — “ pre- 
pared to the mode of compliance; ” for which the edd. read adr. exe- 
extiont —‘‘ quite prepared for performing,” except Hildebrand, who 
gives adm. obsecutiont —“‘ tor obedience.” 








II So the Ms., according to Crusius, but all edd. read segu-a-tur 
(for 7) — ‘‘ Is there anything which He has willed which it does not 
follow,” etc. 

12 So all edd., reading eutabzles, except the two Roman edd. and 
Oehler, who gives, as the reading of the Ms., ##. — “ tottering.” 

13 Lit., “in the doubtful condition of their lot.” 

14 Lit., “‘ which may have been of a name.’ 

15 LB., followed by the later edd., inserted sz, “if they are,” which 
is certainly more consistent with the rest of the sentence. 

16 The MS. reading is utterly corrupt and meaningless — r#mor: 
talttatis largiter est donum det certa prolatis. Gelenius, followed 
by Canterus, Oberthiir, and Orelli, emended Jargt-tzo . : . certe, as 
above. The two Roman edd. read, -tatem largitus ... certam — 
“ bestowed, assured immortality as God’s gift on,” etc. 

17 i.e. , who must therefore have received it if they have it at all. 

18 Lit., ‘out, reduced to nothing with annihilation, not to be re- 
turned from.” 

19 Lit., ‘‘ they are held in a lasting bond,” i.e., of being. 

20 Plato makes the supreme God, creator of the inferior deities, 
assure these lesser gods that their created nature being in itself sub. 
ject to diecohieka, iis will is a surer ground on which to rely for 
immortality, than the substance or mode of their own being (7zmens, 
st p. 41; translated by Cicero, de Unzv., xi., and criticised de Vat. 
Deor., i. 8 and iii. 12). 


448 


OS i A a Bo 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





ness ; and that by no other than’ by Him who 
bound ¢heir elements together can they both be 
dissolved if necessary, and have the command 
given which preserves their being? If this is 
the case, then, and it is not fitting to think or 
believe otherwise, why do you wonder that we 
speak of the soul as neutral in its character, 
when Plato says that it is so even with the dei- 
ties,3 but that their life is kept up by God’s 4 
grace, without break or end ? For if by chance 
you knew it not, and because of its novelty it 
was unknown to you before, now, though late, 
receive and learn from Him who knows and _ has 
made it known, Christ, that souls are not the 
children of the Supreme Ruler, and did not 
begin to be self-conscious, and to be spoken of 
in their own special character after being cre- 
ated by Him;5 but that some other is their 
parent, far enough removed from the chief in 
rank and power, of His court, however, and dis- 
tinguished by His high and exalted birthright. 
37. But if souls were, as is said, the Lord’s 
children, and begotten by® the Supreme Power, 
nothing would have been wanting to make them 
perfect, as they would have been born with the 
most perfect excellence: they would all have 
had one mind, and deen of one accord; they 
would always dwell in the royal palace; and 
would not, passing by the seats of bliss in which 
they had learned and kept in mind the noblest 
teachings, rashly seek these regions of earth, 
that 7 they might live enclosed in gloomy bodies 
amid phlegm and blood, among these bags of 
filth and most disgusting ° vessels of urine. But, 
an opponent will say, it was necessary that these 
parts too should be peopled, and therefore Al- 
mighty God sent souls hither to form some colo- 
nies, as it were. And of what use are men to 
the world, and on account of what are they 
necessary,? so that they may not be believed to 
have been destined to live here and be the 


1 The ms, and both Roman edd. read xegue ullo ab-olttio-nzs unin- 
telligibly, for which Gelenius proposed zexusgue abolitione —‘and by 
the destruction of the bond;” but the much more suitable reading in 
the margin of Ursinus, translated above, «d/o ab alio nzs-7, has been 
adopted by later edd.’ 

2 Lit., “‘be gifted with a saving order.” So the ms., reading 
salutar? tusstone, followed by both Rom, edd.; LB. and Orelli read 
vinctione —“‘ bond; ” Gelenius, Canterus, Elmenh., and Oberthiir, 
m-tsstone — ‘ dismissal,” 

3 Lit., “that to the gods themselves the natures are inter- 
mediate.” 

4 Lit., “supreme ” — préncipalz. 

5 Cf. 1. 48. On this passage Orelli quotes Irenzeus, i. 21, where 
are enumerated several gnostic theories of the creation of the world 
and men by angels, who are themselves created by the “‘ one unknown 
Father.” Arnobius is thought, both by Orelli and others, to share in 
these opinions, and in this discussion to hint at them, but obscurely, 
lest his cosmology should be confounded by the Gentiles with their 
own polytheistic system. It seems much more natural to suppose that 
we have here the indefinite statement of opinions not thoroughly di- 
gested, 

6 Lit., “fa generation of.” 

? Canterus, Elmenhorst, Oberthiir, and Orelli omit #¢, which is 
retained as above by the rest. 

8 Lit., ‘‘ obscene.” 

9 Elmenhorst endeavours to show that Arnobius coincides in this 
argument with the Epicureans, by quoting Lucr. v. 165 sqq. and Lact. 
vil. 5, where the Epicurean argument is brought forward, What profit 
has God in man, that He should have created him? In doing this, it 





tenants of an earthly body for no purpose? 
They have a share, my opponent says, in per- 
fecting the completeness of this immense mass, 
and without their addition this whole universe 
is incomplete and imperfect. What then? If 
there were not men, would the world cease to 
discharge its functions? would the stars not go 
through their changes? would there not be sum- 
mers and winters? would the blasts of the winds 
be lulled? and from the clouds gathered and 
hanging overhead would not the showers come 
down upon the earth to temper droughts? But 
now 7° all things must go on in their own courses, 
and not give up following the arrangement es- 
tablished by nature, even if there should be no 
name of man heard in the world, and this earth 
should be still with the silence of an unpeo- 
pled desert. How then is it alleged that it was 
necessary that an inhabitant should be given 
to these regions, since it is clear that by man 
comes nothing to ad im perfecting the world, 
and that all his exertions regard his private con- 
venience always, and never cease to aim at his 
own advantage ? 

38. For, to begin with what is important, what 
advantage is it to the world that the mightiest 
kings are here? What, that there are tyrants, 
lords, and other innumerable and very illustrious 
powers? What, that there are generals of the 
greatest experience in war, skilled in taking 
cities ; soldiers steady and utterly invincible in 
battles of cavalry, or in fighting hand to hand 
on foot? What, that there are orators, gram- 
marians, poets, writers, logicians, musicians, bal- 
let-dancers, mimics, actors, singers, trumpeters, 
flute and reed players? What, that there are 
runners, boxers, charioteers, vaulters,"' walkers on 
stilts, rope-dancers, jugglers? What, that there 
are dealers in salt fish, salters, fishmongers, per- 
fumers, goldsmiths, bird-catchers, weavers of 
winnowing fans and baskets of rushes? What, 
that there are fullers, workers in wool, embroid- 
erers, cooks, confectioners, dealers in mules, 
pimps, butchers, harlots? What, that there are 
other kinds of dealers? What do she other kinds 
of professots and arts, for the enumeration of 
which all life would be zo short, contribute to 
the plan and constitution of the world, that we 
should believe '3 that it could not have been 


founded without men. and would not attain its 


completeness without the addition of" a wretched 
and useless being’s exertion ? *5 








seems not to have been observed that the questien asked by Arnobius 
is a very different one: What place has man in the wor/d, that God 
should be suppored to have sent him to fill it? 

10 j,e., so far from this being the case. 

Il j e,, from one horse to another — desultores. 

12 Rationtbus et constttutionibus. 

13 Lit., ‘‘ it should be believed.” 

14 Lit., “ unless there were joined.” 

Is So the MS., reading contentio, which Orelli would understand as 
meaning ‘‘ contents,” which may be correct. LB. reads conditio— 
“condition,” ineptly; and Ursinus in the margin, completio —‘‘ the 
filling up.” : 











ES Lae, ae ee a eee 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


449 





39. But perhaps, some one will urge, the Ruler 
of the world sent hither souls sprung from Him- 
self for this purpose —a very rash thing for a 
man to say ‘—that they which had been divine? 
with Him, not coming into contact with the 
body and earthly limits,3 should be buried in 


_ the germs of men, spring from the womb, burst 
‘into and keep up the silliest wailings, draw the 


breasts in sucking, besmear and bedaub them- 
selves with their own filth, then be hushed by 
the swaying ¢ of the frightened nurse and by the 
sound of rattles.3 Did He send souls Azther for 
this reason, that they which had been but now 
sincere and of blameless virtue should learn as ° 
men to feign, to dissemble, to lie, to cheat,” to 
deceive, to entrap with a flatterer’s abjectness ; 
to conceal one thing in the heart,® express an- 
other in the countenance; to ensnare, to be- 
guile? the ignorant with crafty devices, to seek 
out poisons by means of numberless arts swg- 
gested by bad feelings, and to be fashioned '° witk 
deceitful changeableness to suit circumstances? 
Was it for this He sent souls, that, living “27 then 
in calm and undisturbed tranquillity, they might 
find in ™ their bodies causes by which to become 
fierce and savage, cherish hatred and enmity, 
make war upon each other, subdue and over- 
throw states; load themselves with, and give 
themselves up to the yoke of slavery ; and finally, 
be put the one in the other’s power, having 
changed the condition’? in which they were 
born? Was it for this He sent souls, that, being 
made unmindful of the truth, and forgetful of 
what God was, they should make supplication to 
images which cannot move; address as super- 
human deities pieces of wood, brass, and stones ; 
ask aid of them *3 with the blood of slain anima’ Se 

make no mention of Himself: nay more, that 
some of them should doubt their own existence, 
or deny altogether that anything exists? Was it 
for this He sent souls, that they which in their 
own abodes had been of one mind, equals in 
intellect and knowledge, after that they put on 


- I So the later edd., from the margin of Ursinus, reading guod 
temeritatis est maxima for the ms. gue —‘‘ whom it shows the 
greatest rashness to speak of.” 

2 Lit., ‘‘ goddesses.” 

3 So Geleuine (acc. to Orelli), reading as in the margin of Ursinus, 
verrene circumscriptionis, for the unintelligible reading of the Ms., 
temeraria, retained in both Roman edd., Canterus, and (acc. to 
Ochler) Gelenius. LB. reads metarte —“a limiting by boundaries.” 

4 Lit., ‘‘ motions.’ 

5 Cf. Lucr., v. 229sq. The same idea comes up again in iv. ar. 

6 Lit., ‘i bs 

7 Aung to Hildebrand, the ms. reads dissimular-ent ctr- 
cumscribere, so that, by merely dropping 7, he reads, “‘ to dissem- 
ble and cheat;” but according to Crusius, 777 is found in the MS. 
between these two words, so that by prefixing 2 Sabzeus in the first 
ed, ro m-ent-tri as above, followed y all other edd. 

8 Lit., ‘to roll . . . in the mind.” 

9 Rigaltius and Hildebrand regard deczfere as a gloss. 

10 So the Ms., reading formarz, followed by Hildebrand and Oeh- 
ler; but all the other edd. give the active form, -ave. 

It Lit., ‘‘ from.” 

2 The condition, i.e., of freedom. 

13 LB. seemingly received by Orelli, though not inserted into his 
text, reads poscerent eos for the Ms. -entur, which Hildebrand 
modifies -en? ea as above. 





‘mortal forms, should be divided by differences 


of opinion; should have different views as to 
what is just, useful, and right; should contend 
about the objects of desire and aversion ; should 
define the highest good and greatest evil differ- 
ently; that, in seeking to know the truth of 
things, they should be hindered by their obscur- 
ity; and, as if bereft of eyesight, should see 
nothing clearly,'* and, wandering from the truth,'5 
should be led through uncertain bypaths of 
fancy? 

40. Was it for this He sent souls hzther, that 
while the other creatures are fed by what springs 
up spontaneously, and is produced without being 
sown, and do not seek for themselves the pro- 
tection or covering of houses or garments, they 
should be under the sad necessity © of building 
houses for themselves at very great expense and 
with never-ending toils, preparing coverings for 
their limbs, making different 2¢mds of furniture 
for the wants '7 of daily life, borrowing help for "8 
their weakness from the dumb creatures ; using 
violence to the earth that it might not give forth 
its own herbs, but might send up the fruits re- 
quired ; and when they had put forth all their 
strength '9 in subduing the earth, should be com- 
pelled to lose the hope with which they had 
laboured *° through blight, hail, drought ; and at 
last forced by?" hunger to throw themselves on 
human bodies ; and when set free, to be parted 
from their human forms by a wasting sickness? 
Was it for this that they which, while they abode 
with Him, had never had any longing for property, 


|should have become exceedingly covetous, and 


with insatiable craving be inflamed to an eager 
desire of possessing; that they should dig up 
lofty mountains, and turn the unknown bowels 
of the earth into materials, and / purposes of a 
different kind ; should force their way to remote 
nations at the risk of life, and, in exchanging 
goods, always catch at a high price for what they 
sell, and a low one”? for what they buy, take in- 
terest at greedy and excessive rates, and add to 
the number of their sleepless nights stent in 
reckoning up thousands 23 wrung from the life- 
blood of wretched men; should be ever extend- 
ing the limits of their possessions, and, though 





TAS Bit" certain.” 

Is Lit., ‘ by error.’ 

16 Lit., ‘‘ the sad necessity should be laid upon them, that,” etc. 

17 Lit., ‘‘for the want of daily things,” dzurnorum egestatz, for 
which Stewechius would read d7xrna egestate —‘‘ from daily neces- 
sit 

8 Lit, of.” 

I9 Lit., § “ Doured forth all. their blood.” 

20: Lit., “of their labour.” 

21 Lit., ‘at last by force of.” 


22 So ae Ms. and edd., reading vilitatem, for which Meursius pro- 
posed very needlessly utilitatem —“and at an advantage,” 

23 So, adhering very closely to the ms., which gives e-t sanguine 
supputandts augere-t tnsomnta milibus, the ¢ of e-t being omitted 
and z inserted by all. The first five edd. read, -tandi se angerent 
insania: millibus —‘‘harass themselves with the madness of reck- 
oning; by miles should extend,” etc.,— the only change in Heraldus 
and Orelli being a return to insoninia —“ harass with sleepless- 
ness,” etc. 


450 


iP vee Te eee 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN.. 





they were to make whole provinces one estate, 
should weary the forum with suits for one tree, 
for one furrow; should hate rancorously their 
friends and brethren? 

41. Was it for this He sent souls, that they 
which shortly before had been gentle and igno- 
rant of what t¢ is to be moved by fierce passions, 
should build for themselves markets and amphi- 
theatres, places of blood and open wickedness, in 
the one of which they should see men devoured 
and torn in pieces by wild beasts, ad themselves 
slay others for no demerit but to please and 
gratify the spectators,' and should spend those 
very days on which such wicked deeds were 
done in general enjoyment, and keep holiday 
with festive gaiety; while in the other, again, 
they should tear asunder the flesh of wretched 
animals, some snatch one part, others another, 
as dogs and vultures do, should grind them 
with their teeth, and give to their utterly insa- 
tiable2 maw, and that, surrounded by? faces so 
fierce and savage, those should bewail their lot 
whom the straits of poverty withheld from such 
repasts ;4 that their life should be5 happy and 
prosperous while such barbarous doings defiled 
their mouths and face? Was it for this He sent 
souls, that, forgetting their importance and dig- 
nity as divine, they should acquire gems, pre- 
cious stones, pearls, at the expense of their puri- 
ty ; should entwine their necks with these, pierce 
the tips of their ears, bind® their foreheads with 
fillets, seek for cosmetics? to deck their bodies,® 
darken their eyes with henna; nor, though in 
the forms of men, blush to curl their hair with 
crisping-pins, to make the skin of the body 
smooth, to walk with bare knees, and with every 
other 2nd of wantonness, both to lay aside the 
strength of their manhood, and to grow in effem- 
inacy to a woman’s habits and luxury? 

42. Was it for this He sent souls, that some 
should infest the highways and roads,? others 
ensnare the unwary, forge '° false wills, prepare 
poisoned draughts ; that they should break open 
houses by night, tamper wz¢h slaves, steal and 








1 So restored by Cujacius, followed by LB. and Orelli, reading 
i grat-t-am (MS. wants 7) voluptatemque, while the first five edd. 
merely drop -gwe — “‘ to the grateful pleasure,” etc. 

2 tae ** most cruel.” 

3 Lit., “among,” z# ors, the Ms. reading, and that of the first 
four edd., for which the others have received from the margin of Ur- 
sinus soriius — ‘‘ (indulging) in so fierce and savage customs.” 

4 Lit., ‘ tables,” 

5 Lit., ‘‘ they should live.” 

© Lit., “lessen.” 

7 In the Ms, this clause follows the words “‘ loss of their purity,” 
where it is very much in the way. Orelli has followed Heraldus in 
disposing of it as above, while LB. inserts it after ‘tips of their 
ears.” The rest adhere to the arrangement of the ms., Ursinus sug- 

esting instead of A7zs—‘‘with these,” catenzs —‘‘ with chains; ” 
RARE dints —“‘ with strings (of pearls); ” Stewechius, tenz7's — 
** with fillets,” 

8 So LB. and Orelli, reading con-fic-iendis corporibus for the 
MS. con-sp-tendis, for which the others read -sfzc-, “‘ to win atten- 
tion.” A conjecture by Oudendorp, brought forward by Orelli, is 
worthy of notice —con-spu-endis, ‘‘to cover,” i.¢., so as to hide 
defects. 

9 Lit., ‘‘ passages of ways.” 

to Lit., ‘‘ substitute.” 





drive away, not act uprightly, and betray ‘heir 
trust perfidiously ; that they should strike out 
delicate dainties for the palate ; that in cooking 
fowls they should know how to catch the fat as it 
drips; that they should make cracknels and 
sausages,'! force-meats, tit-bits, Lucanian sau- 
sages, with these 2 a sow’s udder and iced '3 pud- 
dings? Was it for this He sent souls, that beings "4 
of a sacred and august race should here prac 
tise singing and piping; that they should swell 
out their cheeks in blowing the flute ; that they 
should take the lead in singing impure songs, 
and raising the loud din of the castanets,"5 by 
which another crowd of souls should be led in 
their wantonness to abandon themselves to 
clumsy motions, to dance and sing, form rings 
of dancers, and finally, raising their haunches 
and hips, float along with a tremulous motion 
of the loins? 

Was it for this He sent souls, that in men they 
should become impure, in women harlots, players 
on the triangle ‘© and psaltery ; that they should 
prostitute their bodies for hire, should abandon 
themselves to the lust of all,‘7 ready in the 
brothels, to be met with in the stews,'* ready to 
submit to anything, prepared to do violence to 
their mouth even? 19 

43. What say you, O offspring and descendants 
of the Supreme Deity? Did these souls, then, 
wise, and sprung from the first causes, become 
acquainted with such forms of baseness, crime, 
and bad feeling? and were they ordered to dwell 
here,?° and be clothed with the garment of the 
human body, in order that they might engage in, 
might practise these evil deeds, and that very 
frequently? And is there a man with any sense 
of reason who thinks that the world was estab- 
lished because of them, and not rather that it 





11 So the later edd., reading dotzlos; the Ms. and early edd. give 
boletos —‘‘ mushrooms.” 

12 For hzs, Heinsius proposes 4zrzs — ‘‘ with the intestines.” 

13 Lit., ‘fin a frozen condition.” As to the meaning of this there 
is difference of opinion: some supposing that it means, as above, 
preserved by means of ice, or at least frozen; while others interpret 
figuratively, “as hard as ice.” [Our Scottish translators have used 
their local word, “‘ iced haggises:” I have put puddings instead, 
which gives us, at least, an idea of something edible. To an Ameri- 
can, what is zced conveys the idea of a drink. The dudinartus, 
heretofore noted, probably made these iced saxczsses. ] 

14 Lit., “ things” — res. 

15 Scadzila were a kind of rattles or castanets moved by the feet. 

16 Sambuca, not corresponding to the modern triangle, but a 
stringed instrument of that shape. Its notes were shrill and disagree- 
able, and those who played on it of indifferent character. 

17 So the ms. and first four edd., reading wérzlztatem sut populo 
publicarent, Meursius emended utz/itatem — ‘made common the 
use,” etc.; and Orelli, from the margin of Ursinus, wilztatem — 
“their vileness.” 

18 The ms. reads 72 forntcibus obvt-t-@, which, dropping #, is the 
reading translated, and was received by Elmenhorst, LB., and Hilde- 
brand, from the margin of Ursinus, he other edd. insert 2c before 
¢— “ bound.” 

19 The translation does not attempt to bring out the force of the 
words ad oris stuprum parate, which are read by Orelli after Ur- 
sinus and Gelenius. The text is so corrupt, and the subject so ob- 
scene, that a bare reference to the practice may be sufficient. 

20 The ms. reads, habttare atgue habitare juss-e-r-unt. All 
edd. omit the first two words, the first ed. without further change; but 
the active verb is clearly out of place, and therefore all other edd. 
read juss@ sunt, as above. Oehler, however, from Aabztare omitted 
by the others, would emend adztare, ‘‘ to approach,” —a conjecture 
with very little to recommend it. 











ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN, 


451 





was set up as.a seat and home, in which every 
kind of wickedness should be committed daily, 
all evil deeds be done, plots, impostures, frauds, 
covetousness, robberies, violence, impiety, a// 
that is presumptuous, indecent, base, disgrace- 
ful, and all the other evil deeds which men 
devise over all the earth with guilty purpose, and 
contrive for each other’s ruin ? 

44. But, you say, they came of their own ac- 
cord, not sent? by their lord. And; where was 
the Almighty Creator, where the authority of His 
royal and exalted place,‘ to prevent their depart- 
ure, and not suffer them to fall into dangerous 
pleasures? For if He knew that by change of 
place they would become base —and, as the 
arranger of all things,s He must have known — 
or that anything would reach them from without 
which would make them forget their greatness 
and moral dignity, —a thousand times would I 
beg of Him to pardon my words, —the cause 
of all is no other than Himself, since He allowed 
them to have freedom to wander® who He fore- 
saw would not abide by their state of innocence ; 
and thus it is brought about that it does not 
matter whether they came of their own accord, 
or obeyed His command, since in not preventing 
what should have been prevented, by His inaction 
He made the guilt His own, and permitted it be- 
fore 7¢ was done by neglecting to withhold them 
Srom action. 

45. But let this monstrous and impious fancy 
be put? far from us, that Almighty God, the 
creator and framer, the author® of things great 
and invisible, should be believed to have begotten 
souls so fickle, with no seriousness, firmness, and 
steadiness, prone to vice, inclining to all kinds 
of sins ; and while He knew that they were such 
and of this character, to have bid? them enter 
into bodies, imprisoned in which,’° they should 
live exposed to the storms and tempests of for- 
tune every day, and now do mean things, now 
submit to lewd treatment; that they might per- 
ish by shipwreck, accidents, destructive conflagra- 
tions ; that poverty might oppress some, beggary, 
others ; that some might be torn in pieces by 
wild beasts, others perish by the venom of flies ; "! 





1 These are all substantives in the original. 

2 Sothe Ms., reading non misstone —“‘ not by the sending; ” but, 
unaccountably enough, all edd. except idebrand and Oehler read 
scat ado not by the command.” 

3 So th e MS. 

4 Lit., “ royal sublimity.” 

5 Lit., ** causes.” 

6 The ms, and both Roman edd. read abscondere —“‘ to hide,” 
for which the other edd. read, as above, adscedere, from the margin 
of Ursinus. 

7 Lit. 

8 By iSobrand and Oehler, Arocreator is with reason regarded 
as a gloss. 

9 The Ms., both Roman edd., and Hildebrand read 7usszsset ; but 
this mould, throw the sentence into confusion, and the other edd. thcre- 
fore dro 

Bo LB. Hildebrand, and Oehler read quorum tndu-c-ta@ carcert- 
bus —* led into the prisons of which,” all other edd. omitting ¢ as 
above. According to Oehler, the ms. has the former reading 

11 The ms, and both Roman edd. read zx-f-ernarum paterentut 
alia laniatus muscularum, which has no meaning, and 1s little 








that some might limp in walking, others lose their 
sight, others be stiff with cramped ” joints; in 
fine, that they should be exposed to all the 
diseases which the wretched and pitiable human 
race endures with agony caused by?3 different 
sufferings ; then that, forgetting that they have 
one origin, one father and head, they should 
shake to their foundations and violate the rights 
of kinship, should overthrow their cities, lay 
waste their lands as enemies, enslave the free, do 
violence to maidens and to other men’s wives, 
hate each other, envy the joys and good fortune 
of others; and further, all malign, carp at, and 
tear each other to pieces with fiercely biting 
teeth. 

46. But, to say the same things again and 
again,"+ let this belief, so monstrous and impious, 
be put far from us, that God, who preserves '5 all 
things, the origin of the virtues and chief in *® 
benevolence, and, to exalt Him with human 
praise, most wise, just, making all things perfect, 
and that permanently,’? either made anything 
which was imperfect and not quite correct,’® or 
was the cause of misery or danger to any being, 
or arranged, commanded, and enjoined the very 
acts in which man’s life is passed and employed 
to flow from His arrangement. These things are 
unworthy of‘? Him, and weaken the force of His 
greatness ; and so far from His being believed to 
be their author, whoever imagines that man is 
sprung from Him is guilty of blasphemous im- 
piety, man, a being miserable and wretched, who 
is sorry that he exists, hates and laments his 
state, and understands that he was produced for 
no other reason than lest evils should not have 
something ”° through which to spread themselves, 
and that there might always be wretched ones 
by whose agonies some unseen and cruel power,?" 
adverse to men, should be gratified. 

47. But, you say, if God is not the parent 
and father of souls, by what sire have they been 
begotten, and how have they been produced? 
If you wish to hear unvarnished statements not 
spun out with vain ostentation of words, we, 
too,?? admit that we are ignorant of this, do not 





improved by Galenius changing #¢ into “7, as no one knows what 

‘infernal flies” are, LB. and Orelli, adopting a reading in the mar- 
gin of Ursinus, change zztern. into ferarum, and join musc. with 
the words which follow as above. Another reading, also suggested 
by Ursinus, seems preferable, however, zxternorum ..- musculo- 


rum —“ suffer rendings (i.e., spasms) of the inner muscles.” 

12 Lit., “‘ bound.” 

13 Lit., “ dilaceration of.” 

14 Diet “again and more frequently.” 

IS Lit., “‘ the salvation of.” 

16 Lit., “‘ height of.” 

17 Lit., “ things perfect, and preserving the measure of their com- 
pleteness; ” i.e., continuing so. 


16 So the ms., LB., Oberthiir, and Oehler, reading claudum et 


quod minus esset 2 ‘recto. All other edd. read eminus —“at a 


distance from the right.” 


19 Lit., “less than.” 
20 Lit., “material. a 
21 Lit., “‘ some powcr latent and cruel 


22 So ais MS. and all edd.; but Orell i "would change zfem into 
tterum, not seeing that the reference is te the indicated preference of 
his oppones's for the sinols truck 


452 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





know it ;* and we hold that, to know so great a 
matter, is not only beyond the reach of our 
weakness and frailty, but deyond that also of 
all the powers which are in the world, and which 
have usurped the place of deities in men’s belief. 
But are we bound to show whose they are, be- 
cause we deny that they are God’s? ‘That by no 
means? follows necessarily ; for if we were to deny 
that flies, beetles, and bugs, dormice, weevils, 
and moths,’ are made by the Almighty King, we 
should not be required in consequence to say 
who made and formed them ; for without ¢zacur- 
ring any censure, we may not know who, indeed, 
gave them being, and ye¢ assert that not by the 
Supreme‘ Deity were creatures produced so use- 
less, so needless, so purposeless,5 nay more, 
at times even hurtful, and causing unavoidable 
injuries. 
48. Here, too, in like manner, when we deny 
that souls are the offspring of God Supreme, it 
does not necessarily follow that we are bound to 
declare from what parent they have sprung, and 
by what causes they have been produced. For 
who prevents us from being either ignorant of 
the source from which they issued and came, or 
aware that they are not God’s descendants? By 
what method, you say, in what way? Because 
it is most true and certain® that, as has been 
pretty frequently said, nothing is effected, made, 
determined by the Supreme, except that which 
it is right and fitting should be done; except 
that which is complete and entire, and wholly 
perfect in its? integrity. But further, we see that 
men, that is, these very souls — for what are men 
but souls bound to bodies? — themselves show 
by perversely falling into® vice, times without 
number, that they belong to no patrician race, 
but have sprung from insignificant families. For 
we see some harsh, vicious, presumptuous, rash, 
reckless, blinded, false, dissemblers, liars, proud, 
overbearing, covetous, greedy, lustful, fickle, weak, 
and unable to observe their own precepts ; but 
they would assuredly not be so, if their original 
goodness defended 9 them, and they traced their 
honourable descent from the head of the universe. 
49. But, you will say, there are good men also 
in the world, —wise, upright, of faultless and 
purest morals. We raise no question as to 
whether there ever were any such, in whom this 





1 Nesctre Hildebrand, with good reason, considers a gloss. 

2 Nthil for the Ms. mzhz, which makes nonsense of the sentence. 

3 This somewhat wide-spread opinion found an amusing counter- 
part in the doctrines of Rorarius (mentioned by Bayle, Dict. PAz?.), 
who affirmed that the lower animals are gifted with reason and speech, 
as we are. 

4 Lit., “ superior.” 

5 Lit., ‘‘ tending to no reasons.” 

© Omni vero verisstmum est certogue certissimum — the super- 
lative for the comparative. 

7 Lit., “‘ finished with the perfection of.” 

8 Lit., “by perversity” —s-c-evitate, the reading of the ms., 
LB., Orelli, Hild., and Oehler, all others omitting c— ‘‘ by the rage; ” 
except Stewechius, who reads servitute —“‘ slavery.” 

9 Or, perhaps, ‘‘ the goodness of the Supreme planted” — gene- 
rositas cos adsereret principalis. 





very integrity which is spoken of was in nothing 
imperfect. Even if they are very honourable 
men, and have been worthy of praise, have 
reached the utmost height of perfection, and 
their life has never wavered and sunk into sin, 
yet we would have you tell us how many there 
are, or have been, that we may judge from their 
number whether a comparison '° has been made 
which is just and evenly balanced."! One, two, 
three, four, ten, twenty, a hundred, yet ave they 
at least limited in number, and it may be within 
the reach of names.” But it is fitting that the 
human race should be rated and weighed, not 
by a very few good men, but by all the rest as 
well, For the part is in the whole, not the whole 
in a part; and that which is the whole should 
draw to it its parts, not the whole be brought to 
its parts. For what if you were to say that a 
man, robbed of the use of all his limbs, and 
shrieking in bitter agony,’ was quite well, be- 
cause in '4 one little nail he suffered no pain? or 
that the earth is made of gold, because in one 
hillock there are a few small grains from which, 
when dissolved, gold is produced, and wonder 
excited at it when formed into a lump?'5 The 
whole mass shows the nature of an element, not 
particles fine as air; nor does the sea become 
forthwith sweet, if you cast or throw into z¢ a 
few drops of less bitter water, for that small 
quantity is swallowed up in its immense mass ; 
and it must be esteemed, not merely of little 
importance, but even of none, because, being 
scattered throughout all, it is lost and cut off in 
the immensity of the vast body of wader. 

50. You say that there are good men in the 
human race ; and perhaps, if we compare ther 
with the very wicked, we may be led '° to believe 
that there are. Who are they, pray? Tell ws. 
The philosophers, I suppose, who !7 assert that 
they alone are most wise, and who have been 
uplifted with pride from the meaning attached to 
this name,'® — those, forsooth, who are striving 
with their passions every day, and struggling to 
drive out, to expel deeply-rooted passions from 
their minds by the persistent '9 opposition of 
their better qualities ; who, that it may be im- 
possible for them to be led into wickedness at 
the suggestion of some opportunity, shun riches 





10 Lit., “‘opposition; ” i.e., “‘ the setting of one party against the 
other.” 

It Lit., “‘ weighed with balancing of equality.” 

12 Lit., “‘ bounded by the comprehensions of names; ”’ i.e., possi- 
bly, ‘‘the good are certainly few enough to be numbered, perhaps 
even to be named.” 

13 So LB., reading ex cructatibus for the MS. scruc. 

14 Lit., “of,” 

Is Lit., “‘ admiration is sought for by the putting together ” — con- 
gregatione, 

16 Lit., “‘a comparison of the worst may effect that we,” etc. 

17 So all edd. except Hildebrand, who gives as the reading of the 
MS., gut-d — ‘‘ what! do they assert,”’ 

18 Lit., ‘‘ by the force of,” vz,— an emendation of Heraldus for 
the Ms. 77. 

19 So most edd., reading pertinact for the Ms. -2us—‘‘by tht 
opposition of persistent virtues,” which is retained in both Roman 
edd., Gelenius, Canterus, Hildebrand, and Oehler. 





Q 
| 








ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


453 





and inheritances, that they may remove’ from 
themselves occasions of stumbling ; but in doing 
this, and being solicitous about it, they show 
very clearly that ther souls are, through their 
weakness, ready and prone to fall into vice. In 
our opinion, however, that which is good natu- 
rally, does not require to be either corrected or 
reproved ;? nay more, it should not know what 
evil is, if the nature of each kind would abide 
in its own integrity, for neither can two contra- 
ries be implanted in each other, nor can equality 
be contained in inequality, nor sweetness in 
bitterness. He, then, who struggles to amend 
the inborn depravity of his inclinations, shows 
most clearly that he is imperfect,3 blameable, 
although he may strive with all zeal and stedfast- 
ness. 

51. But you laugh at our reply, because, while 
we deny that souls are of royal descent, we do 
not, on the other hand, say in turn from what 
causes and beginnings they have sprung. But 
what kind of crime is it either to be ignorant of 
anything, or to confess quite openly that you do 
not know that of which you are ignorant? or 
whether does he rather seem to you most deserv- 
ing of ridicule who assumes to himself no knowl- 
edge of some dark subject; or he who thinks 
that he+ knows most clearly that which tran- 
scends human knowledge, and which has been 
involved in dark obscurity? If the nature of 
everything were thoroughly considered, you too 
are in a position like that which you censure in 
our case. For you do not say anything which 
has been ascertained and set most clearly in the 
light of truth, because you say that souls descend 
from the Supreme Ruler Himself, and enter into 
the forms of men. For you conjecture, do not 
perceive 5 ¢his; surmise, do not actually know 
it, for if to know is to retain in the mind that 
which you have yourself seen or known, not one 
of those things which you affirm can you say 
that you have ever seen —that is, that souls 
descend from the abodes and regions above. 
You are therefore making use of conjecture, not 
trusting clear information. But what is con- 
jecture, except a doubtful imagining of things, 
and directing of the mind upon : nothing accessi- 





1 So Stewechius and later edd., reading wz. . 
Hildebrand, who gives as the MS. reading, ef . . 
and remove,” etc. The first four edd. read REN. 
‘that they may not bring upon themselves,” etc. 

2 So the Ms, and first four edd., Orelli (who, however, seems to 
have meant to give the other reading), and Oehler, reading corri-p-2, 
for which the others read -zg7— “corrected,” except Hildebrand, 
who without due reason gives -rump7z — “corrupted.” 

3 In the Ms. zferfectum is marked as a gloss, but is retained in 
all edd., while z#probabilem is omitted, except in LB., when zy is 
omitted, and probabilem joined to the next clause — ‘‘ however he 
may strive to be acceptable,” in order to provide an object for 

‘strive; ” and witha similar purpose Orelli thrusts in contrartum, 
although it is quite clear that the verb refers to the preceding clause, 
“struggles to amend.” 

4 th he Ms. reads se esse, without meaning, from which LB., fol- 
lowed by Hildebrand, and ’ Ochler derived se ex se—“ himself of 
himself.” The rest simply omit esse as above. 


5 Lit., “hold,” 


. auferant, except 
.-unt— “shun... 
. afferant — 





ble? He, then, who conjectures, does not com- 
prehend,5 nor does he walk in the® light of 
knowledge. But if this is true and certain in 
the opinion of proper and very wise judges, 
your conjectures, too, in which you trust, must 
be regarded as showing your ignorance. 

52. And yet, lest you should suppose that 
none but yourselves can make use of conjectures 
and surmises, we too are able to bring them for- 
ward as well,” as your question is appropriate to 
either side.6 Whence, you say, are men; and 
what or whence are the souls of these men? 
Whence, we wzll ask, are elephants, bulls, stags, 
mules,? asses? Whence lions, horses, dogs, 
wolves, panthers ; and what or whence are the 
souls of these creatures? For it is not credible 
that from that Platonic cup,'° which Timzus pre- 
pares and mixes, either their souls came, or Zhat » 
the locust,’ mouse, shrew, cockroach, frog, centi- 
pede, should be believed to have been quickened 
and to live, because’ they have a cause and 
origin of birth in ‘3 the elements themselves, if 
there are zm these secret and very little known 
means ‘4 for producing the creatures which live 
in each of them. For we see that some of the 
wise say that the earth is mother of men, that 
others join with it water,'S that others add to 
these breath of air, but that some say that the 
sun is their framer, and that, having been quick- 
ened by his rays, they are filled with the stir of 
life."© What if it is not these, and is something 
else, another cause, another method, another 
power, in fine, unheard of and unknown to us 
by name, which may have fashioned the human 
race, and connected it with things as established ; '7 
may it not be that men sprang up in this way, 
and that the cause of their birth does not go 
back to the Supreme God? For what reason do 
we suppose that the great Plato had—a man 
reverent and scrupulous in his wisdom — when 
he withdrew the fashioning of man from the 
highest God, and transferred it to some lesser 
deities, and when he would not have the souls of 
men formed '* of that pure mixture of which he 





‘set in the.” 

“utter the same (conjectures) ,” " easdem, the reading of LB. 

and Hildcbrand, who says that it is so in the ms.; while Crusius as- 

serts that the ms. has zdem, which, with Orelli’s punctuation, gives 
‘we have the same power; since it is common (i.e., a general 

right) to bring forth what you ask,” i.e., to put similar questions. 

8 i.e., may be retorted upon you. 

9 Here, as elsewhere, instead of m/z, the MS. reads mz/uZ— 
“kites,” 

Io Cf. Plato, Timeus, st. p. 41, already referred to. 

Il Or, perhaps, “‘ cray-fish,” locusta. 

12 The ms. reads quidem — © indeed,” retained by the first four 
edd., but changed into guza — “ because,” by Elmenhorst, LB., and 
Orelli, while Ochler suggests very happily st guidem—“‘ if indeed,” 
i.e., because. 

13 Lit., ‘‘ from.” 

14 Rationes. 

1s Cf. chs. 9 and 10 [p 416, supra], 

16 Orelli, retaining this as a distinct sentence, would yet enclose it 
in brackets, for what purpose does not appear; more especially as the 
next sentence follows directly from this i in logical sequence. 

17 Lit., “‘ the constitutions of things.” 

13 Lit., “did not choose the souls of the human race to be mixtures 
of the same purity,” so/wzt, received from the margin of Ursinus by 


454 


had made the soul of the universe, except that 
he thought the forming of man unworthy of God, 
and the fashioning of a feeble being not beseem- 
ing His greatness and excellence? 

53. Since this, then, is the case, we do noth- 
ing out of place or foolish in believing that the 
souls of men are of a neutral character, inasmuch 
as they have been produced by secondary beings, 
made subject to the law of death, and are of 
little strength, amd shat perishable; and that 
they are gifted with immortality, if? they rest 
their hope of so great a gift on God Supreme, 
who alone has power to grant such Jdlessings, by 
putting away corruption. Dut this, you say, we 
are stupid in believing. What zs shat to you? 
In so beheving, we act most absurdly, sillily. In 
what do we injure you, or what wrong do we do 
or inflict upon you, if we trust that Almighty 
God will take care of us when we leave; our 
bodies, and from the jaws of hell, as is said, 
deliver us? 

54. Can, then, anything be made, some one 
will say, without God’s will? We‘ must con- 
sider carefully, and examine with no little pains, 
lest, while we think that we are honouring God 5 
by such a question, we fall into the opposite sin, 
doing despite to His supreme majesty. In what 
way, you ask, on what ground? Because, if all 
things are brought about by His will, and noth- 
ing in the world can either succeed or fail con- 
trary to His pleasure, it follows of necessity that 
it should be understood that ® all evils, too, arise 
by His will. But if, on the contrary, we chose to 
say that He is privy to and produces no evil, not 

referring to Him the causes of very wicked deeds, 
the worst things will begin to seem to be done 
either against His will, or, a monstrous thing to 
say, while He knows it not, du¢is ignorant and 
unaware of them. But, again, if we choose to say 
that there are no evils, as we find some have be- 
lieved and held, all races will cry out against ws 
and all nations together, showing us their suffer- 
ings, and the various kinds of dangers with which 
the human race is every moment? distressed and 








all except the first four edd., which retain the ms. voluzt—‘‘ did 
choose,” which is absurd, Arnobius here refers again to the passage 
in the 7z#z@us, p. 41 sq., but to a different part, with a different 
purpose. He now refers to the conclusion of the speech of the Su- 
preme God, the first part of which is noticed in ch. 36 (cf. p. 447, n. 
20). There the Creator assures the gods He has made of immortality 
through His grace; now His further invitation that they in turn should 
form men is alluded to. That they might accomplish this task, the 
dregs still left in the cup, in which had been mixed the elements of 
the world’s soul, are diluted and given to form the souls of men, to 
which they attach mortal bodies. 

I Lit., “things not principal.” Orelli here quotes from Tertullian, 
de Anim., xxiii., a brief summary of Gnostic doctrines on these points, 
which he considers Arnobius to have followed throughout this discus- 
sion. 

2 Sz was first inserted in LB., not being found in the ms., though 
demanded by the context. 

3 Lit., “‘ have begun to leave.” 

4 The ms. and first three edd. read vodzs —“‘ you,” corrected xob7s, 
as above, by Ursinus. 

5 So the Ms.; but most edd., following the Brussels transcript, read 
dominum —“ Lord.” 

6 Ut is omitted in the s., first four edd., and Hild, 

7 So LB., reading f-xacta for the Ms. c-uncta, 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN, 





afflicted. Then they will ask of us, Why, if there 
are no evils, do you refrain from certain deeds 
and actions? Why do you not do all that eager 
lust has required or demanded? Why, finally, do 
you establish punishments by terrible laws for the 
guilty? For what more monstrous ® act of folly 
can be found than to assert that there are no 
evils, and at the same time to kill and condemn 
the erring as though they were evil? 9 

55. But when, overcome, we agree that there 
are these things,’® and expressly allow that all 
human affairs are full of them, they will next ask, 
Why, then, the Almighty God does not take away 
these evils, but suffers them to exist and to go on 
without ceasing through all the ages?‘' If we have 
learned of God the Supreme Ruler, and have re- 
solved not to wander in a maze of impious and 
mad conjectures, we must answer that we do not 
know these things, and have never sought and 
striven to know things which could be grasped by 
no powers which we have, and that we, even think- 
ing it’? preferable, rather remain in ignorance and 
want of knowledge than say that without God 
nothing is made, so that it should be understood 
that by His will*3 He is at once both the source 
of evil’+ and the occasion of countless miseries. 
Whence then, you will say, are all these evils? 
From the elements, say the wise, and from their 
dissimilarity ; but how it is possible that things 
which have not feeling and judgment should be 
held to be wicked or criminal ; or that he should 
not rather be wicked and criminal, who, to bring 
about some result, took what was afterwards to 
become very bad and hurtful,'5 — is for them to 
consider, who make the assertion. What, then, 
do we say? whence? ‘There is no necessity that 
we should answer, for whether we are able to say 
whence evil springs, or our power fails us, and we 
are unable, in either case it is a small matter in 
our opinion ; nor do we hold it of much impor- 
tance either to know or to be ignorant of it, being 
content to have laid down but one thing, — that 





8 So the ms., Hild., and Oehler, reading z#san-1or ; LB., from 
the margin of Ursinus, #a7zor—‘“‘ greater; ” the rest, zxantor— 
“more foolish.” 

9 The difficulty felt by Arnobius as to the origin of evil perplexed 
others also; and, as Elmenhorst has observed, some of the Fathers 
attempted to get rid of it by a distinction between the evil of guilt and 
of punishment, — God being author of the latter, the devil of the 
former (Tertullian, adv. Marctonem, ii. 14). It would have been 
simpler and truer to have distinguished deeds, which can be done only 
if God will, from wickedness, which is in the sinful purpose of man’s 
heart. 


10 i.e, ills. > 
II Lit., ‘ with all the ages, in steady continuance.” 
12 The ms., followed by Oehler alone, reads ducetis — ‘‘ and you 


will think ;” while all the other edd. read, as above, ducentes. 

13 Here, too, there has been much unnecessary labour. These 
words — per voluntatem —as they immediately follow stxe deodtcere 
nthil fiert—‘‘to say that without God nothing is made” — were 
connected with the preceding clause. To get rid of the nonsense thus 
created, LB. emended dez . . . voluntate — ‘‘ without God’s will; ” 
while Heraldus regards them as an explanation of szxe deo, and 
therefore interprets the sentence much as LB. Orelli gets rid of the 
difficulty by calling them a gloss, and bracketing them, They are, 
Bore) perfectly in place, as will be seen above. 

14 

15 It would not be easy to understand why Orelli omitted these 
words, if we did not know that they had been accidentally omitted by 
Oberthiir also, 





‘ 


ee ree NC Ree 





SRP ee SY Te 
ical aa 





Se 


ye pe 


€ 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


455 





nothing proceeds from God Supreme which is 
hurtful and pernicious. This we are assured of, 
this we know, on this one truth of knowledge and 
science we take our stand, — that nothing is made 
by Him except that which is for the well-being 
of all, which is agreeable, which is very full of 
love and joy and gladness, which has unbounded 
and imperishable pleasures, which every one may 
ask in all his prayers to befall him, and think 
that otherwise ' life is pernicious and fatal. 

56. As for all the other things which are usu- 
ally dwelt upon in inquiries and discussions — 
from what parents they have sprung, or by whom 
they are produced — we neither strive to know,? 
nor care to inquire or examine: we leave all 
things to their own causes, and do not consider 
that they have been connected and associated 
with that which we desire should befall us.3 For 
what is there which men of ability do not dare 
to overthrow, to destroy,‘ from love of contra- 
diction, although that which they attempt to 
invalidate is unobjectionable 5 and manifest, and 
evidently bears the stamp of truth? Or what, 
again, can they not maintain with plausible argu- 
ments, although it may be very manifestly untrue, 
although it may be a plain and evident falsehood ? 
For when a man has persuaded himself that 
there is or is not something, he likes to affirm 
what he thinks, and to show greater subtlety 
than others, especially if the subject discussed 
is out of the ordinary track, and by nature 
abstruse and obscure.®° Some of the wise think 
that the world was not created, and will never 
perish ;7 some that it is immortal, although 
they say that it was created and made;*% 
while a third party have chosen to say that 
it both was created and made, and will perish 
as other things must.2 And while of these 
three opinions one only must be true, they nev- 
ertheless all find arguments by which at once to 





1 Lit., ‘that apart from these it is pernicious.” 

2 Tt must be observed that this sentence is very closely connected 
with the last words of the preceding chapter, or the meaning may be 
obscured. The connection may be shown thus: This one thing — 
that God is author of no evil — we are assured of; but as for all other 
questions, we neither know, nor care to know, about them. 

3 This seems the most natural arrangement; but the edd. punc- 
tuate thus: ‘‘ have been connected and associated with us for that 
which we desire.” The last part of the sentence is decidedly ob- 
scure; but the meaning may perhaps be, that the circumstances of 
man’s life which absorb so much attention and cause such strife, have 
no bearid after all, upon his salvation, 

Othe MS. reading labefactare dissolvere,; the latter word, 
ances being marked as spurious, 

5 Lit., “ pure,” 

6 Lit., “hidden and enwrapt in darkness of nature,” abdzta et 
caligine involuta nature, —the reading of all edd. except Hild. and 
Octke who follow the ms. abdite cal. —‘‘enwrapt in darkness of 
hidden nature.’ 

7 This has been supposed to refer to Heraclitus, as quoted by 
Clem. Alex., Stromata, v. p. 469 B., where his words are, ‘‘ Neither 
God nor man made the world; but there was always, and ts, and will 
be, an undying flame laying hold of its limits, and destroying them;” 
on which cf. P. 437. n. 8, supra. Here, of course, fire does not mean 
that perceived by the senses, but a subtle, all-penetrating energy. 

f. ch. 52, p. 453. 

: Lit., ‘‘ by ordinary necessity.” The Stoics (Diog. Laert., vii. 
134) said that the wait was made by God working on uncreated 
matter, and that it was perishable (§ 141), because made through 





that x which perception could take cognizance. Cf. ch. 31, n. 9, 
P- 446. 


uphold their own doctrines, and undermine and 
overthrow the dogmas of others. Some teach 
and declare that this same wor/d is composed 
of four elements, others of two,’° a third party of 
one ; some say that z¢ ts composed of none of 
these, and that atoms are that from which it is 
formed," and its primary origin. And since of 
these opinions only one is true, but‘? not one 
of them certain, here too, in like manner, argu- 
ments present themselves to all with which they 
may both establish the truth of what they say, 
and show that there are some things false ‘3 in 
the others’ opinions. So, too, some utterly deny 
the existence of the gods; others say that they 
are lost in doubt as to whether they exist any- 
where ; others, however, say that they do exist, 
but do not trouble themselves about human 
things ; nay, others maintain that they both take 
part in the affairs of men, and guide the course 
of earthly events." 

57. While, then, this is the case, and it can- 
not but be that only one of all these opinions 
is true, they all nevertheless make use of argu- 
ments in striving with each other, — and not one 
of them is without something plausible to say, 
whether in affirming his own views, or objecting 
to the opinions of others. In exactly the same 
way is the condition of souls discussed. For 
this one thinks that they both are immortal, and 
survive the end of our earthly life ; that one be- 
lieves that they do not survive, but perish with 
the bodies themselves: the opinion of another, 
however, is that they suffer nothing immediately, 
but that, after the form of man has been laid 
aside, they are allowed to live a little longer,*s 
and then come under the power of death. And 
while all these opinions cannot be alike true, 
yet all who hold them so support their case by 
strong and very weighty arguments, that you can- 
not find out anything which seems false to you, 
although on every side you see that things are 
being said altogether at variance with each other, 
and inconsistent from their opposition to each 
other ; *© which assuredly would not happen, if 
man’s curiosity could reach any certainty, or if 
that which seemed 70 one to have been really 


10 Orelli thinks that there is here a confusion of the parts of the 
world with its elements, because he can nowhere find that any phi- 
losopher has fixed the number of the elements either above or below 
four. The Stoics, however (Diog. Laert., vil. 134), said ‘that the 
elements (apxds) of the world are two— the active and passive; ” 
while, of course, the cosmic theories of the early philosophers affirm 
that the world sprang from one, and it seems clear enough that Ar- 
nobius here uses the word ‘‘ element”’ in this sense. 

11 Lit., “its material.” 

12 A conjecture of Meursius adopted by Oehler, merely dropping 
uw from aut —“‘ or,” which is read in the ms. and edd. 

13 Lit., “‘ refute falsities placed.” 

14 Cf. Cicero, de Nat. Deor.,i. 1, 12, 19, 23, etc, 

15 Lit., ‘‘ something is given to them to life.” So the Stoics taught, 
although Chrysippus (cf. n. 9, ch. 31, p. 446) held that only the souls 
of the wise remained at all after death. 

16 The ms., first four edd., and Oehler read et rerum contrarie 
tatibus dissonare —“ and that they disagree from the oppositions of 
things.” Hild. reads d/ssonora, a word not met with elsewhere, while 
the other edd. merely drop the last two letters, -re, as above; a read> 
ing suggested in the margin of Ursinus, 


456 


Te. T.7 oo ey ser ee 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





discovered, was attested by the approval of all 
the others. It is therefore wholly vain, a use- 
less task, to bring forward something as though 
you knew it, or to wish to assert that you know 
that which, although it should be true, you see 
can be refuted ; or to receive that as true which 
it may be is not, and is brought forward as 
if by men raving. And it is rightly so, for we 
do not weigh and guess at? divine things by 
divine, but by human methods; and just as we 
think that anything should have been made, so 
we assert that it must be. 

58. What, then, are we alone ignorant? do we 
alone not know who is the creator, who the form- 
er of souls, what cause fashioned man, whence 
ills have broken forth, or why the Supreme Ruler 
allows them both to exist and be perpetrated, 
and does not drive them from the world? have 
you, indeed, ascertained and learned any of 
these things with certainty? If you chose to 
lay aside audacious’ conjectures, can you unfold 
and disclose whether this world in which we 
dwell+ was created or founded at some time? 
if it was founded and made, by what kind of 
work, pray, or for what purpose? Can you bring 
forward and disclose the reason why it does not 
remain fixed and immoveable, but is ever being 
carried round in a circular motion? whether it 
revolves of its own will and choice, or is turned 
by the influence of some power? what the place, 
too, and space is in which it is set and revolves, 
boundless, bounded, hollow, or5 solid? whether 
it is supported by an axis resting on sockets at 
its extremities, or rather itself sustains by its own 
power, and by the spirit within it upholds itself? 
Can you, if asked, make it clear, and show most 
skilfully,° what opens out the snow into feathery 
flakes? what was the reason and cause that day 
did not, in dawning, arise in the west, and veil 
its light in the east? how the sun, too, by one 
and the same influence,” produces results so dif- 
ferent, nay, even so opposite? what the moon is, 


what the stars? why, on the one hand, it does, 


not remain of the same shape, or why it was 
right and necessary that these particles of fire 
should be set all over the world? why some ® of 
them are small, others large and greater, — these 
have a dim light, those a more vivid and shining 
brightness P 





T Lit., ‘‘a most vain thing,” 

2 So the Ms., LB. , Elmenh. Wid, and Oehler, reading conjecta- 
mus, the other edd. reading commetamur or -2mur — ‘measure,’ 
except Gelenius and Canterus, who read commentamur — ‘ muse 
upon. 

3 Lit., ‘‘ audacity of.” 

4 Lit., ‘world which holds us.’ 

5 The first five edd. insert ne mark of interrogation after ‘* hol- 
low: ” ‘f Whether does a solid axis,” etc. 

6 So the edd, except. Hild., who retains the ms. reading 7% scven- 
tisstme —“ most unskilfully ” ‘(the others omitting 27- )s and Oehler, 
whe changes e into 7— ‘‘ and being most witless show,” etc. 

7 Lit., ‘ touch.” 

8 So the later edd., reading from the margin of Ursinus jig ? 
cur alta, for the Ms. jiguralia, except LB., which reads fgurar? 

=“ be formed,” 





59. If that which it has pleased us to know is 
within reach, and if such knowledge is open to 
all, declare to us,? and say how and by what 
means showers of rain are produced, so that 
water is held suspended in the regions above and 
in mid-air, although by nature it is apt to glide 
away, and so ready to flow and run downwards. 
Explain, I say, and tell what it is which sends 
the hail whirling through the air, which makes 
the rain fall drop by drop, which has spread out 
rain and feathery flakes of snow and sheets of 
lightning ; '° whence the wind rises, and what it 
is ; why the changes of the seasons were estab- 
lished, when it might have been ordained that 
there should be only one, and one kind of cli- 
mate, so that there should be nothing wanting 
to the world’s completeness. What is the cause, 
what the reason, that the waters of the sea are 
salt ;'' or that, of those on land, some are sweet, 
others bitter or cold? From what kind of mate- 
rial have the inner parts of men’s bodies been 
formed and built up into firmness? From what 
have their bones been made solid? what made 
the intestines and veins shaped like pipes, and 
easily passed through? Why, when it would be 
better to give us light by several eyes, to guard 
against the risk of blindness, are we restricted 
to two? For what purpose have so infinite and 
innumerable kinds of monsters and serpents been 
either formed or brought forth? what purpose do 
owls serve in the world, — faluons, hawks? what 
other birds '? and winged creatures? what the a 
Jerent kinds of ants and worms springing up to 
be a bane and pest in various ways? what fleas, 
obtrusive flies, spiders, shrew, and other mice, 
leeches, water-spinners ? what thorns, briers, wild- 
oats, tares? what the seeds of herbs or shrubs, 
either sweet to the nostrils, or disagreeable in 
smell? Nay more, if you think that anything 
can be known or comprehended, say what wheat 
is, —spelt, barley, millet, the chick-pea, bean, 
lentil, melon, cumin, scallion, leek, onion? For 
even if they are useful to you, and are ranked 
among the different kinds of food, it is not a 
light or easy thing to know what each is, — why 
they have been formed with such shapes ; whether 
there was any necessity that they should not have 
had other tastes, smells, and colours than those 
which each has, or whether they could have taken 
others also; further, what these very things are, 
— taste, I mean,*3 and the rest; a@zd@ from what 
relations they derive their differences of quality. 
From the elements, you say, and from the first 
beginnings of things. Are the elements, then, 





9 So the s.; but all edd. except Hild. and Oehler omit zodzs. 

10 So the MS., reading folgora dilatarit, followed by LB. 

Il Salsa, corrected from the Ms. sola. 

12 Alites et volucres ; i.c., according to Orelli, the birds from 
whose flight auguries were drawn, as opposed to the others, 

13 So Heraldus, whose punctuation also is here followed, omittin 
td est sapor —‘‘ that is, taste,’ ’ which Meursius and LB. followed 


by Orelli, amend, z¢ est —* as taste is” 4% each thing. 





; ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


457 





bitter or sweet? have they any odour or * stench, | 
that we should believe that, from their uniting, 


qualities were implanted in their products by 
which sweetness is produced, or something pre- 
pared offensive to the senses? 

60. Seeing, then, that the origin, the cause, 
the reason of so many and so important things, 
escapes you yourselves also, and that you can 
neither say nor explain what has been made, nor 
why and wherefore it should not have been o¢her- 
wise, do you assail and attack our timidity, who 
confess that we do not know that which cannot 
be known, and who do not care to seek out and 
inquire into those things which it is quite clear 
cannot be understood, although human conjec- 
ture should extend and spread itself through a 
thousand hearts? And therefore Christ the di- 
vine, — although you are unwilling to allow it, — 
Christ the divine, I repeat, for this must be said 
often, that the ears of unbelievers may burst and 
be rent asunder, speaking in the form of man 
by command of the Supreme God, because He 
knew that men are naturally? blind, and cannot 
grasp the truth at all, or regard as sure and cer- 
tain what they might have persuaded themselves 
as to things set before their eyes, and do not 
hesitate, for the sake of their conjectures, to 
raise and bring up questions that cause much 
strife, — bade us abandon and disregard all these 
things of which you speak, and not waste our 
thoughts upon things which have been removed 
far from our knowledge, but, as much as possi- 
ble, seek the Lord of the universe with the 
whole mind and spirit; be raised above these 
subjects, and give over to Him our hearts, as 
yet hesitating whither to turn;* be ever mind- 
ful of Him; and although no imagination can set 
Him forth as He is,5 yet form some faint con- 
ception of Him. For Christ said that, of all 
who are comprehended in the vague notion of 
what is sacred and divine,° He alone is beyond 
the reach of doubt, alone true, and one about 
whom only a raving and reckless madman can 
be in doubt ; to know whom is enough, although 
you have learned nothing besides; and if by 
knowledge you have indeed been related to? 
God, the head of the world, you have gained 
the true and most important knowledge. 





’ Velis here inserted in all edd., most of which read, as above, 
olorts, which is found in the Ms., in later writing, for the original, 
coloris —‘‘ colour,” retained by Ursinus, LB., and Oehler. 

2 Lit., “‘ that the nature of man is.” 

3 So the Ms., according to Crusius, reading ec pro suis ; while, 
according to Hild., the reading is Jrorsus — ‘‘ and are utterly with- 
out hesitation,” adopted in the edd. with the substitution of e¢ for ec 
—‘‘and that they altogether hesitate,” which, besides departing from 
the Ms., runs counter to the sense. 

4 Lit., “‘transfer to Him the undecided conversions of the 

” 

5 Lit., ‘‘ He can be formed by no imagination.” 

6 Lit., ‘ which the obscurity of sacred divinity contains; ” which 
Orelli interprets, “‘ the most exalted being holds concealed from mor- 

” 


Se 
7 Lit., ‘‘ and being fixed on.” 








61. What business of yours is it, He® says, to 
examine, to inquire who made man ; what is the 
origin of souls; who devised the causes of ills ; 
whether the sun is larger than the earth, or meas- 
ures only a foot in breadth :9 whether the moon 
shines with borrowed light, or from her own 
brightness, — things which there is neither profit 
in knowing, nor loss in not knowing? Leave 
these things to God, and allow Him to know 
what is, wherefore, or whence ; whether it must 
have been or not; whether something always 
existed,'° or whether it was produced at the first ; 
whether it should be annihilated or preserved, 
consumed, destroyed, or restored in fresh vig- 
our. Your reason is not permitted to involve 
you in such questions, and to be busied to no 
purpose about things so much out of reach. 
Your interests are in jeopardy, — the salvation, I 
mean,*"’ of your souls ; and unless you give your- 
selves to seek to know the Supreme God, a cruel 
death awaits you when freed from the bonds of 
body, not bringing sudden annihilation, but de- 
stroying by the bitterness of its grievous and 
long-protracted punishment. pie es: 

62. And be not deceived or deluded with vain 
hopes by that which is said by some ignorant 
and most presumptuous pretenders,” that they 
are born of God, and are not subject to the de- 
crees of fate; that His palace lies open to them 
if they lead a life of temperance, and that after 
death as men, they are restored without hin- 
drance, as if to their father’s abode ; nor dy ¢hat 
which the Magi ‘3 assert, that they have interces- 
sory prayers, won over by which some powers 
make the way easy to those who are striving to 
mount to heaven; nor dy “hat which Etruria 
holds out in the Acherontic books, that souls 
become divine, and are freed from the law '5 of 
death, if the blood of certain animals is offered 
to certain deities. These are empty delusions, 
and excite vain desires. None but the Almighty 
God can preserve souls; nor is there any one 
besides who can give them length of days, and 
grant to them also a spirit which shall never 
die,*° except He who alone is immortal and ever- 


8 i.e., Christ. 

9 As Heraclitus is reported to have said. 

10 The sS., first five edd., and Oehler read supernatum, for which 
the other edd. read, as above, semper natum, from the margin of 
Ursinus. The soul is referred to. 

11 So the later edd., following Elmenhorst, who emended dco for 
the Ms. dzcz, omitted by the first four edd. 

12 So most edd., reading sczod/s, from the emendation of Gelenius; 
but the ms., first five edd., Hild., and Oehler read scholts —‘‘ by 
some schools, and (these) arrogating very much to themselves.” 

13 Cf. ch. 13, p. 439; Plato, Fef., ii. st. p. 364, where Glaucom 
speaks of certain fortune-telling vagrant seers, who persuade the 
rich that they have power with the gods, by means of charms and 
sacrifices, to cleanse from guilt; and also Origen, contra Cels., i. 69, 
where the Magi are spoken of as being on familiar terms with evil 
powers, and thus able to accomplish whatever is within these spirits’ 

ower. 
: 14 Mentioned by Servius (on 4/x., viii. 399) as composed by Tages, 
cap. 69 [p. 460, sera], and seemingly containing directions as to ex- 
ase paces 

15 


16 Lit., “a spirit of perpetuity.” 


458 


lasting, and restricted by no limit of time. For 
since all the gods, whether those who are real, 
or those who are merely said to be from hearsay 
and conjecture, are immortal and everlasting by 
His good-will and free gift, how can it be that 
others! are able to give that which they them- 
selves have,? while they have it as the gift of 
another, bestowed by a greater power? Let 
Etruria sacrifice what victims it may, let the wise 
deny themselves all the pleasures of life,3 let the 
Magi soften and soothe all /esser powers, yet, 
unless souls have received from the Lord of all 
things that which reason demands, and does so 
by As command, it 4 will hereafter deeply re- 
pent having made itself a laughing-stock,5 when 
it begins to feel the approach ° of death. 

63. But if, my opponents say, Christ was sent 
by God for this end, that He might deliver un- 
happy souls from ruin and destruction, of what 
crime were former ages guilty which were cut 
off in their mortal state before He came? Can 
you, then, know what has become of these souls? 
of men who lived long ago?* whether they, too, 
have of been aided, provided, and cared for in 
some way? Can you, I say, know that which 
could have been learned through Christ’s teach- 
ing; whether the ages are unlimited in number 
or not since the human race began to be on the 
earth ; when souls were first bound to bodies ; 
who contrived that binding,? nay, rather, who 
formed man himself; whither the souls of men 
who lived before us have gone ; in what parts or 
regions of the world they were; whether they 
were corruptible or not; whether they could 
have encountered the danger of death, if Christ 
had not come forward as their preserver at their 
time of need? Lay aside these cares, and aban- 
don questions to which you can find no answer.!? 
The Lord’s compassion has been shown to them, 
too, and the divine kindness '! has been extended 
to’? all alike; they have been preserved, have 
been delivered, and have laid aside the lot and 
condition of mortality. Of what kind, my opfpo- 
nents ask, what, when? If you were free from 
presumption, arrogance, and conceit, you might 
have learned long ago from this teacher. 

64. But, my opponents ask, if Christ came as 





1 j.e., than the Supreme God. 

2 Lit., “are.” 

3 Lit., ‘ all human things.” 

4 i.e,, reason. 

5 The ms, reads fuzsse me risut, which has no meaning; cor- 
rected, fursse.zrrisuz in most edd., and dertsuz by Meursius, Hild., 
and Oehler, — the sense being in either case as above. 

; © Lit., ‘when it begins to approach to the feeling,” cw ad sen- 
sum, so read by Gelenius for the unintelligible ms. cum absens 


4m. 

7 So the edd.. reading guzd sit cum ets animzts actum for the 
MS. cumt Eefus nimts. 

8 Lit., “fof ancient and very old men.” 

9 So the Ms., LB., Hild., and Oechler, reading wznctionis ; the 


wther edd. sunctionts — “ union.” 
10 Lit., ‘‘ unknown questions,” 
Ir Pp} 


12 Lit., “ has run over.” 





eeu’ P coh aw ee eS ea 
ré 


a at Shae i a 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





the Saviour of men, as '3 you say, why "4 does He 


not, with uniform benevolence, free all without 
exception? J reply, does not He free all alike 
who invites all alike? or does He thrust back or 
repel any one from the kindness of the Supreme 
who gives to all alike the power of coming to 
Him,—to men of high rank, to the meanest 
slaves, to women, to boys? To all, He says, the 
fountain of life is open,’5 and no one is hindered 
or kept back from drinking.’® If you are so fas- 
tidious as to spurn the kindly 7 offered gift, nay, 
more, if your wisdom is so great that you term 
those things which are offered by Christ ridicu- 
lous and absurd, why should He keep on inviting *® 
you, while His only duty is to make the enjoy- 
ment of His bounty depend upon your own free 
choice?'9 God, Plato says, does not cause any 
one to choose his lot in life ;?° nor can another’s 
choice be rightly attributed to any one, since 
freedom of choice was put in His power who 
made it. Must you be even implored to deign 
to accept the gift of salvation from God; and 
must God’s gracious mercy be poured into your 
bosom while you reject it with disdain, and flee 

very far from it? Do you choose to take what is 

offered, and turn it to your own advantage? You 

will 2” that case have consulted your own inter- 

ests. Do you reject with disdain, lightly esteem, 

and despise it? You will ¢ this case have robbed 

yourself of the benefit of the gift.2* God com- 

pels no one, terrifies no one with overpowering 

fear. For our salvation is not necessary to Him, 

so that He would gain anything or suffer any 

loss, if He either made us divine,?? or allowed 

us to be annihilated and destroyed by corrup- 

tion. 

65. Nay, my opponent says, if God is powerful, 
merciful, willing to save us, let Him change our 
dispositions, and compel us to trust in His prom- 
ises. This, then, is violence, not kindness nor 
the bounty of the Supreme God, but a childish 


13 So the Ms. and Oehler, reading zt, which is omitted in all other 
edd.; in this case, the words in italics are unnecessary. 

14 So Orelli, reading cur (guu7 in most edd.) for the MS. guos. 
Instead of 20% — ‘‘ not,” which follows, the ms., according to Oehler, 
reads wos, and he therefore changes guos into gu@so— “I ask, does 
He free all of us altogether?” 

1s There is clearly no reference here to a particular passage of 
Scripture, but to the general tone of Christ’s teaching: “ Him that 
cometh unto me, I will in nowise cast out.” Orelli, however, with 
his usual infelicity, wishes to see a direct reference, either to Christ’s 
words to the woman of Samaria (John iv. 13-15), or, which is rather 
extraordinary, to John vi. 35-37: “‘I am the bread of life,” etc. Cf. 
N. 9, P..459. : SPs 

16 Lit., ‘‘ the right of drinking.” 

17 Lit., ‘‘ the kindness of.” 

18 Lit., “what waits He for, inviting,” guzd invitans expectat 
the reading of the ms., both Roman edd., and Oehler. Gelenius, fol- 
lowed by Canterus and Elmenhorst, changed the last word into peccat 
— ‘in what does He sin,” adopted by the other edd., with the addition 
of za te—‘‘against you.” 

19 “ Lit., ‘exposes under decision of your own right.” 

20 Cf, Plato, Rep, ii. st. p. 379: ‘Sof a few things God would be 
the cause, but of many He would not;” and x. st. p. 617 fin. 

21 So LB., Orelli, Uehler, adopting the emendation ot Ureisvds tu 
te munerts commoditate privaverts, for the unintelligible reading 
of the Ms., tut m. c. probaverts, 

22 i.e., immortal, deos, so corrected by Gelenius for the ms. deus 
— “‘if either God made us.” 








ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN: 


459 





and vain! strife in seeking to get the mastery. 


For what is so unjust as to force men who are 
reluctant and unwilling, to reverse their inclina- 
tions ; to impress forcibly on their minds what 
they are unwilling receive, and shrink from; to 
injure before benefiting, and to bring to another 
way of thinking and feeling, by taking away the 
former? You who wish yourself to be changed,? 
and to suffer violence, that you may do and may 
be compelled to take to yourself that which you 
do not wish, why do you refuse of your own 
accord to select that which you wish to do, when 
changed and transformed? Iam unwilling, He 
says, and have no wish. What, then, do you 
blame God as though He failed you? do you wish 
fiim to bring you help,’ whose gifts and bounties 
you not only reject and shun, but term empty + 
words, and assail with jocose witticisms? Unless, 
then, my opponent says, I shall be a Christian, I 
cannot hope for salvation. It is just as you 
yourself say. For, to bring salvation and impart 
to souls what should be bestowed and must be 
added, Chris¢ alone has had given into His charge 
and entrusted 5 to Him by God the Father, the 
remote and more secret causes being so disposed. 
For, as with you, certain gods have fixed offices, 
privileges, powers, and you do not ask from any 
of them what is not in his power and permitted 
to him, so it is the right of® Christ alone to give 
salvation to souls, and assign them everlasting 
life. For if you believe that father Bacchus can 
give a good vintage, du¢ cannot give relief from 
sickness ; if you believe that Ceres can give good 
crops, Aésculapius health, Neptune one thing, 
Juno? another, that Fortune, Mercury, Vulcan, 
are each the giver of a fixed and particular thing, 
—this, too, you must needs receive from us,® 
that souls can receive from no one life and sal- 
vation, except from Him to whom the Supreme 
Ruler gave this charge and duty. The Almighty 
Master of the world has determined that this 
should be the way of salvation, — this the door, 
so to say, of life; by Him? alone is there access 
to the light: nor may men either creep in or 
enter elsewhere, all other ways being shut up 
and secured by an impenetrable barrier. 





1 So most edd., reading zzavzs for the MS. anzmz ; retained, though 
not very intelligible, in LB., while Hild. reads azz?zs — ‘‘ foolish.” 

2 So the ms. now reads veréz, but this word, according to Pithce- 
us, is in a later handwriting, and some letters have been erased. 

3 So the edd., reading ¢72bz destt? opem destderas tibz, except 
Hild. and Oehler, who retain the Ms, reading, ¢. d. 0. destderanti— 
“as though He failed you desiring Hz to bring help.” 

4 So Ursinus, reading zz anta cognomines for the MS. 77 alia, 
which Orelli would interpret, ‘‘ call the reverse of the truth.” 

5 Lit., ‘‘ For the parts of bringing . . . has enjoined and given 
over,” partes... tnjunctum habet et traditum, where it will be 
important to notice that Arnobius, writing rapidly, had carried with 
him only the general idea, and forgotten the mode in which this was 
expressed. 

6 Pontifictum. 

7 Here, too, according to Pithceus, there are signs of erasure. 

8 ie., admit. 

9 This passage at once suggests John x. 9 and xiv. 6, and it is 
therefore the more necessary to notice the way in which Arnobius 
speaks (“‘so to say”), which is certainly not the tone of one quoting 
a passage with which he is well acquainted. [Elucidation I.] 





66. So, then, even if you are pure, and have 
been cleansed from every stain of vice, have 
won over and charmed '° those powers not to 
shut the ways against you and bar your passage 
when returning to heaven, by no efforts will you 
be able to reach the prize of immortality, unless 
by Christ’s gift you have perceived what consti- 
tutes this very immortality, and have been al- 
lowed to enter on the true life. For as to that 
with which you have been in the habit of taunt- 
ing us, that our religion is new,’! and arose a few 
days ago, almost, and that you could not aban- 
don the ancient faith which you had inherited 
from your fathers, and pass over to barbarous 
and foreign rites, this is urged wholly without 
reason. For what if in this way we chose to 
blame the preceding, even the most ancient 
ages, because when they discovered how to raise 
crops,’? they despised acorns, and rejected with 
scorn the wild strawberry ; because they ceased 
to be covered with the bark of trees and clad 
in the hides of wild beasts, after that garments 
of cloth were devised, more useful and con- 
venient in wearing; or because, when houses 
were built, and more comfortable dwellings 
erected, they did not cling to their ancient 
huts, and did not prefer to remain under rocks 
and caves like the beasts of the field? It is a 
disposition possessed by all, and impressed on 
us almost from our cradles even, to prefer good 
things to bad, useful to useless things, and to ° 
pursue and seek that with more pleasure which 
has been generally regarded '3as more chan usu- 
ally precious, and to set on that our hopes for 
prosperity and favourable circumstances. 
67. Therefore, when you urge against us. that 
we turn away from the religion ‘4 of past ages, it 
is fitting that you should examine why it is done, 
not what is done, and not set before you what 
we have left, but observe especially what we 
have followed. For if it is a fault or crime to 
change an opinion, and pass from ancient cus- 
toms to new conditions and desires, this accusa- 
tion holds against you too, who have so often 
changed your habits and mode of life, who have 
gone over to other customs and ceremonies, so 
that you are condemned by'5 past ages as well 
as we. Wo you indeed have the people dis- 
tributed into five © classes, as your ancestors once 
had? Do you ever elect magistrates by vote of 
the people? Do you know what military, urban, 





Lit., ** bent.” 
Cf. 1, 13 and 58. 
2 Lit., “crops being invented.” 

13 So the later edd., reading constiterzt from the margin of Ursi- 
nus; but in the ms. and first four edd. the reading is constituerzt — 
“has established,” for which there is no subject. 

14 So the later edd., reading averszonent ex (LB., and preceding 
edd. a) religtone for the Ms. et religionem — “‘ against us the hatred 
and religion of past ages.” 

Is Lit., ‘‘ with the condemnation of.” 

16 This shows that the division of the people into classes was obso- 
lete in the time of Arnobius. 


460 








and common! comitia are? Do you watch the 
sky, or put an end to public business because 
evil omens are announced? When you are pre- 
paring for war,? do you hang out a flag from the 
citadel, or practise the forms of the Fetiales, 
solemnly? demanding the return of what has 
been carried off? or, when encountering the 
dangers of war, do you begin to hope also, 
because of favourable omens from the points of 
the spears?* In entering on office, do you still 
observe the laws fixing the proper times? with 
regard to gifts and presents #0 advocates, do you 
observe the Cincian and the sumptuary laws in re- 
stricting your expenses? Do you maintain fires, 
ever burning, in gloomy sanctuaries?5 Do you 
consecrate tables by putting on them salt-cellars 
and images of the gods? When you marry, do 
you spread the couch with a toga, and invoke 
the gen? of husbands? do you arrange the hair 
of brides with the hasta cehbaris ? do you bear 
the maidens’ garments to the temple of Fortuna 
Virginalis? Do your matrons work in the halls of 
your houses, showing their industry openly? do 
they refrain from drinking wine? are their friends 
and relations allowed to kiss them, in order to 
show that they are sober and temperate ? 

68. On the Alban hill, it was not allowed in 
ancient times to sacrifice any but snow-white 
bulls: have you not changed that custom and 
religious observance, and has it not been enacted 
by decree of the senate, that reddish ones may 
be offered? While during the reigns of Romu- 
lus and Pompilius the inner parts, having been 
quite thoroughly cooked and softened, were 
burnt up 77 sacrificing to the gods, did you not 
begin, under king Tullius,° to hold them out 
half-raw and slightly warm, paying no regard to 
the former usage? While before the arrival of 
Hercules in Italy supplication was made _ to 
father Dis and Saturn with the heads of men 
by Apollo’s advice ; have you not, in like man- 
ner, changed this custom too, by means of 
cunning deceit and ambiguous names?7 Since, 
then, yourselves also have followed at one time 
these customs, at another’ different laws, and 
have repudiated and rejected many things on 
either perceiving your mistakes or seeing some- 
thing better, what have we done contrary to com- 





1 Turnebus has explained this as merely another way of saying the 
comitia centurtata, curtata and tributa. 

2 So the edd., reading cum paratis bella (Ochler reads reparan- 
tes) for the MS. reparatts. 

3 i.e., er clartgationem, the solemn declaration of war, if restitu- 
tion was not made within thirty-three days. 

4 This seems the most natural way to deal with the clause ef ex 
acumintbus auspicatis, looking on the last word as an adjective, not 
a verb, as most edd. seein to hold it. There is great diversity of opin- 
ion as to what this omen was. 

5 The Ms, reads zn penetralibus et coligints. LB., followed by 
Orelli, merely omits e¢, as above, while the first five edd. read zx 

en. Veste tgnts —*‘ do you maintain the hearths of Vesta’s fire.” 
fany other readings and many explanations of the passage are also 
proposed: 
i.e, Servius Tullius. 
lus Hostilius. 
7 Ciivicut. 


The first four edd. read Txd/o, i.e., Tul- 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





mon sense and the discretion all men have, if 
we have chosen what is greater and more cer 
tain, and have not suffered ourselves to be held 
back by unreasoning respect for impostures ? 
69. But our name is new, we are fold, and 
the religion which we follow arose but a few 
days ago. Granting for the present that what 
you urge against us is not untrue, what is there, 
I would ask, among the affairs of men that is 
either done by bodily exertion and manual 
labour, or attained by the mind’s learning and 
knowledge, which did not begin at some time, 
and pass into general use and practice since 
then? Medicine,’ philosophy, music, and all 
the other arts by which social life has been built 
up and refined,— were these born with men, 
and did they not rather begin to be pursued, 
understood, and practised lately, nay, rather, but 
a short time since? Before the Etruscan Tages 
saw the? light, did any one know or trouble 
himself to know and learn what meaning there 
was in the fall of thunderbolts, or in the veins 
of the victims sacrificed?'® When did the mo- 
tion of the stars or the art of calculating nativities 
begin to be known? Was it not after Theutis '’ 
the Egyptian; or after Atlas, as some say, the 
bearer, supporter, stay, avd prop of the skies? 
70. But why do I speak of these trivial things ? 
The immortal gods themselves, whose temples 
you now enter with reverence, whose deity you 
suppliantly adore, did they not at certain times, 
as is handed down by your writings and traditions, 
begin to be, to be known and to be invoked by 
names and titles which were given tothem? For 
if it is true that Jupiter with his brothers was 
born of Saturn and his wife, before Ops was mar- 
ried and bore children Jupiter had not existed 
both the Supreme and the Stygian,’? no, nor the 
lord of the sea, nor Juno, nay more, no one 
inhabited the heavenly seats except the two par- 
ents; but from their union she other gods were 
conceived and born, and breathed the breath of 
life. So, then, at a certain time the god Jupiter 
began to be, at a certain time to merit worship 
and sacrifices, at a certain time to be set above 
his brothers in power."3 But, again, if Liber, 
Venus, Diana, Mercury, Apollo, Hercules, the 
Muses, the Tyndarian brothers,’* and Vulcan the 
lord of fire, were begotten by father Jupiter, and 
born of a parent sprung from Saturn, before that 
Memory, Alcmena, Maia, Juno, Latona, Leda, 
Dione, and Semele also bore children to Dies- 


8 The Ms. reads edi 7n filosophia y the first four edd., PAzZos. » 
Elmenh. and Orelli, Ztenzm pAil, — ‘‘ For were phil.;” LB., Ede ax 
phil. —“ say whether phil.,” which is, however, faulty in construc- 
tion, as the indicative follows. Rigaltius, followed by Oehler, emended 
as above, Medicina phil. 

9 Lit., ‘‘ reached the coasts of.” 





1o Lit., ‘of the intestines ”’ — extorum, 

II In both Roman edd., Theutatem,i.e., Theutas, Cf, Plato, Pha- 
drus, st. p. 274. 

12 i,e., Pluto. 

13 Pl. 

14 Lit., “‘ Castors,” i.e., Castor and Pollux. 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





461 





' piter; these de/#es, too, were nowhere in the 
world, nor in any part of the universe, but by 
Jupiter’s embraces they were begotten and born, 
and began to have some sense of their own ex- 
istence. So then, these, too, began to be at a 
certain time, and to be summoned among the 
gods to the sacred rites. This we say, in like 
manner, of Minerva. For if, as you assert, she 
burst forth from Jupiter’s head ungenerated,' be- 
fore Jupiter was begotten, and received in his 
mother’s womb the shape and outline of his 
body,? it is quite certain that Minerva did not 
exist, and was not reckoned among things or as 
existing at all; but from Jove’s head she was 
born, and began to have a real existence. She 
therefore has an origin at the first, and began to 
be called a goddess at a certain time, to be set 
up in temples, and to be consecrated by the in- 
violable obligations of religion. Now as this is 
the case, when you talk of the novelty of our re- 
ligion, does your own not come into your thoughts, 
and do you not take care to examine when your 
gods sprung up, —what origins, what causes they 
have, or from what stocks they have burst forth 
and sprung? But how shameful, how shameless 
it is to censure that in another which you see 
that you do yourself,— to take occasion to re- 
vile and accuse o¢hers for things which can be 
retorted upon you in turn ! 

71. But our rites are 3 new ; yours are ancient, 
and of excessive antiquity, we are told. And 
what help does that give you, or how does it 
damage our cause and argument? The belief 
which we hold is new; some day even it, too, 
will become old: yours is old; but when it 
arose, it was new and unheard of. ‘The credi- 
bility of a religion, however, must not be deter- 
mined by its age, but by its divinity; and you 
should consider not when, but what you began 
to worship. Four hundred years ago, my op- 
ponent says, your religion did not exist. And 
two thousand years ago, / reply, your gods did 
not exist. 
what calculations, can that be inferred? They 
are not difficult, not intricate, but can be seen 
by any one who will take them in hand even, as 
the saying is. Who begot Jupiter and his broth- 
ers? Saturn with Ops, as you relate, sprung from 
Ccelus and Hecate. Who begot Picus, the father 
of Faunus and grandfather of Latinus? Saturn, 
as you again hand down by your books and teach- 
ers? Therefore, if this is the case, Picus and 
Jupiter are in consequence united by the bond 
of kinship, inasmuch as they are sprung from one 
stock and race. It is clear, then, that what we 
say is true. How many steps are there in com- 


I i.e., sine ullius semints jactu, 

2 Lit’, “* forms of bodily circumscription,” 
3 Lit., ‘ what we do is. 

4 Lit., ‘ thing.” 


By what reckoning, you ask, or by | 





ing down from Jupiter and Picus to Latinus? 
Three, as the line of succession shows. Will you 
suppose Faunus, Latinus, and Picus to have each 
lived a hundred and twenty years, for beyond 
this it is affirmed that man’s life cannot be pro- 
longed ? The estimation is well grounded and clear. 
There are, then, three hundred and sixty years 
after these ?°® It is just as the calculation shows. 
Whose father-in-law was Latinus? Aéneas’. 
Whose father was he?? He was father of the 
founder of the town Alba. How many years 
did kings reign in Alba? Four hundred and 
twenty almost. Of what age is the city Rome 
shown to be in the annals? It reckons ten ® hun- 
dred and fifty years, or not much less. So, then, 
from Jupiter, who is the brother of Picus and 
father of the other and lesser gods, down to the 
present time, there are nearly, or to add a little 
to the time, altogether, two thousand years. Now 
since this cannot be contradicted, not only is the 
religion to which you adhere shown to have 
sprung up lately; but z¢ zs also shown that the 
gods themselves, to whom you heap up bulls and 
other victims at the risk of bringing on disease, 
are young and little children, who should still be 
fed with their mothers’ milk.9 

72. But your religion precedes ours by many 
years, and is therefore, you say, truer, because it 
has been supported by the authority of antiquity. 
And of what avail is it that it should precede 
ours aS Many years as you please, since it began 
at a certain time? or what '° are two thousand 
years, compared with so many thousands of ages ? 
And yet, lest we should seem to betray our cause 
by so long neglect, say, if it does not annoy you, 
does the Almighty and Supreme God seem to you 
to be something new; and do those who adore 
and worship Him seem ¢o you to support and 
introduce an unheard-of, unknown, and upstart 
religion? Is there anything older than Him? or 
can anything be found preceding Him in being," 
time, name? Is not He alone uncreated, im- 
mortal, and everlasting? Who is the head ? and 
fountain of things? is not He? ‘To whom does 
eternity owe its name? is it not to Him? Is 
it not because He is everlasting, that the ages 
go on without end? This is beyond doubt, and 
true: the religion which we follow is not new, 
then, but we have been late in learning what we 
should follow and revere, or where we should 





5 Lit., “how many steps are there of race.” 

© i.e., Jupiter and Picus. 

7 The ms. reads genitor ... Latinus cugus, some letters hav- 
ing been erased. The reading followed above — genztor ts cujus — 
was suggested to Canterus by his friend Gifanius, and is found in the 
margin of Ursinus and Orelli. 

® Cf. above, ‘‘ four hundred years ago,” etc., and i. ch. 13. It is 
of importance to note that Arnobius is inconsistent in these state- 
ments. {In the Edinburgh edition we have here ‘‘ fifteen hundred 
years;” but it was changed, in the £rrata, to ten hundred and fifty.) 

9 Lit., ‘‘ be nursed with, the breasts and dropt milk.” 

10 Lit., “of what space.” 


1 ie. re. 
12 So the Ms., according to Crusius and Livineius, reading ac ; all 
edd. except Oehler read ax¢—‘‘ head (i.e., source) or fountain,” 


462 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





both fix our hope of salvation, and employ the aid 
given to save us. For He had not yet shone forth 
who was to point out the way to those wandering 
Jrom tt, and give the light of knowledge to those 
who were lying in the deepest darkness, and dis- 
pel the blindness of their ignorance. 

73. But are we alone in this position?! What ! 
have you not introduced into the number of 
your gods the Egyptian deities named Serapis 
and Isis, since the consulship of Piso and Gabi- 
nius?? What! did you not begin both to know 
and be acquainted with, and to worship with re- 
markable honours, the Phrygian mother — who, 
it is said, was first set up as a goddess by Midas 
or Dardanus —when Hannibal, the Carthagin- 
ian, was plundering Italy and aiming at the em- 
pire of the world?3 Are not the sacred rites of 
mother Ceres, which were adopted but a little 
while ago, called Greeca because they were un- 
known to you, their name bearing witness to 
their novelty? Is it not said + in the writings of 
the learned, that the rituals of Numa Pompilius 
do not contain the name of Apollo? Now it is 
clear and manifest from this, that he, too, was un- 
known to you, but that at some time afterwards 
he began to be known also. If any one, there- 
fore, should ask you why you have so lately be- 
gun to worship those deities whom we mentioned 
just now, it is certain that you will reply, either 
because we were #// lately not aware that they 
were gods, or because we have now been warned 
by the seers, or because, in very trying circum- 
stances, we have been preserved by their favour 
and help. But if you think that this is well said 
by you, you must consider that, on our part, a 
similar reply has been made. Our religion has 
sprung up just now ; for now He has arrived who 
was sent to declare it to us, to bring ws to its 
truth ; to show what God is ; to summon us from 
mere conjectures, to His worship. 

74. And why, my opponent says, did God, the 
Ruler and Lord of the universe, determine that a 
Saviour, Christ, should be sent to you from the 
heights of heaven a few hours ago, as it is said? 
We ask you too, on the other hand, what cause, 
what reason is there that the seasons sometimes 
do not recur at their own months, but that win- 
ter, summer, and autumn come too late? why, 
after the crops have been dried up and the corn 5 
has perished, showers sometimes fall which should 








1 The ms. reads unintelligibly vertztur sole; for which LB., fol- 
lowed by the later edd., reads, as above, vert2mur solt. 

2 Dr. Schmitz (Smith’ s Dict. 29.0. Tsis) speaks of these consuls as 
heading the revolt against the decree of the senate, that the statues of 
Isis and Serapis should be removed from the Capitol. The words of 
Tertullian (quoting Varro as his authority) are very distinct: “‘ The 
consul Gabinius . . . gave more weight to the decision of the senate 
than the popular impulse, and forbade their altars (i.e., those of Sera- 
Isis, Pa pOea IG: and Anubis) to be set up” (ad Nationes, i i, 10, 


Apol. ” 6) 
3 Cf. vii. 49. 
4 Lit., “ contained.” 
5 Pl. 





have dropped on them while yet uninjured, and 
made provision for the wants of the time? Nay, 
this we rather ask, why, if it were fitting that 
Hercules should be born, A‘sculapius, Mercury, 
Liber, and some others, that they might be both 
added to the assemblies of the gods, and might 
do men some service, — why they were produced 
so late by Jupiter, that only later ages should 
know them, while the past ages® of those who 
went before knew them not? You will say that 
there was some reason. ‘There was then some 
reason here also that the Saviour of our race 
came not lately, but to-day. What, then, you 
ask, is the reason? We do not deny that we do 
not know. For it is not within the power of 
any one to see the mind of God, or the way in 
which He has arranged His plans.?7 Man, a 
blind creature, and not knowing himself even, 
can® in no way learn what should happen, when, 
or what its nature is: the Father Himself, the 
Governor and Lord of all, alone knows. Nor, 
if I have been unable to disclose to you the 
causes why something is done in this way or 
that, does it straightway follow, that what has 
been done becomes not done, and that a thing 
becomes incredible, which has been shown to be 
beyond doubt by such 9 virtues and '° powers. 
75. You may object and rejoin, Why was the 
Saviour sent forth so late? In unbounded, eter- 
nal ages, we reply, nothing whatever should be 
spoken of as late. For where there is no end 
and no beginning, nothing is too soon,™ nothing 
too late. For time is perceived from its begin- 
nings and endings, which an unbroken line and 
endless *? succession of ages cannot have. For 
what if the things themselves to which it was 
necessary to bring help, required that as a fitting 
time? For what if the condition of antiquity 
was different from that of later times? What if 
it was necessary to give help to the men of old 
in one way, to provide for their descendants in 
another? Do ye not hear your own writings 
read, telling that there were once men who 
were demi-gods, heroes with immense and huge 
bodies? Do you not read that infants on their 
mothers’ breasts shrieked like Stentors,'3 whose 
bones, when dug up in different parts of the 





Guit.; °° antiquity.” 

7 Lit., “ things.” 

8 So Gelenius emended the ms., reading Jotens — ‘‘ being able,” 
which he changed into Zotest, as above, followed by later edd. 

9 Lit., ‘‘ by such kinds of.” 

to The ms. and first edd. read ef potestatzbus potestatum — “ and 
by powers of powers; ” the other edd. merely omit fotestatibus, as 
above, except, Oehler, who, retaining it, changes potestatum into 
protestata —“‘ being witnessed to by,” etc. ; but there is no instance 
adduced in which the participle of this verb is used passively. 

11 These words having been omitted by Oberthiir, are omitted by 
Orelli also, as in previous instances 

2 The s. and first ed. read e¢zam moderata continuatio ; cor- 
ea et tmmod. con. by Gelenius. 

13 So the edd., reading zxfantes stentoreos, except Oehler, who 
retains the Ms. reading centenartios, which he explains as ‘having a 
hundred” heads or hands, as the case might be, e.g., Typhon, Bria. 
reus, etc, 








ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. A068. 





earth, have made the discoverers almost doubt 


that they were the remains of human limbs? 
So, then, it may be that Almighty God, the only 
God, sent forth Christ then indeed, after that the 
human race, Jecoming feebler, weaker, began to 
be such as we are. If that which has been done 
now could have been done thousands of years 
ago, the Supreme Ruler would have done it; or 
if it had been proper, that what has been done 
now should be accomplished as many thousands 
after this, nothing compelled God to anticipate 
the necessary lapse’ of time. His plans? are 
executed in fixed ways; and that which has 
been once decided on, can in no wise be changed 
again.3 

76. Inasmuch then, you say, as you serve the 
Almighty God, and trust that He cares for your 
safety and salvation, why does He suffer you to 
be exposed to such storms of persecution, and 
to undergo all kinds of punishments and tor- 
tures? Let us, too, ask in reply, why, seeing 
that you worship so great and so innumerable 
gods, and build temples to them, fashion images 
of gold, sacrifice herds of animals, and all heap 
up* boxfuls of incense on the already loaded 
altars, why you live subject to so many dangers 
and storms of calamity, with which many fatal 
misfortunes vex you every day? Why, I say, do 
your gods neglect to avert from you so many 
kinds of disease and sickness, shipwrecks, down- 
falls, conflagrations, pestilences, barrenness, loss 
of children, and confiscation of goods, discords, 
wars, enmities, captures of cities, and the slavery 
of those who are robbed of their rights of free 
birth? But, my opponent says, in such mis- 
chances we, too, are in no wise helped by God. 
The cause is plain and manifest. For no hope 
has been held out to us with respect to this life, 
nor has any help been promised or® aid decreed 
us for what belongs to the husk of this flesh, — 
nay, more, we have been taught to esteem and 
value lightly all the threats of fortune, whatever 
they be ; and if ever any very grievous calamity 
has assailed ws, to count as pleasant in ¢a¢ mis- 
fortune 7 the end which must follow, and not to 
fear or flee from it, that we may be the more 


1 Lit., ‘‘ measure.” 

2 Tits" “things,” 

3 Lit., “‘ can be changed with no novelty.” 

4 Lit., proviic? ” conficiatis, which, however, some would un- 
derstand ‘ consume. 

: rie ett bon their free births being taken away.” 

it., 

7 So the MS., first five edd., Hild., and Oehler, reading ad- 
scribere infortunio voluptatem, which is omitted in the other edd. 
as a gloss which may have crept in from the margin. 





easily released from the bonds of the body, and 
escape from our darkness and ® blindness. 

77. Therefore that bitterness of persecution of 
which you speak is our deliverance and not per- 
secution, and our ill-treatment will not bring evil 
upon us, but will lead us to the light of liberty. 
As if some senseless and stupid fellow were to 
think that he never punished a man who had 
been put into prison? with severity and cruelty, 
unless he were to rage against the very prison, 
break its stones in pieces, and burn its roof, its 
wall, its doors; and strip, overthrow, and dash 
to the ground its other parts, not knowing that 
thus he was giving light to him whom he seemed 
to be injuring, and was taking from him the ac- 
cursed darkness : in like manner, you too, by the 
flames, banishments, tortures, and monsters with 
which you tear in pieces and rend asunder our 
bodies, do not rob us of life, but relieve us of 
our skins, not knowing that, as faras you assault and 
seek to rage against these our shadows and forms, 
so far you free us from pressing and heavy chains, 
and cutting our bonds, make us fly up to the light. 

78. Wherefore, O men, refrain from obstruct- 
ing what you hope for by vain questions; nor 
should you, if anything is otherwise than you 
think, trust your own opinions rather than that 
which should be reverenced.'° The times, full of 
dangers, urge us, and fatal penalties threaten us ; 
let us flee for safety to God our Saviour, without 
demanding the reason of the offered gift. When 
that at stake is our souls’ salvation and our own 
interests, something must be done even without 
reason, as Arrhianus approves of Epictetus having 
said... We doubt, we hesitate, and suspect the 
credibility of what is said; let us commit our- 
selves to God, and let not our incredulity prevail 
more with us than the greatness of His name 
and power, lest, while we are seeking out argu- 
ments for ourselves, through which that may 
seem false which we do not wish and deny to be 
true, the last day steal upon us, and we be found 
in the j jaws of our enemy, death. 


8 Lit., “our dark.” 

9 They ms. and both Roman edd. read zz carcerem natum ine: 
TESSUM 5 LB. and later edd. have received from the margin ‘of 
rsinus the reading translated above, datum, omitting the last word 

altogether, which Oehler, however, would retain as equivalent to 
‘not to be passed from.” 

to Lit., “ than an august thing.” 

r Orelli refers to Arrh., i, 12; but the doctrine there insisted on is 
the necessity of submission to what is unavoidable. Oehler, in addi- 
tion, refers to Epict., xxxii. 3, where, however, it is merely attempted 
to show that when anything is withheld from us, it is just as goods 
are unless paid for, and that we have therefore no reason to complain. 
Neither passage can be referred to here, and it seems as though 
Arnobius has made a very loose reference which, cannot be spect 
identified. 


464. 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





BOOK III. 


1, All these charges, then, which might truly 
be better termed abuse, have been long answered 
with sufficient fulness and accuracy by men of 
distinction in this respect, and worthy to have 
learned the truth; and not one point of any 
inquiry has been passed over, without being 
determined in a thousand ways, and on the 
strongest grounds. We need not, therefore, lin- 
ger further on this part of the case. For neither 
is the Christian religion unable to stand though 
it found no advocates, nor will it be therefore 
proved true if it found many to agree with it, 
and gained weight through its adherents.’ Its 
own strength is sufficient for it, and it rests on 
the foundations of its own truth, without losing 
its power, though there were none to defend it, 
nay, though all voices assailed and opposed it, 
and united with common rancour to destroy all 
faith? in it. 

2. Let us now return to the order from which 
we were a little ago compelled to diverge, that 
our defence may not, through its being too long 
broken off, be said to have given our detractors 
cause to triumph in the establishing of their 
charge. For they propose these questions: If 
you are in earnest about religion, why do you 
not serve and worship the other gods with us, or 
share your sacred rites with your fellows, and 
put the ceremonies of the afferent religions on 
an equality? We may say for the present: In 
essaying to approach the divine, the Supreme 
Deity? suffices us, —the Deity, I say, who is 
supreme, the Creator and Lord of the universe, 
who orders and rules all things : in Him we serve 
all that requires our service ; 7x Him we worship 
all that should be adored, — venerate4 that which 
demands the homage of our reverence. For as 
we lay hold of the source of the divine itself, 
from which the very divinity of all gods whatever 
is derived,5 we think it an idle task to approach 
each personally, since we neither know who they 
are, nor the names by which they are called; 
and are further unable to learn, and discover, 
and establish their number. 

3. And as in the kingdoms of earth we are in 
no wise constrained expressly to do reverence 





1 The Ms., followed by Oehler, reads neque entm res stare... 
inde as Christiana religio aut—“ for neither can a thing not 
stand, . . . nor will the Christian religion,” etc., while L.B. merely 
thanges axt into e¢ —“‘ for neither can a thing, ie., the Christian re- 
ligion, . . . nor will it,” etc. All other edd. read as above, omitting 
tbe 

2 According to Crusius and others, the ms. reads fizem ; but, 
according to Hild., dem, as above. 

3 sorted! ahislers according to Nourry, in relation to Christ; but 
manifestly from the scope of the chapter, God as the fountain and 
source of all things. 

4 Lit., “‘ propitiate with venerations.” 

$ So the Ms., reading ducztu7 ; for which Oberthiir, followed by 
Orelli, reads dicz#ur7 —“‘ is said,” 





to those who form the royal family as well as 
to the sovereigns, but whatever honour belongs to 
them is found to be tacitly ° implied in the hom- 
age offered to the kings themselves ; in just the 
same way, these gods, whoever they be, for whose 
existence you vouch, if they are a royal race, and 
spring from the Supreme Ruler, even though we 
do not expressly do them reverence, yet feel that 
they are honoured in common with their Lord, 
and share in the reverence shown to Him. Now 
it must be remembered that we have made this 
statement, on the hypothesis only that it is clear 
and undeniable, that besides the Ruler and Lord 
Himself, there are still other beings,? who, when 
arranged and disposed in order, form, as it were, 
a kind of plebeian mass. But do not seek to 
point out to us pictures instead of gods in your 
temples, and the images which you set up, for 
you too know, but are unwilling and refuse to 
admit, that these are formed of most worthless 
clay, and are childish figures made by mechanics. 
And when we converse with you on religion, we 
ask you to prove this, that there are other gods 
than the one Supreme Deity in nature, power, 
name, not as we see them manifested in images, 
but in such a substance as it might fittingly be 
supposed that perfection of so great dignity 
should reside. 

4. But we do not purpose delaying further on 
this part of the subject, lest we seem desirous to 
stir up most violent strife, and engage in agitat- 
ing contests. 

Let there be, as you affirm, that crowd of 
deities, let there be numberless families of gods ; 
we assent, agree, and do not examine /o closely, 
nor in any part of the subject do we assail 
the doubtful and uncertain positions you hold. 
This, however, we demand, and ask you to tell 
us, whence you have discovered, or how you 
have learned, whether there are these gods,°® 
whom you believe to be in heaven and serve, or 
some others unknown by reputation and name? 
For it may be that beings exist whom you do 
not believe to do so; and that those of whose 
existence you feel assured, are found nowhere in 
the universe. For you have at no time been 
borne aloft to the stars of heaven, a¢ no Ame 


6 Lit., “‘ whatever belongs to them feels itself to be comprehended 

with a tacit rendering also of honour in,” etc., tactta et se sentit 
honorificentia, read by later edd. for the Ms. ut se sentit—“‘ but as 
whatever,” retained by Hild. and Oehler; while the first four edd. 
read vz — “‘ feels itself with a silent force comprehended in the honour 
in,” etc. 
7 So LB. and Orelli, reading alia etiamnum capita for the Ms. 
alienum capita, read in the first five edd., alza non capita — ‘are 
others not chiefs; ’”’ Hild., followed by Uehler, proposes alza dettm 
capita —“‘ other gods.” 

8 According to Orelli’s punctuation, ‘“‘ whether there are these 
gods in heaven whom,” etc. 





Pay eae ea eS a ee ee a Lane 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


465 





have seen the face and countenance of each; 
and ¢hen established here the worship of the 
same gods, whom you remembered to be there, 
as having been known and seen dy you. But 
this, too, we again would learn from you, whether 
they have received these names by which you call 
them, or assumed them themselves on the days 
of purification.'. If these are divine and celestial 
names, who reported them to you? But if, on 
the other hand, these names have been applied 
to them by you, how could you give names to 
those whom you never saw, and whose character 
or circumstances you in no wise? knew? 

5. But /e¢ t¢ be assumed that there are these 
gods, as you wish and believe, and are persuaded ; 
let them be called also by those names by which 
the common people suppose that those meaner 
gods3 are known.‘ 
learned who make up the list of gods under these 
names?5 have any ever become familiar and 
known 4 others with whose names you were not 
acquainted?® For it cannot be easily known 
whether their numerous body is settled and fixed 
in number, or whether their multitude cannot be 
summed up and limited by the numbers of any 
computation. For let us suppose that you do 
reverence to a thousand, or rather five thousand 
gods; but in the universe it may perhaps be 
that there are a hundred thousand ; there may 
be even more than this, — nay, as we said a little 
before, it may not be possible to compute the 
number of the gods, or limit them by a definite 
number. Either, then, you are yourselves im- 
pious who serve a few gods, but disregard the 
duties which you owe to the rest;7 or if you 
claim that your ignorance of the rest should be 
pardoned, you will procure for us also a similar 
pardon, if in just the same way® we refuse to 
worship those of whose existence we are wholly 
ignorant. 

6. Anl yet let no one think that we are per- 
versely determined not to submit to? the other 
deities, whoever they are! For we 4/¢ up pious 
minds, and stretch forth our hands in prayer,’° 





1 So LB. and later edd., from a conj. of Meursius, reading dzebus 
dustricts for the Ms. ledibriis; read by some, and understood by 
others, as ludicrzs, i.e., festal days. 

2 The ms., followed by Hild. and Oehler, reads xegue ... in 
sila cognatione —“‘ in no relationship,” for which the other edd. give 
cognitione, as above. 

3 So all edd., reading Jopulares, except Hild. and Oehler, who 
receive the conj. of Rigaltius, Jopxdatzm —‘‘ among all nations; ” 
the Ms. reading Jopularem. 

4 Censerié, \.e., ‘‘ written in the list of gods. ” 

5 Otherwise, ‘ how many make up thze list of this name.” 

6 So Orelli, receiving the emendation of Barth, zacognzii nomine, 
for the MS. 1” coguttione, -one being an abbreviation for xomine. 
Examples of such deities are the Novensiles, Consentes, etc,, cc. 

8-41. 
3 4 Lit., ‘‘ who, except a few gods, do not engage in the services 
of the rest.” 

8 Orelli would explain Aro parte conszmrli as equivalent to pro 
uno vero Deo —“‘ for the one true God.” J : 

9 Lit., ‘take the oaths of allegiance,” or military oaths, using a 
very Common metaphor applied to Christians in the preceding book, 


c. 5. 
Yo Lit., “suppliant hands.” It has been thought that the word 
supplices is a gloss, and that the idea originally was that of a band 


Whence, however, have you. 





and do not refuse to draw near whithersoever you 
may have summoned us; if only we learn who 
those divine beings are whom you press upon 
us, and with whom it may be right to share the 
reverence which we show to the king and prince 
who is over all. It is Saturn, my opponent says, 
and Janus, Minerva, Juno, Apollo, Venus, Trip- 
tolemus, Hercules, A‘sculapius, and all the others, 
to whom the reverence of antiquity dedicated 
magnificent temples in almost every city. You 
might, perhaps, have been able to attract us to 
the worship of these deities you mention, had 
you not been yourselves the first, with foul and 
unseemly fancies, to devise such tales about 
them as not merely to stain their honour, but, 
by the natures assigned to them, to prove that 
they did not exist at all. For, in the first place, 
we cannot be led to believe this, —that that 
immertal and supreme nature has been divided 
by sexes, and that there are some male, others 
female. But this point, indeed, has been long 
ago fully treated of by men of ardent genius, 
both in Latin and Greek ; and Tullius, the most 
eloquent among the Romans, without dreading 
the vexatiousness of a charge of impiety, has 
above all, with greater piety," declared — boldly, 
firmly, and frankly — what he thought of such 
a fancy; and if you would proceed to receive 
from him opinions written with true discernment, 
instead of merely brilliant sentences, this case 
would have been concluded; nor would it re- 
quire at our weak hands a second pleading,'3 
as it is termed. 

7. But why should I say that men seek from 
him subtleties of expression and splendour of 
diction, when I know that there are many who 
avoid and flee from his books on this subject, 
and will not hear his opinions read,'4 overthrow- 
ing their prejudices; and when I hear others 
muttering angrily, and saying that the senate 
should decree the destruction '5 of these writings 
by which the Christian religion is maintained, 
and the weight of antiquity overborne? But, 
indeed, if you are convinced that anything you 
say regarding your gods is beyond doubt, point 
out Cicero’s error, refute, rebut his rash and 
impious words," and show ¢hat they are so. For 
when you would carry off writings, and suppress 
a book given forth to the public, you are not 





of soldiers holding out their hands as they swore to be true to their 
country and leaders; but there is no want of simplicity and congruity 
in the sentence as it stands, to warrant us in rejecting the word. 

Il j.e., than the inventors of such fables had shown. 

12 Lit, “‘ from us infants; ” i.e., as compared with such a man as 
Cicero. 

13 Secundas actiones. The reference is evidently to a second 
speaker, who makes good his predecessor’s defects. 

14 Lit., ‘‘are unwilling to admit into their ear the reading of opin- 
ions,” etc. . 

15 Both Christians and heathen, it is probable, were concerned in 
the mutilation of de Vat. Deorum. 

16 So Gelenius, reading dicta for the Ms. dictztare, The last verb 
is comprobate, read reprobate —‘‘ condemn,” by all edd. except Hild. 
and Oehler, 


466 


sg ts bhi 5 tc 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





defending the gods, but dreading the evidence 
of the truth. 

8. And yet, that no thoughtless person may 
raise a false accusation against us, as though we 
believed God whom we worship to be male, — 
for this reason, that is, that when we speak of 
Him we use a masculine word, — let him under- 
stand that it is not sex which is expressed, but 
His name, and its meaning according to custom, 
and the way in which we are in the habit of 
using words.'. For the Deity is not male, but 
His name is of the masculine gender: but in 
your ceremonies you cannot say the same; for 
in your prayers you have been wont to say 
whether thou art god or goddess, and this uncer- 
tain description shows, even by their opposition, 
that you attribute sex to the gods. We cannot, 
then, be prevailed on to believe that the divine 
is embodied ; for bodies must needs be distin- 
guished by difference of sex, if they are male 
and female. For who, however mean his capa- 
city,3 does not know that the sexes of different 
gender have been ordained and formed by the 
Creator of the creatures of earth, only that, by 
intercourse and union of bodies, that which is 
fleeting and transient may endure being ever 
renewed and maintained ?4 

9. What, then, shall we say? That gods be- 
get and are begotten?5 and that therefore they 
have received organs of generation, that they 
might be able to raise up offspring, and that, as 
each new race springs up, a substitution, regu- 
larly occurring,® should make up for all which 
had been swept away by the preceding age? If, 
then, it is so, —that is, if the gods above beget 
other gods, and are subject to these conditions 
of sex,? and are immortal, and are not worn out 
by the chills of age,—jit follows, as a conse- 
quence, that the world ® should be full of gods, 
and that countless heavens could not contain 
their multitude, inasmuch as they are both them- 
selves ever begetting, and the countless multi- 
tude of their descendants, always being increased, 
is augmented by means of their offspring ; or if, 
as is fitting, the gods are not degraded by being 
subjected to sexual impulses,? what cause or 
reason will be pointed out for their being distin- 
guished by those members by which the sexes 
are wont to recognise each other at the sugges- 

tion of their own desires? For it is not likely 
that they have these meméers without a purpose, 





I Lit., “ with familiarity of speech.” 

2 A formula used when they sought to propitiate the author of 
some event which could not be traced to a particular deity; referring 
also to the cases in which there were different opinions as to the sex 
of a deity. 

3 Lit., ‘even of mean understanding.” 

4 Lit., ‘‘ by the renewing of perpetual succession.” 

5 Lit., ‘‘ that gods are born.” 

6 Lit., “ recurring,” “ arising again.” 

7 Lit., “‘ make trial of themselves by these laws of sex.” 

8 Lit., ‘‘ all things,” etc. 
9 Lit., “‘ if the impurity of sexual union is wanting to the gods,” 





or that nature had wished in them to make sport 
of its own improvidence,"° in providing them with 
members for which there would be no use. For 
as the hands, feet, eyes, and other members 
which form our body,'! have been arranged for 
certain uses, each for its own end, so we may 
well believe that these members have been pro- 
vided to discharge their office ; or it must be 
confessed that there is something without a pur- 
pose in the bodies of the gods, which has been 
made uselessly and in vain. 

10, What say you, ye holy and pure guardians 
of religion? Have the gods, then, sexes; and 
are they disfigured by those parts, the very men- 
tion of whose names by modest lips is disgrace- 
ful? What, then, now remains, but to believe 
that they, as unclean beasts, are transported with 
violent passions, rush with maddened desires 
into mutual embraces, and at last, with shattered 
and ruined bodies, are enfeebled by their sensu- 
ality? And since some things are peculiar to 
the female sex, we must believe that the god- 
desses, too, submit to these conditions at the 
proper time, conceive and become pregnant with 
loathing, miscarry, carry the full time, and some- 
times are prematurely delivered. O divinity, 
pure, holy, free from and unstained by any dis- 
honourable blot! The mind longs ‘3 and burns 


to see, in the great halls and palaces of heaven, 


gods and goddesses, with bodies uncovered and 
bare, the full-breasted Ceres nursing Iacchus,"* as 
the muse of Lucretius sings, the Hellespontian 
Priapus bearing about among the goddesses, 
virgin and matron, those parts ’5 ever prepared 
for encounter. It longs, I say, to see goddesses 
pregnant, goddesses with child, and, as they daily 
increase in size, faltering in their steps, through 
the irksomeness of the burden they bear about 
with them ; others, after long delay, bringing to 
birth, and seeking the midwife’s aid; others, 
shrieking as they are attacked by keen: pangs 
and grievous pains, tormented,'® and, under all 
these influences, imploring the aid of Juno Lu- 
cina. Is it not much better to abuse, revile, and 
otherwise insult the gods, than, with pious pre- 
tence, unworthily to entertain such monstrous 
beliefs about them ? 

11. And you dare to charge us with offending 
the gods, although, on examination, it is. found 
that the ground of offence is most clearly in 
yourselves, and that it is not occasioned by the 





10 So the first five edd. 

II Lit., ‘‘ the other arrangement of members.” 

12 Lit., ‘it is fitting to believe.” ‘ 

13 The Ms., followed by Hild., reads habet et antmum— “has id 
a mind to, and does it,” etc.; for which Gelenius, followed by later 
edd., reads, as above, avet animus, 

14 Cererem ab Laccho, either as above, or ‘‘ loved by Iacchus.” 
Cf. Lucret. iv. 1160: At tumzda et mammosa Ceres est ipsa ab 
laccho. 

15 Sensu obscaeno. : 

16 The first five edd. read hortar7— “ exhorted,” for which LB., 
followed by later edd., received tortarz, as above, — a.coniecture of 
Canterus. 





ed 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


467 





insult which you think! we offer them. 
the gods are, as you say, moved by anger, and 
burn with rage in their minds, why should we 
not suppose that they take it amiss, even in the 
highest degree, that you attribute to them sexes, 
as dogs and swine have been created, and that, 
since this is your belief, they are so represented, 
and openly exposed in a disgraceful manner? 
This, then, being the case, you are the cause 
of all troubles— you lead the gods, you rouse 
them to harass the earth with every ill, and 
every day to devise all kinds of fresh misfor- 
tunes, that so they may avenge themselves, being 
irritated at suffering so many wrongs and insults 
from you. By your insults and affronts, I say, 
partly in the vile stories, partly in the shameful 
beliefs which your theologians, your poets, you 
yourselves too, celebrate in disgraceful ceremo- 
nies, you will find that the affairs of men have 
been ruined, and that the gods have thrown 
away the helm, if indeed it is by their care that 
the fortunes of men are guided and arranged. 
For with us, indeed, they have no reason to be 
angry, whom they see and perceive neither to 
mock, as it is said, nor worship them, and to 
think,? to believe much more worthily than you 
with regard to the dignity of their name. 

12. Thus far of sex. Now let us come to 
the appearance and shapes by which you believe 
that the gods above have been represented, with 
which, indeed, you fashion, and set them up in 
their most splendid abodes, your temples. And 
let no one here bring up against us Jewish fables 
and those of the sect of the Sadducees,3 as though 
we, too, attribute to the Deity forms ;4 for this 
is supposed to be taught in their writings, and 
asserted as if with assurance and authority. For 
thése stories either do not concern us, and have 
nothing at all in common with us, or if they are 
shared in dy ws, as you believe, you must seek 
out teachers of greater wisdom, through whom 
you may be able to learn how best to overcome 
the dark and recondite sayings of those writings. 
Our opinion on the subject is as follows : — that 
the whole. divine nature, since it neither came 
into existence at any time, nor will ever come to 
an end of life, is devoid of bodily features, and 
does not have anything like the forms with which 
the termination of the several members usually 
completes the union of parts.5 For whatever is 
of this character, we think mortal and perish- 





I So Orelli, reading ec zu contumelia quam opinamtint stare 
for the MS. eZ, ‘which is retained by all other edd.; Oehler, however, 
inserts alza before quam — ‘and that it is found in an insult other 
than you think.” 

2 So later edd., omitting gas, which is read in the ms., both 
Roman edd., Hild., yand Oehler, “to think much more... than you 
believe.” 

3 It is Reideat that Arnobius here confuses ‘the sceptical Saddu- 
cees with their opponents the Pharisees, and the Talmudists. 

\ 4 The Ms. reads ¢rzbuant et nos unintelligibly, for which LB. and | 
Hild. read e¢ os —‘‘as though they attribute form and face;” the 
other edd, as above, tribuamus etnos. 

5 Lit, “the j gongs of the members.” 





For if 





able ; nor do we believe that that can endure for 
ever which an inevitable end shuts in, though the 
boundaries enclosing it be the remotest. 

13. But it is not enough that you limit the 
gods by forms : — you even confine them to the 
human figure, and with even less decency enclose 
them in earthly bodies. What shall we say then? 
that the gods have a head modelled with perfect 
symmetry,° bound fast by sinews to the back 
and breast, and that, to allow the necessary bend- 
ing of the neck, it is supported by combinations 
of vertebre, and by an osseous foundation? But 
if we believe this to be true, it follows that they 
have ears also, pierced by crooked windings ; 
rolling eyeballs, overshadowed by the edges of 
the eyebrows; a nose, placed as a channel,’ 
through which waste fluids and a current of «ir 
might easily pass; teeth to masticate food, of 
three kinds, and adapted to three services ; 
hands to do their work, moving easily by means 
of joints, fingers, and flexible elbows; feet to 
support their bodies, regulate their steps, and 
prompt the first motions in walking. But if 
the gods bear these things which are seen, it is 
fitting that they should bear those also which 
the skin conceals under the framework of the 
ribs, and the membranes enclosing the viscera ; 
windpipes, stomachs, spleens, lungs, bladders, 
livers, the long-entwined intestines, and the 
veins of purple blood, joined with the air-pas- 
sages,® coursing through the whole viscera. 

14. Are, then, the divine bodies free from 
these deformities? and since they do not eat the 
food of men, are we to believe that, like chil- 
dren, they are toothless, and, having no internal 
parts, as if they were inflated bladders, are with- 
out strength, owing to the hollowness of their 
swollen bodies? Further, if this is the case, 
you must see whether the gods are all alike, or 
are marked by a difference in the contour of 
their forms. For if each and all have one and 
the same likeness of shape, there is nothing 
ridiculous in believing that they err, and are de- 
ceived in recognising each other.? But if, on 
the other hand, they are distinguished by their 
countenances, we should, consequently, under- 
stand that these differences have been implanted 
for no other reason than that they might indi- 
vidually be able to recognise themselves by the 
peculiarites of the different marks. We should 
therefore say that some have big heads, promi- 
nent brows, broad brows, thick lips ; that others 
of them have long chins, moles, and high noses ; 
that these have dilated nostrils, those are snub- 





© Lit., “with smooth roundness.” [Cf. Xenoph., Mem., i. cap, 4.] 

7 Lit., “the raised gutter of the nose, easily passed by,” etc, 

8 The veins were supposed to be for the most part filled with 
blood, mixed with a little air; while in the arteries air was supposed 
to be inexcess. Cf. Cicero, de Nat. Deor. ii. 55: “Through the 
veins blood is poured forth to the whole body, and air through the 
arteries.”” 


9 Lit., ‘in the apprehension of mutual knowledge.” 


468 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





nosed ; some chubby from a swelling of their 
jaws or growth of their cheeks, dwarfed, tall, of 
middle size, lean, sleek, fat; some with crisped 
and curled hair, others shaven, with bald and 
smooth heads. Now your workshops show and 
point out that our opinions are not false, inas- 
much as, when you form and fashion gods, you 
represent some with long hair, others smooth and 
bare, as old, as youths, as boys, swarthy, grey- 
eyed, yellow, half-naked, bare ; or, that cold may 
not annoy them, covered with flowing garments 
thrown over them. 

15. Does any man at all possessed of judg- 
ment, believe that hairs and down grow on the 
bodies of the gods? that among them age is 
distinguished? and that they go about clad in 
dresses and garments of various shapes, and 
shield themselves from heat and cold? But if 
any one believes that, he must receive this also 
as true, that some gods are fullers, some barbers ; 
the former to cleanse the sacred garments, the 
latter to thin their locks when matted with a thick 
growth of hair. Is not this really degrading, 
most impious, and insulting, to attribute to the 
gods the features of a frail and perishing animal ? 
to furnish them with those members which no 
modest person would dare to recount, and de- 
scribe, or represent in his own imagination, with- 
out shuddering at the excessive indecency? Is 
this the contempt you entertain, — this the proud 
wisdom with which you spurn us as ignorant, and 
think that all knowledge of religion is yours? 
You mock the mysteries of the Egyptians, be- 
cause they ingrafted the forms of dumb animals 
upon their divine causes, and because they wor- 
ship these very images with much incense, and 
whatever else 1s used in such rites: you your- 
selves adore images of men, as though they were 
powerful gods, and are not ashamed to give to 


these the countenance of an earthly creature, to | 


blame others for their mistaken folly, and to be 
detected in a similarly vicious error. 

16, But you will, perhaps, say that the gods 
have indeed other forms, and that you have 
given the appearance of men to them merely by 
way of honour, and for form’s sake ;‘ which is 
much more insulting than to have fallen into any 
error through ignorance. For if you confessed 
that you had ascribed to the divine forms that 
which you had supposed and believed, your er- 
ror, originating in prejudice, would not be so 
blameable. But now, when you believe one 
thing and fashion another, you both dishonour 
those to whom you ascribe that which you con- 
fess does not belong to them, and show your 
impiety in adoring that which you fashion, not 
that which you think really is, and which is in 


1 The ms. and first four edd. read dotis causa —“‘ for the sake 
ef a dowry: ” corrected as above, @zcz’s causa in the later edd. 





very truth. If asses, dogs, pigs,? had any human 
wisdom and skill in contrivance, and wished to 
do us honour also by some kind of worship, and 
to show respect by dedicating statues / ws, with 
what rage would they inflame us, what a tempest 
of passion would they excite, if they determined 
that our images should bear and assume the 
fashion of their own bodies? How would they, 
I repeat, fill us with rage, and rouse our pas- 
sions, if the founder of Rome, Romulus, were to 
be set up with an ass’s face, the revered Pom- 
pilius with that of a dog, if under the image of 
a pig were written Cato’s or Marcus Cicero’s 
name? So, then, do you think that your stu- 
pidity is not laughed at by your deities, if they 
laugh af al/? or, since you believe that they may 
be enraged, do you think that they are not roused, 
maddened to fury, and that they do not wish to 
be revenged for so great wrongs and insults, and 
to hurl on you the punishments usually dictated 
by chagrin, and devised by bitter hatred? How 
much better it had been to give to them the 
forms of elephants, panthers, or tigers, bulls, and 
horses! For what is there beautiful in man, — 
what, I pray you, worthy of admiration, or come- 
ly, — unless that which, some poet3 has main- 
tained, he possesses in common with the ape? 

17. But, they say, if you are not satisfied with 
our opinion, do you point out, tell us yourselves, 
what is the Deity’s form. If you wish to hear 
the truth, either the Deity has no form’; or if He 
is embodied in one, we indeed know not what it 
is. Moreover, we think it no disgrace to be ig- 
norant of that which we never saw; nor are we 
therefore prevented from disproving the opinions 
of others, because on this we have no opinion 
of our own to bring forward. For as, if the 
earth be said to be of glass, silver, iron, or gath- 
ered together and made from brittle clay, we 
cannot hesitate to maintain that this is untrue, 
although we do not know of what it is made ; so, 
when the form of God is discussed, we show 
that it is not what you maintain, even if we are 
still less able to explain what it is. 

18. What, then, some one will say, does the 
Deity not hear? does He not speak? does He 
not see what is put before Him? has He not 
sight? He may in His own, but not in our 
way. But in so great a matter we cannot know 
the truth at all, or reach it by speculations ; for 
these are, it is clear, in our case, baseless, de- 
ceitful, and like vain dreams. For if we said 
that He sees in the same way as ourselves, it 
follows that it should be understood that He has 








2 This argument seems to have been suggested by the saying of 
Xenophanes, that the ox or lion, if possessed of man’s power, would 
have represented, after the fashion of their own bodies, the gods they 
would worship. [‘‘ The fair Ausnanzties of old religion ” — CoLEr- 
IDGE (Schiller). ] 

3 Ennius (Cic., de Nat. Depr., i. 35): Simia guam similes, 
turpissima bestia, nobss. 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


- eyelids placed as coverings on the pupils of the 


eyes, that He closes them, winks, sees by rays or 
images, or, as is the case in all eyes, can see 
nothing at all without the presence of other 
light. So we must in like manner say of hear- 
ing, and form of speech, and utterance of words. 
If He hears by means of ears, these, too, we 
must say, He has, penetrated by winding paths, 
through which the sound may steal, bearing the 
meaning of the discourse ; or if His words are 
poured forth from a mouth, that He has lips and 


teeth, by the contact and various movement of | 


which His tongue utters sounds distinctly, and 
forms His voice to words. 

19. If you are willing to hear our conclusions, 
then learn that we are so far from attributing 
bodily shape to the Deity, that we fear to ascribe 
to so great a being even mental graces, and the 
very excellences by which a few have been 
allowed with difficulty to distinguish themselves. 
For who will say that God is brave, firm, good, 
wise ? who w// say that He has integrity, is tem- 
perate, even that He has knowledge, understand- 
ing, forethought? that He directs towards fixed 
moral ends the actions on which He determines ? 
These things are good in man; and being op- 
posed to vices, have deserved the great reputa- 
tion which they have gained. But who is so 
foolish, so senseless, as to say that God is great 
by merely human excellences? or that He is 
above all in the greatness of His name, because 
He is not disgraced by vice? Whatever you 
say, whatever in unspoken thought you imagine 
concerning God, passes and is corrupted into a 
human sense, and does not carry its own mean- 
ing, because it is spoken in the words which we 
use, and which are suited om/y to human affairs. 
There is but one thing man can be assured of 
regarding God’s nature, to know and perceive 
that nothing can be revealed in human language 
concerning God. 

20. This, then, this matter of forms and sexes, 
is the first affront which you, noble advocates in 
sooth, and pious writers, offer to your deities. 
But what is the next, that you represent to us" 
the gods, some as artificers, some physicians, 
others working in wool, as sailors,? players on 


the harp and flute, hunters, shepherds, and, as | 


there was nothing more, rustics? And that god, 
he says, is a musician, and this other can divine ; 
for the other gods cannot,3 and do not know 
how to foretell what will come to pass, owing to 
their want of skill and ignorance of the future. 
One is instructed in obstetric arts, another trained 





1 So the ms., followed by Oehler, reading 2047s, for which all 
other edd. give vodzs —‘‘ to you.” 

2 Meursius would read xaccas —“ fullers,” for nautas ; but the 
latter term may, properly enough, be applied to the gods who watch 
over seamen. 

3 Or, “ for the others are not gods,” i.e., cannot be gods, as they 
do not possess the power of divination. Cf. Lact., i. 11: Stn autem 
divinus non stt, xe deus quidem sit. 





469 


up in the science of medicine. Is each, then, 
powerful in his own department ; and can they 
give no assistance, if their aid is asked, in what 
belongs to another? This one is eloquent in 
speech, and ready in linking words together ; 
for the others are stupid, and can say nothing 
skilfully, if they must speak. 

21. And, I ask, what reason is there, what 
unavoidable necessity, what occasion for the gods 
knowing and being acquainted with these handi- 
crafts as though they were worthless mechanics? 
For, are songs sung and music played in heaven, 
that the nine sisters may gracefully combine and 
harmonize pauses and rhythms of tones? Are 
there on the mountains+* of the stars, forests, 
woods, groves, that5 Diana may be esteemed 
very mighty in hunting expeditions? Are the 
gods ignorant of the immediate future; and do 
they live and pass the time according to the lots 
assigned them by fate, that the inspired son of 
Latona may explain and declare what the mor- 
row or the next hour bears to each? Is he 
himself inspired by another god, and is he 
urged and roused by the power of a greater 
divinity, so that he may be rightly said and es- 
teemed to be divinely inspired? Are the gods 
liable to be seized by diseases; and is there 
anything by which they may be wounded and 
hurt, so that, when there is occasion, he® of 
Epidaurus may come to their assistance? Do 
they labour, do they bring forth, that Juno may 
soothe, and Lucina abridge the terrible pangs 
of childbirth? Do they engage in agriculture, 
or are they concerned with the duties of war, 
that Vulcan, the lord of fire, may form for them 
swords, or forge their rustic implements? Do 
they need to be covered with garments, that the 
Tritonian? maid may, with nice skill,* spin, 
weave cloth for them, and make? them tunics 
to suit the season, either triple-twilled, or of 
silken fabric? Do they make accusations and 
refute them, that the descendant '° of Atlas may 
carry off the prize for eloquence, attained by 
assiduous practice ? 

22. You err, my opponent says, and are de- 
ceived ; for the gods are not themselves artificers, 
but suggest these arts to ingenious men, and 
teach mortals what they should know, that their 
mode of life may be more civilized. But he who 
gives any instruction to the ignorant and unwil- 
ling, and strives to make him intelligently expert 





4 The s., followed by LB. and Hild., reads stderezs motibus — 
‘in the motions of the stars; ” i.e., can these be in the stars, owing 
to their motion? Oehler conjectures mo/zbus—‘‘in the masses of 
the stars;"” the other edd. read szontzbus, as above. 

5 The ms., both Roman edd., and Oehler read habetur Diana 
— “is Diana esteemed; ”’ the other edd., #¢ habeatur, as above. 

6 i.e., Asculapius. 

7 i.e., Minerva. [Bibedancn II. Conf. n. 4, p. 467, supra. 

8 “With nice skill . . . for them,” curzose zzs ; for which the 
MS. and first five edd. read curtostus — “‘ rather skilfully.” 

9 The ms. reads unintelligibly e¢ z#fonere, for which Meursius 
emended componat, as above. 

Io Mercury, grandson of Atlas by Maia. 


470 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





in some kind of work, must himself first know 
that which he sets the other to practise. For no 
one can be capable of teaching a science without 
knowing the rules of that which he teaches, and 
having grasped its method most thoroughly. The 
gods are, then, the first artificers; whether be- 
cause they inform the minds of men with knowl- 
edge, as you say yourselves, or because, being 
immortal and unbegotten, they surpass the whole 
race of earth by their length of life.t This, then, 
is the question ; there being no occasion for these 
arts among the gods, neither their necessities nor 
nature requiring in them any ingenuity or me- 
chanical skill, why you should say that they are 
skilled,? one in one craft, another in another, 
and that individuals are pre-eminently expert 3 in 
particular departments in which they are distin- 
guished py acquaintance with the several branches 
of science? 

23. But you will, perhaps, say that the gods 
are not artificers, but that they preside over these 
arts, and have their oversight ; nay, that. under 
their care all things have been placed, which we 
manage and conduct, and that their providence 
sees to the happy and fortunate issue of these. 
Now this would certainly appear to be said justly, 
and with some probability, if all we engage in, 
all we do, or all we attempt in human affairs, 
sped as we wished and purposed. But since 
every day the reverse is the case, and the results 
of actions do not correspond to the purpose of 
the will, it is trifling to say that we have, set as 
guardians over us, gods invented by our super- 
stitious fancy, not grasped with assured certainty. 
Portunus‘ gives to the sailor perfect safety in 
traversing the seas ; but why has the raging sea 
cast up so many cruelly-shattered wrecks? Con- 
sus suggests to our minds courses safe and ser- 
viceable ; and why does an unexpected change 
perpetually issue in results other than were looked 
for? Pales and Inuus5 are set as guardians over 
the flocks and herds ; why do they, with hurtful 
laziness,° not take care to avert from the herds 
in their summer pastures, cruel, infectious, and 
destructive diseases? The harlot Flora,7 vener- 
ated in lewd sports, sees well to it that the fields 
blossom ; and why are buds and tender plants 
daily nipt and destroyed by most hurtful frost ? 
Juno presides over childbirth, and aids travailing 





I Lit., ‘‘ by the long duration of time.” 

2 Lit., “skilled in notions” — perceptionzbus » for which pre- 
ceptionzbus, i.e., “‘ the precepts of the different arts,” has been sug- 
gested in the margin of Ursinus. 

3 Lit., ‘and have skill (sollertzas) in which individuals excel.” 

4 According to Oehler, Portunus (Portumnus or Palzemon — “‘ the 


god who protects harbours’’) does not occur in the ms., which, he | 


says, reads fer maria prestant — ‘‘ through the seas they afford; ” 
emended as above by Ursinus, prestat Portunus. Ochler himself 
proposes Jermarini —“ the sea gods afford.” 

5 Pales, i.e., the feeding one; Inuus, otherwise Faunus and Pan. 

6 Otherwise, ‘‘ from the absence of rain.” 

7 So the margin of Ursinus, reading meretrfx ; but in the first 
four edd., LB., and Oberthiir, gexe¢xzx — ‘“‘ mother,” is retained from 
the Ms. 





mothers ; and why are a thousand mothers every 
day cut off in murderous throes? Fire is under 
Vulcan’s care, and its source is placed under 
his control ; and why does he, very often, suffer 
temples and parts of cities to fall into ashes de- 
voured by flames? The soothsayers receive the 
knowledge of their art from the Pythian god ; 
and why does he so often give and afford answers 
equivocal, doubtful, steeped in darkness and ob- 
scurity? AXsculapius presides over the duties 
and arts of medicine; and why cannot men in 
more kinds of disease and sickness be restored 
to health and soundness of body? while, on the 
contrary, they become worse under the hands 
of the physician. Mercury is occupied with ® 
combats, and presides over boxing and wrestling 
matches ; and why does he not make all invinci- 
ble who are in his charge? why, when appointed 
to one office, does he enable some to win the 
victory, while he suffers others to be ridiculed for 
their disgraceful weakness ? 

24. No one, says my opponent, makes suppli- 
cation to the tutelar deities, and they therefore 
withhold their usual favours and help. Cannot 
the gods, then, do good, except they receive in- 
cense and consecrated offerings? and do they 
quit and renounce their posts, unless they see 
their altars anointed with the blood of cattle? 
And yet I thought but now that the kindness of 
the gods was of their own free will, and that the 
unlooked-for gifts of benevolence flowed unsought 
from them. Is, then, the King of the universe 


solicited by any libation or sacrifice to grant to 


the races of men all the comforts of life? Does 
the Deity not impart the sun’s fertilizing warmth, 
and the season of night, the winds, the rains, 
the fruits, to all alike,— the good and the bad, 
the unjust and the just,’° the free-born and the 
slave, the poor and the rich? For this belongs 
to the true and mighty God, to show kindness, 
unasked, to that which is weary and feeble, and 
always encompassed by misery of many kinds. 
For to grant your prayers on the offering of 
sacrifices, is not to bring help to those who ask 
it, but to sell the riches of their beneficence. 
We men trifle, and are foolish in so great a 
matter ; and, forgetting what '* God is, and the 
majesty of His name, associate with the tutelar 
deities whatever meanness or baseness our mor- 
bid credulity can mvent. 

25. Unxia, my opponent says, presides over 
the anointing of door-posts; Cinxia over the 
loosening of the zone ; the most venerable Victa '? 
and Potua attend to eating and drinking. O 





8 So LB., reading cura-t, the Ms. omitting the last letter. 

9 Lit., ‘‘ salted fruits,” the grits mixed with salt, strewed on tha 
victim. 

lo Supplied by Ursinus. 

II So the edd. reading guzd, except Hild. and Oehler, who retain 
the Ms. guz¢— ‘‘ who.” i 

12 The ms. reads Vtta, 


a 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


— 


471 











rare and admirable interpretation of the divine 


powers ! would gods not have names’ if brides 
did not besmear their husbands’ door-posts with 
greasy ointment; were it not that husbands, 
when now eagerly drawing near, unbind the 
maiden-girdle ; if men did not eat and drink? 
Moreover, not satisfied to have subjected and 
involved the gods in cares so unseemly, you also 
ascribe to them dispositions fierce, cruel, savage, 
ever rejoicing in the ills and destruction of 
mankind. 

26. We shall not here mention Laverna, god- 
dess of thieves, the Bellonz, Discordiz, Furie ; 
and we pass by in utter silence the unpropitious 
deities whom you have set up. We shall bring 
forward Mars himself, and the fair mother of 
the Desires ; to one of whom you commit wars, 
to the other love and passionate desire. My 
opponent says that Mars has power over wars ; 
whether to quell those which are raging, or to 
revive them when interrupted, and kindle them 
in time of peace? For if he calms the madness 
of war, why do wars rage every day? but if he 
is their author, we shall then say that the god, to 
satisfy his own inclination, involves the whole 
world in strife ; sows the seeds of discord and 
variance between far-distant peoples ; gathers so 
many thousand men from different quarters, and 
speedily heaps up the field with dead bodies ; 
makes the streams flow with blood, sweeps away 
the most firmly-founded empires, lays cities in the 
dust, robs the free of their liberty, and makes 
them slaves ; rejoices in civil strife, in the bloody 
death of brothers who die in conflict, and, in 
fine, in the dire, murderous contest of children 
with their fathers. 

27. Now we may apply this very argument to 
Venus in exactly the same way. For if, as you 
maintain and believe, she fills men’s minds with 
lustful thoughts, it must be held in consequence 
that any disgrace and misdeed arising from such 
madness should be ascribed to the instigation 
of Venus. Is it, then, under compulsion of the 
goddess that even the noble too often betray their 
own reputation into the hands of worthless har- 
lots ; that the firm bonds of marriage are broken ; 
that near relations burn with incestuous lust ; 
that mothers have their passions madly kindled 
towards their children ; that fathers turn to them- 
selves their daughters’ desires; that old men, 
bringing shame upon their grey hairs, sigh with 
the ardour of youth for the gratification of filthy 
desires ; that wise and brave? men, losing in ef- 
feminacy the strength of their manhood, disre- 
gard the biddings of constancy ; that the noose 
is twisted about their necks ; that blazing pyres 





1 [ie., these names are derived from their offices to men. Have 
they no names apart from these services ?] 


2 i.e., those who, subdue their own spirits. ‘‘ Constancy” is the | 


evma@eva of the Stoics. 





are ascended ;3 and that in different places 
men, leaping voluntarily, cast themselves head- 
long over very high and huge precipices ? +4 

28. Can any man, who has accepted the first 
principles even of reason, be found to mar or 
dishonour the unchanging nature of Deity with 
morals so vile? to credit the gods with natures 
such as human kindness has often charmed away 
and moderated in the beasts of the field? How,’ 
I ask, can it be said that the gods are far re- 
moved from any feeling of passion? that they 
are gentle, lovers of peace, mild? that in the 
completeness of their excellence they reach °® the 
height of perfection, and the highest wisdom 
also? or, why should we pray them to avert from 
us misfortunes and calamities, if we find that 
they are themselves the authors of all the ills by 
which we are daily harassed? Call us impious 
as much as you please, contemners of religion, 
or atheists, you will never make us believe in 
gods of love and war, that there are gods to sow 
strife, and to disturb the mind by the stings of 
the furies. For either they are gods in very 
truth, and do not do what you have related ; or 
if? they do the things which you say, they are 
doubtless no gods a¢ az. 

29. We might, however, even yet be able to 
receive from you these thoughts, most full of 
wicked falsehoods, if it were not that you your- 
selves, in bringing forward many things about 
the gods so inconsistent and mutually destruc- 
tive, compel us to withhold our minds from as- 
senting. For when you strive individually to 
excel each other in reputation for more recondite 
knowledge, you both overthrow the very gods in 
whom you believe, and replace them by others 
who have clearly no existence; and different 
men give different opinions on the same sub- 
jects,> and you write that those whom general 
consent has ever received as single persons are 
infinite in number. Let us, too, begin duly, then, 
with father Janus, whom certain of you have de- 
clared to be the world, others the year, some the 
sun. But if we are to believe that this is true, 
it follows as a consequence, that it should be 
understood that there never was any Janus, who, 
they say, being sprung from Ccelus and Hecate, 
reigned first in Italy, founded the town Janicu- 
lum, was the father of Fons,? the son-in-law of 
Vulturnus, the husband of Juturna; and thus 
you erase the name of the god to whom in all 
prayers you give the first place, and whom you 
believe to procure for you a hearing from the 





3 Referring to Dido. tite 

4 As despairing lovers are said to have sought relief in death, by 
leaping from the Leucadian rock into the sea. 

Lit., ‘‘ where, I ask, is the (assertion) that,” etc. 

© Lit., “‘ hold.” 

7 In the s. these words, az¢ sz, are wanting. 

8 Stewechius and Orelli would omit edzs, and interpret “‘ about 
the same gods.” Instead of de— ‘“‘ about,” the ms. has deos 

9 The ms. reads foutz, corrected by Meursius Fontzs, as above. 


472 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





gods. But, again, if Janus be the year, neither 
‘thus can he be a god. For who does not know 
that the year is a fixed space‘ of time, and that 
there is nothing divine in that which is formed 2 
by the duration of months and lapse of days? 
Now this very argument may, in like manner, be 
applied to Saturn. For if time is meant under 
this title, as the expounders of Grecian ideas 
think, so that that is regarded as Kronos,3 which 
is chronos,‘ there is no such deity as Saturn. For 
who is so senseless as to say that time is a god, 
when it is but a certain space measured off5 in 
the unending succession of eternity? And thus 
will be removed from the rank of the immortals 
that deity too, whom the men of ald declared, 
and handed down to their posterity, to be born 
of father Coelus, the progenitor of the az magnt, 
the planter of the vine, the bearer of the prun- 
ing-knife.® 

30. But what shall we say of Jove himself, 
whom the wise have repeatedly asserted to be 
the sun, driving a winged chariot, followed by a 
crowd of deities;7 some, the ether, blazing 
with mighty flames, and wasting fire which can- 
not be extinguished? Now if this is clear and 
certain, there is, then, according to you, no 
Jupiter at all; who, born of Saturn his father 
and Ops his mother, is reported to have been 
concealed in the Cretan territory, that he might 
escape his father’s rage. But now, does not a 
similar mode of thought remove Juno from the 
list of gods? For if she is the air, as you have 
been wont to jest and say, repeating in reversed 
order the sy//ad/es of the Greek name,*® there 
will be found no sister and spouse of almighty 
Jupiter, no Fluonia,? no Pomona, no Ossipagina, 
no Februtis, Populonia, Cinxia, Caprotina ; and 
thus the invention of that name, spread abroad 
with a frequent but vain °° belief, will be found to 
be wholly ** useless. 

31. Aristotle, a man of most powerful intel- 
lect, and distinguished for learning, as Granius 
tells, shows by plausible arguments that Minerva 
is the moon, and proves it by the authority of 
learned men. Others have said that this very 
goddess is the depth of ether, and utmost height ; 
some have maintained that she is memory, 
whence her name even, Minerva, has arisen, as 
if she were some goddess of memory. But if 
this is credited, it follows that there is no daugh- 
ter of Mens, no daughter of Victory, no dis- 


1 Lit., circuit.” 

2 Lit., “ finished.” 

3 i.e, "the god. 

4 i.e., time. 

S Lit., “‘ the measuring of a certain space included in,” etc. 
vi. 12. 

ZC Plato, Phedr., st. p. 246, 

8 Lit., “the reversed peers of the Greek name being repeated,” 

i.e., instead of 7-pa, a-rp. 

9 The ms. gives Fluvionia. 

TOP Lite, ‘with the frequency (or fame) of vain,” etc. 

WM Lit., “ very. 





coverer of the Olive, born from the head of 
Jupiter, no goddess skilled in the knowledge of 
the arts, and in different branches of learning. 
Neptune, they say, has received his name and 
title because he covers the earth with water. If, 
then, by the use of this name is meant the out- 
spread water, there is no god Neptune at all; 
and thus is put away, and removed /rom us, the 
full brother of Pluto and Jupiter, armed with the 
iron trident, lord of the fish, great and small, 
king of the depths of the sea, and shaker of the 
trembling earth.’ 

32. Mercury, also, has been named as though 
he were a kind of go-between; and because 
conversation passes between two speakers, and 
is exchanged by them, that which is expressed 
by this name has been produced.*3 If this, then, 
is the case, Mercury is not the name of a god, 
but of speech and words exchanged éy two 
persons; and in this way is blotted out and 
annihilated the noted Cyllenian bearer of the 
caduceus, born on the cold mountain top,’ con- 
triver of words and names, ¢he god who presides 
over markets, and over the exchange of goods 
and commercial intercourse. Some of you have 
said that the earth is the Great Mother,'5 because 
it provides all things living with food; others 
declare that the same earth is Ceres, because it 
brings forth crops of useful fruits ; 1° while some 
maintain that it is Vesta, because it alone in the 
universe is at rest, its other members being, by 
their constitution, ever in motion. Now if this 
is propounded and maintained on sure grounds, 
in like manner, on your interpretation, three 
deities have no existence: neither Ceres nor 
Vesta are to be reckoned in the number ’7 of the 
gods ; nor, in fine, can the mother of the gods 
herself, whom Nigidius thinks to have been mar- 
ried to Saturn, be rightly declared a goddess, if 
indeed these are all names of the one earth, and 
it alone is signified by these titles. 

33. We here leave Vulcan unnoticed, to avoid 
prolixity ; whom you all declare to be fire, with 
one consenting voice. We pass by Venus, named 
because /zs¢ assails all, and Proserpina, named 
because plants steal gradually forth into the light, 
— where, again, you do away with three deities ; 
if indeed the first is the name of an element, 
and does not signify a living power ; the second, 
of a desire common to all living creatures ; while 
the third refers to seeds rising above ground, 
and the upward movements * of growing crops. 
What ! when you maintain that Bacchus, Apollo, 
the Sun, are one deity, increased in number by 





12 So Meursius emended the ms. salz/— ‘‘ sea.” 

13 Lit., “ the quality of this name has “iil aus” 

14 So Orelli, reading monte vertices the last word, according to 
Oehler, not being found in the Ms. 


15 i.e., Cybele. Cf. Lucr., ii. 991 sqq. 
16 Lit., “‘ seeds.” 

17 Fasti—* list,” ‘‘ register.” 

18 Lit., “ motions.” 


| 
: 
[ 


ee 





_ ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


473 





‘the use of three names, is not the number of the 


gods lessened, and their vaunted reputation over- 
thrown, by your opinions? For if it is true that 
the sun is also Bacchus and Apollo, there can 
consequently be in the universe no Apollo or 
Bacchus; and thus, by yourselves, the son of 
Semele avd the Pythian god are blotted out and 
set aside, — one the giver of drunken merriment, 
the other the destroyer of Sminthian mice. 

34. Some of your learned men ‘— men, too, 
who do not chatter merely because their humour 
leads them — maintain that Diana, Ceres, Luna, 
are but one deity in triple union;? and that 
there are not three distinct persons, as there are 
three different names ; that in all these Luna is 
invoked, and that the others are a series of sur- 
names added to her name. But if this is sure, 
if this is certain, and the facts of the case show 
it to be so, again is Ceres but an empty name, 
and Diana: and thus the discussion is brought 
to this issue, that you lead and advise us to 
believe that she whom you maintain to be the 
discoverer of the earth’s fruits has no existence, 
and Apollo is robbed of his sister, whom once 
the horned hunter3 gazed upon as she washed 
her limbs from impurity in a pool, and paid the 
penalty of his curiosity. 

35. Men worthy to be remembered in the 
study of philosophy, who have been raised by 
your praises to its highest place, declare, with 
commendable earnestness, as their conclusion, 
that the whole mass of the world, by whose folds 
we all are encompassed, covered, and upheld, 
is one animal‘ possessed of wisdom and reason ; 
yet if this is a true, sure, and certain opinion,5 
they also will forthwith cease to be gods whom 
you set up a little ago in its parts without change 
of name.° For as one man cannot, while his 
body remains entire, be divided into many men ; 
nor can many men, while they continue to be 
distinct and separate from each other,” be fused 
into one sentient individual: so, if the world is 
a single animal, and moves from the impulse of 
one mind, neither can it be dispersed in several 
deities ; nor, if the gods are parts of it, can they 
be brought together and changed into one living 
creature, with unity of feeling throughout all its 
parts. The moon, the sun, the earth, the ether, 
the stars, are members and parts of the world ; 
but if they are parts and members, they are 


1 Cf, Servius ad Virg., Georg., i. 5: ‘‘ The Stoics say that Luna, 
Diana, Ceres, Juno, and Proserpina are one; following whom, Virgil 
invoked Liber and Ceres for Sol and Luna.” 

2 Trivialz —“‘ common,” “ vulgar,” seems to be here used for 
triplict. 

3 Actzon. 

4 Plato, Tzmeus, st. p. do. 

5 Lit., “‘ of which things, however, if the opinion,” etc. 

6 i.e., deifying parts of the universe, and giving them, as deities, 
the same names as before 

7 Lit., ‘‘the difference of their disjunction being preserved” — 
mult: disjunctionts differentia conservata, suggested in the mar- 
- of Ursinus for the Ms. multitudinis Junctionis d. c., retained in 
the first five edd, 








certainly not themselves® living creatures; for 
in no thing can parts be the very thing which 
the whole is, or think and feel for themselves, 
for this cannot be effected by their own actions, 
without the whole creature’s joining in; and this 
being established and settled, the whole matter 
comes back to this, that neither Sol, nor Luna, 
nor Atther, Tellus, and the rest, are gods. For 
they are parts of the world, not the proper names 
of deities ; and thus it is brought about that, by 
your disturbing and confusing all divine things, 
the world is set up as the sole god in the uni- 
verse, while all the rest are cast aside, and that 
as having been set up vainly, uselessly, and with- 
out any reality. 

36. If we sought to subvert the belief in your 
gods in so many ways, by so many arguments, 
no one would doubt that, mad with rage and 
fury, you would demand for us the stake, the 
beasts, and swords, with the other kinds of tor- 
ture by which you usually appease your thirst in 
its intense craving for our blood. But while you 
yourselves put away almost the whole race of 
deities with a pretence of cleverness and wis- 
dom, you do not hesitate to assert that, because 
of us, men suffer ill at the hands of the gods ;9 
although, indeed, if it is true that they anywhere 
exist, and burn with anger and ’° rage, there can 
be no better reason for their showing anger 
against you," than that you deny their existence, 
and say that they are not found in any part of 
the universe. 

37. We are told by Mnaseas that the Muses 
are the daughters of Tellus and Ccelus ; others 
declare that they are Jove’s by his wife Memory, 
or Mens; some relate that they were virgins, 
others that they were matrons. For now we 
wish to touch briefly on the points where you 
are shown, from the difference of your opinions, 
to make different statements about the same 
thing. Ephorus, then, says that they are three ? 
in number ; Mnaseas, whom we mentioned, shat 
they are four ;*3 Myrtilus' brings forward seven ; 
Crates asserts that there are eight ; finally Hesiod, 
enriching heaven and the stars with gods, comes 
forward with nine names.’5 

If we are not mistaken, such want of agree- 
ment marks those who are wholly ignorant of 
the truth, and does not spring from the real 


8 Lit., ‘‘ of their own name.” i 

9 Lit., “ for the sake of our name, men’s affairs are made haras- 
sing.” 

To Lit., “‘ with flames of,” etc. 

II The Ms., according to Crusius, reads nos —“‘ us.” 

12 Three was the most ancient number; and the names preserved 
by Pausanias, are MeAérn, ’Aody, Mvjun. p 

13 Cicero (de Nat. Deor., iti. 21, a passage where there is some 
doubt as to the reading) enumerates as the four Muses, Thelxiope, 
Acede, Arche, Melete. 

14 The ms. reads Murtylus. Seven are said to have been men- 
tioned by Epicharmus, — Neilous, Tritone, Asopous, Heptapolis, 
Achelois, Tinoplous, and Rhodia. 

Is The nine are Clio, Euterpe, Thalia, Melpomene, Terpsichore, 
Erato, Polymnia, Ourania, and Calliope (Theog., 77-79) + 


ad 


ESS Se eg ee 


474 ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN, 





state of the case. For if their number were 
clearly known, the voice of all would be the 
same, and the agreement of all would tend to 
and find issue in the same conclusion.' 

38. How, then, can you give to religion its 
whole power, when you fall into error about the 
gods themselves? or summon us to their sol- 
emn worship, while you give us no definite infor- 
mation how to conceive of the deities themselves ? 
For, to take no notice of the other? authors, 
either the first’ makes away with and destroys 
six divine Muses, if they are certainly nine; or 
the last * adds six who have no existence to the 
three who alone really are ; so that it cannot be 
known or understood what should be added, 
what taken away; and in the performance of 
religious rites we are in danger5 of either wor- 
shipping that which does not exist, or passing that 
by which, it may be, does exist. Piso believes 
that the Novensiles are nine gods, set up among 
the Sabines at Trebia.© Granius thinks that 
they are the Muses, agreeing with A¢lius ; Varro 
teaches that they are nine,”? because, in doing 
anything, shat number is always reputed most 
powerful and greatest; Cornificius,® that. they 
watch over the renewing of things,? because, by 
their care, all things are afresh renewed in 
strength, and endure; Manilius, that they are 
the nine gods to whom alone Jupiter gave power 
to wield his thunder.'® Cincius declares them to 
be deities brought from abroad, named from 
their very newness, because the Romans were in 
the habit of sometimes individually introducing 
into their families the rites '' of conquered cities, 
while some they publicly consecrated ; and lest, 
from their great number, or in ignorance, any 
god should be passed by, all alike were briefly 
and compendiously invoked under one name — 
Novensiles. 

39. There are some, besides, who assert that 
those who from, being men became gods, are 
denoted by this name, —as Hercules, Romulus, 
Esculapius, Liber, Aineas. These are all, as is 
clear, different opinions ; and it cannot be, in the 
nature of things, that those who differ in opinion 
can be regarded as teachers of one truth. For 
if Piso’s opinion is true, A¢lius and Granius say 
what is false ; if what they say is certain, Varro, 





I Lit., “‘ into the end of the same opinion.” 
2 Lit., ‘‘in the middle,” “ intermediate.” 
3 i.e., Ephorus, 
4 i.e., Hesiod. 
5 Lit., “‘the undertaking of religion itself is brought into the dan- 
er,” etc. 
, 6 An Umbrian village. 
7 Lit., ‘that the number is nine,” [i.e., a triad of triads; the 
base a triad, regarded, even by ee as of mystical power. } 
A grammarian who lived in the time of Augustus, not to be con- 
founded with Cicero’s correspondent. 
9 Novitatum, 
to The Etruscans held (Pliny, 1. WV., ii. 52) that nine gods could 
thunder, the bolts being of different kinds: the Romans so far main- 
tained this distinction as to regard thunder during the day as sent by 
Jape, at night by Summanus. 
1 So LB. , reading vedzg- for the Ms. reg-zones, 


with all his skill,"? is mistaken, who substitutes 
things most frivolous and vain for those which 
really exist. If they are named Novensiles be- 
cause their number is nine,'3 Cornificius is shown 
to stumble, who, giving them might and power 
not their own, makes them the divine overseers 
of renovation.’4 But if Cornificius is right in his 
belief, Cincius is found 7 ée not wise, who con- 
nects with the power of the az Movensiles the 
gods of conquered cities. But if they are those 
whom Cincius asserts #hem to be, Manilius will 
be found to speak falsely, who comprehends 
those who wield another’s thunder under this 
name.'5 But if that which Manilius holds is true 
and certain, they are utterly mistaken who sup- 
pose that those raised: to divine honours, and 
deified mortals, are hws named because of the 
novelty of their rank. But if the Novensiles are 
those who have deserved to be raised to the 
stars after passing through the life of men,’® there 
are no aii LVovensiles at all. For as slaves, sol- 
diers, masters, are not names of persons compre- 
hended under them,’” but of officers, ranks, and 
duties, so, when we say that Novensiles is the 
name * of gods who by their virtues have be- 
come 9 gods from being men, it is clear and evi- 
dent that no individual persons are marked out 
particularly, but that newness itself is named by 
the title Novensiles. 

40. Nigidius taught that the az Penates were 
Neptune and Apollo, who once, on fixed terms, 
girt Ilium ?° with walls. He himself again, in 
his sixteenth book, following Etruscan teaching, | 
shows that there are four kinds of Penates; and 
that one of these pertains to Jupiter, another to 
Neptune, the third to the shades below, the fourth 
to mortal men, making some unintelligible asser- 
tion. Ceesius himself, also, following this seach- 
ing, thinks that they are Fortune, and Ceres, the 
genius Jovialis,2" and Pales, but not the female 
deity commonly received,?? but some male attend- 
ant and steward of Jupiter. Varro thinks that 
they are the gods of whom we speak who are 
within, and in the inmost recesses of heaven, 
and that neither their number nor names are 
known. The Etruscans say that these are the 
Consentes and Complices,?3 and name them be- 








12 Lit., ‘‘ the very skilful.” 

13 Lit., us vat the number nine bring on the name of,” etc. 

14 Lit., ‘ gives another’s might and power to gods presiding.” 

Is Lit., ‘‘ the title of this name. 

16 Lit., “ after they have finished the mortality of life,” i.e., either 
as above, or “ having endured i its perishableness.” 

17 Lit., “* lying under.” 

18 So most edd., following Gelenius, who reads esse nomen for 
the Ms. sz omnes istud. 

19 Lit., “‘ who have deserved to,” etc. 

20 The ms. reads zw:mortaltum, corrected in the edd. urdem 
Titum. 

21 Supposed to be either the genius attending Jupiter; the family 
god as sent by him; or the chief among the genti, sometimes men- 
tioned simply as Gentus. 

22 Lit., ‘‘ whom the commonalty receives.” 

23 Consentes (those who are together, or agree together, ie., coun- 
cillors) and Campliree (confederate, or agreeing) are said by some to 
| be the twelve gods who composed tne great counci of heaven; and «7 














cause they rise and fall together, six of them 
being male, and as many female, with unknown 
names and pitiless dispositions,’ but they are 
considered the counsellors and princes of Jove 
supreme. ‘There were some, too, who said that 
Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva were the a Penates, 
without whom we cannot live and be wise, and 
by whom we are ruled within in reason, passion, 
and thought. As you see, even here, too, noth- 
ing is said harmoniously, nothing is settled with 
the consent of all, nor is there anything reliable 
on which the mind can take its stand, drawing 
by conjecture very near to the truth. For their 
opinions are so doubtful, and one supposition so 
discredited? by another, that there is either no 
truth in them all, or if it is uttered by any, it is 
not recognised amid so many different statements. 

41. We can, if it is thought proper, speak 
briefly of the Lares also, whom the mass think 
to be the gods of streets and ways, because the 
Greeks name streets /aure. In different parts 
of his writings, Nigidius speaks of them now as 
the guardians of houses and dwellings ; now as 
the Curetes, who are said to have once con- 
cealed, by the clashing of cymbals,3 the infantile 
cries of Jupiter ; now the five Digiti Samothracii, 
who, the Greeks tell ws, were named /det Dac- 
ty. Varro, with like hesitation, says at one 
time that they are the Manes,‘ and therefore the 
mother of the Lares was named Mania; at 
another time, again, he maintains that they are 
gods of the air, and are termed heroes; at an- 
other, following the opinion of the ancients, he 
says that the Lares are ghosts, as it were a kind 
of tutelary demon, spirits of dead men. 

42. It is avast and endless task to examine 
each kind separately, and make it evident even 
from your religious books that you neither hold 
nor believe that there is any god concerning 
whom you have not® brought forward doubtful 
and inconsistent statements, expressing a thou- 
sand different beliefs. But, to be brief, and 
avoid prolixity,” it is enough to have said what 
has been said ; it is, further, too troublesome to 





accordance with this, the words ua ortantur et occidant una might 
be translated ‘ rise and sit down together,” i.e., at the council table. 
But then, the names and number of these are known; while Arnobius 
says, immediately after, that the names of the dii Consentes are not 
known, and has already quoted Varro, to the effect that neither names 
nor number are known. Schelling (ber die Gotth. v. Samothr., 
quoted by Orelli) adopts the reading (see following note), ‘‘ of whom 
very little mention is made,” i.e., in prayers or rites, because they 
are merely Jove’s councillors, and exercise no power over men, and 
identifies them with the Samothracian Cabiri— KaBevpor and Con- 
sentes being merely Greek and Latin renderings of the name. 

1 So the ms. and all edd. reading mwzserationis parctssime, ex- 
cept Gelenius, who reads zations barbartssime — “ of a most bar- 
barous nation; ” while Ursinus suggested memoration?s parc. — 
“of whom very little mention is made,” — the reading approved by 
Schelling ” 

2 Lit., ‘* shaken to its foundations.” 

3 4iribus. Cf. Lucretius, ii, 633-636. 

4 The ms, reads mazas, corrected as above by all edd. except 
Hild., who reads Manzas. 

5 The ms. reads effunctorum,; LB. et funct., from the correction 
of Stewechius; Gelenius, with most of the other edd., def. 

6 The ms. and first ed. omit om. 

7 Lit,, ‘ because of aversion,” 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





475 


gather together many things into one mass, since 
it is made manifest and evident in different ways 
that you waver, and say nothing with certainty 
of these things which you assert. But you will 
perhaps say, Even if we have no personal knowl- 
edge of the Lares, Novensiles, Penates, still the 
very agreement of our authors proves their exist- 
ence, and that such a race® takes rank among 
the celestial gods. And how can it be known 
whether there zs any god, if what he is shall be 
wholly unknown?®? or how can it avail even to 
ask for benefits, if it is not settled and determined 
who should be invoked at each inquiry? '° For 
every one who seeks to obtain an answer from 
any deity, should of necessity know to whom he 
makes supplication, on whom he calls, from whom 
he asks help for the affairs and occasions of hu- 
man life; especially as you yourselves declare 
that all the gods do not have all power, and‘! 
that the wrath and anger of each are appeased 
by different rites. 

43. For if this decty'? requires a black, that "3 
a white skin ; zf sacrifice must be made to this 
one with veiled, to that with uncovered head ; ™ 
this one is consulted about marriages," the other 
relieves distresses, — may it not be of some im- 
portance whether the one or the other is Noven- 
silis, since ignorance of the facts and confusion 
of persons displeases the gods, and leads neces- 
sarily to the contraction of guilt? For suppose 
that I myself, to avoid some inconvenience and 
peril, make supplication to any one of these 
deities, saying, Be present, be near, divine Pe- 
nates, thou Apollo, and thou, O Neptune, and in 
your divine clemency turn away all these evils, 
by which I am annoyed,’® troubled, and tor- 
mented: will there be any hope that I ‘shall 
receive help from them, if Ceres, Pales, Fortune, 
or the genius Fovials,'7 not Neptune and Apol- 
lo, shall be the az FPenates? Or if I invoked 
the Curetes instead of the Lares, whom some of 
your writers maintain to be the Digit? Samo- 
thracit, how shall I enjoy their help and favour, 
when I have not given them their own names, 
and have given to the others names not their 
own? ‘Thus does our interest demand that we 
should rightly know the gods, and not hesitate 
or doubt about the power, the name of each; 





8 Lit., “ the form of their race.” 

9 i.e , tgnorabitur et nesctetur, 

Io The ms, reads consolationem —“ for each consolation,” i.e., to 
comfort in every distress. 

11 The ms. omits e¢. 

12 The azz infert. 

13 The diz supert. 

14 Saturn and Hercules were so worshipped. 

IS Apollo. 

16 The ms., first five edd., and Oehler read terreor — “‘ terrified; ” 
the others fov., as above, from the conjecture of Gifanius. 

17 Cf. ch. 40, note 21. It may further be observed that the Etrus- 
cans held that the superior and inferior gods and men were linked 
together by a kind of intermediate beings, through whom the gods 
took cognizance of human affairs, without themselves descending te 
earth. ‘These were divided into four classes, assigned to Tina (Jupi- 
ter), Neptune, the gods of the nether world, and men respectively. 


476 


ae 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





lest,' if they be invoked with rites and titles not 
their own, they have at once their ears stopped 
against our prayers, and hold us involved in 
guilt which may not be forgiven. 

44. Wherefore, if you are assured that in the 
lofty palaces of heaven there dwells, there is, 
that multitude of deities whom you specify, you 
should make your stand on one _proposition,? 
and not, divided by different and inconsistent 
opinions, destroy belief in the very things which 
you seek to establish. If there is a Janus, let 

! So LB., Hild., and Oehler, reading nomzne ne; all others ut, 


the ms. having no conjunction, 
2 Lit., “it is frting that you stand in the limits of,” etc. 





Janus be; if a Bacchus, let Bacchus be; if a 
Summanus,3 let Summanus be: for this is to. 
confide, this to hold, to be settled in the knowl- 
edge of something ascertained, not to say after 
the manner of the blind and erring, The Noven- 
siles are the Muses, in truth they are the Trebian 
gods, nay, their number is nine, or rather, they 
are the protectors of cities which have been 
overthrown ; and bring so important matters into 
this danger, that while you remove some, and 
put others in their place, it may well be doubted 
of them all if they anywhere exist. 





3 i.e., Summus Manium, Pluto. 


BOOK IV. 


1. We would ask you, and you above all, O 
Romans, lords and princes of the world, whether 
you think that Piety, Concord, Safety, Honour, 
Virtue, Happiness, and other such names, to 
which we see you rear‘ altars and splendid 
temples, have divine power, and live in heaven ?? 
or, as is usual, have you classed them with the 
deities merely for form’s sake, because we desire 
and wish these blessings to fal] to our lot? For 
if, while you think them empty names without 
any substance, you yet deify them with divine 
honours,3 you will have to consider whether that 
is a childish frolic, or tends to bring your deities 
into contempt, when you make equal, and add 
to their number vain and feigned names. But if 
you have loaded them with temples and couches, 
holding with more assurance that these, too, are 
deities, we pray you to teach ws zn our ignorance, 
by what course, in what way, Victory, Peace, 
Equity, and the others mentioned among the 
gods, can be understood to be gods, to belong 
to the assembly of the immortals ? 

2. For we — but, perhaps, you wouwdd rob and 
deprive us of common-sense — feel and perceive 
that none of these has divine power, or possesses 
a form of its own;5 but that, on the contrary, 
they are the excellence of manhood,° the safety 
of the safe, the honour of the respected, the vic- 
tory of the conqueror, the harmony of the allied, 
the piety of the pious, the recollection of the 
observant, the good fortune, indeed, of him who 
lives happily and without exciting any ill-feeling. 
Now it is easy to perceive that, in speaking thus, 





T Lit., “see altars built.” 

2 Lit., ‘Cin the regions of heaven.” 

3 The 3 MS, reads ram (corrected by the first four edd. tamen) in 
regtonibus—‘‘in the divine seats;” corrected, religionidus, as 
above, by Ursinus, 

4 Lit., ‘to the deluding of your deities.”” 

S$ Lit., ‘is contained in a form of its own kind.” 

6 je.) manliness. 





we speak most reasonably when we observe 7 the 
contrary qualities opposed 40 ¢hem, misfortune, 
discord, forgetfulness, injustice, impiety, baseness 
of spirit, and unfortunate® weakness of body. 
For as these things happen accidentally, and 9 
depend on human acts avd chance moods, so 
their contraries, named ‘° after more agreeable 
qualities, must be found in others; and from 
these, originating in this wise, have arisen those 
invented names. 

3. With regard, indeed, to your bringing for- 
ward to us other bands of unknown " gods, we 
cannot determine whether you do that seriously, 
and from a belief in its certainty; or, merely 
playing with empty fictions, abandon yourselves 
to an unbridled imagination. The goddess Lu- 
perca, you tell us on the authority of Varro, was 
named because the fierce wolf spared the exposed 
children. Was that goddess, then, disclosed, not 
by her own power, du¢ by the course of events? 
and was it ov/y after the wild beast restrained its 
cruel teeth, that she both began to be herself 
and was marked by * her name? or if she was 
already a goddess long before the birth of Romu- 
lus and his brother, show us what was her name 
and title. Preestana was named, according to 
you, because, in throwing the javelin, Quirinus 
excelled all in strength ; '3 and the goddess Pan- 
da, or Pantica, was named because Titus Tatius 
was allowed to open up and make passable a 





7 Lit., ‘‘ which it is easy to perceive to be said by us with the 
greatest truth from,” etc.,—so most edd. reading wodzs , but the 
MS., according to Crusius, gives vodzs — ‘‘ you,” as in Orelli and 
Oberthiir. 

8 Lit., “less auspicious.” 

9 The MS., first four edd., and Elmenhorst, read gu@ —‘‘ which; ” 
the rest, as above, g “ue. 

to Lit., “ what A opposed to them named,” nominatum 5 a cor: 
rection by Oehler for the MS. 2omtnatur — “ is named.” 

11 The ms. and both Roman edd. read signatorum —‘‘ sealed; ” 
the others, except Hild., zgnotorum. as above, 

12 Lit., ‘‘ drew the meaning of her name.’ 

13 Lit., “excelled the might of all,” 


, 
Y 


5 ae re 





a BT, ee 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


477 





road, that he might take the Capitoline. Before 


these events, then, had the deities never existed ? 
and if Romulus had not held the first place in 
casting the javelin, and if the Sabine king had 
been unable to take the Tarpeian rock, would 
there be no Pantica, no Prestana? And if you 


say that they’ existed before that which gave | 


rise to their name, a question which has been 
discussed in a preceding section,? tell us also 
what they were called. 

4. Pellonia is a goddess mighty to drive back 
enemies. Whose enemies, say, if it is conven- 
ient? Opposing armies meet, and fighting to- 
gether, hand to hand, decide the battle; and to 
one this side, to another that, is hostile. Whom, 
then, will Pellonia turn to flight, since on both 
sides there will be fighting? or in favour of whom 
will she incline, seeing that she should afford to 
both sides the might and services of her name? 
But if she indeed did so, that is, if she gave 
her good-will and favour to both sides, she would 
destroy the meaning of her name, which was 
formed with regard to the beating back of one 
side. But you will perhaps say, She is goddess 
of the Romans only, and, being on the side of 
the Quirites alone, is ever ready graciously to 
help them. We wish, indeed, that it were so, 
for we like the name; but it is a very doubtful 
matter. What! do the Romans have gods to 
themselves, who do not help’ other nations? 
and how can they be gods, if they do not exer- 
cise their divine power impartially towards all 
nations everywhere? and where, I pray you, was 
this goddess Pellonia long ago, when the national 
honour was brought under the yoke at the Cau- 
dine Forks? when at the Trasimene lake the 
streams ran with blood? when the plains of 
Diomede ® were heaped up with dead Romans? 
when a thousand other blows were sustained in 
countless disastrous battles? Was she snoring 
and sleeping ;7 or, as the base often do, had she 
deserted to the enemies’ camp? 

5. The sinister deities preside over the regions 
on the left hand only, and are opposed to those § 
on the right. But with what reason this is said, 
or with what meaning, we do not understand 
ourselves ; and we are sure that you cannot in 
any degree cause it to be clearly and generally 
understood.? For in the first place, indeed, the 
world itself has in itself neither right nor left, 
neither upper nor under regions, neither fore nor 





1 s., “‘ that these, too,” i.e., as well as Luperca. 

2 No such discussion occurs in the preceding part of the work, but 
the subject is brought forward in the end of chap. 8, p. 478, zxfra. 

3 In the first sentence the MS. reads «¢rzgue, and in the second 
utique, which is reversed in most edd., as above. 

4 Lit., “‘ ever at hand with gracious assistances.” 

5 Lit., ‘are not of.” 

6 ie., the field of Canna. 

7 fp Kings xviii. 27.] 

8 Lit., “ the parts.” f 

9 Lit., ‘it cannot be brought into any light of general under- 
standing by you.” 





after parts. For whatever is round, and bounded 
on every side by the circumference '° of a solid 
sphere, has no beginning, no end; where there 
is no end and beginning, no part can have ” its 
own name and form the beginning. Therefore, 
when we say, This is the right, and that the left 
side, we do not refer to anything '? in the world, 
which is everywhere very much the same, but to 
our own place and position, we being ‘3 so formed — 
that we speak of some things as on our right 
hand, of others as on our left; and yet these 
very things which we name left, and the others 
which we name right, have in us no continuance, 
no fixedness, but take their forms from our sides, 
just as chance, and the accident of the moment, 
may have placed us. If I look towards the ris- 
ing sun, the north pole and the north are on my 
left hand; and if I turn my face thither, the 
west will be on my left, for it will be regarded 
as behind the sun’s back. But, again, if I turn 
my eyes to the region of the west, the wind and 
country of the south are now said to be on '* my 
left. And if I am turned to this side by the 
necessary business of the moment, the result is, 
that the east is said /o de on the left, owing to a 
further change of position,'5 — from which it can 
be very easily seen that nothing is either on our 
right or on our left by nature, but from position, 
time,’ and according as our bodily position with 
regard to surrounding objects has been taken up. 
But in this case, by what means, in what way, 
will there be gods of the regions of the left, when 
it is clear that the same regions are at one time 
on the right, at another on the left? or what 
have the regions of the right done to the immor- 
tal gods, to deserve that they should be without 
any to care for them, while they have ordained 
that these should be fortunate, and ever accom- 
panted by lucky omens? 

6. Lateranus,’? as you say, is the god and ge- 
nius of hearths, and received this name because 
men build that kind of fireplace of unbaked 
bricks. What then? if hearths were made of 
baked clay, or any other material whatever, will 
they have no genii? and will Lateranus, whoever 
he is, abandon his duty as guardian, because the 
kingdom which he possesses has not been formed 
of bricks of clay? And for what purpose,'® I 
ask, has that god received the charge of hearths? 
He runs about the kitchens of men, examin- 


10 Lit., ‘‘ convexity.” 

t Lit., “be of.” 

12 Lit., ‘ to the state of the world.” 

13 Lit., “who have been so formed, that some things are said by 
us,” 2odzs, the reading of Oberthiir and Orelli for the Ms. 72 nos — 
‘with regard to us,” which is retained by the first four edd., Elm., 
Hild., and Oehler. 

14 1.e., transtt in vocabulum sinistri; in being omitted in the 
ms, and both Roman edd. 

Is Lit., ‘the turning round of the body being changed.” 

16 So Oehler, reading Josztione, sed tempore sed, for the MS. posi- 
tionts et temports et. 

17 No mention is made of this deity by any other author. 

18 Lit., ‘‘ that he may do what.” 


478 


ing and discovering with what kinds of wood 
the heat in their fires is produced; he gives 
strength’ to earthen vessels, that they may not 
fly in pieces, overcome by the violence of the 
flames; he sees that the flavour of unspoilt 
dainties reaches the taste of the palate with their 
own pleasantness, and acts the part of a taster, 
and tries whether the sauces have been rightly 
prepared. Is not this unseemly, nay — to speak 
with more truth — disgraceful, impious, to intro- 
duce some pretended deities for this only, not 
to do them reverence with fitting honours, but to 
appoint them over base things, and disreputable 
actions P? 

7. Does Venus Militaris, also, preside over the 
evil-doing of camps, and the debaucheries of 
young men? Is there one Perfica,* also, of the 
crowd of deities, who causes those base and 
filthy delights to reach their end with uninter- 
rupted pleasure? Is there also Pertunda, who 
presides over the marriage5 couch? Is there 
also Tutunus, on whose huge members® and 
horrent fascinum you think it auspicious, and 
desire, that your matrons should be borne? But 
if facts themselves have very little effect in sug- 
gesting to you a right understanding of the truth, 
are you not able, even from the very names, to 
understand that these are the inventions of a 
most meaningless superstition, and the false gods 
of fancy?7 Puta, you say, presides over the 
pruning of trees, Peta over prayers; Nemes- 
trinus * is the god of groves ; Patellana is a deity, 
and Patella, of whom the one has been set over 
things brought to light, the other over those yet 
to be disclosed. Nodutis is spoken of as a god, 
because he? brings that which has been sown to 
the knots ; and she who presides over the tread- 
ing out of grain, Noduterensis ;"° the goddess 
Upibilia "' delivers from straying from the vzgh7¢ 
paths; parents bereaved of their children are 
under the care of Orbona,— those very near 





I Lit., ‘‘ good condition,” habttudinem. 

2 Lit., ‘a disreputable act.” 

3 So the s., reading flag7tzi's, followed by all edd. except LB. 
and Orelli, who read f/ag7z7's — “‘ kidnapping.” 

4 Of this goddess, also, no other author makes mention but the 
germ may be perhaps found in Lucretius (ii, 1116-7), where nature 
is termed erica, i.e., “‘ perfecting,” or making all things complete. 
[The learned translator forgets Tertullian, who introduces us to this 
name in the work Arnobius imitates throughout. See vol. iii, p. 140. ] 

$ ive., 2 cubiculis presto est virginalem scrobem effodienti- 
bus maritts. 

6 The first five edd, read Mutunus. Cf. ch. 11. [I think it a 
mistake to make Mutunus=Priapus. Their horrible deformities are 
diverse, as I have noted in European collections of antiquities. 
The specialty of Mutunus is noted by our author, and is unspeak- 
ably abominable. All this illustrates, therefore, the Christian scru- 
ples about marriage-feasts, of which see vol. v. note 1, p. 435. 

7 Lit., the “ fancies” or ‘‘ imaginations” of false gods. Meursius 
proposed to transpose the whole of this sentence to the end of the 
chapter, which would give a more strictly logical arrangement; but 
it must be remembered that Arnobius allows himself much liberty in 
this respect. 

8 Of these three deities no other mention is made. 

9 The ms., LB., Hild., and Oehler read guz—‘‘ who brings;” 
the other edd., as above, guza. 

10 So the ms. (cf. ch. rx), first five edd., Oberth., Hild., and 
Oehler; the other edd. read Nodut?m Ter. 

1I So the ms., both Roman edd., and Oehler; the other edd. read- 
ing Vibilia, except Hild., Vadziia. 








ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





to death, under that of Neenia. Again,’? Ossi- 
lago herself is mentioned as she who gives firm- 
ness and solidity to the bones of young children. 
Mellonia is a goddess, strong and powerful in 
regard to bees, caring for and guarding the sweet- 
ness of their honey. 

8. Say, I pray you, —that Peta, Puta, Patella 
may graciously favour you, —if there were no 3 
bees at all on the earth then, or if we men were 
born without bones, like some worms, would 
there be no goddess Mellonia ; 4 or would Ossi- 
lago, who gives bones their solidity, be without 
a name of her own? I ask truly, and eagerly 
inquire whether you think that gods, or men, or 
bees, fruits, twigs, and the rest, are the more 
ancient in nature, time, long duration? Noman 
will doubt that you say that the gods precede all 
things whatever by countless ages and genera- 
tions. But if it is so, how, in the nature of 
things, can it be that, from things produced 
afterwards, they received those names which are 
earlier in point of time? or that the gods were 
charged with the care’S of those things which 
were not yet produced, and assigned to be of 
use to men? Or were the gods long without 
names ; and was it only after things began to 
spring up, and be on the earth, that you thought 
it right that they should be called by these 
names *° and titles? And whence could you 
have known what name to give to each, since 
you were wholly ignorant of their existence ; 
or that they possessed any fixed powers, seeing 
that you were equally unaware which of them 
had any power, and over what he should be 
placed to suit his divine might? 

g. What then? you say; do you declare that 
these gods exist nowhere in the world, and have 
been created by unreal fancies? Not we alone, 
but truth itself, and reason, say so, and that 
common-sense in which all men share. For who 
is there who.believes that there are gods of gain, 
and that they preside over the getting of it, see- 
ing that it springs very often from the basest 
employments, and is always at the expense of 
others? Who believes that Libentina, who that 
Burnus,’7 is set over hose lusts which wisdom 
bids us avoid, and which, in a thousand ways, 
vile and filthy wretches ** attempt and practise ? 
Who that Limentinus and Lima have the care 
of thresholds, and do the duties of their keepers, 
when every day we see ¢he thresholds of temples 





12 The ms. reads zaut— “‘ for,” followed by all edd. except Orelli, 
who reads 7am as abovg, and Oehler, who reads e¢zam —“‘ also.” 

13 Orelli omits oz, Piawing Oberthiir. 

14 Both in this and the preceding chapter the ms. reads Melonia. 

Is Lit., ‘‘ obtained by lot the wardships.” 

16 Lit., ‘‘ signs.” 

17 So the ms., both Roman edd., Hild., and Oehler; the others 
reading L7burnum, except Elm, who reads -a7, while Meursius 
conjectured Lzderum — ‘‘ Bacchus.” 

13 Lit., ‘shameful impurity seeks after; ” expetzt read by Gele- 
nius, Canterus, and Oberthiir, for the unintelligible ms, reading exZe- 
| détur, retained in both Roman edd,; the others reading experttus 
—‘‘ tries,” 





avoid prolixity, passed by altogether, have + their 





there will begin to be as many gods as there are 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


and private houses destroyed and overthrown, 
and that the infamous approaches to stews are 
not without them? Who believes that the Limi' 
watch over obliquities? who that Saturnus pre- 
sides over the sown crops? who that Montinus | 
is the guardian of mountains; Murcia,? of the 
slothful? Who, finally, would believe that Money 
is a goddess, whom your writings declare, as 
though she were the greatest deity, to give golden | 
tings,3 the front seats at games and shows, hon- 
ours in the greatest number, the dignity of the 
magistracy, and that which the indolent love 
most of all, —an undisturbed ease, by means of 
riches. 

10. But if you urge that bones, different kinds 
of honey, thresholds, and all the other things 
which we have either run over rapidly, or, to 


own peculiar guardians, we may in like manner 
introduce a thousand other gods, who should 
care for and guard innumerable things. For why 
should a god have charge of honey only, and 
not of gourds, rape, cunila, cress, figs, beets, 
cabbages? Why should the bones alone have 
found protection, and not the nails, hair, and all 
the other things which are placed in the hidden 
parts and members of which we feel ashamed, 
and are exposed to very many accidents, and 
stand more in need of the care and attention of 
the gods? Or if you say that these parts, too, 
act under the care of their own tutelar deities, 


things ; nor will the cause be stated why the 





divine care does not protect all things, if you 
say that there are certain things over which the 
deities preside, and for which they care. 

11. What say you, O fathers of new religions, 
and powers?5 Do you cry out, and complain 
that these gods are dishonoured by us, and neg- 
lected with profane contempt, viz., Lateranus, 
the genius of hearths ; Limentinus, who presides 
over thresholds ; Pertunda,® Perfica, Noduteren- 
sis:7 and do you say that things have sunk into 
ruin, and that the world itself has changed its 
laws and constitution, because we do not bow 


1 The ms. reads Lemons; Hild. and Oehler, Lioness the 
ethers, Lz7os, as above. 

2 The ms., LB., Hild., and Oehler read Murcidam ,; the others, 
Murciam, as above. 

3 i.e., equestrian rank. 

4 The Ms. reading is guzd st haberet tn sedibus suos, Tetained 
by the first five edd., with the change of -ved into “rent —* ‘what if 
in their seats the bones had their own peculiar guardians; ” Ursinus 
in the margin, followed by Hild. and Oehler, reads z% se divos suos 

“if for themselves the bones had gods as their own peculiar,” etc. ; 
the other edd. reading, as above, s¢ habere tnsistitis suos. 

5 i.e., deities. So LB . and Orelli, reading guzd potestatum ! ?— 
what, O fathers of powers.” The Ms. gives guz — ‘‘ what say you, 
oO fathers of new religions, who cry out, and complain that gods of 
powers are indecently dishonoured by us, and neglected with impious 
contempt,” etc. Heraldus emends thus: “ sts fathers of great re- 





ligions and powers? Do you, then, cry out,’ etc. Fathers,” i.e., 
those who discovered, and introduced, unknown deities and forms of 
worship. 
6 The Ms. reads fertus gua@- (marked as spurious) dam ; and, 
according to Hild., zaenzam is written over the latter word. 1 
7 Sothe ms. Cf. ch. 7 [note 10, p. 478, supra] 1 


479 


humbly in supplication to Mutunus$ and ‘Tutunus ? 
But now look and see, lest while you imagine 
such monstrous things, and form such concep- 
tions, you may have offended the gods who most 
assuredly exist, if only there are any who are 
worthy to bear and hold that most exalted title ; 
and it be for no other reason that those evils, of 
which you speak, rage, and increase by accessions 
every day.2 Why, then, some one of you will 
perhaps say, do you maintain '° that it is not true 
that these gods exist? And, when invoked by 
the diviners, do they obey the call, and come 
when summoned by their own names, and give 
answers which may be relied on, to those who 
consult them? We can show that what is said is 
false, either because in the whole matter there 
is the greatest room for distrust, or because we, 
every day, see many of their predictions either 
prove untrue, or wrested with baffled expectation 
to suit the opposite issues. 

12. But let them™ be true, as you maintain, 
yet will you have us also believe that Mellonia, 
for example, introduces herself into the entrails, 
or Limentinus, and that they set themselves to 
make known ?3 what you seek to learn? Did you 
ever see their face, their deportment, their coun- 
tenance? or can even these be seen in lungs or 
livers? May it not happen, may it not come to 
pass, although you craftily conceal it, that the one 
should take the other’s place, deluding, mock- 
ing, deceiving, and presenting the appearance of 
the deity invoked? If the magi, who are so much 
akin to '+ soothsayers, relate that, in their incanta- 
tions, pretended gods’ steal in frequently instead 
of those invoked ; that some of these, moreover, 
are spirits of grosser substance,’® who pretend 
that they are gods, and delude the ignorant by 
their lies and deceit, —why ’7 should we not simi- 
larly believe that here, too, others substitute 
themselves for those who are not, that they may 
both strengthen your superstitious beliefs, and 
rejoice that victims are slain in sacrifice to them 
under names not their own? 

13. Or, if you refuse to believe this on account 
of its novelty,’® how can you know whether there 
is not some one, who comes in place of all whom 
you invoke, and substituting himself in all parts 





8 The ms. is here very corrupt and imperfect, — supplices hoc 
est uno procunibimus atque est utuno (Orelli omits «t-), emended 
by Gelenius, with most edd., sup. Mut-uno proc. atque Tutuno, as 
above; Elm, and LB, merely insert Auwszz—‘‘on the ground,” after 
supp. [See p. 478, note 6, supra.] 

9 Meursius is of opinion that some words have slipped out of the 
text here, and that some arguments had been introduced about 
augury and divination. : 

10 Contendts, not found in the me, 

Wie, the predictions. 

12 Lit, es “will you make the same belief.” 

13 Lit., ‘‘adapt themselves to the significatioas of the things 
which,” 

14 Lit., ‘‘ brothers of.” 

IS j.e., demons. 

16 Perhaps “‘ abilities” — matertzs. 

17 The ms. reads cum —‘‘ with similar reason we may believe,” 
instead of cur, as above. 

13 Lit., “ novelty of the thing.” 


480 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





of the world,’ shows to you what appear to be? 
many gods and powers? Who is that one? some 
one will ask. We may perhaps, being instructed 
by truthful authors, be able to say ; but, lest you 
should be unwilling to believe us, let my op- 
ponent ask the Egyptians, Persians, Indians, 
Chaldeans, Armenians, and all the others who 
have seen and become acquainted with these 
things in the more recondite arts. Then, indeed, 
you will learn who is the one God, or who the very 
many under Him are, who pretend to be gods, 
and make sport of men’s ignorance. 

Even now we are ashamed to come to the 
point at which not only boys, young and pert, 
but grave men also, cannot restrain their laugh- 
ter, and men who have been hardened into a 
strict and stern humour.3_ For while we have all 
heard it inculcated and taught by our teachers, 
that in declining she names of the gods there 
was no plural number, because the gods were 
individuals, and the ownership of each name 
could not be common to a great many ;+ you 
in forgetfulness, and putting away the memory 
of your early lessons, both give to several gods 
the same names, and, although you are else- 
where more moderate as to their number, have 
multiplied them, again, by community of names ; 
which subject, indeed, men of keen discernment 
and acute intellect have before now treated both 
in Latin and Greek.5 And that might have les- 
sened our labour,® if it were not that at the same 
time we see that some know nothing of these 
books ; and, also, that the discussion which we 
have begun, compels us to bring forward some- 
thing on these subjects, although 7¢# has been 
already laid hold of, and related by those 
writers. 

14. Your theologians, then, and authors on 
unknown antiquity, say that in the universe there 
are three Joves, one of whom has #*ther for his 
father ; another, Coelus ; the third, Saturn, born 
and buried? in the island of Crete. TZhey speak 
of five Suns and five Mercuries, — of whom, as 
they relate, the first Sun is called the son of Ju- 
piter, and is regarded as grandson of A®ther ; 
the second 7s also Jupiter’s son, and the mother 
who bore him Hyperiona ;® the third the son of 














3 Lit., “‘ of places and divisions,” i.e., places separated from each 
other, 

2 Lit., “‘ affords to you the appearance of.” 

3 Lit., ‘* a severity of stern manner” — sor7's for the Ms. mares. 

4 Orelli here introduces the sentence, “‘ For it cannot be,” etc., 
with which this book is concludedin the ms, Cf. ch. 37, n. 4, 2/ra. 

S$ There can be no doubt that Arnobius here refers to Clemens 
Alexandrinus (Adyos Ipotpemtixos mpos ‘EAAjvas), and Cicero (de 
Nat. Deor.), from whom he borrows most freely in the following 
chapters, quoting them at times very closely. We shall not indicate 
particular references without some special reason, as it must be un- 
derstood these references would be required with every statement. 
[Compare Clement, vol. ii. pp. 305-13, and Tertullian, vol. iii. p. 34.] 

6 Lit., ‘‘ given to us an abridging,” i.e., an opportunity of abridg- 
ing 


7. Lit.,.“‘ committed to sepulture and born in,” etc. 

® Amobius repeats this statement in ch, 22, or the name would 

have been regarded as corrupt, no other author making mention of 

auch a goddess; while Cicero speaks of one Sun as born of Hyperion. ! 


Vulcan, not Vulcan of Lemnos, but the son of 
the Nile; the fourth, whom Acantho bore at 
Rhodes in the heroic age, was the father of 
Ialysus ; whz/e the fifth is regarded as the son 
of a Scythian king and subtle Circe. Again, 
the first Mercury, who is said to have lusted 
after Proserpina,? is son of Ccelus, who zs above 
all. Under the earth is the second, who boasts 
that he is Trophonius. The third was born of 
Maia, his mother, and the third Jove ;'° the fourth 
is the offspring of the Nile, whose name the 
people of Egypt dread and fear to utter. The 
fifth is the slayer of Argus, a fugitive and ex- 
ile, and the inventor of letters in Egypt. But 
there are five Minervas also, they say, just as 
there are five Suns and Mercuries ; the first of 
whom is no virgin, but the mother of Apollo by 
Vulcan; the second, the offspring of the Nile, 
who is asserted to be the Egyptian Sais; the 
third is descended from Saturn, and is the one 
who devised the use of arms; the fourth is 
sprung from Jove, and the Messenians name her 
Coryphasia ; and the fifth is she who slew her 
lustful '’ father, Pallas. 

15. And lest it should seem tedious and pro- 
lix to wish to consider each person singly, the 
same theologians say that there are four Vulcans 
and three Dianas, as many A¢sculapii and five 
Dionysi, six Hercules and four Venuses, three 
sets of Castors and the same number of Muses, 
three winged Cupids, and four named Apollo ; # 
whose fathers they mention in like manner, in 
like manner their mothers, avd the places where” 
they were born, and point out the origin and 
family of each. But if it is true and certain, 
and is told in earnest as a weé/-known matter, 
either they are not all gods, inasmuch as there 
cannot be several under the same name, as we 
have been taught ; or if there is one of them, he 
will not be known and recognised, because he is 
obscured by the confusion of very similar names. 
And thus it results from your own action, how- 
ever unwilling you may be that it should be so, 
that religion is brought into difficulty and con- 
fusion, and has no fixed end ‘to which it can turn 
itself, without being made the sport of equivocal 
illusions. 

16. For suppose that it had occurred to us, 


It would appear, therefore, to be very probable that Arnobius, in writ- 
ing from memory or otherwise, has been here in some confusion as to 
what Cicero did say, and thus wrote the name as we have it. It has 
also been proposed to read ‘‘ born of Regina” (or, with Gelenius, 
Rhea), ‘‘and his father Hyperion,” because Cybele is termed 
Bacideva; for which reading there seems no good reason. — Imme- 
diately below, Ialysus is made the son, instead of, as in Cicero, the 
randson of the fourth; and again, Circe is said to be mother, while 

Cicero speaks of her as the daughter of the fifth Sun. These varia- 
tions, viewed along with the general adherence to Cicero’s statements 
(de N. D., iii. 21 sqq.), seem to give good grounds for adopting the 
explanation given above, 

9 i.e., in Proserpinam genitalibus adhinnivisse subrectis. 

Io Lit., ‘fof Jupiter, but the third.” 

Il j.e., tacestorum appetitorem, 

12 So Cicero (iii. 23); but Clemens [vol. ii. p. 179] speaks of five, 
and notes that a sixth had been meationed, 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


481 





‘moved either by suitable influence or violent 
fear of you,’ to worship Minerva, for example, 
with the rights you deem sacred, and the usual 
ceremony: if, when we prepare sacrifices, and 
approach to make he offerings appointed for her 
on the flaming altars, all the Minervas shall fly 
thither, and striving for the right to that name, 
each demand that the offerings prepared be given 
to herself ; what drawn-out animal shall we place 
among them, or to whom shall we direct the 
sacred offices which are our duty?? For the first 
one of whom we spoke will perhaps say: “The 
name Minerva is mine, mine? the divine majesty, 
who bore Apollo and Diana, and by the fruit of my 
womb enriched heaven with deities, and multi- 
plied the number of the gods.” “ Nay, Minerva,” 
the fifth will say, ‘are you speaking,‘ who, being 
a wife, and so often a mother, have lost the sanc- 
tity of spotless purity? Do you not see that in 
all temples5 the images of Minervas are those 
of virgins, and that all artists refrain from giving 
to them the figures of matrons?® Cease, there- 
fore, to appropriate to yourself a name not right- 
fully”? yours. For that I am Minerva, begotten 
of father Pallas, the whole band of poets bear 
witness, who call me Pallas, the surname being 
derived from my father.” The second will cry 
on hearing this: “ What say you? Do you, then, 
bear the name of Minerva, an impudent parri- 
cide, and one defiled by the pollution of lewd 
lust, who, decking yourself with rouge and a 
harlot’s arts, roused upon yourself even your 
father’s passions, full of maddening desires? Go 
further, then, seek for yourself another name ; 
for this belongs to me, whom the Nile, greatest 
of rivers, begot from among his flowing waters, 
and brought to a maiden’s estate from the con- 
densing of moisture.* But if you inquire into 
the credibility of the matter, I too will bring as 
witnesses the Egyptians, in whose language I 
am called Neith, as Plato’s Zimceus9 attests.” 
What, then, do we suppose will be the result? 
Will she indeed cease to say that she is Minerva, 


1 Lit., “ by the violence of your terror.” The preceding words are 
read in the Ms. zdeo motos —‘‘so moved by authority,” and were 
emended sdonxea, as in the text, by Gelenius. 

2 Lit., ‘to what parts shall we transfer the duties of pious 
service.” 

3 The ms. reads cum numen; Rigaltius, followed by Oehler, 
emending, as above, meum,; the first four edd., with Oberthiir, 227 
—“‘then the deity zs mzne,;”’ while the rest read cum numine — 
“with the deity.” 

4 So LB., Orelli, and Oehler, reading ¢« tinnts for the Ms. 
tutunts. 

5 Capitoliis, In the Capitol were three shrines, — to Jove, Juno, 
and Minerva; and Roman colonies followed the mother-state’s exam- 

le. Hence tie present general application of the term, which is 
ound elsewhere in ecclesiastical Latin. 

6 Lit., “‘ Nor are the forms of married persons given to these by 
all artists; ”’ #ec read in all edd, for the ms. e¢—‘‘ and of married,” 
etc., which is opposed to the context. 

Lit., “‘ not of your own right.” 

8 Concretione roris—a strange phrase. Cf. Her., iv. 180: 
“They say that Minerva is the daughter of Poseidon and the Tri- 
tonian lake.” 

9 St. p.21t. The Ms. reads quorum Nili lingua latonis; the two 
Roman edd. merely insert Z., P/at. ; Gelenius and Canterus adding 
dicor —‘“‘in whose language I am called the Nile’s,” zs being 
changed into Wezth by Elmenhorst and later edd. 


who is named Coryphasia, either to mark her 
mother, or because she sprung forth from the 
top of Jove’s head, bearing a shield, and girt 
with the terror of arms? Or are we to sup- 
pose that she who is third will quietly surrender 
the name? and not argue’ and resist the as- 
sumption of the first ¢zwo with such words as 
these: ‘Do you thus dare to assume the honour 
of my name, O Sais,"’ sprung from the mud and 
eddies of a stream, and formed in miry places? 
Or do you usurp another’s rank, who falsely 
say that you were born a goddess from the head 
of Jupiter, and persuade very silly men that you 
are reason? Does he conceive and bring forth 
children from his head? That the arms you 
bear might be forged and formed, was there even 
in the hollow of his head a smith’s workshop? 
were there anvils, hammers, furnaces, bellows, 
coals, and pincers? Orif, as you maintain, it is 
true that you are reason, cease to claim for your- 
self the name which is mine ; for reason, of which 
you speak, is not a certain form of deity, but 
the understanding of difficult questions.” If, 
then, as we have said, five Minervas should meet 
us when we essay to sacrifice,'3 and contending 
as to whose this name is, each demand that 
either fumigations of incense be offered to her, 
or sacrificial wines poured out from golden cups ; 
by what arbiter, by what judge, shall we dispose 
of so great a dispute? or what examiner will 
there be, what umpire of so great boldness as to 
attempt, with such personages, either to give a 
just decision, or to declare their causes not 
founded on right? Will he not rather go home, 
and, keeping himself apart from such matters, 
think it safer to have nothing to do with them, 
lest he should either make enemies of the rest, 
by giving to one what belongs to all, or be 
charged with folly for yielding ™ to all what should 
be the property of one? 

17. We may say the very same things of the 
Mercuries, the Suns, — indeed of all the others 
whose numbers you increase and multiply. But 
it is sufficient to know from one case that the 
same principle applies to the rest ; and, lest our 
prolixity should chance to weary our audience, 
we shall cease to deal with individuals, lest, while 
we accuse you of excess, we also should ourselves 
be exposed to the charge of excessive loquacity. 
What do you say, you who, by che fear of bodily 
tortures, urge us to worship the gods, and con- 
strain us to undertake the service of your deities ? 
We can be easily won, if only something befitting 
the conception of so great a race be shown to 
us. Show us Mercury, but ony one; give us 


10 Lit., ‘* take account of herself.” 

II So Ursinus suggested in the margin for the MS. 52 verus. 

12 The third Minerva now addresses the fourth. 

13 Lit., ‘‘ approaching the duties of religion.” 

14 According to the MS. sic—‘‘for so (i.¢., as you do) yielding,” 
ste. 





we Ta = JY. 


‘ora 


482 





Bacchus, but ov/y one; one Venus, and in like 
manner one Diana. For you will never make us 
believe that there are four Apollos, or three 
Jupiters, not even if you were to call Jove him- 
self as witness, or make the Pythian god your 
authority. 

18. But some one on the opposite side says, 
How do we know whether the theologians have 
written what is certain and well known, or set 
forth a wanton fiction,t as they thought and 
judged? That has nothing to do with the mat- 
ter; nor does the reasonableness of your argu- 
ment depend upon this, — whether the facts are 
as the writings of the theologians state, or are 
otherwise and markedly different. For to us it 
is enough to speak of things which come before 
the public ; and we meed not inquire what is true, 
but only confute and disprove that which lies 
open to all, and which men’s thoughts have gen- 
erally received. But if they are liars, declare 
yourselves what is the truth, and disclose the 
unassailable mystery. And how can it be done 
when the services of men of letters are set aside ? 
For what is there which can be said about 
the immortal gods that has not reached men’s 
thoughts from what has been written by men 
on these subjects?? Or can you relate anything 
yourselves about their rights and ceremonies, 
which has not been recorded in books, and made 
known by what authors have written? Or if you 
think these of no importance, let all the books 
be destroyed which have been composed about 
the gods for you by theologians, pontiffs, ad 
even some devoted to the study of philosophy ; 
nay, let us rather suppose that from the foun- 
dation of the world no man ever wrote 3 anything 
about the gods: we wish to find out, and desire 
to know, whether you can mutter or murmur 
in mentioning the gods,‘ or conceive those in 
thought to whom no idea$ from any book gave 
shape in your minds. But when it is clear that 
you have been informed of their names and 
powers by the suggestions of books,° it is unjust 
to deny the reliableness of these books by whose 
testimony and authority you establish what you 
say. 

a, But perhaps these things will turn out to 
be false, and what you say to be true. By what 
proof, by what evidence, w2d/ it be shown? For 
since both parties are men, both those who have 
said the one thing and those who have said the 
other, and on both sides the discussion was of 
doubtful matters, it is arrogant to say that that is 





I So all the edd., though Orelli, approves of 7ictzone (edd. -en), 
which is, he says, the MS, reading, ‘‘ set forth with wanton fiction.” 

2 The ms, and earlier edd., with Hild. and Oehler, read ex homz- 
dag: de scriptis; LB. and Orelli i inserting Azs after de, as above. 

3 The ms. and both Roman edd. read esse, which is clearly cor- 

rupt; for which LB. gives scripsisse (misprinted scripse), as above. 

ate ‘speak of them at all.” 

5 Lit, “an idea of no writing.” 

© Lit., “ been informed by books suggesting to you,” etc. 








See Musee ee ale gt ee 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


a alle, 


| ; 
true which seems so to you, but that that which 


offends your feelings manifests wantonness and 
falsehood. By the laws of the human race, and 
the associations of mortality itself, when you 
read and hear, That god was born of this father 
and of that mother, do you not feel in your mind? 
that something is said which belongs to man, and 
relates to the meanness of our earthly race? Or, 
while you think that it is so,® do you conceive no 
anxiety lest you should in something offend the 
gods themselves, whoever they are, because you 
believe that it is owing to filthy intercourse... 9 
that they have reached the light they knew not 
of, thanks to lewdness? For we, lest any one 
should chance to think that we are ignorant of, 
do not know, what befits the majesty of that 
name, assuredly '° think that the gods should not 
know birth; or if they are born at all, we hold 
and esteem that the Lord and Prince of the uni- 
verse, by ways which He knew Himself, sent 
them forth spotless, most pure, undefiled, igno- 
rant of sexual pollution,’’ and brought to the full 
perfection of their natures as soon as they were 
begotten ? 2 

20. But you, on the contrary, forgetting how 
great '3 their dignity and grandeur are, associate 
with thema birth,4and impute #o hema descent,'4 
which men of at all refined feelings regard as 
at once execrable and terrible. From Ops, you 
say, his mother, and from his father Saturn, Dies- 
piter was born with his brothers. Do the gods, 
then, have wives ; and, the matches having been 
previously planned, do they become subject to 
the bonds of marriage? Do they take upon 
themselves '5 the engagements of the bridal couch 
by prescription, by the cake of spelt, and by a 
pretended sale? © Have they their mistresses,'7 
their promised wives, their betrothed brides, 
on settled conditions? And what do we say 
about their marriages, too, when indeed you say 
that some celebrated their nuptials, and enter- 
tained joyous throngs, and that the goddesses 
sported at these ; and that some threw all things 
into utter confusion with dissensions because 
they had no share in s¢mging the Fescennine 
verses, and occasioned danger and destruction 8 
to the next generation of men? ?9 





7 Lit., ‘does it not touch the feeling of your mind.” 
8 Ursinus would supply eos — ‘‘ that they are so,’ 
9 Atgue ex semints, actu, or jactu, as the edd. except Hild 
read it. 
10 The ms. reads dignztat7-s aut ; corrected, as above, d. sane, im 
the first five edd., Oberthiir, and Orelli. [John x. 35.] 
1r rie cea ista coeund?, 
ol ey vit. ‘‘as far as to themselves, their first generation being com- 
ete 
13 Lit., “ forgetting the so great majesty and sublimity.” 
14 Both plural. 
Is The ms., first four edd., and Oberthiir read conducunt— 
‘unite; for ‘which the rest read condzc- unt, as above. 
16 Le., usu, farre, coemptione. 
17 The word here translated mistresses, sferatas, is used of maidens 
loved, bet not yet asked in marriage. 
af dangers of destructions.” 
ip Tatead of ‘ occasioned,” sevzsse, which the later editions give, 
the ms. and first four edd. read sevzsse — “‘ that danger and destruc: 
tion raged against,” etc. 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


483 





21. But perhaps this foul pollution may be 
less apparent in the rest.. Did, then, the ruler 
of the heavens, the father of gods and men, who, 
by the motion of his eyebrow, and by his nod, 
shakes the whole heavens and makes them trem- 
ble, — did he find his origin in man and woman? 
And unless both sexes abandoned shemselves to 
degrading pleasures in sensual embraces,‘ would 
there be no Jupiter, greatest of all; and even 
to this time would the divinities have no king, 
and heaven stand without its lord? And why 
do we marvel that you say Jove sprang from a 
woman’s womb, seeing that your authors relate 
that he both had a nurse, and in the next place 
maintained the life given to him by nourishment 
drawn from a foreign? breast? What say you, 
Omen? Did, then, shall I repeat, the god who 
makes the thunder crash, lightens and hurls the 
thunderbolt, and draws together terrible clouds, 
drink in the streams of the breast, wail as an 
infant, creep about, and, that he might de 
persuaded to cease his crying most foolishly 
protracted, was he made silent by the noise of 
rattles,3 and put to sleep lying in a very soft 
cradle, and lulled with broken words? O devout 
assertion of the existence of gods, pointing out 
and declaring the venerable majesty of their 
awful grandeur! Is it thus in your opinion, I 
ask, that the exalted powers ‘4 of heaven are pro- 
duced? do your gods come forth to the light 
by modes of birth such as these, by which asses, 
pigs, dogs, by which the whole of this unclean 
herd 5 of earthly beasts is conceived and _ be- 
gotten P 

22. And, not content to have ascribed these 
carnal unions to the venerable Saturn,° you affirm 
that the king of the world himself begot children 
even more shamefully:than he was himself born 
and begotten. Of Hyperiona,’? as his mother, 
you say, and Jupiter, who wields the thunder- 
bolt, was born the golden and blazing Sun ; of 
Latona and the same, the Delian archer, and 
Diana,® who rouses the woods ; of Leda and the 
same,? those named in Greek Dioscori; of Alc- 
mena and the same, the Theban Hercules, whom 
his club and hide defended ; of him and Semele, 
Liber, who is named Bromius, and was born a 


1 Copulatis corporibus. 

2 i.e., not his mother’s, but the dug of the goat Amalthea. 

3 Lit, “rattles heard. % 

4 Lit., “the eminence of the powers.” 

5 Lit., “ inundation.” 

6 Lit., “‘ Saturnian gravity.” 

7 Cf. ch, 14, note 8, supra. 

8 It is worth while to compare this passage with ch, 16, Here 
Arnobius makes Latona the mother of Apollo and Diana, in accord- 
ance with the common legend; but there he represents the first Mi- 
nerva as claiming them as her children. 

9 In the Ms. there is here an evident blunder on the part of the 
copyist, who has inserted the preceding line (‘‘ the archer Apollo, and 
of the woods ’”’) after ‘the same.” Omitting these words, the ms. 
reading is literally, ‘ ‘the name in Greek is to the Dioscori, » “Before 
‘‘the name” some word is pretty generally supposed to have been 
lost, some conjecturing “‘to whom;” others (among them Orelli, fol- 
lowing Salmasius) ‘‘ Castores.” But it is evidently not really neces- 
sary to supplement the text. 








! as above. 


second time from his father’s thigh ; of him, 


again, and Maia, Mercury, eloquent in speech, 
and bearer of the harmless snakes. Can any 


(greater insult be put upon your Jupiter, or is 


there anything else which will destroy and ruin 
the reputation of the chief of the gods, further 
than that you believe him to have been at times 
overcome by vicious pleasures, and to have 
glowed with the passion of a heart roused to 
lust after women? And what had the Saturnian 
king to do with strange nuptials? Did Juno 
not suffice him; and could he not stay the 
force of his desires on the queen of the deities, 
although so great excellence graced her, such 
beauty, majesty of countenance, and snowy and 
marble whiteness of arms? Or did he, not con- 
tent with one wife, taking pleasure in concubines, 
mistresses, and courtezans, a lustful god, show ?° 
his incontinence in all directions, as is the cus- 
tom with dissolute '' youths; and in old age, 
after intercourse with numberless persons, did 
he renew his eagerness for pleasures zow losing 
their zest? What say you, profane ones; or 
what vile thoughts do you fashion about your 
Jove? Do you not, then, observe, do you not 
see with what disgrace you brand him? of what 
wrong-doing you make him the author? or what 
stains of vice, how great infamy you heap upon 
him? 

23. Men, though prone to lust, and inclined, 
through weakness of character, to yéeld to the 
allurements of sensual pleasures, still punish adul- 
tery by the laws, and visit with the penalty of 
death those whom they find to have possessed 
themselves of others’ rights by forcing the mar- 
riage-bed. The greatest of kings, however, you 
tell us, did not know how vile, how infamous the 
person of the seducer and adulterer was; and 
he who, as is said, examines our merits and 
demerits, did not, owing to the reasonings of his 
abandoned heart, see what was the fitting course 
Jor him to resolve on. But this misconduct 
might perhaps be endured, if you were to con- 
join him with persons at least his equals, and zf 
he were made by you the paramour of the im- 
mortal goddesses. But what beauty, what grace 
was there, I ask you, in human bodies, which 
could move, which could turn to it '? the eyes of 
Jupiter? Skin, entrails, phlegm, and all that 
filthy mass placed under the coverings of the in- 
testines, which not Lynceus only with his search- 
ing gaze can shudder at, but any other also can 
be made zo turn from even by merely thinking. 
O wonderful reward of guilt, O fitting and pre- 
cious joy, for which Jupiter, the greatest, should 
become a swan, and a bull, and beget white eggs ! 





10 Lit., ‘ scatter.” 

Ir Oust reads, ‘vith the Ms., LB. , and Hild., dasecalz, which he 
interprets Jed/z, i.e., “ handsome.” 

12 ms. and first five edd. read inde —“ thence; ” 


the others z# se, 
[Elucidation III.] 


484 


7). ty ae 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





24. If you will open your minds’ eyes, and 
see the real! truth without gratifying any private 
end, you will find that the causes of all the 
miseries by which, as you say, the human race 
has long been afflicted, flow from such beliefs 
which you held in former times about your gods ; 
and which you have refused to amend, although 
the truth was placed before your eyes. For 
what about them, pray, have we indeed ever 
either imagined which was unbecoming, or put 
forth in shameful writings that the troubles which 
assail men and the loss of the blessings of life? 
should be used to excite a prejudice against us? 
Do we say that certain gods were produced from 
eggs,3 like storks and pigeons? Do we say that 
the radiant Cytherean Venus grew up, having 
taken form from the sea’s foam and the severed 
genitals of Ccelus? that Saturn was thrown into 
chains for parricide, and relieved from their 
weight only on his own days?‘ that Jupiter was 
saved from death 5 by the services of the Curetes? 
that he drove his father from the seat of power, 
and by force and fraud possessed a sovereignty 
not hisown? Do we say that his aged sire, when 
driven out, concealed himself in the territories 
of the Itali, and gave his name as a gift to La- 
tium,° because he had been “here protected from 
hisson? Do we say that Jupiter himself incestu- 
ously married his sister? or, instead of pork, 
breakfasted in ignorance upon the son of Lycaon, 
when invited to his table? that Vulcan, limping 
on one foot, wrought as a smith in the island of 
Lemnos? that A¥sculapius was transfixed by a 
thunderbolt because of his greed and avarice, as 
the Bceotian Pindar? sings? that Apollo, having 
become rich, by his ambiguous responses, de- 
ceived the very kings by whose treasures and 
gifts he had been enriched? Did we declare 
that Mercury was a thief? that Laverna is so also, 
and along with him presides over secret frauds? 
Is the writer Myrtilus one of us, who declares 
that the Muses were the handmaids of Megalcon,® 
daughter of Macarus?9 

25. Did we say '° that Venus was a courtezan, 
deified by a Cyprian king named Cinyras? Who 





1 Orelli, without receiving into the text, approves of the reading 
of Stewechius, promptam, ‘evident,” for the Ms., propriam. 

2 Lit., ‘ the benefits diminished by which it is lived.” 

3 The Ms. reads ex Yours, the first five edd. ¥ove —‘‘ from Jove,” 
which is altogether out of place; the others, as above, ¢x ovis. Cf. 
1. 36. 
a The ms, reads e¢ ablut diebus tantis... elevari; LB., Hild., 
and Ochler, stazz's or statutis .. . et levari —‘‘ and was loosed and 
released on fixed days; ”” Elm., Oberthiir, and Orelli receive the con- 
jecture of Ursinus, ef sus diebus tantum ... rel., as above. 

5 Cf. iii. ee 41, Pp. 475, and cap. 30, p. 472]. 

6 i.e, hiding-place. Virg., 4x., vili. 322: Quontam latutsset 
tutus in oris. 

7 Pyth., iii. 102 sq. 

8 ms. Meglac. 

9 The Ms. and most edd. give 4/#as, making the Muses daughters 
of Macarus; but Orelli, Hild., and Oehler adopt, as above, the read- 
ing of Canterus, 7/z@, in accordance with Clem. Alex. 

10 So the Ms. reading numguid dictatum, which would refer this 
sentence to the end of the last chapter. Gelenius, with Canth., 
Oberth., and Orelli, reads guzs ditatam, and joins with the following 
sentence thus: ‘‘ Who related that Venus, a courtezan enriched by 
C., was deified . . . ? who that the palladium,” etc. Cf. v, 19. 








reported that the palladium was formed from 
the remains of Pelops? Was it not you? Who 
that Mars was Spartanus? was it not your writer 
Epicharmus? Who that he was born within the 
confines of Thrace? was it not Sophocles the 
Athenian, with the assent of all his spectators? 
Who “hat he was born in Arcadia? was it not 
you? Who that he was kept a prisoner for thir- 
teen months?! was it not the son of the river 
Meles? Who said that dogs were sacrificed to 
him by the Carians, asses by the Scythians? was 
it not Apollodorus especially, along with the 
rest? Who that in wronging another’s marriage 
couch, he was caught entangled in snares? was 
it not your writings, your tragedies? Did we 
ever write that the gods for hire endured slavery, 
as Hercules at Sardis ? for lust and wantonness ; 
as the Delian Apollo, who served Admetus, as 
Jove’s brother, who served the Trojan Laomedon, 
whom the Pythian also served, but with his uncle ; 
as Minerva, who gives light, and trims the lamps 
to secret lovers? Is not he one of your poets, 

who represented Mars and Venus as wounded 
by men’s hands? Is not Panyassis one of you, 

who relates that father Dis and queenly Juno 

were wounded by Hercules? Do not the writ- 

ings of your Polemo say that Pallas ‘3 was slain," 

covered with her own blood, overwhelmed by 

Ornytus? Does not Sosibius declare that Her- 

cules himself was afflicted by the wound and 

pain he suffered at the hands of Hipocoon’s chil- 

dren? Is it related at our instance that Jupiter 

was committed to the grave in the island of 

Crete? Do we say that the brothers,'5 who were 

united in their cradle, were buried in the terri- 

tories of Sparta and Lacedzemon? Is the author 

of our number, who is termed Patrocles the 

Thurian in the titles of his writings, who relates 

that the tomb and remains of Saturn are found '° 

in Sicily? Is Plutarch of Chzronea '7 esteemed 

one of us, who said that Hercules was reduced 

to ashes on the top of Mount (ta, after his loss 

of strength through epilepsy ? 

26. But what shall I say of the desires with 
which it is written in your books, and contained 
in your writers, that the holy immortals lusted 
after women? For is it by us that the king of 


11 The ms. reads guts menstbus in Arcadia tribus et decem 
vinctum — “ Who that he was bound thirteen months in Arcadia? 
was it not the son,” etc. To which there are these two objections, 
— that Homer never says so; and that Clemens Alexandrinus [vol. 
ii. p. 179, this series], from whom Arnobius here seems to draw, 
speaks of Homer as saying only that Mars was so bound, without 
referring to Arcadia, The Ms. reading may have arisen from care- 
lessness on the part of Arnobius in quoting (cf. ch. 14, n. 2), or may 
be a corruption of the copyists. The reading translated is an emen- 
dation by Jortin, adopted by Orelli. 

12 Sardibus,—a conjecture of Ursinus, adopted by LB., Hild, 
and Oehler for the ms. sordzbus, for which the others read sordids 
— “for the sake of base lust.” 

13 Lit., ‘‘ the masculine one.” 

14 As this seems rather extravagant when said of one of the im- 
mortals, /esam, ‘‘ hurt,” has been proposed by Meursius. 

15 Castor and Pollux. 

16 Lit., “‘ contained.” 

17 The ms. reads Hieronymus PI —‘“‘is Hier., is Pl.,” while 
Clem. Alex. mentions only ‘‘ Hieronymus the philosopher.” 








ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


485 





the sea is asserted in the heat of maddened 
passion to have robbed of their virgin purity 
Amphitrite," Hippothoe, Amymone, Menalippe, 
Alope?? that the spotless Apollo, Latona’s son, 
most chaste and pure, with the passions of a 
breast not governed by reason, desired Arsinoe, 
Ethusa, Hypsipyle, Marpessa, Zeuxippe, and 
Prothoe, Daphne, and Sterope?! Is it shown 
in our poems that the aged Saturn, already long 
covered with grey hair, and now cooled by 
weight of years, being taken by his wife in adul- 
tery, put on the form of one of the lower animals, 
and neighing /oudly, escaped in the shape of a 
beast? Do you not accuse Jupiter himself of 
having assumed countless forms, and concealed 
by mean deceptions the ardour of his wanton 
lust? Have we ever written that he obtained his 
desires by deceit, at one time changing into gold, 
at another into a sportive satyr; into a serpent, 
a bird, a bull; and, to pass beyond all limits of 
disgrace, into a little ant, that he might, forsooth, 
make Clitor’s daughter the mother of Myrmidon, 
in Thessaly? Who represented him as having 
watched over Alcmena for nine nights without 
ceasing? was it not your?—that he indolently 
abandoned himself to his lusts, forsaking his post 
in heaven? was it not you? And, indeed, you 
ascribe 3 ¢o him no mean favours ; since, in your 
opinion, the god Hercules was born to exceed 
and surpass in such matters his father’s powers. 
He in nine nights begot ¢ with difficulty one son ; 
but Hercules, a holy god, in one night taught the 
fifty daughters of Thestius at once to lay aside 
their virginal title, and to bear a mother’s bur- 
den. Moreover, not content to have ascribed 
to the gods love of women, do you also say that 
they lusted after men? Some one loves Hylas ; 
another is engaged with Hyacinthus ; that one 
burns with desire for Pelops; this one sighs 
more ardently for Chrysippus; Catamitus is 
carried off to be a favourite and cup-bearer ; 
and Fabius, that he may be called Jove’s darling, 
is branded on the soft parts, and marked in the 
hinder. 
27. But among you, is it only the males who 
lust ; and has the female sex preserved its puri- 
ty?5 Is it not proved in your books that Titho- 
nus was loved by Aurora ; that Luna lusted after 
Endymion; the Nereid after A©acus; Thetis 
after Achilles’ father; Proserpina after Adonis ; 
her mother, Ceres, after some rustic Jasion, and 
afterwards Vulcan, Phaeton,° Mars ; Venus her- 
self, the mother of A‘neas, and founder of the 


1 These names are all in the plural in the original. 

2 So LB. and Orelli, reading A/ofas, from Clem. Alex., for the 
us. Alcyonas. 

3 Lit., ‘you add.” 

4 In the original, somewhat at large—unam potutt prolem ex- 
tundere, concinnare, compingere. 

5 All edd. read this without mark of interrogation. 

6 The ms. reads Phaetontem: for which, both here and in Clem., 
one proposed Phaonem, because no such amour is mentioned else- 
where, o 





Roman power, to marry Anchises? While, there- 
fore, you accuse, without making @my exception, 
not one only by name, but the whole of the gods 
alike, in whose existence you believe, of such 
acts of extraordinary shamefulness and baseness, 
do you dare, without violation of modesty, to 
say either that we are impious, or that you are 
pious, although they receive from you much 
greater occasion for offence on account of all 
the shameful acts which you heap up to their 
reproach, than in connection with the service 
and duties required by their majesty, honour, 
and worship? For either all these things are 
false which you bring forward about them indi- 
vidually, lessening their credit and reputation ; 
and it is 7” ¢hat case a matter quite deserving, 
that the gods should utterly destroy the race of 
men; or if they are true and certain, and per- 
ceived without any reasons for doubt, it comes to 
this issue, that, however unwilling you may be, 
we believe them to be not of heavenly, but of 
earthly birth. 

28. For where there are weddings, marriages, 
births, nurses, arts,? and weaknesses ; where there 
are liberty and slavery ; where there are wounds, 
slaughter, and shedding of blood; where there 
are lusts, desires, sensual pleasures ; where there 
is every mental passion arising from disgusting 
emotions, — there must of necessity be nothing 
godlike there ; nor can that cleave to a superior 
nature which belongs to a fleeting race, and to 
the frailty of earth. For who, if only he recog- 
nises and perceives what the nature of that power 
is, can believe either that a deity had the genera- 
tive members, and was deprived of them by a 
very base operation ; or that he at one time cut 
off the children sprung from himself, and was 
punished by suffering imprisonment ; or that he, 
in a way, made civil war upon his father, and 
deprived him of the right of governing ; or that 
he, filled with fear of one younger when over- 
come, turned to flight, and hid in remote soli- 
tudes, like a fugitive and exile? Who, I say, can 
believe that the deity reclined at men’s tables, 
was troubled on account of his avarice, deceived 
his suppliants by an ambiguous reply, excelled 
in the tricks of thieves, committed adultery, 
acted as a slave, was wounded, and in love, and 
submitted to the seduction of impure desires in 
all the forms of lust? But yet you declare all 
these things both were, and are, in your gods; 
and you pass by no form of vice, wickedness, 
error, without bringing it forward, in the wanton- 
ness of your fancies, to the reproach of the gods. 
You must, therefore, either seek out other gods, 
to whom all these veproaches shall not apply, for 
they are a human and earthly race to whom they 





7 i. €. , either the arts which belong to each god (cf. the words in 
ii, 18: ‘these (arts) are not the gifts of science, but the discoveries 
of necessity”), or, referring to the words immediately preceding, 
obstetrig arts. 


486 





apply ; or if there are only these whose names 
and character you have declared, by your be- 
liefs you do away with them: for all the things 
of which you speak relate to men. 

29. And here, indeed, we can show that all 
those whom you represent to us as and call gods, 
were Ju¢ men, by quoting either Euhemerus of 
Acragas,' whose books were translated by Ennius 
into Latin that all might be thoroughly acquaint- 
ed with them, or Nicanor? the Cyprian ; or the 
Pellaean Leon; or Theodorus of Cyrene; or 
Hippo and Diagoras of Melos; or a thousand 
other writers, who have minutely, industriously, 
and carefully 3 brought secret things to light with 
noble candour. We may, I repeat, at pleasure, 
declare both the acts of Jupiter, and the wars of 
Minerva and the virgin+ Diana; by what strata- 
gems Liber strove to make himself master of the 
Indian empire ; what was the condition, the duty, 
the gain’ of Venus; to whom the great mother 
was bound in marriage; what hope, what joy 
was aroused in her by the comely Attis ; whence 
came the Egyptian Serapis and Isis, or for what 
reasons their very names® were formed. 

30. But in the discussion which we at present 
maintain, we do not undertake this trouble or 
service, to show and declare who all these were. 
But this is what we proposed to ourselves, that 
as you call us impious and irreligious, azd, on 
the other hand, maintain that you are pious and 
serve the gods, we should prove and make mani- 
fest that by no men are they treated with less 
respect than by you. But if it is proved by the 
very insults that it is so, it must, as a conse- 
quence, be understood that it is you who rouse 
the gods to fierce and terrible rage, because you 
either listen to or believe, or yourselves invent 
about them, stories so degrading. For it is not 
he who is anxiously thinking of religious rites,” 
and slays spotless victims, who gives piles of in- 
cense to be burned with fire, not he must be 
thought to worship the deities, or alone discharge 
the duties of religion. True worship is in the 
heart, and a belief worthy of the gods ; nor does 
it at all avail to bring blood and gore, if you 

believe about them things which are not only far 
remote from and unlike their nature, but even to 
some extent stain and disgrace both their dignity 
and virtue. 

31. We wish, then, to question you, and in- 
vite you to answer a short question, Whether 
you think it a greater offence to sacrifice to them 





IT Lit., ‘‘ Euhemerus being opened.” 

2 So Elm. and Orelli, reading Nzcanore for the ms. Nicagora, 
retained by all other edd. 

3 Lit., ‘* with the care of scrupulous diligence.” 

4 Meursius would join w/rgznzs to Minerva, thinking it an allu- 
sion to her title Ilap@€vos, 

5 These terms are employed of hetzrz. 

6 Lit., “‘ the title itself of their names was.” 

7 Ouz sollictte relegtt. Relegit is here used by Arnobius to de- 
note the root of ve/zgro, and has therefore some such meaning as that 
given above. Cf, Cicero, de Nat. Deorum, ii. 28. 





a ae eS eee ee ee aa) 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





no victims, because you think that so great : 
being neither wishes nor desires these ; or, witl 
foul beliefs, to hold opinions about them so de 
grading, that they might rouse any one’s spiri 
to a mad desire for revenge? If the relative 
importance of the matters be weighed, you wil 
find no judge so prejudiced as not to believe i 
a greater crime to defame by manifest insults 
any one’s reputation, than to treat it with silen 
neglect. For this, perhaps, may be held anc 
believed from deference to reason ; du¢ the othe: 
course manifests an impious spirit, and a blind- 
ness despaired of in fiction. If in your cere- 
monies and rites neglected sacrifices and expia- 
tory offerings may be demanded, guilt is said to 
have been contracted ; if by a momentary for- 
getfulness * any one has erred either in speaking 
or in pouring wine ;9 or again,’° if at the solemn 
games and sacred races the dancer has halted, 
or the musician suddenly become silent, — you 
all cry out immediately that something has 
been done contrary to the sacredness of the cere- 
monies ; or if the boy termed patrimus let go 
the thong in ignorance," or could not hold 7 the 
earth: ' and ye¢ do you dare to deny that the 
gods are ever being wronged by you in sins so 
grievous, while you confess yourselves that, in 
less matters, they are often angry, to the national 
ruin? 

32. But all these things, they say, are the fic- 
tions of poets, and games arranged for pleasure. 
It is not credible, indeed, that men by no means 
thoughtless, who sought to trace out the char- 
acter of the remotest antiquity, either did not % 
insert in their poems the fables which survived 
in men’s minds '* and common conversation ; "5 
or that they would have assumed to themselves 
so great licence as to foolishly feign what was 
almost sheer madness, and might give them 
reason to be afraid of the gods, and bring them 
into danger with men. But let us grant that 
the poets are, as you say, the inventors and 
authors of tales so disgraceful; you are not, 
however, even thus free from the guilt of dis- 
honouring the gods, who either are remiss in 
punishing such offences, or have not, by passing 
laws, and by severity of punishments, opposed 








8 Lit., ‘an error of inadvertence.” 

9 Lit., ‘‘ with the sacrificial bowl.” 

10 So the ms., both Roman edd., Elm., Hild., and Oehler, reading 
rursus, the others 2% cursu — ‘‘in the course.” 

11 Patrintus, i.e., one whose father is alive, is probably used 
loosely for patrzmus et matrtmus, to denote one both of whose 
parents were alive, who was therefore eligible for certain religious 
services, 

12 So the Ms. reading ¢erram tenere, for which Hild would read 
tensam, denoting the car on which were borne the images of the 
gods, the thongs or reins of which were held by the patrizmus et 
matrimus,; Lipsius, stserram, the sacrificial victim. The reading 
of the text has been explained as meaning to touch the ground with 
one’s hands; but the general meaning is clear enough, — that‘it was 
unlucky if the boy made a slip, either with hands or feet, 

13 Oberthiir and Orelli omit xox. 

14 Lit., ‘‘ notions.” 

15 Lit., “ placed in their ears,” 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


487 





-such indiscretion, and determined‘? that no man 


should henceforth say that which tended to the 
dishonour,? or was unworthy of the glory of the 
gods.3 For whoever allows the wrongdoer to 
sin, strengthens his audacity ; and it is more in- 
sulting to brand and mark any one with false 
accusations, than to bring forward and upbraid 
their real offences. For to be called what you 
are, and what you feel yourself to be, is less 
offensive, because your resentment is checked by 
the evidence supplied against you on privately 
reviewing your life;4 but that wounds very 
keenly which brands the innocent, and defames 
a man’s honourable name and reputation. 

33. Your gods, it is recorded, dine on celes- 
tial couches, and in golden chambers, drink, 
and are at last soothed by the music of the 
lyre, and singing. You fit them with ears not 
easily wearied ;5 and do not think it unseemly 
to assign to the gods the pleasures by which 
earthly bodies are supported, and which are 
sought after by ears enervated by the frivolity of 
an unmanly spirit. Some of them are brought 
forward in the character of lovers, destroyers of 
purity, to commit shameful and degrading deeds 
not only with women, but with men also. You 
take no care as to what is said about matters of 
so much importance, nor do you check, by any 
fear of chastisement at least, the recklessness 
of your wanton literature ; others, through mad- 
ness and frenzy, bereave themselves, and by the 
slaughter of their own relatives cover themselves 
with blood, just as though it were that of an 
enemy. You wonder at these loftily expressed 
impieties ; and that which it was fitting should 
be subjected to all punishments, you extol with 
praise that spurs them on, so as to rouse their 
recklessness to greater vehemence. They mourn 
over the wounds of their bereavement, and with 
unseemly wailings accuse the cruel fates; you 
are astonished at the force of their eloquence, 
carefully study a@zd@d commit to memory that 
which should have been wholly put away from 
human society,° and are solicitous that it should 
not perish through any forgetfulness. They are 
spoken of as being wounded, maltreated, mak- 
ing war upon each other with hot and furious 
contests; you enjoy the description; and, to 
enable you to defend so great daring in the 
writers, pretend that these things are allegories, 
and contain the principles of natural science. 


1 Lit., ‘‘and it has zof been established by you,” — a very abrupt 
transition in the structure of the sentence. 

it., “ which was very near to disgrace.” 

3 So the margin of Ursinus, followed by later edd., prefixing d 
before the MS. -eoru7. 

4 Lit., ‘‘has less bite, being weakened by the testimony of silent 
reviewing,” recognitionts. 

it., “ most enduring.” 

6 Coetu. The ms. and most edd. read coalitu, —a word not 
occurring elsewhere; which Gesner would explain, “put away that 
it may not be established among men,” the sense being the same in 
either case. 








34. But why do I complain that you have 
disregarded the insults? offered to the other 
deities? That very Jupiter, whose name you 
should not have spoken without fear and trem- 
bling over your whole body, is described as con- 
fessing his faults when overcome by lust® of his 
wife, and, hardened in shamelessness, making 
known, as if he were mad and ignorant,? the mis- 
tresses he preferred to his spouse, the concu- 
bines he preferred to his wife; you say that 
those who have uttered so marvellous things are 
chiefs and kings among poets endowed with god- 
like genius, that they are persons most holy ; 
and so utterly have you lost sight of your duty 
in the matters of religion which you bring for- 
ward, that words are of more importance, in 
your “opinion, than the profaned majesty of the 
immortals. So then, if only you felt any fear of 
the gods, or believed with confident and unhesi- 
tating assurance that they existed at all, should 
you not, by bills, by popular votes, by fear of 
the senate’s decrees, have hindered, prevented, 
and forbidden any one to speak at random of 
the gods otherwise than in a pious manner? ?° 
Nor have they obtained this honour even at your 
hands, that you should repel insults offered to 
them by the same laws by which you ward them 
off from yourselves. They are accused of trea- 
son among you who have whispered any evil 
about your kings. To degrade a magistrate, or 
use insulting language to a senator, you have 
made by decree @ crime, followed by the severest 
punishment. To write a satirical poem, by which 
a slur is cast upon the reputation and character 
of another, you determined, by the decrees of 
the decemvirs, should not go unpunished ; and 
that no one might assail your ears with too wan- 
ton abuse, you established formule! for severe © 
affronts. With you only the gods are unhon- 
oured, contemptible, vile; against whom you 
allow any one liberty to say what he will, to ac- 
cuse them of the deeds of baseness which his 
lust has invented and devised. And ye¢ you do 
not blush to raise against us the charge of want 
of regard for deities so infamous, although it is 
much better to disbelieve the existence of the gods 
than to think they are such, and of such repute. 

35. Butis it only poets whom you have thought 
proper ?? to allow to invent unseemly tales about 
the gods, and to turn them shamefully into 
sport? What do your pantomimists, the actors, 
that crowd of mimics and adulterers?'3 Do 
they ’4 not abuse your gods to make to themselves 





7 Lit., ‘‘ complain of the neglected insults of the other gods.” 

8 Lit., ‘as a lover by.” Cf. Homer, //., 14, 312. 

Vie, of himself. 

10 Lit, “except that which was full of religion.” 

IT i.e., “according to which such offences should be punished. 

12 Lit., “have willed.” 

13 Lit., “full-grown race,” 
here, SENSU obsc@no. 

14 j,e., the actors, etc, 


exolett, a word frequently used, ag 


488 


aE Fay eee 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. | 





gain, and do not the others* find enticing pleas- 
ures in? the wrongs and insults offered to the 
gods? At the public games, too, the colleges of 
all the priests and magistrates take their places, 
the chief Pontiffs, and the chief priests of the 
curiz; the Quindecemviri take their places, 
crowned with wreaths of laurel, and the flamines 
diales with their mitres; the augurs take their 
places, who disclose the divine mind and will ; 
and the chaste maidens also, who cherish and 
guard the ever-burning fire; the whole people 
and the senate take their places; the fathers 
who have done service as consuls, princes next 
to the gods, and most worthy of reverence ; and, 
shameful to say, Venus, the mother of the race 
of Mars, and parent of the imperial people, is 
represented by gestures as in love,3 and is de- 
lineated with shameless mimicry as raving like a 
Bacchanal, with all the passions of a vile harlot.+ 
The Great Mother, too, adorned with her sacred 
fillets, is represented by dancing ; and that Pess- 
inuntic Dindymene 5 is, to the dishonour of her 
age, represented as with shameful desire using 
passionate gestures in the embrace of a herds- 
man ; and also in the Trachiniz of Sophocles,® 
that son of Jupiter, Hercules, entangled in the 
toils of a death-fraught garment, is exhibited 
uttering piteous cries, overcome by his violent 
suffering, and at last wasting away and being 
consumed, as his intestines soften and are dis- 
solved.? But in “hese tales even the Supreme 
Ruler of the heavens Himself is brought forward, 
without any reverence for His name and majesty, 
as acting the part of an adulterer, and changing 
His countenance for purposes of seduction, in 
order that He might by guile rob of their chas- 
tity matrons, who were the wives of others, and 
putting on the appearance of their husbands, by 
assuming the form of another. 

36. But this crime is not enough: the per- 
sons of the most sacred gods are mixed up with 
farces also, and scurrilous plays. And that the 
idle onlookers may be excited to laughter and 
jollity, the deities are hit at in jocular quips, the 
spectators shout and rise up, the whole pit re- 
sounds with the clapping of hands and applause. 
And to the debauched scoffers ® at the gods gifts 
and presents are ordained, ease, freedom from 
public burdens, exemption and relief, together 
with triumphal garlands, —a crime for which no 
amends can be made by any apologies. And 
after this do you dare to wonder whence these 





1 i.e., the crowd of adulterers, as Orelli suggests. 

2 Lit., ‘‘ draw enticements of pleasures from.” 

3 Or, ‘‘ Venus, the mother . . . and loving parent,” etc, 

4 Lit., ‘‘ of meretricious vileness.” 

5 ice., Cybele, to whom Mount Dindymus in Mysia was sacred, 
whose rites, however, were celebrated at Pessinus also, a very ancient 
city of Galatia. 

6 ms. Sofocles, corrected in LB. Sophocles. Cf. Trach. 1022 sqq. 

7 Lit., ‘towards (27) the last of the wasting consumed by the 
softening of his bowels flowimg apart.” 

$ Lit., ‘‘ debauched and scoffers,” 








ills come with which the human race is deluged 
and overwhelmed without any interval, while 
you daily both repeat and learn by heart all 
these things, with which are mixed up libels 
upon the gods and slanderous sayings; and 
when 9 you wish your inactive minds to be oc- 
cupied with useless dreamings, demand _ that 
days be given to you, and exhibition made with- 
out any interval? But if you felt any real in- 
dignation on behalf of your religious beliefs, 
you should rather long ago have burned these 
writings, destroyed those books of yours, and 
overthrown these theatres, in which evil reports 
of your deities are daily made public in shame- 
ful tales. For why, indeed, have our writings 
deserved to be given to the flames? our meet- 
ings to be cruelly broken up,’ in which prayer is 
made to the Supreme God, peace and pardon 
are asked for all in authority, for soldiers, kings, 
friends, enemies, for those still in life, and those 
freed from the bondage of the flesh ;** in which 
all that is said is such as to make men humane,? 
gentle, modest, virtuous, chaste, generous in 
dealing with their substance, and inseparably 
united to all embraced in our brotherhood ? '3 
37. But this is the state of the case, that as 
you are exceedingly strong in war and in military 
power, you think you excel in knowledge of the 
truth also, and are pious before the gods,"* whose 
might you have been the first to besmirch with 
foul imaginings. Here, if your fierceness allows, 
and madness suffers, we ask you to answer us 
this: Whether you think that anger finds a place 
in the divine nature, or that the divine blessed- 
ness. is far removed from such passions? For if 
they are subject to passions so furious,’5 and are 
excited by feelings of rage as your imaginings 
suggest, —for you say that they have often 
shaken the earth with their roaring,’® and bringing 
woful misery on men, corrupted with pestilential 


9 So Orelli, reading e¢ guando , MS. and other edd. e¢ s¢—” and 
if ever.’ 

to Arnobius is generally thought to refer here to the persecution 
under Diocletian mentioned by Eusebius, Hzst¢. Ecci., viii. 2. 

II The service in which these prayers were offered was presided 
over by the bishop, to whom the dead body was brought: hymns 
were then sung of thanksgiving to God, the giver of victory, by 
whose help and grace the departed brother had been victorious, The 
priest next gave thanks to God, and some chapters of the Scriptures 
were read; afterwards the catechumens were dismissed; the names of 
those at rest were then read in a clear voice, to remind the survivors 
of the success with which others had combated the temptations of 
the world. The priest again prayed for the departed, at the close be- 
seeching God to grant him pardon, and admission among the undy- 
ing. Thereafter the body was kissed, anointed, and buried. — Dio- 
nysius, £ccl. Hrer., last chapter quoted by Heraldus. Cf. Const. 
Afost., viii. 41. With the Church’s advance in power there was an 
accession of pomp to these rites. [Elucidation IV.] 

12 Cf. the younger Pliny, Zfzst., x. 97: “‘ They affirmed that they 
bound themselves by oath not for any wicked purpose, but to pledge 
themselves not to commit theft, robbery, or adultery, nor break faith, 
or prove false to a trust ” 

13 Lit., ““ whom oz,+ society joins together,” guos solidet germant- 
tas. [Lardner justly argues that this passage proves our author’s 
familiarity with rites to which catechumens were not admitted. 
Credzbil., vol. iii. p. 458.] 

14 i.e., in their sight or estimation. 

Is Lit., ‘‘ conceive these torches.” 

16 Lit., “ haye roared with tremblings of the earth,” 





ee; | 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





‘contagion the character of the times,’ both be- 
cause their games had been celebrated with too 
little care, and because their priests were not re- 
ceived with favour, and because some small 
spaces were desecrated, and because their rites 
were not duly performed, — it must consequently 
be understood that they feel no little wrath on 
account of the opinions which have been men- 
tioned. But if, as follows of necessity, it is ad- 
mitted that all these miseries with which men 
have long been overwhelmed flow from such fic- 
tions, if the anger of the deities is excited by 
these causes, you are the occasion of so terrible 
misfortunes, because you never cease to jar upon 


the feelings of the gods, and excite them to a: 


fierce desire for vengeance. But if, on the other 
hand, the gods are not subject to such passions, 
1 The Ms reads conru-isse auras temporum., all except the first 


four edd. inserting 4 as above Meursius would also change zemz. 
into w~torum— “the breezes of the winds,” 





489 





and do not know at all what it is to be enraged, 
then indeed there is no ground for saying that 
they who know not what anger is are angry with 
us, * and they are free from its presence,? and 
the disorder z¢ causes. For it cannot be, in the 
nature of things, that what is one should become 
two; and that unity, which is naturally uncom- 
pounded, should divide and go apart into sepa- 
rate things.4 





2 So the s., reading comptu — tie, according to Hild., followed 
by LB. and Orelli. 

3 Lit., ‘ mixture.” 

4 The words following the asterisk (*) are marked in LB. as spu- 
rious or corrupt, or at least as here out of place. Orelli transposes 
them to ch, 13, as was noticed there, although he regards them as an 
interpolation. The clause is certainly a very strange one, and has a 
kind of affected abstractness, which makes it seem out of place; but 
it must be remembered that similarly confused and perplexing sen- 
tences are by no means rare in Arnobius. If the clause is to be re- 
tained, as good sense can be made from it here as anywhere else. 
The general meaning would be: The gods, if angry, are angry with 
the pagans; but if they are not subject to passion, it would be idle to 
speak of them as angry with the Christians, seeing that they cannot 
possibly at once be incapable of feeling anger, and yet at the same 
time be angry with them. [See cap. 13, note 4, p. 480, supra.] 


BOOK V. 


1. Admitting that all these things which do the 
immortal gods dishonour, have been put forth 
by poets merely in sport, what of those found in 
grave, serious, and careful histories, and handed 
down by you in hidden mysteries? have they 
been invented by the licentious fancy of the 
poets? Now if they seemed‘ to you stories of 
such absurdity, some of them you would neither 
retain in their constant use, nor celebrate as 
solemn festivals from year to year, nor would 
you maintain them among your sacred rites as 
shadows of real events. With strict modera- 
tion, I shall adduce only one of these stories 
which are so numerous; that in which Jupiter 
himself is brought on the stage as stupid and 
inconsiderate, being tricked by the ambiguity of 
words. In the second book of Antias—lest any 
one should think, perchance, that we are fabricat- 
ing charges calumniously —the following story 
is written : — 

The famous king Numa, not knowing how to 
avert evil portended by thunder, and being eager 
to learn, by advice of Egeria concealed beside 
a fountain twelve chaste youths provided with 
chains ; so that when Faunus and Martius? Picus 
came to this place3 to drink, — for hither they 
were wont to come‘ to draw water, — they might 





1 So most edd., inserting ev , in ms, and Oehler, vzd-entur. 

2 So named either because he was said to have made use of the 
bird of Mars, i.e., a woodpecker (Zzcus), in augury. or because ac- 
cording to the legend he was changed into one by Cire. 

3 1.e., the Aventine. The story is told by Plutarch in his Life of 
Numa, c. 15, and by Ovid, Fastz, tii. 291 sqq. 

4 The mS. reads, sollemuiter hac, corrected as above, solenne 
tier huc by all edd. except Hild. 





rush on them, seize and bind them. But, that 
this might be done more speedily, the king filled 
many 5 cups with wine and with mead,° and placed 
them about the approaches to the fountain, where 
they would be seen —a crafty snare for those 
who should come. ‘They, as was their usual cus- 
tom, when overcome by thirst, came to their well- 
known haunts. But when they had perceived 
cups with sweetly smelling liquors, they preferred 
the new to the old; rushed eagerly upon them ; 
charmed with the sweetness of the draught, drank 
too much ; and becoming drunk, fell fast asleep. 
Then the twelve youths threw themselves upon 
the sleepers, avd cast chains round them, lying 
soaked with wine ; and they,” when roused, im- 
mediately taught the king by what methods and 
sacrifices Jupiter could be called down to earth. 
With this knowledge the king performed the sa- 
cred ceremony on the Aventine, drew down Jupi- 
ter to the earth, and asked from him the due 
form of expiation. Jupiter having long hesi- 
tated, said, ‘‘ Thou shalt avert what is portended 
by thunder with a head.” ® ‘The king answered, 
“With an onion.”9 Jupiter again, “With a 
man’s.” The king returned, “ But with hair.” *° 





5 So the ms. and most edd., reading focula non parvt numeri, 
for which Elmh, and Orell have received from the margin of Ursi- 
nus, foc non parva mero— ‘cups of great size, with pure 
wine.” 

6 ie., mulsum. 

7 i.e., Faunus and Picus. 

8 Capite. 

9 Cepitio. 

10 Jupiter is supposed to say Aumano, meaning cafzte, to be un- 
derstood, i.e., “ with a man’s head,” while the king supplies capzdlo— 
“with a man’s hair,” ‘ 


490 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





The deity in turn, “With the lifes With a 
fish,” ? rejoined Pompilius. Then Jupiter, being 
ensnared by the ambiguous terms used, uttered 
these words: “Thou hast overreached me, 
Numa; for I had determined that evils por- 
tended by thunder should be averted with sacri- 
jices of human heads, not3 with hair and an 
onion. Since, however, your craft has outwitted 
me, have the mode which you wished ; and al- 
ways undertake the expiation of thunder-portents 
with those things which you have bargained 
for.” 
2. What the mind should take up first, what 
last, or what it should pass by silently, it is 
not easy to say, nor is it made clear by any 
amount of reflection; for all have been so de- 
vised and fitted to be laughed at, that you should 
strive that they may be believed to be false — 
even if they are true — rather than pass current 
as true, and suggest as it were something extraor- 
dinary, and bring contempt upon deity itself. 
What, then, do you say,O you—? Are we to 
believe ¢ that that Faunus and Martius Picus — 
if they are of the number of the gods, and of 
that everlasting and immortal substance — were 
once parched with thirst, and sought the gush- 
ing fountains, that they might be able to cool 
with water their heated veins? Are we to be- 
lieve that, ensnared by wine, and beguiled by 
the sweetness of mead, they dipped so long into 
the treacherous cups, that they even got into 
danger of becoming drunk? Are we to believe 
that, being fast asleep, and plunged in the for- 
getfulness of most profound slumbers, they gave 
to creatures of earth an opportunity to bind 
them? On what parts, then, were those bonds 
and chains flung? Did they have any solid sub- 
stance, or had their hands been formed of hard 
bones, so that it might be possible to bind them 
with halters and hold them fast by tightly drawn 
knots? For I do not ask, I do not inquire 
whether they could have said anything when 
swaying to and fro in their drunken maunder- 
ings ; or whether, while Jupiter was unwilling, or 
rather unwitting, any one could have made known 
the way to bring him down to earth. This only 
do I wish to hear, why, if Faunus and Picus 
are of divine origin and power, they did not 
rather themselves declare to Numa, as he ques- 
tioned them, that which he desired to learn from 
Jove himself at a greater risk? Or5 did Jupiter 
alone have knowledge of this—for from him 
the thunderbolts fall — how training in some 


1 Anima (Ms. 7ia). 

2 Mana. There is here a lacuna in the text; but there can be no 
difficulty in filling it up as above, with Heraldus ont Plutarch, or 
with Gelenius from Ovid, pzsczs — with the life of a fish.” 

3 The Ms. and both Roman edd. read Numa, corrected by Gele- 
nius, as above, 707. 

he Ms. and edd. read cred-2-musne —‘‘ do we believe,” 
which Meursius suggests -e- as above. 
e are ,orwhether.” Below the Ms, reads corruptly ad sue — 
to him, 


for 








kind of knowledge should avert impending dan- 
gers? Or, while he himself hurls these fiery 
bolts, is it the business of others to know in 
what way it is fitting to allay his wrath and in- 
dignation? For truly it would be most absurd 
to suppose that he himself appoints® the means 
by which may be averted that which he has de- 
termined should befall men through the hurling 
of his thunderbolts. For this is to say, By such 
ceremonies you will turn aside my wrath; and 
if I shall at any time have foreshown by flashes 
of lightning that some evil is close at hand, do 
this and that, so that? what I have determined 
should be done may be done altogether in vain, 
and may pass away idly through the force® of 
these rites. 

3. But let us admit that, as is said, Jupiter 
has himself appointed against himself ways and 
means by which his own declared purposes might 
fittingly be opposed : are we also to believe that 
a deity of so great majesty was dragged down 
to earth, and, standing on a petty hillock with 
a mannikin, entered into a wrangling dispute ? 
And what, I ask, was the charm which forced 
Jupiter to leave the all-important? direction of 
the universe, and appear at the bidding of mor- 
tals? the sacrificial meal, incense, blood, the 
scent of burning laurel-boughs,'° and muttering 
of spells? And were all these more powerful 
than Jupiter, so that they compelled him to do 
unwillingly what was enjoined, or to give him- 
self up of his own accord to their crafty tricks ? 
What! will what follows be believed, that the 
son of Saturn had so little foresight, that he either 
proposed terms by the ambiguity of which he 
was himself ensnared, or did not know what was 
going to happen, how the craft and cunning of a 
mortal would overreach him? You shall make 
expiation, he says, with a head when thunderbolts 
have fallen. The phrase is still incomplete, and 
the meaning is not fully expressed and defined ; 
for it was necessarily right to know whether Dies- 
piter ordains that this expiation be effected with 
the head of a wether, a sow, an ox, or any other 
animal. Now, as he had not yet fixed this 
specifically, and his decision was still uncertain 
and not yet determined, how could Numa know 
that Jupiter would say the head of a man, so as 
to7 anticipate avd prevent Aim, and turn his un- 
certain and ambiguous words” into “an onion’s 
head?” 

4. But you will perhaps say that the king was 
a diviner. Could he be more so than Jupiter 





6 The ms. reads sczre, but ‘‘ knows” would hardly suit the con- 
text. Instead of adopting any conjecture, however, it is sufficient to 
observe, with Oehler, that sczve is elsewhere used as a contraction for 
sctscere. 

7 The Ms, omits xt. 

8 So Cujacius, inserting vz, omitted by the ms. 

9) Eit., “so great.” 

10 Lit., “‘ the fumigation of verbena,” i.e., of boughs of the laurel, 
olive, or myrtle. 

it Lit., “ the uncertain ¢héngs of that ambiguity.” 








ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


himself? But for a mortal’s anticipating ' what 
Jupiter — whom? he overreached — was going to 
say, could the god not know in what ways a man 
was preparing to overreach him? Is it not, then, 
clear and manifest that these are puerile and 
fanciful inventions, by which, while a lively wit 
is assigned 3 to Numa, the greatest want of fore- 
sight is imputed to Jupiter? For what shows so 
little foresight as to confess that you have been 
ensnared by the subtlety of a man’s intellect, 
and while you are vexed at being deceived, to 
give way to the wishes of him who has overcome 
you, and to lay aside the means which you had 
proposed? For if there was reason and some 
natural fitness that+ expiatory sacrifice for that 
which was struck with lightning should have been 
made with a man’s head, I do not see why the 
proposal of an onion’s was made by the king ; 
but if it could be performed with an onion also, 
there was a greedy lust for human blood. And 
both parts are made to contradict themselves : 
so that, on the one hand, Numa is shown not to 
have wished to know what he did wish ; and, on 
the other, Jupiter is shown to have been merci- 
less, because he said that he wished expiation to 
be made with the heads of men, which could 
have been done by Numa with an onion’s head. 


5- In Timotheus, who was no mean mytholo-’ 


gist, and also in others equally well informed, the 
birth of the Great Mother of the gods, and the 
origin of her rites, are thus detailed, being de- 
rived —as he himself writes and suggests — from 
learned books of antiquities, and from zs ac- 
quaintance with the most secret mysteries : — 
Within the confines of Phrygia, he says, there is 
a rock of unheard-of wildness in every respect, 
the name of which is Agdus, so named by the 
natives of that district. Stones taken from it, as 
Themis by her oracle 5 had enjoined, Deucalion 
and Pyrrha threw upon the earth, at that time 
emptied of men; from which this Great Mother, 
too, as she is called, was fashioned along with 
the others, and animated by the deity. Her, 
given over to rest and sleep on the very summit 
of the rock, Jupiter assailed with lewdest® de- 
sires. But when, after long strife, he could not 
accomplish what he had proposed to himself, he, 
baffled, spent his lust on the stone. ‘This the 
rock received, and with many groanings Acdestis 7 
is born in the tenth month, being named from 
his mother rock. In him there had been resist- 


aL ite ine 
reading. 

2 So Oehler, supplying gem. 

SLit et ‘liveliness of heart is procured.” 

4 Lit., 

5 So Ovid Mabe (Metam., i. 321), and others, speak of Themis as 
the first to give oracular responses. 

6 So the ms. and edd., reading guam tncestis, except Orelli, who 
adopts the conjecture of Barthius, xeguam —“‘ lustful Jupiter with 
teyid desires.” 

7 So the ms. and edd., except Hildebrand and Oehler, who 
throughout spell Agdestzs, following the Greek writers, and the deri- 
vation of the word trom Agdus. 


unless a mortal anticipated” — Aresumeret, the MS. 





491 





less might, and a fierceness of disposition beyond 
control, a lust made furious, and derived from 
both sexes. He violently plundered and laid 
waste ; he scattered destruction wherever the 
ferocity of his disposition had led him; he re- 
garded not gods nor men, nor did he think any- 
thing more powerful than himself ; he contemned 
earth, heaven, and the stars. 

6. Now, when it had been often considered 
in the councils of the gods, by what means it 
might be possible either to weaken or to curb 
his audacity, Liber, the rest hanging back, takes” 
upon himself this task. With the strongest wine 
he drugs a spring much resorted to by Acdestis 9 
where he had been wont to assuage the heat and 
burning thirst '° roused zz Azm by sport and hunt- 
ing. Hither runs Acdestis to drink when he felt 
the need;'! he gulps down the draught too 
greedily into his gaping veins. Overcome by 
what he is quite unaccustomed to, he is in con- 
sequence sent fast asleep. Liber is near the 
snare which he had set; over his foot he throws 
one end of a halter '? formed of hairs, woven to- 
gether very skilfully ; with the other end he lays 
hold of his privy members. When the fumes of 
the wine passed off, Acdestis starts up furiously, 
and his foot dragging the noose, by his own 
strength he robs himself of his ‘3 sex; with the 
tearing asunder of /hese parts there is an im- 
mense flow of blood ; both ‘4 are carried off and 
swallowed up by the earth; from them there 
suddenly springs up, covered with fruit, a pome- 
granate tree, seeing the beauty of which, with 
admiration, Nana,'> daughter of the king or river 
Sangarius, gathers and places in her bosom some 
of the fruit. By this she becomes pregnant ; 
her father shuts her up, supposing that she had 
been '° debauched, and seeks to have her starved 
to death ; she is kept alive by the mother of the 
gods with apples, and other food,'? and brings . 
forth a child, but Sangarius *8 orders it to be ex- 
posed. One Phorbas having found the child, 
takes it home,’? brings it up on goats’ milk ; and 





8 So Ursinus suggested, followed by later edd., ex utrogue (Ms. 
utra.) sexu; for which Meursius would read ex utrogue sexus— 
“and a sex of both,” i.e., that he was a hermaphrodite, which 1s re- 
lated by other writers. 


9 Lit., ¢ 'him,”) 
10 Lit., “of thirsting.” 
Il Lit., ‘‘in time of need.” 


12 So ic reading of the Ms. and edd., wxum Jagueum, may be 
rendered; for wwhich Canterus conjectured z7zu2 —“‘ the lowest part 
of the noose.’ 

13 So the edd., reading eo guo (ms. guod) fuerat privat sexu; 
for which Hild. and Oehler read Ju-tu-erat —** of the sex with which 
he had been a fornicator.’ 

14 Lit., ‘‘ these (i.e., the parts and the blood) are,” etc. 

Is The ms, here reads Vaéa, but in c. 13 the spelling is Nana, as 
in other writers. 

16 Lit., “as if.” 

17 The ms. reads ¢-abz/1s, corrected as above f- by Jos. Scaliger, fol- 
lowed by Hild. and Oehler. The other edd. read dacculzs —“ berries.” 

’ So all the edd., except Hild. and Oehler, who retain the Ms. 
reading sangutnartus — ‘‘ bloodthirsty.” 

19 So Salmasius, Orelli, and Hild., reading repertum nescio guts 
sumit Phorbas, tacte ; but no mention of any Phorbas is made 
elsewhere in connection with this story, and Oehler has therefore pro- 
posed forma ac lacte — ‘some one takes the child found, nourishes 
it with sweet pottage of millet (fora) and milk,” etc. 


492 


YE ee a ee 
" en) ts 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





as handsome fellows are so named in Lydia, or 
because the Phrygians in their own way of speak- 
ing call their goats at/agi, it happened in conse- 
quence that se doy obtained the name Attis. 
Him the mother of the gods loved exceedingly, 
because he was of most surpassing beauty ; and 
Acdestis, who was his companion, as he grew 
up fondling him, and bound “ him by wicked 
compliance with his lust in the only way now 
possible, leading him through the wooded glades, 
and presenting him with the spoils of many wild 
beasts, which the boy Attis at first said boastfully 
were won by his own toil and labour. After- 
wards, under the influence of wine, he admits 
that he is both loved by Acdestis, and honoured 
by him with the gifts brought from the forest ; 
whence it is unlawful for those polluted by drznk- 
ing wine to enter into his sanctuary, because it 
discovered his secret.? 

7. Then Midas, king of Pessinus, wishing to 
withdraw the youth from so disgraceful an inti- 
macy, resolves to give him his own daughter in 
marriage, and caused the gazes of the town to be 
closed, that no one of evil omen might disturb 
their marriage joys. But the mother of the gods, 
knowing the fate of the youth, and that he would 
live among men in safety ov/yso long as he was free 
from the ties of marriage, that no disaster might 
occur, enters the closed city, raising its walls with 
her head, which began to be crowned with towers 
in consequence. Acdestis, bursting with rage be- 
cause of the boy’s being torn from himself, and 
brought to seek a wife, fills all the guests with 
frenzied madness :3 the Phrygians shriek aloud, 
panic-stricken at the appearance of the gods ;4 
a daughter of adulterous5 Gallus cuts off her 
breasts ; Attis snatches the pipe borne by him 
who was goading them to frenzy; and he, too, 
now filled with furious passion, raving frantically 
and tossed about, throws himself down at last, 
and under a pine tree mutilates himself, say- 
ing, “ Take these,° Acdestis, for which you have 
stirred up so great and terribly. perilous commo- 
tions.” 7 With the streaming blood his life flies ; 
but the Great Mother of the gods gathers the 
parts which had been cut off, and throws earth 
on them, having first covered them, and wrapped ® 


I [See vol. ii. p. 175.] 

2 Lit., “his silence.” 

3 Lit., ‘* fury and madness.” 

4 The ms., first five edd., and Oberthiir, read exterritZ adoran- 
dorum Phryges ; for which Ursinus suggested ad ora deorum— 
“at the faces of gods,” adopted by Oehler; the other edd. reading 
ad horam— “at the hour, 1.e., thereupon,” 

S It seems probable that part of this chapter has been lost, as we 
have no explanation of this epithet; and, moreover (as Oehler has 
well remarked), in c, 13 this Gallus is spoken of as though it had 
been previously mentioned that he too had mutilated himself, of 
which we have not the slightest hint, 

6 ie., genztalia. 

7 Lit., ‘so great motions of furious hazards.’ 

8 So most edd., reading veste prius tectis atque tnvolutis for 
the Ms. reading, retained by Hild. and Oehler, tecta atgue involuta 
—‘‘his vest being first drawn over and wrapt about them; ” the 
former verb being found with this meaning in no other passage, and 
the second very rarely. 








them in the garment of the dead. From the 
blood which had flowed springs a flower, the 
violet, and with 9 this the tree '° is girt, Thence 
the custom began and arose, whereby you even 
now veil and wreath with flowers the sacred 
pine. The virgin who had been the bride, whose 
name, as Valerius '! the pontifex relates, was Ia, 
veils the breast of the lifeless youcsh with soft 
wool, sheds tears with Acdestis, and slays her- 
self. After her death her blood is changed into 
purple violets. ‘The mother of the gods sheds 
tears also,'? from which springs an almond tree, 
signifying the bitterness of death."3 Then she 
bears away to her cave the pine tree, beneath 
which Attis had unmanned himself ; and Acdestis 
joining in her wailings, she beats and wounds her 
breast, acing round the trunk of the tree now 
at rest.14 Jupiteris begged by Acdestis that Attis 
may be restored to life: he does not permit it. 
What, however, fate allowed,'5 he readily grants, 
that his body should not decay, that his hairs 
should always grow, that the least of his fingers 
should live, and should be kept ever in motion ; 
content with which favours, zs satd that Acdestis 
consecrated the body in Pessinus, ad honoured 
it with yearly rites and priestly services.*° 

8. If some one, despising the deities, and fu- 
rious with a savagely sacrilegious spirit, had set 
himself to blaspheme your gods, would he dare 
to say against them anything more severe than 
this tale relates, which you have reduced to form, 
as though 7¢ were some wonderful narrative, and 
have honoured without ceasing,’ lest the power 
of time and the remoteness ** of antiquity should 
cause it to be forgotten? For what is there 
asserted in it, or what written about the gods, 
which, if said with regard to a man brought up 
with bad habits and a pretty rough training, 
would not make you liable to be accused of 
wronging and insulting him, and expose you to 
hatred and dislike, accompanied by implacable 
resentment? From the stones, you say, which 
Deucalion and Pyrrha threw, was produced the 





oO Lit), “ifrom:= 

10 j.e., the pine. 

11 Nourry supposes that this may refer to M. Valerius Messala, 
a fragment from whom on auspices has been preserved by Gellius 
(xiii, 15); while Hild. thinks that Antias is meant, who is mentioned 
in c. I. 

12 So Orelli punctuates and explains; but it is doubtful whether, 
even if this reading be retained, it should not be translated, ‘‘ be- 
dewed these (violets).” The ms. reads, suffodzt et as (probably 
has) —‘‘ digs under these,” emended as above in LB., suffudzt et 
has. 

13 Lit., ‘‘ burial.” 

14 So it has been attempted to render the MsS., reading Jausate 
ctrcum arborts robur, which has perplexed the different edd. 
Heraldus proposed Jansate —‘‘ at intervals round the trunk of the 
tree;”” LB. reads -ata —‘‘ round . . . tree having rested.” Read- 
ing as above, the reference might be either to the rest from motion 
after being set up in the cave, or to the absence of wind there. 

Is Lit., ‘‘ could be done through (i.e , as far as concerns) fate.” 

16 So Oehler, reading sacerdotum antistitzzs for the MS. antz- 
stzbus, changed in both Roman edd. and Hild. to -s¢ztibus — “‘ with 
priests (or overseers) of priests.” Salmasius proposed zutestibus— 
‘* with castrated priests.” 

17 i.e., in the ever-recurring festival of Cybele. 

18 Lit., “‘length.” 





oy nae 


—_— 








mother of the gods. What do you say, O theo: 
logians? what, ye priests of the heavenly powers ? 
Did the mother of the gods, then, not exist at 
all for the sake of the deluge? and would there 
be no cause or beginning of her birth, had not 
violent storms of rain swept away the whole race 
of men? It is through man, then, that she feels 
herself to exist, and she owes it to Pyrrha’s kind- 
ness that she sees herself addressed as a real 
being ;‘ but if that is indeed true, this too will 
of necessity not be false, that she was human, not 
divine. For if it is certain that men are sprung 
originally from the casting of stones, it must be 
believed that she too was one of us, since she 
was produced by means of the same causes. 
For it cannot be, for nature would not suffer it,? 
that from one kind of stones, and from the same 
mode of throwing ¢4em, some should be formed 
to rank among the immortals, others with the 
condition of men. Varro, that famous Roman, 
distinguished by the diversity of his learning, 
-and unwearied in his researches into ancient 
times, in the first of four books which he has 
left in writing on the race of the Roman people, 
shows by careful calculations, that from the time 
of the deluge, which we mentioned before, down 
to the consulship of Hirtius and Pansa,3 there 
are not quite two thousand years; and if he is 
to be believed, the Great Mother, too, must be 
said to have her whole life bounded by the limits 
of this number. And thus the matter is brought 
to this issue, that she who is said to be parent 
of all the deities is not their mother, but their 
daughter ; nay, rather a mere child, a little girl, 
since we admit that in the never-ending series 
of ages neither beginning nor end has been as- 
cribed to the gods. 

9. But why do we speak of your having 
bemired the Great Mother of the gods with the 
filth of earth, when you have not been able for 
but a little time even to keep from speaking evil 
of Jupiter himself? While the mother of the 
gods was then sleeping on the highest peak 
of Agdus, her son, you say, tried stealthily 
to surprise her chastity while she slept. After 
robbing of their chastity virgins and matrons 
without number, did Jupiter hope to gratify his 
detestable passion upon his mother? and could 
he not be turned from his fierce desire by the 
horror which nature itself has excited not only 
in men, but in some o¢her animals also, and by 
common‘ feeling? Was he then regardless of 
piety 5 and honour, who is chief in the temples? 





t So the edd., reading orard 2” alicujus substantie gualttate 
for the MS. evar? restored by Oehler, num-erart— ‘numbered in 
the quality of some substance,” from the reading of an old copy 
adopted by Livineius, 

2 Lit., ‘‘ through the resistance of nature.’ 

3 B.C. 43. 

4 Lit., “ the maling « copteny implanted. M 

5 Lit., “‘was regard of rey wanting ’’— defuzt, an emendation 
of Salmasius (ecounding to Orelli) for the Ms. depuczt. 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





493 


and could he neither reconsider nor perceive 
how wicked was his desire, his mind being madly 
agitated? But, as it is, forgetting his majesty 
and dignity, he crept forward to steal those vile 
pleasures, trembling and quaking with fear, hold- 
ing his breath, walking in terror on tiptoe, and, 
between hope and fear, touched her secret parts, 
trying how soundly his mother slept, and what 
she would suffer.° Oh, shameful representation ! 
oh, disgraceful plight of Jupiter, prepared to at- 
tempt a filthy contest! Did the ruler of the 
world, then, turn to force, when, in his heedless- 
ness and haste, he was prevented from stealing 
on by surprise ;? and when he was unable to 
snatch his pleasure by cunning craft, did he 
assail his mother with violence, and begin with- 
out any concealment to destroy the chastity 
which he should have revered? Then, having 
striven for a very long time when she is unwill- 
ing, did he go off conquered, vanquished, and 
overcome? and did his spent lust part him whom 
piety was unable to hold back from execrable 
lust after his mother? 

10. But you will perhaps say the human race 
shuns and execrates such unions ;* among the 
gods there is no incest. And why, chen, did his 
mother resist with the greatest vehemence her 
son when he offered her violence? Why did 
she flee from his embraces, as if she were avoid- 
ing unlawful approaches? For if there was noth- 
ing wrong in so doing, she should have gratified 
him without any reluctance, just as he eagerly 
wished to satisfy the cravings of his lust. And 
here, indeed, very thrifty men, and frugal even 
about shameful works, that that sacred seed may 
not seem to have been poured forth in vain — 
the rock, one says, drank up Jupiter’s foul in- 
continence. What followed next, I ask? ‘Tell. 
In the very heart of the rock, and in that flinty 
hardness, a child was formed and quickened to 
be the offspring of great Jupiter. It is not easy 
to object to conceptions so unnatural and so 
wonderful.. For as the human race is said by 
you to have sprung and proceeded from stones, it 
must be believed that the stones both had geni- 
tal parts, and drank in the seed cast on them, and 
when their time was full were pregnant,? and at 
last brought forth, travailing in distress as women 
do. That impels our curiosity to inquire, since 
you say that the birth occurred after ten months, 
in what womb of the rock was he enclosed at 
that time? with what food, with what juices, 
was he supplied? or what could he have drawn 
to support him from the hard stone, as unborn 





6 Lit., “‘ the depth and patience of his sleeping mother.”’ 

7 Lit., ‘from the theft of taking by surprise” — obreptionts, for 
which the ms., first four edd., Oberth., Hild., and Oehler read odyect. 
— “of what he proposed.” 

8 So Heraldus, reading conventions hujusmodt cetum for the 
MS. ceptum., 

9 Sustulisse alvos graves. 


404 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





infants usually vece:ve from their mothers! He 
had not yet reached the light, my ¢nformant 
says; and already bellowing and imitating his 
father’s thunderings, he reproduced ‘heir sound.' 
And after it was given him to see the sky and 
the light of day, attacking all things which lay in 
his way, he made havoc of them, and assured 
himself that he was able to thrust down from 
heaven the gods themselves. O cautious and 
foreseeing mother of the gods, who, that she 
might not undergo the ill-will of so? arrogant a 
son, or that his bellowing while still unborn 
might not disturb her slumbers or break her re- 
pose, withdrew herself, and sent far from her 
that most hurtful seed, and gave it to the rough 
rock. 

11. There was doubt in the councils of the 
gods how that unyielding and fierce violence 
was to be subdued; and when there was no 
other way, they had recourse to one means, that 
he should be soaked with much wine, and bereft 
of his members, by their being cut off. As if, 
indeed, those who have suffered the loss of these 
parts become less arrogant, and as 7f we do not 
daily see those who have cut them away from 
themselves become more wanton, and, neglect- 
ing all the restraints of chastity and modesty, 
throw themselves headlong into filthy vileness, 
making known abroad their shameful deeds. 
I should like, however, to see — were it granted 
me to be born at those times — father Liber, 
who overcame the fierceness of Acdestis, having 
glided down from the peaks of heaven after the 
very venerable meetings of the gods, cropping 
the tails of horses,3 plaiting pliant halters, drug- 
ging the waters harmless while pure with much 
strong wine, and after that drunkenness sprung 
from drinking, to have carefully introduced his 
hands, handled the members of the sleeper, and 
directed his care skilfully+ to the parts which 
were to perish, so that the hold of the nooses 
placed round “hem might surround them all. 

12. Would any one say this about the gods 
who had even a very iow opinion of them? or, 
if they were taken up with such affairs, consid- 
erations, cares, would any man of wisdom either 
believe that they are gods, or reckon them 
among men even? Was that Acdestis, pray, 
the lopping off of whose lewd members was to 
give a sense of security to the immortals, was 
he one of the creatures of earth, or one of the 
gods, and possessed of5 immortality? For if he 
was thought zo de of our lot and in the condi- 





1 Most edd. read as an interrogation. 

2 Perhaps, ‘ ‘that she might not be subject to ill-wil: for having 
borne so. 

3 i,e., to form nooses with. The reading translated is an emen- 
dation of Jos. Scaliger, adopted by Orelli, pentculamenta decurtan- 
tem canthertorum, for the Ms. pentculantem decurtam tam 
canthertos, emended by each ed. as he has thought fit. 

4 Lit., % the cares of art.’ 

5 Lit., ‘“‘ endowed with the honour of,” 





tion of men, why did he cause the deities so 
much terror? But if he was a god, how could 
he be deceived, or how could anything be cut 
off from a divine body?® But we raise no issue 
on this point: he may have been of divine 
birth, or one of us, if you think it more correct 
to say so. Did a pomegranate tree, also, spring 
from the blood which flowed and from the parts 
which were cut off? or at the time when? that 
member was concealed in the bosom of the 
earth, did it lay hold of the ground with a root, 
and spring up into a mighty tree, put forth 
branches loaded with blossoms,’ and in a mo- 
ment bare mellow fruit perfectly and completely 
ripe? And because these sprang from red blood, 
is their colour therefore bright purple, with a dash 
of yellow? Say further that they are juicy also, 
that they have the taste of wine, because they 
spring from the blood of one filled with it, and you 
have finished your story consistently. O Abdera, 
Abdera, what occasions for mocking you would 
give? to men, if such a tale had been devised 
by you! All fathers relate it, and haughty states 
peruse it ; and you are considered foolish, and 
utterly dull and stupid." 

13. Through her bosom, we are told,’ Nana 
conceived a son by an apple. The opinion is 
self-consistent ; for where rocks and hard stones 
bring forth, there apples must have their time 
of generating.'2 The Berecyntian goddess fed 
the imprisoned maiden with nuts "3 and figs, fitly 
and rightly ; for it was right that she should live 
on apples who had been made-a mother by an 
apple. After her offspring was born, it was 
ordered by Sangarius to be cast far away: that 
which he believed to be divinely conceived long 
before, he would not have ‘4 called the offspring 
of his child. The infant was brought up on 
he-goats’ milk. O story ever opposed and most 
inimical to the male sex, in which not only do 
men lay aside their virile powers, but beasts even 
which were males become mothers !'5 He was 
famous for his beauty, and distinguished by his 
remarkable ‘© comeliness. It is wonderful enough 
that the noisome stench of goats did not cause 
him to be avoided and fled from. The Great 
Mother loved him— if as a grandmother her 
grandson, there is nothing wrong; but if as the 





6 The ms, here inserts de—‘“‘from the body from a divine 


(bein 
re the edd. (except Oehler), reading ¢«2 cum for the MS, tum 

que quod. 

8 Balausti1s, the flowers of the wild pomegranate. 

9 Dares supplied by Salmasius. 

to [The Abderitans were proverbially such. 
tacente me.” — Cicero, Ep. ad Attic., iv. 16.] 

11 Lit., “he says. 


* Hinc Addera, non 


12 Lit., “ must rut” — swrzant, as deer. The Ms., first four edd., 
and Elm. read suvgant—‘“‘ rise,”’ corrected as above in the margin 
of Ursinus. 

13 Lit., ‘‘ acorns” — glandibus. 


14 The ms. reads des-, emended as above ded-ignatus by Stewe 
chius, followed by Heraldus and Orelli. 

IS ie., he-goats are made to yield milk. 

16 Lit., “ praiseworthy,” 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


495 





- theatres tell, her love is infamous and disgrace- 
ful. Acdestis, too, loved him above all, enrich- 
ing him with a hunter’s gifts. There could be 
no danger to his purity from one emasculated, 
you say; but it is not easy to guess what Midas 
dreaded? The Mother entered bearing’ the 
very walls. Here we wondered, indeed, at the 
might and strength of the deity ; but again? we 
blame her carelessness, because when she re- 
membered the decree of fate,3 she heedlessly 
laid open the city to its enemies. Acdestis ex- 
cites to fury and madness those celebrating the 
nuptial vows. If King Midas had displeased hzm 
who was binding the youth to a wife, of what 
had Gallus been guilty, and his concubine’s 
daughter, that he should rob himself of his 
manhood, she herself of her breasts? ‘Take 
and keep these,” says he,* “because of which 
you have excited such commotions to the over- 
whelming of ovr minds with fear.” We should 
none of us yet know what the frenzied Acdestis 
had desired in his paramour’s body, had not the 
boy thrown to him, to appease his wrath,5 the 
parts cut off. 

14. What say you, O races and nations, given 
up to such beliefs? When these things are 
brought forward, are you not ashamed and con- 
founded to say things so indecent? We wish to 
hear or learn from you something befitting the 
gods; but you, on the contrary, bring forward 
to us the cutting off of breasts, the lopping off 
of men’s members, ragings, blood, frenzies, the 
self-destruction of maidens, and flowers and 
trees begotten from the blood of the dead. Say, 
again, did the mother of the gods, then, with 
careful diligence herself gather in her grief the 
scattered genitals with the shed blood?® With 
her own sacred, her own divine 7 hands, did she 
touch and lift up the instruments of a disgrace- 
ful and indecent office? Did she also commit 
them to the earth to be hid from sight ; and lest 
in this case they should, being uncovered, be 
dispersed in the bosom of the earth, did she in- 
deed wash and anoint them with fragrant gums 
before wrapping and covering them with his 
dress? For whence could the violet’s sweet 
scent have come had not the addition of those 
cintments modified the putrefying smell of the 
member? Pray, when you read such tales, do 
you not seem to yourselves to hear either girls 
at the loom wiling away their tedious working 


1 Lit., “ with.” ‘ 

2 So the s., both Roman edd., LB., Hild., and Oehler, reading 
vrursus, for which the others receive the emendation of Gelenius, 
regts — ‘‘ the king’s carelessness.” 

3 Lit., ‘‘ the law and fate.” 

4 ie., Attis. 

5 The Ms, reads satietati-s objectsset offensi, corrected as above 
by Hild. (omitting s), followed by Ochler. The conjectures of pre- 
vious edd. are very harsh and forced. 

it., “‘ flows.” ; 
Y Lit., “ herself with sacred, herself with divine.” 








hours, or old women seeking diversions for 
credulous children,® and to be declaring mani- 
fold fictions under the guise of truth? Acdestis 
appealed to 9 Jupiter to restore life to his para- 
mour: Jupiter would not consent, because he 
was hindered by the fates more powerful shan 
himself; and that he might not be in every re- 
spect very hard-hearted, he granted one favour — 
that the body should not decay through any cor- 
ruption ; that the hair should always grow ; that 
the least of his fingers alone in his body should 
live, alone keep always in motion. Would any 
one grant this, or support it with an unhesitating 
assent, that hair grows on a dead body, — that 
part '° perished, and that the vest of Azs mortal 
body, free from the law of corruption, remains 
even still? 

15. We might long ago have urged you to 
ponder this, were it not foolish to ask proofs of 
such things, as well as to say'* them. But this 
story is false, and is wholly untrue. It is no mat- 
ter to us, indeed, because of whom you maintain 
that the gods have been driven from the earth, 
whether it is consistent and rests on a sure 
foundation,’? or is, on the contrary, framed and 
devised in utter falsehood. For to us it is 
enough — who have proposed this day to make 
it plain — that those deities whom you bring for- 
ward, if they are anywhere on earth, and glow 
with the fires of anger, are not more excited to 
furious hatred by us than by you; and that that 
story has been classed as an event and com- 
mitted to writing by you, and is willingly read 
over by you every day, and handed down in 
order for the edifying of later times. Now, if 
this story is indeed true, we see that there is no 
reason in it why the celestial gods should be as- 
serted to be angry with us, since we have neither 
declared things so much to their disgrace, nor 
committed them to writing at all, nor brought 
them publicly to light "3 by the celebration of 
sacred rites; but if, as you think, it is untrue, 
and made up of delusive falsehoods, no man 
can doubt that you are the cause of offence, who 
have either allowed certain persons to write such 
stories, or have suffered zhem, when written, to 
abide in the memory of ages. 

16. And yet how can you assert the falsehood 
of this story, when the very rites which you cele- 
brate throughout the year testify that you believe 
these things to be true, and consider them per- 
fectly trustworthy? For what is the meaning of 


- 








8 [ypawdSers vous, x. Tim. iv. 7. Compare Ignatius, vol. i. p. 62. 
note 3. But even the old wives’ tales among Hebrews were clean in 
contrast with the horrible amusements here imputed even to the girls 
at the loom, and chzldren, among the Gentiles. ] 

9 Lit., ‘‘ spoke with.” 

10 j.e., the part cut off and buried separately. 

11 So the s., according to Crusius, the edd. inserting s, dt-s-cere 

“ ” 

— “to learn. 
12 Lit., ‘‘ on firmness of faith.” 
13 Lit., “‘ sent to public testifying.” 


496 





that pine * which on fixed days you always bring 
into the sanctuary of the mother of the gods? 
Is it not in imitation of that tree, beneath which 
the raging and ill-fated youth laid hands upon 
himself, and whzch the parent of thé gods con- 
secrated to relieve her sorrow?? What mean 
the fleeces of wool with which you bind and sur- 
round the trunk of the tree? Is it not to recall 
the wools with which Ia3 covered the dying 
youth, and thought that she could procure some 
warmth for his limbs /as¢ stiffening with cold? 
What mean the branches of the tree girt round 
and decked with wreaths of violets? Do they 
not mark this, how the Mother adorned with 
early flowers the pine which indicates and bears 
witness to the sad mishap? What mean the 
Gaii4 with dishevelled hair beating their breasts 
with their palms? Do they not recall to mem- 
ory those lamentations with which the tower- 
bearing Mother, along with the weeping Acdestis, 
wailing aloud,5 followed the boy? What means 
the abstinence from eating bread which you 
have named castus? Is it not in imitation of 
the time when the goddess abstained from Ceres’ 
fruit in her vehement sorrow ? 

17. Or if the things which we say are not so, 
declare, say yourselves—those effeminate and 
delicate men whom we see among you in the 
sacred rites of this deity— what business, what 
care, what concern have they there; and why 
do they like mourners wound their arms and° 
breasts, and act as those dolefully circumstanced ? 
What mean the wreaths, what the violets, what 
the swathings, the coverings of soft wools?_ Why, 
finally, is the very pine, but a little before sway- 
ing to and fro among the shrubs, an utterly inert 
log, set up in the temple of the Mother of the 
gods next, like some propitious and very vener- 
able deity? For either this is the cause which 
we have found in your writings and treatises, 
and in that case it is clear that you do not cele- 
brate divine rites, but give a representation of 
sad events ; or if there is any other reason which 
the darkness of the mystery has withheld from 
us, even it also must be involved in the infamy 
of some shameful deed. For who would believe 
that there is any honour in that which the worth- 





1 The festival of Cybele began on the 22d of March, when a pine 
tree was introduced into the mysteries, and continued until the 27th, 
which was marked by a general purification (/avatzo), as Salmasius 
observed from a calendar of Constantine the Great. [An equinoctial 
feast, which the Church deposed by the Paschal observances. March 
22 is the Jrzma sedes Pasche.| 

2 Lit., “ for solace of so great a wound.” 

3 So Stewechius, followed by Orelli and Oehler, reading guzbus 
Za for the MS. 7am, which would refer the action to Cybele, whereas 
Arnobius expressly says (c. 7) that it was the newly wedded wife who 
covered the breast of Attis with wools. %as is, however, received 
from the ms. by the other edd., except Hild., who asserts that the ms. 
reads Jam, and Elmenh., who reads /oz. 

4 i.e., priests of Cybele, their names being derived from the Phry- 
gian river Gallus, whose waters were supposed to bring on frenzy end- 
ing in self-mutilation. 

5 Lit., ‘ with wailing.” 

© Lit., “ with.” 








Oe. es re rr 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


FF 


less Gali begin, effeminate debauchees com- 
plete? . 

18. The greatness of the subject, and our duty 
to those on their defence also,7 demand that we 
should in like manner hunt up the other forms 
of baseness, whether those which the histories of 
antiquity record, or those contained in the sacred 
mysteries named za#a,* and not divulged 9 
openly to all, but to the silence of a few; but 
your innumerable sacred rites, and the loath- 
someness of them all,'° will not allow us to go 
through them all bodily: nay, more, to tell the 
truth, we turn aside ourselves from some pur- 
posely and intentionally, lest, in striving to unfold 
all things, we should be defiled by contamination 
in the very exposition. Let us pass by Fauna™ 
Fatua, therefore, who is called Bona Dea, whom 
Sextus Clodius, in his sixth book in Greek on 
the gods, declares to have been scourged to 
death with rods of myrtle, because she drank a 
whole jar of wine without her husband’s knowl- 
edge ; and this is a proof, that when women show 
her divine honour a jar of wine is placed “here, 
éut¢ covered from sight, and that it is not lawful 
to bring in twigs of myrtle, as Butas *? mentions 
in his Causalia. But let us pass by with similar 
neglect ‘3 the az conserentes, whom Flaccus and 
others relate to have buried themselves, changed 
in humanit pents similitudinem in the cinders 
under a pot of exfa.'4 And when Tanaquil, 
skilled in the arts of Etruria,'s disturbed these, 
the gods erected themselves, and became rigid. 
She then commanded a captive woman from 
Corniculum to learn and understand what was 
the meaning of this: Ocrisia, a woman of the 
greatest wisdom aivos inseruisse genital, explt- 
cuisse motus certos. ‘Then the holy and burning 
deities poured forth the power of Lucilius,' ana 
thus Servius king of Rome was born. 

19. We shall pass by the wild Bacchanalia 
also, which are named in Greek Omophagia, in 
which with seeming frenzy and the loss of your 
senses you twine snakes about you ; and, to show 
yourselves full of the divinity and majesty of the 
god, tear in pieces with gory mouths the flesh of 
loudly-bleating goats. ‘Those hidden mysteries 
of Cyprian Venus we pass by also, whose founder 
is said to have been King Cinyras,'7 in which 
being initiated, they bring stated fees as to a 
harlot, and carry away phadi, given as signs of 





7 Lit., “‘and the duty of defence itself.” 

8 j.e., secret rites, to which only the initiated were admitted. 

9 Lit., “‘ which you deliver” — ¢tvadztzs; so Elmenh., LB., and 
later edd, for the unintelligible ms. tv7adzdzsse, retained in boch 
Roman edd. ; 

To Lit., ‘‘ deformity affixed to all.” 

1 Sa Mia eek Cf. i, 36, n. 2, p. 422, supra. 

12 So Heraldus, from Plutarch, Rom., 21, where Butas is said to 
have written on this subject (airiac) in elegiacs, for the Ms. Putas. 

13 Lit., “in like manner and with dissimulation.” 

14 j.e., heart, lungs, and liver, probably of a sacrifice. 

Is j.e., ‘divination, augury,” etc. 

16 Ves Luciliz, i.e., semen. [He retails Pliny xxxvi. 27.] 

17 Cf. iv. 24. 











—_—_—. 


the propitious deity. Let the rites of the Cory- 
bantes also be consigned to oblivion, in which is 
revealed that sacred mystery, a brother slain by 
his brothers, parsley sprung from the blood of 
the murdered one, that vegetable forbidden to 
be placed on tables, lest the manes of the dead 
should be unappeasably offended. But those 
other Bacchanalia also we refuse to proclaim, in 
which there is revealed and taught to the initi- 
ated a secret not to be spoken ; how Liber, when 
taken up with boyish sports, was torn asunder by 
the Titans ; how he was cut up limb by limb by 
them also, and thrown into pots that he might 
be cooked ; how Jupiter, allured by the sweet 
savour, rushed unbidden to the meal, and dis- 
covering what had been done, overwhelmed the 
revellers with his terrible thunder, and hurled 
them to the lowest part of Tartarus. As evi- 
dence and proof of which, the Thracian dard 
handed down in his poems the dice, mirror, tops, 
hoops, and smooth balls, and golden apples 
taken from the virgin Hesperides. 

20. It was our purpose to leave unnoticed 
those mysteries also into which Phrygia is initi- 
ated, and all that‘ race, were it not that the 
name of Jupiter, which has been introduced by 
them, would not suffer us to pass cursorily by the 
wrongs and insults offered to him; not that we 
feel any pleasure in discussing? mysteries so 
filthy, but that it may be made clear to you again 
and again what wrong you heap upon those 
whose guardians, champions, worshippers, you 
profess to be. Once upon a time, they say, 
Diespiter, burning after his mother Ceres with 
evil passions and forbidden desires, for she is 
said by the natives of that district de Jupiter’s 
mother, and yet not daring to seek by open; 
force that for which he had conceived a shame- 
less longing, hits upon a clever trick by which to 
rob of her chastity his mother, who feared noth- 
ing of the sort. Instead of a god, he becomes 
a bull; and concealing his purpose and daring 
under the appearance of a beast lying in wait,+ 
he rushes madly with sudden violence upon her, 
thoughtless and unwitting, obtains his incestuous 
desires; and the fraud being disclosed by his 
lust, flies off known and discovered. His mother 
burns, foams, gasps, boils with fury and indigna- 
tion; and being unable to repress the storms 
and tempest of her wrath, received the name 
Brimo ® thereafter from her ever-raging passion : 
nor has she any other wish than to punish as she 
may her son’s audacity. 

21. Jupiter is troubled enough, being over- 


1 So the ms. and edd., reading gens Wa, for which Memmius 

Proposed Mia — “and all the Trojan race. 
2 Lit., ‘riding upon” — “xegurtare. 

3 Lit., “ most open. 

4 aon 

5 Lit., “ growling” — fremitum. 

6 The ms. reads Arzmo, emended as above by the brother of Can- 
terus, followed by later edd. 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





497 


whelmed with fear, and cannot find means to 
soothe the rage of his violated mother. He 
pours forth prayers, and makes supplication ; her 
ears are closed by grief. The whole order of the 
gods is sent fo scek his pardon; no one has 
weight enough to win a hearing. At last, the 
son seeking how to make satisfaction, devises 
this means: Avietem nobilem bene grandibus cum 
testiculis deligtt, exsecat hos ipse et lanato exuit 
ex follicuh tegmine. Approaching his mother 
sadly and with downcast looks, and as if by his 
own decision he had condemned himself, he casts 
and throws these 7 into her bosom. When she saw 
what his pledge was,® she is somewhat softened, 
and allows herself to be recalled to the care of 
the offspring which she had conceived.9 After the 
tenth month she bears a daughter, of beautiful 
form, whom later ages have called now Libera, 
now Proserpine ; whom when Jup:ter Verveceus %° 
saw to be strong, plump, and blooming, forget- 
ting what evils and what wickedness, and how 
great recklessness, he had a little before fallen 
into," he returns to his former practices ; and 
because it seemed too’ wicked that a father 
openly be joined as in marriage with his daugh- 
ter, he passes into the terrible form of a dragon: 
he winds his huge coils round the terrified maid- 
en, and under a fierce appearance sports and 
caresses her in softest embraces. She, too, is in 
consequence filled with the seed of the most 
powerful Jupiter, but not as her mother was, for 
she '3 bore a daughter like herself; but from the 
maiden was born something like a bull, to testify 
to her seduction by Jupiter. If any one asks "4 
who narrates this, then we shall quote the well- 
known senarian verse of a Tarentine poet which 
antiquity sings,'5 saying: “The bull begot a drag- 
on, and the dragon a bull.’”’ Lastly, the sacred rites 
themselves, and the ceremony of initiation even, 
named Sebadia,‘° might attest the truth; for in 
them a golden snake is let down into the bosom 
of the initiated, and taken away again from the 
lower parts. 

22. I do not think it necessary here also with 
many words to go through each part, and show 
how many base and unseemly things there are 








? ie., testicule. 

8 Virilitate pignorts visa. 

9 So Ursinus suggested, followed by Stewechius and later edd., 
concept? fetus revocatur ad curam; the MS. reads concepzt —“* is 
softened and conceived, ’ etc 

10 Jupiter may be here called Ver weceus, either as an epithet of 
Jupiter Ammon — “‘ like a wether,” or (and this seems most probable 
from the context), “‘ dealing with wethers,” referring to the mode in 
which he had extricated himself from his former difficulty, or “ stu- 
pid.” The MS. reads vzruzrzceus. 

II Lit., ‘‘ encountered” — aggressus. 

12 Lit., “ sufficiently.” 

13 i.e,, Ceres. 

14 Lit., ‘‘ will any one want.” 

1S i.e., handed down by antiquity. 

16 These seem to have been celebrated in honour of Dionysius as 
well as Zeus, thourh, in so far as they are described by Arnobius, 
they refer to the intrigue of the latter only. Macrobius, however 
(Saturn.,i.18), mentions that in Thrace, Liber and Sol were iden- 
tified and worshipped as Sebadius; and this suggests that we have te 
take but one more step to explain the use of the ttle to Jupiter also. 


[Vol. ii. p. 176, this series. ] 


498 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





in each particular. For what mortal is there, 
with but little sense even of what becomes a man, 
who does not himself see clearly the character 
of all these things, how wicked ¢hey are, how 
vile, and what disgrace is brought upon the 
gods by the very ceremonies of their mysteries, 
and by the unseemly origin of their rites? Ju- 
piter, it is said, lusted after Ceres. Why, I ask, 
has Jupiter deserved so ill of you, that there is 
no kind of disgrace, no infamous adultery, which 
you do not heap upon his head, as if on some 
vile and worthless person? Leda was unfaithful 
to her nuptial vow; Jupiter is said to be the 
cause of the fault. Danae could not keep her 
virginity ; the theft is said to have bcen Jupiter’s. 
Europa hastened to the name of woman; he is 
again declared zo have been the assailant of her 
chastity. Alcmena, Electra, Latona, Laodamia, 
a thousand other virgins, and a thousand matrons, 
and with them the boy Catamitus, were robbed 
of their honour and: chastity. It is the same 
story everywhere —Jupiter. Nor is there any 
kind of baseness in which you do not join and 
associate his name with passionate lusts ; so that 
the wretched being seems to have been born 
for no other reason at all except that he might 
be a field fertile in? crimes, an occasion of evil- 
speaking, a kind of open place into which should 
gather all filthiness from the impurities of the 
stage.3 And yet if you were to say that he had 
intercourse with strange women, it would indeed 
be impious, but the wrong done in slandering 
him might be bearable. Did he lust‘ after his 
mother also, after his daughter too, with furious 
desires ; and could no sacredness in his parent, 
no reverence for her, zo shrinking even from 
the child which had sprung from himself, 
withhold him from conceiving so detestable a 
plan? 

23. I should wish, therefore, to see Jupiter, 
the father of the gods, who ever controls the 
world and men,5 adorned with the horns of an 
ox, shaking his hairy ears, with his feet contracted 
into hoofs, chewing green grass, and having be- 
hind him ® a tail, hams,” and ankles smeared over 
with soft excrement,’ and bedaubed with the filth 
cast forth. I should wish, I say, —for it must 
be said over and over again, —to see him who 
turns the stars zz their courses, and who terrifies 
and overthrows nations pale with fear, pursuing 
the flocks of wethers, zmspicientem testiculos are- 





T Lit, § of.” 
2 Lit., “that he might be a crop of ”—seges, a correction in the 
margin of Ursinus for the Ms. sedes —‘“‘ a seat.” 


3 So all edd., reading scenarum (MS. scr-, but ~ marked as 
spurious), except LB., followed by Orelli, who gives sextzxarum — 
“of the dregs.” Ocehler supplies e, which the sense seems to 
require. [Note our author’s persistent scorn of Jove Of¢. Max.] 

4 Lit., ‘‘ neigh with appetites. of an enraged beast.” 

5 This clearly refers to the xezd, x. 18. 

6 Lit., “on the rear part.” 

7 Suffragines. 

8 So the margin of Ursinus, Elumenh., L.B., Oberth., Orelli, and 
Oehler, reading 2#0//7_ fimo for the MS. molzsstmo. 





tinos, snatching these away with that severe 9 and 
divine hand with which he was wont to launch 
the gleaming lightnings and to hurl in his rage 
the thunderbolt.*° Then, indeed, 7 should dike 
to see him ransacking their inmost parts with 
glowing knife ;‘ and all witnesses being removed, 
tearing away the membranes circumyectas pro- 
4ibus, and bringing them to his mother, still hot 
with rage, as a kind of fillet '? to draw forth her 
pity, with downcast countenance, pale, wounded,’ 
pretending to be in agony; and to make this 
believed, defiled with the blood of the ram, and 
covering his pretended wound with bands of 
wool and linen. Js 2¢ possible that this can be 
heard and read in this world,’ and that those 
who discuss these things wish themselves to be 
thought pious, holy, and defenders of religion? 
Is there any greater sacrilege than this, or can 
any mind's be found so imbued with impious 
ideas as to believe such stories, or receive them, 
or hand them down in the most secret mysteries 
of the sacred rites? If that Jupiter of whom 
you speak, whoever he is, really *° existed, or was 
affected by any sense of wrong, would it not be 
fitting that,'7 roused to anger, he should remove 
the earth from under our feet, extinguish the 
light of the sun and moon; nay more, that he 
should throw all things into one mass, as of old ?'8 

24. But, my opponent says, these are not the 
rites of our state. Who, pray, says this, or who 
repeats it? /s Ae Roman, Gaul, Spaniard, Afri- 
can, German, or Sicilian? And what does it 
avail your cause if these stories are not yours, 
while those who compose them are on your 
side? Or of what importance is it whether you 
approve of them or not, since what you your- 
selves say 9 are found to be either just as foul, 
or of even greater baseness? For do you wish 
that we should consider the mysteries and those 
ceremonies which are named by the Greeks 
Thesmophoria,?° in which those holy vigils and 





9 Lit., ‘‘ censorial.” 

Io Lit., “ rage with thunders.” 

11 So Gelenius, followed by Stewechius and Orelli, reading sola 
for the corrupt and unintelligible ms. zzdlas. 

12 [yfule, besides being worn by the priest, adorned the victim, 
and were borne by the suppliant. Perhaps a combination of the two 
last ideas is meant to be suggested here. 

13 i.e, seemingly so. 

14 Lit , ‘‘ under this axis of the world.” 

15 So the ms., followed by Hild. and Oehler; the other edd. read- 
ing gens for mens. 

16 Lit., ‘‘ felt himself to be.” 

17 Lit., “‘ would the thing not be worthy that angry and roused.” 

18 j.e,, reduce to chaos, in which one thing would not be distin- 
guished from another, but all be mixed up confusedly. 

19 Lit., “‘ what are your proper things.” 

20 Every one since Salmasius (ad solinum, p. 750) has supposed 
Arnobius to have here fallen into a gross error, by confounding the 
Eleusinian mysteries with the Thesmophoria; an errror the less ac- 
countable, because they are carefully distinguished by Clemens 
Alexandrinus, whom Arnobius evidently had before him, as usual, 
There seems to be no sufficient reason, however, for charging Arno- 
bius with such a blunder, although in the end of ch. 26 he refers to 
the story just related, as showing the base character of the Eleusinia 
(Eleusiniorum vestrorum notas); as he here speaks of miysteria 
(i.e., Eleusinia, cf. Nepos, Adc., 3, 16) et la dtutna gue Thesmo- 
phoria nominantur a Grects. \t should be remembered also that 
there was much in common between these mysteries: the story of 
Ceres’ wanderings was the subject of both; im both there was a sea 








ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


499 





- solemn watchings were consecrated 40 the goddess 


by the Athenians? Do you wish us, I say, to see 
what beginnings they have, what causes, that we 
may prove that Athens itself also, distinguished 
in the arts and pursuits of civilization, says 
things as insulting to the gods as others, and 
that stories are there publicly related under the 
mask of religion just as disgraceful as are thrown 
in our way by the rest of you? Once, they say, 
when Proserpine, not yet a woman and still a 
maiden, was gathering purple flowers in the 
meadows of Sicily, and when her eagerness to 
gather them was leading her hither and thither 
in all directions, the king of the shades, spring- 
ing forth through an opening of unknown depth, 
seizes and bears away with him the maiden, and 
conceals himself again in the bowels" of the 
earth. Now when Ceres did not know what had 
happened, and had no idea where in the world 
her daughter was, she set herself to seek the 
lost one all over the? world. She snatches up 
two torches lit at the fires of AXtna;3 and giv- 
ing herself light by means of these, goes on her 
quest in all parts of the earth. 

25. In her wanderings on that quest, she 
reaches the confines of Eleusis as well as other 
countries *— that is the name of a canton in 
Attica. At that time these parts were inhabited 
by aborigines 5 named Baubo, Triptolemus, Eu- 
buleus, Eumolpus,° Dysaules : Triptolemus, who 
yoked oxen; Dysaules, a keeper of goats; Eu- 
buleus, of swine; Eumolpus, of sheep,” from 
whom also flows the race of Eumolpidz, and 
Jrom whom is derived that name famous among 
the Athenians,® and those who afterwards flour- 
ished as caduceatores,? hierophants, and criers. 
So, then, that Baubo who, we have said, dwelt 
in the canton of Eleusis, receives hospitably 
Ceres, worn out with ills of many kinds, hangs 


about her with pleasing attentions, beseeches | 


her not to neglect to refresh her body, brings to 
quench her thirst wine thickened with spelt,'° 
which the Greeks term cyceon. The goddess in 
her sorrow turns away from the kindly offered 





son of fasting to recall her sadness; both had indecent allusions to 
the way in which that sadness was dispelled; and both celebrated 
with some freedom the recovery of cheerfulness by the goddess, the 
great distinguishing feature of the Thesmophoria being that only 
women could take part in its rites. Now, as it is to the points in 
which the two sets of mysteries were at one that allusion is made in 
the passage which follows, it was only natural that Arnobius should 
not be very careful to distinguish the one from the other, seeing that he 
was concerned not with their differences, but with their coincidence. 
It seems difficult, therefore, to maintain that Arnobius has here con- 
victed himself of so utter ignorance and so gross carelessness as his 
critics have imagined. [Vol. ii. p. 176.] 

1 Lit., “‘ caverns.” 

2 Lit., ‘in the whole.” 

3 The Ms. is utterly corrupt —flammis onere pressas etnets, 
corrected as above by Gelenius from c. 35., f. comprehensas. — FEL. 

4 Lit., “also.” 

5 Lit., ‘‘ (they were) earth-born who inhabited.” 

6 The ms. wants this name; but it has evidently been omitted by 
accident, as it occurs in the next line. 

7 Lit., “‘ of woolly flock.” 

8 Cecropios et gut. 

9 i.e., staff-bearers. 

10 Crys, the chief ingredients, according to Hesychius (quoted by 
Ochler), being wine, honey, water, and spelt or barley. [P. 503, 27/.] 





services,'' and rejects ‘hem, nor does her mis- 
fortune suffer her to remember what the body 
always requires.'2 Baubo, on the other hand, 
begs and exhorts her —as is usual in such ca- 
lamities — not to despise her humanity ; Ceres 
remains utterly immoveable, and tenaciously 
maintains an invincible austerity. But when 
this was done several times, and her fixed pur- 
pose could not be worn out by any attentions, 
Baubo changes her plans, and determines to 
make merry by strange jests her whom she could 
not win by earnestness. That part of the body 
by which women both bear children and obtain 
the name of mothers,"3 this she frees from longer 
neglect: she makes it assume a purer appear- 
ance, and become smooth like a child, not yet 
hard and rough with hair. In this wise she re- 
turns '* to the sorrowing goddess; and while 
trying the common expedients by which it is 
usual to break the force of grief, and moderate 
it, she uncovers herself, and baring her groins, 
displays all the parts which decency hides ;'5 and 
then the goddess fixes her eyes upon these,’® 
and is pleased with the strange form of consola- 
tion. ‘Then becoming more cheerful after laugh- 
ing, she takes and drinks off the draught spurned 
before, and the indecency of a shameless action 
forced that which Baubo’s modest conduct was 
long unable to win. 

26. If any one perchance thinks that we are 
speaking wicked calumnies, let him take the 
books of the Thracian soothsayer,'? which you 
speak of as of divine antiquity ; and he will find 
that we are neither cunningly inventing any- 
thing, nor seeking means to bring the holiness 
of the gods into ridicule, and doing so: for we 
shall bring forward the very verses which the son 
of Calliope uttered in Greek,'® and published 
abroad in his songs to the human race through- 
out all ages : — 


“ With these words she at the same time drew up her 
garments from the lowest hem, 

And exposed to view formatas inguintbus res, 

Which Baubo grasping 79 with hollow hand, for 

Their appearance was infantile, strikes, touches gently. 

Then the goddess, fixing her orbs of august light, 

Being softened, lays aside for a little the sadness of her 
mind; 

Thereafter she takes the cup in her hand, and laughing, 


| Drinks off the whole draught of cyceon with gladness.” 





Il Lit., ‘‘ offices of humanity.” 

12 Lit., “common health.” Arnobius is here utterly forgetful of 
Ceres’ divinity, and subjects her to the invariable requirements of na- 
ture, from which the divine might be supposed to be exempt. 

13 So the conjecture of Livineius, adopted by Oehler, gene-t-ri- 
cum for the MS. genericum. 

14 So Stewechius, followed by Oehler, reading redzt z¢a for the ms. 
redita,; the other edd. merely drop a. 

1S Omnia tlla pudorts loca. 

16 Pubz. 

17 Orpheus, under whose name there was current in the time of 
Arnobius an immense mass of literature freely used, and it is proba- 


ble sometimes supplemented, by Christian writers. Cf. c. 19. 

Is Lit., ‘ put forth with Greek mouth.” 

19 Lit., “ tossing.” 

© It may be well to observe that Arnobius differs from the Greek 
versions of these lines found in Clem, Alex, (vol. ii p. 177) and 


500 





What say you, O wise sons of Erectheus?' what, 
you citizens of Minerva?? The mind is eager 
to know with what words you will defend what 
it is so dangerous to maintain, or what arts you 
have by which to give safety to personages and 
causes wounded so mortally. This3 is no false 
mistrust, nor are you assailed with lying accusa- 
tions : 4 the infamy of your Eleusinia is declared 
both by their base beginnings and by the records 
of ancient literature, by the very signs, in fine, 
which you use when questioned in receiving the 
sacred things, — “I have fasted, and drunk the 
draught ;5 I have taken out of the mysac cist,° 
and put into the wicker-basket ; I have received 
again, and transferred to the little chest.” 7 
27. Are then your deities carried off by force, 
and do they seize by violence, as their holy 
and hidden mysteries relate? do they enter into 
marriages sought stealthily and by fraud?® is 
their honour snatched from virgins 9 resisting and 
unwilling? have they no knowledge of impending 
injury, no acquaintance with what has happened 
to those carried off by force? Are they, when 
lost, sought for as men are? and do they traverse 
the earth’s vast extent with lamps and torches 
when the sun is shining most brightly? Are they 
afflicted? are they troubled? do they assume 
.the squalid garments of mourners, and the signs 
of misery? and that they may be able to turn 
their mind to victuals and the taking of food, is 
use made not of reason, not of the right time, 
not of some weighty words or pressing courtesy, 
but is a display made of the shameful and in- 
decent parts of the body? and are those mem- 
bers exposed which the shame felt by all, and 
the natural law of modesty, bid us conceal, 
which it is not permissible to name among pure 
ears without permission, and saying, “by your 
leave?”?'° What, I ask you, was there in such a 
sight,‘! what in the privy parts of Baubo, to move 
to wonder and laughter a goddess of the same 
sex, and formed with similar parts? what was 
there such that, when presented to the divine 





Eusebius (Presar. Evang., ii. 3), omitting all mention of Iacchus, 
who is made very prominent by them; and that he does not adhere 
strictly to metrical rules, probably, as Heraldus pointed out, because, 
like the poets of that age, he paid little heed to questions of quantity. 
Whether Arnobius has merely paraphrased the original as found in 
Clement and Eusebius, or had a different version of them before him, 
is a question which can only be discussed by means of a careful com- 
parison between the Greek and Latin forms of the verses with the 
context in both cases. 

1 So LB., Hild., and Oehler, reading Erechthide O (inserted by 
Hild.) for the ms. erzthzdeo. 

2 j.e., Athenians. 

3 The s., 1st ed., Hild., and Oehler read z#a —‘“‘ It is thus not,” 
etc.; the others as above, zsta. 

4 Delatione calumntosa, [Conf. vol. ii. p..175, col. 2.] 

S Cyceon. [P. 499, supra, and 503, zufra.] 

6 The ms. reads exci-ta, corrected as above, ex czsta, in the 
margin of Ursinus, 

7 [It is a pity that all this must be retailed anew after Clement, 
vol. ii. pp. 175, 177, notes. ] 

8 Lit., ‘‘ by stealthy frauds.” 

9 Lit., “is the honour of virginity snatched from them? ” 

lo Sine venta ac sine honoribus prefatis. 

11 So Stewechius, LB., and Orelli, reading sfec-t-u zn t-alt for the 
MS. in specu alt. 








ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





eyes and sight, it should at the same time en 
able her to forget her miseries, and bring her 
with sudden cheerfulness to a happier state ot 
mind? Oh, what have we had it in our power 
to bring forward with scoffing and jeering, were 
it not for respect for the reader,'3 and the dignity 
of literature ! 

28. I confess that I have long been hesitating, 
looking on every side, shuffling, doubling Tellene 
perplexities ; ** while I am ashamed to mention 
those Alimontian '5 mysteries in which Greece 
erects pha in honour of father Bacchus, and 
the whole district is covered with images of men’s 
Jascina, ‘The meaning of this is obscure per- 
haps, and it is asked why it is done. Whoever 
is ignorant of this, let him learn, and, wondering 
at what is so important, ever keep it with rever- 
ent care in a pure heart.'° While Liber, born at 
Nysa,'? and son of Semele, was still among men, 
the story goes, he wished to become acquainted 
with the shades below, and to inquire into what 
went on in Tartarus ; but this wish was hindered 
by some difficulties, because, from ignorance of 
the route, he did not know by what way to go 
and proceed. One Prosumnus starts up, a base 
lover of the god, and @ fellow too prone to 
wicked lusts, who promises to point out the gate 
of Dis, and the approaches to Acheron, if the 
god will gratify him, and suffer zxorvtas voluptates 
ex secarpi. The god, without reluctance, swears 
to put himself '* in his power and at his disposal, 
but ov/y immediately on his return from the 
lower regions, having obtained his wish and de- 
sire.'9 Prosumnus politely tells him the way, and 
sets him on the very threshold of the lower re- 
gions. In the meantime, while Liber is inspect- 
ing 7° and examining carefully Styx, Cerberus, the 
Furies, and all other things, the informer passed 
from the number of the living, and was buried 
according to the manner of men. Evius?' comes 
up from the lower regions, and learns that 
his guide is dead. But that he might fulfil his 
promise, and free himself from the obligation of 
his oath, he goes to the place of the funeral, and 





12 Lit., “light.” [Note Clement, vol. ii. p.175, col. 2, line r2.] 

13 So the Ms , Hild., and Oehler, reading zoscentis. 

14 This allusion is somewhat obscure. Heraldus regards ¢7-7cas 
Tel’enas as akin in sense to ¢. Atel/anas, i.e., ‘‘ comic trifles;”’ in 
which case the sense would be, that Arnobius had been heaping up 
any trifles which would keep him back from the disagreeable subject, 
Ausonius Popma (quoted by Orelli) explains the phrase with reference 
to the capture of Tellenazs by Ancus Martius as meaning ‘‘ something 
hard to get through.” 

1s The ms. reads al/monze, corrected from Clem, Alex. by Sal- 
masius, Ad/montza, i.e., celebrated at Halimus in Attica, 

16 Lit., ‘‘in pure senses.” [Ironically said. ] 

17 Cicero (de Nat. Deor., iit. 23) speaks of five Dionysi, the father 
of the fifth being Nisus. Arnobius had this passage before him in 
writing the fourth book (cf. c. 15, and n. 2), so that he may here mean 
to speak of Liber similarly. 

1s Lit., “that he will be.” 

19 So the Ms.,acc. to Hild., reading expe-t7tzonz's; acc. to Crusius, 
the Ms. gives -d7tionzs — ‘‘ (having accomplished) his expedition.” 

20 Lit., ‘is surveying with all careful examination.” 

21 ms. cuzus. [Retailed from Clement, vol ii p. 180. As to the 
arguments the Fathers were compelled to use with heathen, see 
note 5, same volume, p. 206. } 





J’ ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


‘— “ficorum ex arbore ramum validissimum pre- 
secans dolat, runcinat, levigat et humani speciem 
fabricatur in penis, figit super aggerem tumuli, et 
postica ex parte nudatus accedit, subsidit, insidit. 
Lascivia deinde surientis assumpté, huc atque 
illuc clunes torquet et meditatur ab ligno pati 
quod jamdudum in veritate promiserat.”’ 

29. Now, to prevent any one from thinking 
that we have devised what is so impious, we do 
not call upon him to believe Heraclitus as a wit- 
ness, nor to receive from his account what he 
felt about such mysteries. Let him' ask the 
whole of Greece what is the meaning of these 
phali which ancient custom erects and worships 
throughout the country, throughout the towns: 
he will find that the causes are those which we 
say ; or if they are ashamed to declare the truth 
honestly, of what avail will it be to obscure, to 
conceal the cause and origin of the rite, while 2 
the accusation holds good against the very act 
of worship? What say you, O peoples? what, 
ye nations busied with the services of the tem- 
ples, and given up # éhem? Is it to these rites 
you drive us by flames, banishment, slaughter, 
and any other kind of punishments, and by fear 
of cruel torture? Are these the gods whom you 
bring to us, whom you thrust and impose upon 
us, like whom you would neither wish yourselves 


to be, nor any one related to you by blood and. 


friendship ?3 Can you declare to your beardless 
sons, still wearing the dress of boys, the agree- 
ments which’ Liber formed with his lovers? Can 
you urge your daughters-in-law, nay, even your 
own wives, to show the modesty of Baubo, and 
enjoy the chaste pleasures of Ceres? Do you 
wish your young men to know, hear, end learn 
what even Jupiter showed himself to more ma- 
trons than one? Would you wish your grown- 
up maidens and still lusty fathers to learn how 
the same deity sported with his daughter? Do 
you wish full brothers, already hot with passion, 
and sisters sprung from the same parents, to hear 
that he again did not spurn the embraces, the 
couch of his sister? Should we not then flee 
far from such gods; and should not our ears be 
stopped altogether, that the filthiness of so im- 
pure a religion may not creep into the mind? 
For what man is there who has been reared with 
morals so pure, that the example of the gods 
does not excite him to similar madness? or who 
can keep back his desires from his kinsfolk, and 
those of whom he should stand in awe, when he 
sees that among the gods above nothing is held 
sacred in the confusion caused by ¢ their lusts ? 
For when it is certain that the first and perfect 
nature has not been able to restrain its passion 
within right limits, why should not man give 





I i.e., the sceptic. 

2 Cum wanting in the Ms. 

3 Lit., ‘* by right of friendship.” 
4 Tatts e*-ols’* 





501 





himself up to his desires without distinction, be- 
ing both borne on headlong by his innate frailty, 
and aided by the teaching of the holy deities? 5 

30. I confess that, in reflecting on such mon- 
strous stories in my own mind, I have long been 
accustomed to wonder that you dare to speak 
of those as atheists,° impious, sacrilegious, who 
either deny that there are amy gods at all, or 
doubt their existence, or assert that they were 
men, and have been numbered among the gods 
for the sake of some power and good desert ; 
since, if a true examination be made, it is fitting 
that none should be called by such names, more 
than yourselves, who, under the pretence of 
showing them reverence, heap up in so doing? 
more abuse and accusation, than if you had 
conceived the idea of doing this openly with 
avowed abuse. He who doubts the existence 
of the gods, or denies it altogether, although he 
may seem to adopt monstrous opinions from the 
audacity of his conjectures, yet refuses to credit 
what is obscure without insulting any one; and 
he who asserts that they were mortals, although 
he brings them down from the exalted place 
of inhabitants of heaven, yet heaps upon them 
other® honours, since he supposes that they 
have been raised to the rank of the gods 9 for 
their services, and from admiration of their 
virtues. 

31. But you who assert that you are the de- 
fenders and propagators of their immortality, 
have you passed by, have you left untouched, 
any one of them, without assailing him ‘° with 
your abuse? or is there any kind of insult so 
damnable in the eyes of all, that you have been 
afraid to use it upon them, even though hin- 
dered"! by the dignity of their name? Who 
declared that the gods loved frail and mortal 
bodies? was z¢ not you? Who that they per- 
petrated those most charming thefts on the 
couches of otners? was z#not you? Who that 
children had intercourse with their mothers ; 
and on the other hand, fathers with their virgin 
daughters? was z¢ not you? Who that pretty 
boys, and even grown-up men of very fine ap- 
pearance, were wrongfully lusted after? was 7¢ 
not you? Who declared that they’? were mu- 
tilated, debauched, skilled in dissimulation, 
thieves, held in bonds and chains, finally assailed 
with thunderbolts, az@ wounded, that they died, 





5 Lit., “of holy divinity.”” Orelli thinks, and with reason, that 
Arnobius refers to the words which Terence puts into the mouth of 


Chaerea (Zu2., ili. 5, vv. 36-43), who encourages himself to give way 
to lust by asking, “Shall I, a man, not do this?” when Jove had 
done as much. [Elucflation III.] 

6 Lit., ‘‘ to speak of any one as atheist . . . of those who,” etc. 


7 So the ms. and edd., reading zz eo, for which we should perhaps 
read z7 eos — *‘ heap upon them.” 

8 Subsictvts landzbus. 

9 Lit., “to the reward (wzerztur) of divinity.” 

to Lit., “ unwounded.” 

It So the edd , reading ¢ardatz for the Ms. tradatzs, except Hild., 
who reads fardatzs. 

12 j,e., the gods. 

13 Exoletos. Cf. iv. c. 35, note 13, p. 487, supra. 


502 


Toor’ 


A ee al ae 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





and even found graves on earth? was i¢ not 
you? While, then, so many and grievous charges 
have been raised by you to the injury of the 
gods, do you dare to assert that the gods have 
been displeased because of us, while it has long 
been clear that you are the guilty causes of such 
anger, and the occasion of the divine wrath? 

32. But you err, says my opponent, and are 
mistaken, and show, even in criticising ‘hese 
things, that you are rather ignorant, unlearned, 
and boorish. For all those stories which seem 
to you disgraceful, and tending to the discredit 
of the gods, contain in them holy mysteries, 
theories wonderful and profound, and not such 
as any one can easily become acquainted with 
by force of understanding. For that is not 
meant and said which has been written and 
placed on the surface of the story ; but all these 
things are understood in allegorical senses, and 
by means of secret explanations privately sup- 
plied: Therefore he who says” Jupiter lay with 
his mother, does not mean the incestuous or 
shameful embraces of Venus, but names Jupiter 
instead of rain, and Ceres instead of the earth. 
And he, again, who says that he3 dealt lascivi- 
ously with his daughter, speaks of no filthy pleas- 
ures, but puts Jupiter for the name of a shower, 
and by his daughter means‘ the crop sown. So, 
too, he who says that Proserpina was carried off 
by father Dis, does not say, as you suppose,5 
that the maiden was carried off to gratify the 
basest desires ; but because we cover the seed 
with clods, he signifies that the goddess has sunk 
under the earth, and unites with Orcus to bring 
forth fruit. In like manner in the other stories 
also one thing indeed is said, but something else 
is understood ; and under a commonplace open- 
ness of expression there lurks a secret doctrine, 
and a dark profundity of mystery. 

33. These are all quirks, as is evident, and 
quibbles with which they are wont to bolster up 
weak cases before a jury; nay, rather, to speak 
more truly, they are pretences, such as are used 
in ® sophistical reasonings, by which not the truth 
is sought after, but always the image, and ap- 
pearance, and shadow of the truth. For because 
it is shameful and unbecoming to receive as true 
the correct accounts, you have had recourse7 to 
this expedient, that one thing should be substi- 
tuted for another, and that what was in itself 
shameful should, in being explained, be forced 
into the semblance of decency. But what is it to 








l Subdztivis secretts. 

2 Both Roman edd. and ms. read dzcet — ‘shall say; ”’ all others 
as above — dicit. 

3 i.e., Jupiter. 

4 Lit., ‘in the signification of his daughter.” 

S So the margin of Ursinus — wt rert's for the ms. ut ce-reris. 

6 Lit., ‘ colours of.” 

7 The ms. and both Roman edd. read tudecorumt est, which leaves 
the sentence incomplete. LB., followed by later edd., proposed de- 
cursum est, as above (Ochler, zude d. —“ from these recourse has 
been had’), the other conjectures tending to the same meaning, 





us whether other senses and other meanings un- 
derlie hese vain stories? For we who assert that 
the gods are treated by you wickedly and im- 
piously, need only ® receive what is written, what 
is said,? and need not care as to what is kept 
secret, since the insult to the deities consists not 
in the idea hidden in its meanings,'° but in what 
is signified by the words as they stand out. And 
yet, that we may not seem unwilling to examine 
what you say, we ask this first of you, if only you 
will bear with us, from whom have you learned, 
or by whom has it been made known, either that 
these things were written allegorically, or that 
they should be understood in the same way? 
Did the writers summon you to /ake counsel with 
them ? or did you lie hid in their bosoms at the 
time "* when they put one thing for another, with- 
out regard to truth? ‘Then, if they chose, from 
religious awe? and fear on any account, to wrap 
those mysteries in dark obscurity, what audacity 
it shows in you to wish to understand what they 
did not wish, to know yourselves and make all 
acquainted with that which they. vainly attempted 
to conceal by words which did not suggest the’ 
truth ! 

34. But, agreeing with you that in all these 
stories stags are spoken of instead of Iphige- 
nias, yet, how are you sure, when you either 
explain or unfold these allegories, that you give 
the same explanations or have the same ideas 
which were entertained by the writers them- 
selves in the silence of their thoughts, but ex- 
pressed by words not adapted’3 to what was 
meant, but to something else? You say that the 
falling of rain into the bosom of the earth was 
spoken of as the union of Jupiter and Ceres ; 
another may both devise with greater subtlety, 
and conjecture with some probability, something 
else ; a third, a fourth may do the same; and as 
the characteristics of the minds of the thinkers 
show themselves, so each thing may be explained 
in an infinite number of ways. For since all 
that allegory, as it is called, is taken from narra- 
tives expressly made obscure,'4 and has no cer- 
tain limit within which the meaning of the story,'5 
as it is called, should be firmly fixed and un- 
changeable, it is open to every one to put the 
meaning into it which he pleases, and to assert 
that that has been adopted *° to which his thoughts 
and surmises‘7 led him. But this being the case, 
how can you obtain certainty from what is doubt- 





8 “ We need only; ”’ lit., “it is enough for us to.” 
9 Lit., “heard.” 
10 Lit., ‘‘ in the obscure mind of senses.” 


11 “Or at the time,” at ¢usz, the correction of LB. for the ms- 
sutum. 

12 Lit., ‘ fear of any reason and of religion.” 

13 Lit., “ proper.” 

14 Lit., “ from shut-up things.” 

5 Ret. 

16 Lit., “* placed.” 
_ 17 Lit., ‘“ his suspicion and conjectural (perhaps “‘ probable”) inr 
ference. 


ead 


OSs See yet ae ee 


a 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


5S3 





ful, and attach one sense only to an expression 
which you see to be explained in innumerable 
lifferent ways? * 

35. Finally, if you think it right, returning to 
vur inquiry, we ask this of you, whether you think 
that all stories about the gods,? that is, without 
any exception, have been written throughout 
with a double meaning and sense, and in a way* 
admitting of several interpretations ; or that some 
parts of them are not ambiguous at all, whz/e, on 
the contrary, others have many meanings, and 
are enveloped in the veil of allegory which has 
been thrown round them? For if the whole 
structure and arrangement of the narrative have 
been surrounded with a veil of allegory from 
beginning to end, explain z us, tell ws, what we 
should put and substitute for each thing which 
every story says, and to what other things and 
meanings we should refer5 each. For as, to 
take an example, you wish Jupiter to be said in- 
stead of the rain, Ceres for the earth, and for 
Libera °® and father Dis the sinking and casting 
of seed indo the earth, so you ought to say what 
we should understand for the bull, what for the 
wrath and anger of Ceres ; what the word Brimo7 
means; what the anxious prayer of Jupiter; 
what the gods sent to make intercession for him, 
but not listened to; what the castrated ram ; 
what the parts ® of the castrated ram; what the 
satisfaction made with these ; what the further 
dealings with his daughter, still more unseemly 
in their lustfulness ; so, in the other story also, 
what the grove and flowers of Henna are; what 
the fire taken from A®tna, and the torches lit 
with it; what the travelling through the world 
with these ; what the Attic country, the canton 
of Eleusin, the hut of Baubo, and her rustic hos- 
pitality ; what the draught of cyceon9 means, the 
refusal of it, the shaving and disclosure of the 
privy parts, the shameful charm of the sight, and 
the forgetfulness of her bereavement produced 
by such means. Now, if you point out what 
should be put in the place of all these, changing 
the one for the other,'° we shall admit your asser- 
tion; but if you can neither present another 
supposition in each case, nor appeal to the 
context as a whole, why do you make that ob- 





I Lit., ‘‘ to be deduced with variety of expositions through num- 
berless ways.” 

2 The ms., first four edd., and Hild. read de z's —‘‘ about these,” 
corrected in the others d?s or dizs, as above. 

3 Lit., ‘‘ each.” 

4 Pl. 

5 Lit., * call.” 

6 i.e., Proserpine. The readiness with which Arnobius breaks the 
form of the sentence should be noted. At first the gods represent 
physical phenomena, but immediately after natural events are put for 
the gods. In the ms. two copyists have been at work, the earlier giv- 
ing Lzbero, which is rather out of place, and is accordingly corrected 
Le later, Lzbera, followed by LB., Oberthiir, Orelli, Hild., and 

enier, 

7 The ms. reads przmo. Cf. c. 20. 

8 Proles. 

9 [xvxewy, a draught resembling caudle. See p. 499, note ro. ] 

10 Lit., ‘ by change of things.” 
w The Ms. omits ad, supplied by Ursinus. 





scure,’? by means of fair-seeming allegories, which 
has been spoken plainly, and disclosed to the 
understanding of all? 

36. But you will perhaps say that these alle- 
gories are not found in the whole body of the 
story, but that some parts are written so as to 
be understood by all, while others have a double 
meaning, and are veiled in ambiguity. That is 
refined subtlety, and can be seen through by the 
dullest. For because it is very difficult for you 
to transpose, reverse, and divert 70 other mean- 
ings all that has been said, you choose out some 
things which suit your purpose, and by means 
of these you strive to maintain that false, and 
spurious versions were thrown about the truth 
which is under them. But yet, supposing that 
we should grant to you that it is just as you say, 
how do you know, or whence do you learn, which 
part of the story is written without any double 
meaning,'+ which, on the other hand, has been 
covered with jarring and alien senses? For it 
may be that what you believe to be so ‘5 is other- 
wise, that what you believe to be otherwise '® has 
been produced with different, and even opposite 
modes of expression. For where, in a consist- 
ent whole, one part is said to be written alle- 
gorically, the other in plain and _ trustworthy 
language, while there is no sign in the thing 
itself to point out the difference between what 
is said ambiguously and what is said simply, 
that which is simple may as well be thought 
to have a double meaning, as what has been 
written ambiguously be believed to be wrapt in 
obscurity.’7 But, indeed, we confess that we do 
not understand at all by whom this’ is either 
done, or can be believed to be possible. 

37. Let us examine, then, what is said in this 
way. In the grove of Henna, my opponent 
says, the maiden Proserpine was once gathering 
flowers : this is as yet uncorrupted, and has been 
told in a straightforward manner, for all know 
without any doubt what a grove and flowers are, 
what Proserpine is, and a maiden. Summanus 
sprung forth from the earth, borne along in a 
four-horse chariot: this, too, is just as simple, 
for a team of four horses, a chariot, and Sum- 
manus need no interpreter. Suddenly he carried 
off Proserpine, and bore her with himself under 
the earth: the burying of the seed, my opponent 
says, is meant by the rape of Proserpine. What 
has happened, pray, that the story should be sud- 
denly turned to something else? that Proserpine 
should be called the seed? that she who was for 





12 So all edd., except Hild. and Oehler, reading odscu7-atzs for the 
MS. -ztatibus. 

13 Lit., “‘ were placed above the interior truth.” 

14 Lit., ‘‘ with simple senses.” 

IS i.e., involved in obscurity. 

16 i.e., free from ambiguity. 

17 ~jit., “ of shut-off obscurities.” 

13 The reference is to the words in the middle of the chapter, ** how 
do you know which part is simple?” etc.; Arnobius now saying that 
he does not see hew this can be known, 


504 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





a long time held to be a maiden gathering flow- 
ers, after that she was taken away and carried 
off by violence, should begin to signify the seed 
sown? Jupiter, my opponent says, having turned 
himself into a bull, longed to have intercourse 
with his mother Ceres: as was explained before, 
under these names the earth and falling rain are 
spoken of. Isee the law of allegory expressed 
in the dark and ambiguous terms. Ceres was 
enraged and angry, and received the parts! of a 
ram as the, penalty demanded by? vengeance : 
this again I see to be expressed in common lan- 
guage, for both anger and (éesées and) satisfac- 
tion are spoken of in their usual circumstances.3 
What, then, happened here, —that from Jupiter, 
who was named for the rain, and Ceres, who was 
named /or the earth, the story passed to the true 
Jove, and to a most straightforward account of 
events ? 

38. Either, then, they must all have been writ- 
ten and put forward allegorically, and the whole 
should be pointed out to us ; or nothing has been 
so written, since what is supposed to be a/legori- 
cal does not seem as if it were part of the narra- 
tive.4 These are all written allegorically, you 
say. This seems by no means certain. Do you 
ask for what reason, for what cause? Because, 
I answer, all that has taken place and has been 
set down distinctly in any book cannot be turned 
into an allegory, for neither can that be undone 
which has been done, nor can the character of 
an event change into one which is utterly differ- 
ent. Can the Trojan war be turned into the 
condemnation of Socrates? or the battle of 
Cannz become the cruel proscription of Sulla? 
A proscription may indeed, as Tullius says5 in 
jest, be spoken of as a battle, and be called that 
of Cannz ; but what has already taken place, 
cannot be at the same time a battle and a pro- 
scription ; for neither, as I have said, can that 
which has taken place be anything else than 
what has taken place; nor can that pass over 
into a substance foreign to it which has been 
fixed down firmly in its own nature and pecul- 
iar condition. 

39. Whence, then, do we prove that all these 
narratives are records of events? From the sol- 
emn rites and mysteries of initiation, it is clear, 
whether those which are celebrated at fixed 
times and on set days, or those which are 
taught secretly by the heathen without allowing 
the observance of their usages to be interrupted. 
For it is not to be believed that these have no 
origin, are practised without reason or meaning, 
and have no causes connected with their first 





I Proles. 

2 Lit., ‘for penalty and.” 

3 Lit., ‘fin their customs and conditions.” 

4 i.e., if historical, the whole must be so, as bits of allegory would 
not fit in. 

5 Cicero, Aro Rosc. Am., c. 32. 





beginnings. That pine which is regularly borne 
into the sanctuary of the Great Mother,° is it not 
in imitation of that tree beneath which Attis 
mutilated and unmanned himself, which also, 
they relate, the goddess consecrated to relieve 
her grief? ‘That erecting of phali and /ascina, 
which Greece worships and celebrates in rites 
every year, does it not recall the deed by which 
Liber? paid his debt? Of what do those Eleu- 
sinian mysteries and secret rites contain a narra- 
tive? Is it not of that wandering in which Ceres, 
worn out in seeking for her daughter, when she 
came to the confines of Attica, brought wheat 
with her, graced with a hind’s skin the family of 
the Nebride,® and laughed at that most wonder- 
ful sight in Baubo’s groins? Or if there is an- 
other cause, that is nothing to us, so long as they 
are all produced by some cause. For it is not 
credible that these things were set on foot with- 
out being preceded by any causes, or the inhab- 
itants of Attica must be considered mad to have 
received? a religious ceremony got up without 
any reason. But if this is clear and certain, that 
is, if the causes and origins of the mysteries are 
traceable to past events, by no change can they 
be turned into the figures of allegory ; for that 
which has been done, which has taken place, 
cannot, in the nature of things, be undone.” 

40. And yet, even if we grant you that this is 
the case, that is, even if the narratives give utter- 
ance to one thing in words, év¢ mean" something 
else, after the manner of raving seers, do you not 
observe in this case, do you not see how dis- 
honouring, how insulting to the gods, this is 
which is said to be done?’ or can any greater 
wrong be devised than to term and call the earth 
and rain, or anything else, — for it does not mat- 
ter what change is made in the interpretation, — 
the intercourse of Jupiter and Ceres? and to 
signify the descent of rain from the sky, and the 
moistening of the earth, by charges against the 
gods? Can anything be either thought or be- 
lieved more impious than that the rape of Pro- 
serpine speaks of seeds buried in the earth, or 
anything else, —for in like manner it is of no 
importance, —and that it speaks of the pursuit 
of agriculture to '3 the dishonour of father Dis? 








6 The ms. and edd, read matrzs dee — “ of the mother goddess; ” 
for which Meursius proposed de#+2—‘‘ mother of the gods,” the 
usual form of the title. Cf. cc.7 and 16. [See Elucidation V.; also 
note the reference to St. Augustine. } 

7 The name is wanting inthe ms_ Cf. c. 28. 

8 No Attic family of this name is mentioned anywhere; but in 
Cos the Nebridz were famous as descendants of A‘sculapius through 
Nebros, In Attica, on the other hand, the initiated were robed in 
fawn-skins (veBpides), and were on this account spoken of as vefpi- 
Govres. Salmasius has therefore suggested -(ad Solznum, p. 864, E) 
that Arnobius, or the author on whom he relied, transferred the family 
to Attica on account of the similarity of sound. 

9 Lit., ‘who have attached to themselves.” 

to Arnobius would seem to have been partial to this phrase, which 
occurs in the middle of c. 38. 

II Lit., “ say.” 

12 Lit., “with what shame and insult of the gods this is said to & 
done.” 

13 Lit., “ with.” 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


595 





_ Is it not a thousand times more desirable to 
become mute and speechless, and to lose that 
flow of words and noisy and! unseemly loquacity, 
than to call the basest things by the names of the 
gods ; nay, more, to signify commonplace things 
by the base actions of the gods? 

41. It was once usual, in speaking allegori- 
cally, to conceal under perfectly decent ideas, 
and clothe? with the respectability of decency, 
what was base and horrible to speak of openly ; 
but now venerable things are at your instance 
vilely spoken of, and what is quite pure is re- 
lated* in filthy language, so that that which vices 
formerly concealed from shame, is now meanly 
and basely spoken of, the mode of speech which 
was fitting ° being changed. In speaking of Mars 
and Venus as having been taken in adultery by 
Vulcan’s art, we speak of lust, says my opponent, 
and anger, as restrained by the force and pur- 
pose of reason. What, then, hindered, what 
prevented you from expressing each thing by 
the words and terms proper to it? nay, more, 
what necessity was there, when you had resolved? 
to declare something or other, by means of trea- 
tises and writings, to resolve that that should not 
be the meaning to which you point, and in one 
narrative to take up at the same time opposite 
positions — the eagerness of one wishing to teach, 
the niggardliness of one reluctant to make pub- 
lic?’ Was there no risk in speaking of the gods 
as unchaste? The mention of lust and anger, 
my opponent says, was likely to defile the tongue 
and mouth with foul contagion.? But, assuredly, 
if this were done,'° and the veil of allegorical 
obscurity were removed, the matter would be 
easily understood, and by the same the dignity 
of the gods would be maintained unimpaired. 
But now, indeed, when the restraining of vices 
is said to be signified by the binding of Mars 
and Venus, two most inconsistent!" things are 
done at the very same time ; so that, on the one 
hand, a description of something vile suggests 
an honourable meaning, and on the other, the 
baseness occupies the mind before any regard 
for religion can do so. 

42. But you will perhaps say, for this only is 
left which you may think‘? can be brought for- 





T Lit., ‘‘din of.” 

2 Passive. 

3 Lit., “‘ strong in chastity.” 

4 The Ms., first three edd., Elm., and Oehler read commorantur 
— “lingers,” 1.e., ‘‘ continues to be spoken of;” the other edd. re- 
ceive commemorantur, as above, from the evraza in the rst ed. 

5 The s., first four edd., and Oehler read gravztas — serious- 
tess; corrected Zr. as above, in all edd. after Stewechius. 

© So, perhaps, the unintelligible ms. dzgnoruim should be emended 
digna rerum. 

7 So all edd, since Stewechius, adding s to the Ms. voluz'sse. 

8 ie., the mere fact that the stories were published, showed a wish 
to teach; but their being allegories, showed a reluctance to allow 
them to be understood. 

9 The edd. read this’ sentence interrogatively. 

10 i.e., “if you said exactly what you mean.” The reference is 
not to the immediately preceding words, but to the question on which 
the chapter is based —“ what prevented you from expressing,” etc. 

11 Lit., ‘* perverse,” 

12 Passive, 





ward by you, that the gods do not wish their 
mysteries to be known by men, and that the 
narratives were therefore written with allegorical 
ambiguity. And whence have you learned ‘3 that 
the gods above do not wish their mysteries to 
be made public? whence have you become ac- 
quainted with these? or why are you anxious to 
unravel them by explaining them as allegories? 
Lastly, and finally, what do the gods mean, that 
while they do not wish honourable, they allow 
unseemly, even the basest things, to be said 
about them? When we name Attis, says my op- 
ponent, we mean and speak of the sun; but if 
Attis is the sun, as you reckon /zm and say, who 
will that Attis be whom your books record and 
declare to have been born in Phrygia, to have 
suffered certain things, to have done certain 
things also, whom all the theatres know in the 
scenic shows, to whom every year we see divine 
honours paid expressly by name amongst the 
other religious ceremonies? Whether was this 
name made to pass from the sun to a man, or 
from a man to the sun? For if that name is 
derived in the first instance from the sun, what, 
pray, has the golden sun done to you, that you 
should make that name to belong to him in com- 
mon with an emasculated person? But if it is 
derived from a goat, and is Phrygian, of what 
has the sire of Phaethon, the father of this light 
and brightness, been guilty, that he should seem 
worthy to be named from a mutilated man, and: 
should become more venerable when designated 
by the name of an emasculated body? 

43. But what the meaning of this is, is already 
clear to all. For because you are ashamed of 
such writers and histories, and do not see that 
these things can be got rid of which have once 
been committed to writing in filthy language, 
you strive to make base things honourable, and 
by every kind of subtlety you pervert and cor- 
rupt the real senses '* of words for the sake of 
spurious interpretations ; 5 and, as ofttimes hap- 
pens to the sick, whose senses and understand- 
ing have been put to flight by the distempered 
force of disease, you toss about confused and 
uncertain conjectures, and rave in empty fic- 
tions. 

Let it be granéed that the irrigation of the 
earth was meant by the union of Jupiter and 
Ceres, the burying of the seed '° by the ravishing 
of Proserpine by father Dis, wines scattered over 
the earth by the limbs of Liber torn asunder dy 
the Titans, that the restraining’? of lust and rash- 
ness has been spoken of as the binding of the 
adulterous Venus and Mars. 





13 Lit., ‘is it clear to you.” 

14 Lit., ‘‘ natures.” 

Is Lit., ‘‘ things.” 

16 So most edd., reading occu/tatzo for the Ms. occupatio. 

17 So all edd., reading com-, except Hild and Oehler, who retain 
the Ms. reading, z2-presszo — “‘ the assault of,” 1.e., “ on,” 


506 





44. But if you come to the conclusion that 
these fables have been written allegorically, what 
is to be done with the rest, which we see cannot 
be forced into such changes of sense? For what 
are we to substitute for the wrigglings' into which 
the lustful heat? of Semele’s offspring forced him 
upon the sepulchral mound? and what for those 
Ganymedes who were carried off and set to 
preside over lustful practices ? what for that con- 
version of an ant into which Jupiter, the greatest 
of the gods, contracted the outlines of his huge 
body?4 what for swans and satyrs? what for 
golden showers, which the same seductive god 
put on with perfidious guile, amusing himself by 
changes of form? And, that we may not seem 
to speak of Jupiter only, what allegories can 
there be in the loves of the other deities? what 
in their circumstances as hired servants and 
slaves? what in their bonds, bereavements, lam- 
entations? what in their agonies, wounds, sepul- 
chres? Now, while in this you might be held 
guilty in one respect for writing in such wise 
about the gods, you have added to your guilt 
beyond measure 5 in calling base things by the 
names of deities, and again in defaming the gods 
by giving to them the names of infamous things. 


1 Lit., ‘‘ waves” — fuctibus, the reading of the ms., LB., Hild., 
and Oehler; the other edd. reading fustibus — “‘ stakes.” 

2 So Meursius, changing the MS. o- into #-rigo. 

3 The first four edd. retain the Ms., reading partzs — “ brought 
forth; ” the others adopt a suggestion of Canterus, raf¢zs, as above. 

4 Lit., ‘‘ vastness.” 

5 Addere garo gerrem,a proverb ridiculing a worthless addi- 
tion, which nullifies something in itself precious, garum being a 
highly esteemed sauce (or perhaps soup), which would be thrown 
away upon gerves, a worthless kind of salt fish. Arnobius merel 





means, however, that while such stories are wrong, what follows is 
unspeakably worse. 


BOOK 


1. Having shown briefly how impious and infa- 
mous ave the opinions which you have formed 
about your gods, we have now to' speak of their 
temples, their images also, and sacrifices, and 
of the other things which are? united and closely 
related to them. For you are here in the habit 
of fastening upon us a very serious charge of 
impiety because we do not. rear temples for the | 
ceremonies of worship, do not set up statues and | 
images 3 of any god, do not build altars,4 do not 
offer the blood of creatures slain i” sacrifices, 
incense,’ nor sacrificial meal, and finally, do not | 
bring wine flowing in libations from sacred bowls ; 





 Lit,, ‘‘ it remains that we.” 

2 Lit., “‘ series which is,” etc. 

3 Singular. [But costly churches were built about this time. ] 

4 Non altaria, non aras,i.e., neither to the superior nor infe- 
rior deities. Cf. Virgil, Ec/., v 66. 





5 [It is not with any aversion to incense that I note its absence, 
so frequently attested, from primitive rites of the Church. ] 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





But if you believed without any doubt ® that they 
were here close at hand, or anywhere at all, fear 
would check you in making mention of them, 
and your beliefs and unchanged thoughts should 
have been exactly’ as if they were listening to 
you and heard your words. For among men 
devoted to the services of religion, not only the 
gods themselves, but even the names of the gods, 
should be reverenced, and there should be quite 
as much grandeur in their names as there is in 
those even who are thought of under these names. 

45. Judge fairly, and you are deserving of 
censure in this,® that in your common conversa- 
tion you name Mars when you mean? fighting, 
Neptune when you mean the seas, Ceres when 
you mean bread, Minerva when you mean weav- 
ing,*? Venus when you mean filthy lusts. For 
what reason is there, that, when things can be 
classed under their own names, they should be 
called by the names of the gods, and that such 
an insult should be offered to the deities as not 
even we men endure, if any one applies and 
turns our names to trifling objects? But lan- 
guage, you say, is contemptible, if defiled with 
such words.''| O modesty,’? worthy of praise ! 
you blush to name bread and wine, and are not 
afraid to speak of Venus instead of carnal inter- 
course ! 


6 Lit., “‘ with undubitable knowledge.” 

7 Lit., ‘it ought to have been so believed, and to be held fixed 
in thought just,” etc. 

8 Lit., “are in this part of censure.” 

Subite Satorst 

10 Lit., ‘the warp,” stasmzne. 

II j.e., if things are spoken of under their proper names. 

12 The ms. reads ac unintelligibly. 


VI. 


which, indeed, we neglect to build and do, not 
as though we cherish impious and wicked dis- 
positions, or have conceived any madly desper- 
ate feeling of contempt for the gods, but because 
we think and believe that they ° — if only they 
are true gods, and are called by this exalted 
name 7 — either scorn such honours, if they give 
way to scorn, or endure “hem with anger, if they 
are roused by feelings of rage. 

2. For—that you may learn what are our 
sentiments and opinions about that race — we 
think that they —if only they are true gods, 
that the same things may be said again till you 
are wearied hearing them *— should have all the 
virtues in perfection, should be wise, upright, 
venerable, — if only our heaping upon them 





6 The earlier edd. prefix d to the ms. cos — “‘ that the gods,” etc. 
? Lit., ‘‘ endowed with the eminence of this name,” 
8 Lit., “ and to satiety.” 


Se Vor 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





human honours is not a crime, —strong in ex- 
cellences within themselves, and should not give 
themselves * up to externai props, because the 
completeness of their unbroken bliss is made 
perfect ; should be free from all agitating and 
disturbing passions ; should not burn with anger, 
should not be excited by any desires; should 
‘send misfortune to none, should not find a cruel 
pleasure in the ills of men; should not terrify 
by portents, should not show prodigies to cause 
fear ; should not hold mez responsible and liable 
to be punished for the vows which they owe, 
nor demand expiatory sacrifices by threatening 
omens; should not bring on pestilences and 
diseases by corrupting the air, should not burn 
up the fruits with droughts ; should take no part 
in the slaughter of war and: devastation of cities ; 
should not wish ill to one party, and be favour- 
able to the success of another; but, as becomes 


great minds, should weigh all in a just balance, 


and show kindness impartially to all. For it 
belongs to a mortal race and human weakness 
to act otherwise ;? and the maxims and declara- 
tions of wise men state distinctly, that those who 
are touched by passion live a life of suffering, 
and are weakened by grief,4 and that it cannot 
be but that those who have been given over to 
disquieting feelings, have been bound by the 
laws of mortality. Now, since this is the case, 
how can we be supposed to hold the gods in 
contempt, who we say are not gods, and cannot 
be connected with the powers of heaven, unless 
they are just and worthy of the admiration which 
great minds excite? . 

3. But, we are fold, we rear no temples to 
them, and do not worship their images; we do 


not slay victims in sacrifice, we do not offer in- | 


cense 5 and libations of wine. And what greater 
honour or dignity can we ascribe to them, than 
that we put them in the same position as the 
Head and Lord of the universe, to whom the 
gods owe it in common with us,° that they are 
conscious that they exist, and have a living be- 
ing?? For do we honour Him with shrines, and 
by building temples?® Do we even slay victims 


5°97 





to Him? Dowe give Him the other things, to 
take which and pour them forth in libation shows 
not a careful regard to reason, but heed to a 
practice maintained 9 merely by usage? For it 
is perfect folly to measure greater powers by your 
necessities, and to give the things useful to your- 
self to the gods who give af ¢hings, and to think 
this an honour, not an insult. We ask, therefore, 
to do what service to the gods, or to meet what 
want, do you say that temples have been reared,'° 
and think that they should be again built? Do 
they feel the cold of "! winter, or are they scorched 
by summer suns? Do storms of rain flow over 
them, or whirlwinds shake them? Are they in 
danger of being exposed to the onset of enemies, 
or the furious attacks of wild beasts, so that it is 
right and becoming to shut them up in places 
of security,’? or guard them by throwing up a 
rampart of stones? For what are these temples? 
If you ask human weakness '3 — something vast 
and spacious ; if you consider the power of the 
gods — small caves, as it were,'* and even, to 
speak more truly, the narrowest kind of caverns 
formed and contrived with sorry judgment.'s 
Now, if you ask to be told who was their first 
founder *° and builder, either Phoroneus or the 
Egyptian Merops’? will be mentioned to you, or, 
as Varro relates in his ¢reatise “ de Admirandis,” 
fEacus the offspring of Jupiter. Though these, 
then, should be built of heaps of marble, or shine 
resplendent with ceilings fretted with gold, shough 
precious stones sparkle here, and gleam like stars 
set at varying intervals, all these things are made 
up of earth, and of the lowest dregs of even baser 
matter. For not even, if you value these more 
highly, is it to be believed that the gods take 
pleasure in them, or that they do not refuse and 
scorn to shut themselves up, and be confined 
within these barriers. This, my opponent says, 
is the temple of Mars, this ¢haf# of Juno and of 
Venus, this ha¢.of Hercules, of Apollo, of Dis. 
What is this but to say this is the house of Mars, 
this of Juno and Venus,'® Apollo dwells here, in 
this abides Hercules, in that Summanus? Is it 
/not, then, the very *9 greatest affront to hold the 





1 The ms. wants se, which was supplied by Stewechius. 

2 i.e., not act impartially and benevolently, which may possibly be 
the meaning of contrarits agere, or, as Oe ler suggests, ‘‘ to assail 
men with contrary, i,e., injurious things.” All edd, read egeve, ex- 
cept Oehler, who can see no meaning in it; but if translated, “‘ to 
wish for contrary things,” it suits the next clause very well. 

3 Lit., ‘‘ whom passion touches, suffer.” 

4 So the MS., Stewechius, Hild., and Oehler, while the first four 
edd. and Ober thir merely add wz to dolore, and join with the pre- 
meas esd ite “suffer pain, are weakened.” 


ee note 5, book. vi. p. 506.] 

“he MS. and most edd. read di-vina nobiscunt —“‘ the divine 
things along with us; ” Heraldus rejects dzv. as a gloss, while Meur- 
sius, followed by Orelli, corrects dzz una, and Ochler dzvz una, as 
above. 

7 Lit, “are contained in vital substance.” 

8 (es here expressly denies that the Christians had any tem- 
les. ‘here has been some controversy on the subject (Mosheim, 
ook i. cent. 1, ch. 4, sec. 5, Soames’ ed.), surely as needless as con- 

troversy could be; for as the Christians must at all times have had 
stated places of meeting (although in time of persecution these might | 
be changed frequently), it is clear that, in speaking thus, the meaning 
must be only, that their buildings had no architectural pretensions, 


and their service no splendour of ritual. [Diocletian’s mild begin- 
ning suffered Christians to build costly temples in many places. 
These he subsequently destroyed with great severity. ] 
9 Lit., ‘‘ drawn out.” 
10 So the edd., reading constructa for the corrupt MS. conscripta 
‘ written. 

ae i.e., to suppose that temples are necessary to the gods, is to 
make them subject to human weakness. 

12 Lit., “‘ with fortifications of roofs.” 

13 i.e., if you have regard merely to the weakness of men, a tem- 
ple may be something wonderful. 

14 Lit., ‘‘ some.” 

15 Lit., *‘ formed by contrivance of a poor heart.” 

16 Jnstitutor, wanting in all edd., except Hild. and Oehler. 

17 Arnobius here agrees with Clemens Alexandrinus, but Jos. 
Scaliger has pointed out that the name should be Cecrops. It is pos- 
sible that Arnobius may have been misled by what was merely a slip 
of Clement's pen. [See the passage here referred to, vol. ii. p. 184, 
this Series. ] 

The preceding words, from “ this of Hercules,” are omitted by 
ai ple four edd. and Elmenh. , and were first restored from the MS. 
| by Stewec hius. 
| 19 Lit., ** firgt and,” 





508 


gods kept fast’ in habitations, to give to them 
little huts, to build lockfast places and cells, and 
to think that the things are? necessary to them 
which are needed by men, cats, emmets, and 
lizards, by quaking, timorous, and little mice? 
4. But, says my opponent, it is not for this rea- 
son that we assign temples to the gods as though 
we wished to ward off from them drenching 
storms of rain, winds, showers, or the rays of the 
sun; but in order that we may be able to see 
them in person and close at hand, to come near 
and address them, and impart to them, when in 
a measure present, the expressions of our rev- 
erent feelings. For if they are invoked under 
the open heaven, and the canopy of ether, they 
hear nothing, 7 suppose; and unless prayers are 
addressed to them near at hand, they will stand 
deaf and immoveable as if nothing were said. 
And yet we think that every god whatever — if 
only he has the power of this name — should 
hear what every one said from every part of the 
world, just as if he were present; nay, more, 
should foresee, without waiting to be told,3 what 
every one conceived in his secret and silent + 
thoughts. And as the stars, the sun, the moon, 
while they wander above the earth, are steadily 
and everywhere in sight of all those who gaze at 
them without any exception ; so, too,’ it is fitting 
that the ears of the gods should be closed against 
no tongue, and should be ever within reach, al- 
though voices should flow together to them from 
widely separated regions. For this z¢ zs shat be- 
longs specially to the gods, —to fill all things 
with their power, to be not partly at any place, 
but all everywhere, not to go to dine with the 
“Ethiopians, and return after twelve days to their 
own dwellings.® 
5. Now, if this be not the case, all hope of help 
is taken away, and it will be doubtful whether 
you are heard7 by the gods or not, if ever you 
perform the sacred rites with due ceremonies. 
or, to make it clear,’ let us suppose that there 
is a temple of some deity in the Canary Islands, 
another of the same dezty in remotest Thyle, also 
among the Seres, among the tawny Garamantes, 
and any others 9 who are debarred from knowing 
each other by seas, mountains, forests, and the 
four quarters of the world. If they all at one 
time beg of the deity with sacrifices what their 





T So the edd., reading hadbere districtos for the Ms. destructos. 

2 Lit., ‘‘ that the things be thought to be.” 

3 Lit., “‘ knowledge being anticipated.” 

4 These words, ef ¢acztzs, omitted by Oberthiir, are similarly 
omitted by Orelli without remark, 

5 So the edd., inserting gzo- into the Ms. reading zta-gue —“ it is 
therefore fitting,” which is absurd, as making the connection between 
tue members of the sentence one not of analogy, but of logical se- 
quence, 

6 Cf. the speech of Thetis, ///ad, i. 423-425. 

7 So the margin of Ursinus, Elm., LB., and Orelli, with Meur- 
sius, reading axdiamint for the Ms. audZamur —‘‘ we are heard,” 
which does not harmonize with the next clause. 

8 Lit, ‘‘ for the purpose of coming to know the thing.” 

9 Lit, ‘if there are any others,” ; 


A el ake! 








OO ae i a a 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





wants compel each one to think about,’? wha: 
hope, pray, will there be to all of obtaining the 
benefit, if the god does not hear the cry sent up 
to him everywhere, and 7 there shall be any 
distance to which the words of the suppliant for 
help cannot penetrate? For either he will be 

nowhere present, if he may at times not be any- 

where," or he will be at one place only, since he 

cannot give his attention generally, and without 

making any distinction. And thus it is brought 

about, that either the god helps none at all, if 

being busy with something he has been unable 

to hasten to give ear to their cries, or one only 

goes away with his prayers heard, waz/e the rest 

have effected nothing. 

6. What can you say as to this, that it is at- 
tested by the writings of authors, that many of 
these temples which have been raised with golden 
domes and lofty roofs cover bones and ashes, 
and are sepulchres of the dead? Is it not plain 
and manifest, either that you worship dead men 
for immortal gods, or that an inexpiable affront 
is cast upon the deities, whose shrines and tem- 
ples have been built over the torr bs of the dead? 
Antiochus,” in the ninth do0k of his Htstories, 
relates that Cecrops was buried in the temple of 
Minerva,'3 at Athens ; again, in the temple of the 
same goddess, which is in the citadel of Larissa,‘ 
it is related and declared that Acrisius was laid, 
and in the sanctuary of Polias,’5 Erichthonius ; 
while the brothers Dairas and Immarnachus were 
buried in the enclosure of Eleusin, which lies near 
the city. What say you as to the virgin daugh- 
ters of Celeus? are they,not said to be buried *° 
in the temple of Ceres at Eleusin? azd in the 
shrine of Diana, which was set up in the temple 
of the Delian Apollo, are not Hyperoche and 
Laodice buried, who are said to have been 
brought thither from the country of the Hyper- 
boreans? In the Milesian Didymzon,'?7 Lean- 
drius says that Cleochus had the last honours of 
burial paid to him. Zeno of Myndus openly 
relates that the monument of Leucophryne is in 
the sanctuary of Diana at Magnesia. Under the 
altar of Apollo, which is seen in the city of Tel- 





10 So the s., reading c-ogztare, corrected 7-— ‘‘ to beg,” in the 
margin of Ursinus and Elm. For the preceding words the ms_reads, 
poscantgue de numine, The edd. omit be as above, except Oehler, 
who reads gz@— ‘‘ what hope will there be, what, pray, to all,” etc. 

11 So the ms., reading sz usptam potertt aligquando non esse, 
which may be understood in two senses, either not limited by space, 
or not in space, i.e., not existing; but the reading and meaning must 
be regarded as alike doubtful. 

12 A Syracusan historian. The rest of the chapter is almost liter- 
ally translated from Clement, who is followed by Eusebius also (Prep. 
Evang., ii. 6). [See vol. ii. p. 184, this series. ] 

13 },e , the Acropolis. 

14 In Thessaly, whither (acc to Pausanias) he had fled in vain, to 
avoid the fulfilment of the oracle that he should be killed by his daugh- 
ter’s son. 

Is i.e., Athena Polias, or guardian of cities. Immediately below. 
the Ms. reads Jinmarnachus, corrected in LB. and Orelli Zyzmarws 
from Clem., who speaks of ‘‘ Immarus, son of Eumolpus and Daeira.’ 

16 So the unintelligible reading of the Ms,, Aumation-z2us fick, 
was emended by Heraldus, followed by LB. and Orelli, rs Laduisse. 

17 i,e,, the temple near Didyma, sacred to Apollo, who was wor 
shipped then under the name Didymus, 


J 
if 





ooo 


messus, is it not invariably declared by writings 
that the prophet Telmessus lies buried? Ptole- 
mzeus, the son of Agesarchus, in the first book 
of the History of Philopator* which he published, 
affirms, on the authority of literature, that Ciny- 
ras, king of Paphos, was interred in the temple 
of Venus with all his family, nay, more, with all 
his stock. It would be? an endless and bound- 
less task to describe in what sanctuaries they all 
are throughout the world; nor is anxious care 
required, although 3 the Egyptians fixed a penalty 
for any one who should have revealed the places 
in which Apis lay hid, as to those Polyandria + 
of Varro,5 by what temples they are covered, and 
what heavy masses they have laid upon them. 

7. But why do I speak of these trifles? What 
man is there who is ignorant that in the Capitol 
of the imperial people is the sepulchre of Tolus ° 
Vulcentanus? Whois there, I say, who does not 
know that from beneath? its foundations there 
was rolled a man’s head, buried for no very long 
time before, either by itself without the other 
parts of the body,—for some relate this, — or 
with all its members? Now, if you require this 
to be made clear by the testimonies of authors, 
Sammonicus, Granius, Valerianus,? and Fabius 
will declare to you whose son Aulus? was, of 
what race and nation, how '° he was bereft of life 
and light by the slave of his brother, of what 
crime he was guilty against his fellow-citizens, 
that he was denied burial in his father ‘ land. 
You will learn also—although they pretend to 
be unwilling to make this public— what was 
done with his head when cut off, or in what place 
it was shut up, and the whole affair carefully con- 
cealed, in order that the omen which the gods 
had attested might stand without interruption,” 
unalterable, and sure. Now, while it was proper 
that this s/ory should be suppressed, and con- 
cealed, and forgotten in the lapse of time, the 


1 i.e., “lover of his father,” the name given ironically to the fourth 
nea hake Pee he murdered his father. 

at 

3 So the ae both Rom. edd., Hild., and Oehler, reading guawe- 
vis penam; Gelenius, Canterus, Elm. 7 and Oberthiir omit vzs, and 
the other edd. v, ie., ‘fas to what punishment the Egyptian,” etc. This 
must refer to the cases in which the sacred bull, having outlived the 
term of twenty-five years, was secretly killed by ‘the priests, while the 
people were taught that it had thrown itself into the water. 

4 i.e., “burial-places,” By this Oehler has attempted to show is 
meant the Heddomades vel de Imaginibus of Varro, a series of 
biographical sketches illustrated with portraits, executed in some way 
which cannot be clearly ascertained. 

5 ms. Barronis. 

6 So the Ms., first four edd., and Oberthiir, reading 7o/z, corrected 
Olz in the others, from Servius (ad. 4én., vill, 345). Arnobius him- 
self gives the form Aulus, i.e. Olus, immediately below, so that it is 
probably correct, 

7 Lit., “‘ the seats of.” 

8 Ursinus suggested Valerzus Antias, mentioned in the first 
chapter of the fifth book; a conjecture adopted by Hild. 

9 The ms., LB., Hild., and Oehler read Aulus, and, acc. to Oehler, 
all other edd. Zo/zs. Orelli, however, reads Olus, as above. 

10 The ms. and both Roman edd. read germanz? servuld vita with- 
out meaning, corrected as above by Gelenius, Canterus, Elm., and 
Oberthiir, wf @ g. servulo, and ut a g. servulis —“ by the slaves,” 
in the others, except Oehler who reads as above, g. servulo ut. 

11 The ms. and both Roman edd. read unintelligibly patientia, 
corrected Jaterne in Hild. and Oehler, Jatrze@ in the rest. 

12 Lit., ‘the perpetuity of the omen sealed might stand.” 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





509 


composition of the name published it, and, by a 
testimony which could not be got rid of, caused 
it to remain zz men’s minds, together with its 
causes, so long as it endured itself 33 and the 
state which is greatest of al, and worships all 
deities, did not blush in giving a name to the 
temple, to name it from the head of Olus'4 Capi- 
tolium rather than from the name of Jupiter. 

8. We have therefore — as I suppose — shown 
sufficiently, that to the immortal gods temples 
have been either reared in vain, or built in con- 
sequence of insulting opinions Aed/ to their dis- + 
honour and to the belittling's of the power 
believed /o be in their hands. We have next to 
say something apout statues and images, which 
you form with much skill, and tend with religious 
care,—wherein if there is any credibility, we 
can by no amount of consideration settle in our 
own minds whether you do this in earnest and 
with a serious purpose, or amuse yourselves in 
childish dreams by mocking at these very things."® 
For if you are assured that the gods exist whom 
you suppose, and that they live in the highest 
regions of heaven, what cause, what reason, is 
there that those images should be fashioned by 
you, when you have true beings to whom you 
may pour forth prayers, and from whom you may 
ask help in trying circumstances? But if, on the 
contrary, you do not believe, or, to speak with 
moderation, are in doubt, in this case, also, what 
reason is there, pray, to fashion and set up im- 
ages of doubtful dezngs, and to form '7 with vain 
imitation what you do not believe to exist? Do 
you perchance say, that under these images of 
deities there is displayed to you their presence, 
as it were, and that, because it has not been 
given you to see the gods, they are worshipped 
in this fashion,*® and the duties owed to them 
paid? He who says and asserts this, does not 
believe that the gods exist; and he is proved 
not to put faith in his own religion, to whom it is 
necessary to see what he may hold, lest that which 
being obscure is not seen, may happen to be vain. 

9g. We worship the gods, you say, by means 
of images." What then? Without these, do 
the gods not know that they are worshipped, and 
will they not think that any honour is shown to 
them by you? ‘Through by-paths, as it were, 
then, and by assignments to a third party,?° as 
they are called, they receive and accept your 








13 Lit., ‘‘ through the times given to itself.” 

14 The ms. reads s-o/z, — changed into Zo/? by the first four edd., 
Elm., and Oberthiir. The others omit s. 

15 [s Belittle.” This word here is noteworthy. President Jeffer- 
son is said to have coined it, and I have never before seen it in a 
transatlantic book. ] 

16 i.e., ‘‘ which you pretend to worship.” 

17 So the edd., reading formar-e, except Hild. and Oehler, who 
retain the ms. reading z— “ that images be formed.” 

18 The ms. and both Roman edd. read corruptly zzso/¢d7z, corrected 
ita or stc colz, as above, in all except the last two edd. 

19 [It is manifest that nothing of the kind was said by Christians. 
See p. 506, note 3, supra, ] 

20 j.€., you do not seek access to the gods directly, and seek to do 
them honour by giving that honour to the idols instead. 


810 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





services ; and before those to whom that service 
is owed experience it, you first sacrifice to im- 
ages, and transmit, as it were, some remnants 
to them at the pleasure of others.‘ And what 
greater wrong, disgrace, hardship, can be in- 
flicted than to acknowledge one god, and yer 
nake supplication to something else — to hope 
for help from a deity, and pray to an image with- 
out feeling? Is not this, I pray you, that which 
is said in the common proverbs: “to cut down 
the smith when you strike at the fuller ;”? “and 
when you seek a man’s advice, to require of asses 
and pigs their opinions as to what should be 
done?” 

10. And whence, finally, do you know whether 
all these images which you form and put in the 
place of 3 the immortal gods reproduce and bear 
a resemblance to the gods? For it may happen 
that in heaven one has a beard who by you is 
represented 4 with smooth cheeks; that another 
is rather advanced in years to whom you give 
the appearance of a youth ;5 that here he is fair, 
with blue eyes,’ who really has grey ones; that 
he has distended nostrils whom you make and 
form with a high nose. For it is not right to 
call or name that an image which does not derive 
from the face of the original features like 77; 
which? can be recognised to be clear and cer- 
tain from things which are manifest. For while 
all we men see that the sun is perfectly round by 
our eyesight, which cannot be doubted, you have 
given® to him the features of a man, and of 
mortal bodies. The moon is always in motion, 
and in its restoration every month puts on thirty 
faces: 9 with you, as leaders and designers, that 
is represented as a woman, and has one counte- 
nance, which passes through a thousand different 
states, changing each day.'® We understand that 
all the winds are on/y a flow of air driven and 
impelled in mundane ways: in your hands they 
take"! the forms of men filling with breath twisted 


I j.e., the transmission of the sacrifice to the gods is made depend- 
ent on idols. 

2 This corresponds exactly to the English, “‘ to shoot at the pigeon 
and hit the crow.” 

3 Lit., “ with vicarious substitution for.” [A very pertinent ques- 
tion as to the images worshipped in Rome to this day. There is one 
Madonna of African hue and features. See also Murray's Hana- 
book, Italy, p. 72-4 

4 The ms. reads effi-gitur, corrected as above, efin., in all edd. 
except Hild., who reads eficztux — “‘ is made,” and Stewechius, effig7- 
atur — “is formed.” 

5 Lit., ‘* boy’s age.” 

6 Flavus, so invariably associated with blue eyes, that though 
these are the feature brought into contrast, they are only suggested 
in this way, and not directly mentioned—a mode of speech very 
characteristic of Arnobius. 

7 i.e., a fact which can be seen to be true by appealing to analogy. 

8 So the ms., LB., Hild., and Oehler, reading doxastzs, the 
others donatzs —“‘ you give.” 

9 As the appearance of the moon is the same in some of its phases 
as in others, it 1s clear that Arnobius cannot mean that it has thirty 
distinct forms. We must therefore suppose that he is either speaking 
very loosely of change upon change day after day, or that he is re- 
ferring to some of the lunar theories of the ancients, such as that a 
new moon is created each day, and that its form is thus ever new 
(Lucr., Vv. 729-748). 

1o Lit., “Cis changed through a thousand states with daily in- 
stability.” 

it Lit., “are.” 





trumpets by blasts from out their breasts. Among 
the representations of your gods we see that there 
ts the very stern face of a lion'3 smeared with 
pure vermilion, and that it is named Frugifer. If 
all these images are likenesses of the gods above, 
there must then be said to dwell in heaven also 
a god such as the image which has been made 
to represent his form and appearance ; "4 and, of 
course, as here that figure of yours, so there the 
deity himself 5 is a mere mask and face, without 
the rest of the body, growling with fiercely gaping 
jaws, terrible, red as blood,'® holding an apple 
fast with his teeth, and at times, as dogs do when 
wearied, putting his tongue out of his gaping 
mouth.'7 But if,'® indeed, this is not the case, as 
we all think that it is not, what, pray, is the 
meaning of so great audacity to fashion to your- 
self whatever form you please, and to say '? that 
it is an image of a god whom you cannot prove 
to exist at all? 

11. You laugh because in ancient times the 
Persians worshipped rivers, as is told in the writ- 
ings which hand down “hese ¢hings to memory ; 
the Arabians an unshapen stone ;?° the Scythian 
nations a sabre ; the Thespians a branch instead 
of Cinxia ;2" the Icarians?? an unhewn log in- 
stead of Diana; the people of Pessinus a flint 
instead of the mother of the gods; the Romans 
a spear instead of Mars, as the muses of Varro 
point out; and, before they were acquainted 
with the statuary’s art, the Samians a plank ?3 in- 


12 Lit., ‘ intestine and domestic.” 

13 The ms. reads eon-e-s torvisstmam factem, emended, as above, 
leonts t. f., in LB., Orelli, Hild., and Oehler, and 72. torvissima 
Jacte —“‘lions of very stern face,” in the others. Nourry supposes 
that the reference is to the use of lions, or lion-headed figures, as 
architectural ornaments on temples (cf. the two lions rampant sur- 
mounting the gate of Mycenz), but partially coincides in the 
view of Elm., that mixed figures are meant, such as are described by 
Tertullian and Minucius Felix (ch, 28: “ You deify gods made apie 
a goat and a lion, and with the faces of lions and of dogs”). The 
epithet _/rgzfer, however, which was applied to the Egyptian Osiris, 
the Persian Mithras, and Bacchus, who were also represented as 
lions, makes it probable that the reference is to symbolic statues of 
the sun. 

14 Lit., “such a god to whose form and appearance ihe likeness of 
this image has been directed.” 

'S Lit., “ that.” 

16 The ms. and both Roman edd. read unintelligibly saxguzneo 
decotoro, for which s. de colore, as above, has been suggested by 
Canterus, with the approval of Heraldus. 

17 The Ms. here inserts puetuztate, for which no satisfactory 
emendation has been proposed. The early edd. read prtuttate, a 
word for which there is no authority, while LB. gives potus aviditate 
— “drunk with avidity ” — both being equally hopeless, 

13 ms. szc, corrected by Gelenius sz. 

19 So Meursius, ac dicere, for MS. -cztdere. 

20 It is worthy of notice that although in this passage, as often else- 
where, Arnobius adheres pretty closely to the argument proposed by 
Clemens Alexandrinus, he even in such passages sometimes differs 
from it, and not at random. Thus Clement speaks merely of a 
“ stone,” and Arnobius of an “‘ unshaped stone.” The former expres. 
sion harmonizes with the words of Maximus Tyrius (Se7m., xxxviil. 
p. 225, Steph.), “ The Arabians worship I know not whom, but the 
image which I saw was a square stone; ” while Suidas (Kiister’s ed., 
s. v. evs "Apne, agrees with Arnobius in calling it a “stone, black, 
square, unfashioned”’ (at¥mwros). ‘his is the more noteworthy, as 
at times Arnobius would almost seem to be following Clement blindly. 
{See Clement, cap. iv. vol. ii p. 184, this series. ] 

21 So Arnobius renders Clement’s Crtheronutan Hera, 

22 So corr«cted in the notes of Canterus from Clem. for the Ms 
reading Carzos, retained by the first four edd. and Elmenh, In Icaria 
there was « temple of Diana called TavpowéAcov. 

23 The ms. and first four edd. read p-utewmm —‘‘a well,” corrected 
plut., as above, by Gifanius, and in the notes of Canterus. 





“3c. 


\ aoe 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





stead of Juno, as Aéthlius’ relates: and you do 
not laugh when, instead of the immortal gods, 
you make supplication to little images of men 
and human forms — nay, you even suppose that 
these very little images are gods, and besides 
these you do not believe that anything has divine 
power. What say you, O ye ! Do the gods 





-of heaven have ears, then, and temples, an occi- 


put, spine, loins, sides, hams, buttocks, houghs,? 
ankles, and the rest of the other members with 
which we have been formed, which were also 
mentioned in the first part of this book} a little 
more fully, and cited with greater copiousness 
of language? Would that it were possible* to 
look into the sentiments and very recesses of 
your mind, in which you revolve various and enter 
into the most obscure considerations : we should 
find that you yourselves even feel as we do, and 
have no other opinions as to the form of the 
deities. But what can we do with obstinate 
prejudices ? what with those who are menacing 
us with swords, and devising new punishments 
against us? In your rage5 you maintain a bad 
cause, and that although you are perfectly aware 
of it; and that which you have once done with- 
out reason, you defend lest you should seem to 
have ever been in ignorance; and you think it 
better not to be conquered, than to yield and 
bow to acknowledged truth. 

12. From such causes as these this also has 
followed, with your connivance, that the wanton 
fancy of artists has found full scope in represent- 
ing the bodies of the gods, and giving forms to 
them, at which even the sternest might laugh. 
And so Hammon is even now formed and rep- 
resented with a ram’s horns; Saturn with his 
crooked sickle, like some guardian of the fields, 
and pruner of too luxuriant branches ; the son 
of Maia with a broad-brimmed travelling cap, as 
if he were preparing to take the road, and avoid- 
ing the sun’s rays and the dust; Liber with 
tender limbs, and with a woman’s perfectly free 
and easily flowing lines of body ;° Venus, naked 
and unclothed, just as if you said that she ex- 
posed publicly, and sold to all comers,’ the 
beauty of her prostituted body ; Vulcan with his 
cap and hammer, but with his right hand free, 
and with his dress girt up as a workman pre- 
pares® for his work; the Delian god with a 
plectrum and lyre, gesticulating like a player on 
the cithern and an actor about to sing; the king 
of the sea with his trident, just as if he had to 
fight in the gladiatorial contest: nor can any 








1 The ms. reads e¢thedzus, corrected in the notes of Canterus. 
2 So all edd., except both "Roman edd. .» which retain the ms. read- 
ing in the singular, suffraginem. 
ae., iii, 13, p. 467. 
4 Lit, ‘it was allowed.” 
5 So Meursius suggested amentes for the MS. reading animantts, 
for which Heraldus proposed argumentis — “‘ by arguments.” 
6 Lit., ‘‘and most dissolved with the ey ° hcninisie liquidity.” 
i. Divendere. 
8 Lit., “‘ with a workman's preparing.” 











511 


gare of any deity be found? which does not 


have certain characteristics '© bestowed on i¢ by 
the generosity of its makers. Lo, if some witty 
and cunning king were to remove the Sun from 
his place before the gate'’ and transfer him to 
that of Mercury, avd again were to carry off 
Mercury and make him migrate to the shrine of 
the Sun, —for both are made beardless by you, 
and with smooth faces, — and to give to this one 
rays of light, to place a little cap? on the Sun’s 
head, how will you be able to distinguish be- 
tween them, whether this is the Sun, or that 
Mercury, since dress, not the peculiar appear- 
ance of the face, usually points out the gods to 
you? Again, if, having transported them in like 
manner, he were to take away his horns from the 
unclad Jupiter, and fix them upon the temples 
of Mars, and to strip Mars of his arms, and, on 
the other hand, invest Hammon with them, what 
distinction can there be between them, since he 
who had been Jupiter can be also supposed to 
be Mars, and he who had been Mavors can as- 
sume the appearance of Jupiter Hammon? To 
such an extent is there wantonness in fashioning 
those images and consecrating names, as if ¢hey 
were peculiar to them; since, if you take away 
their dress, the means of recognising each is put 
an end to, god may be believed to be god, one 
may seem to be the other, nay, more, both may 
be considered both ! 

13. But why do I laugh at the sickles and 
tridents which have been given to the gods? why 
at the horns, hammers, and caps, when I know 
that certain images have ‘3 the forms of certain 
men, and the features of notorious courtesans? 
For who is there that does not know that the 
Athenians formed the Herme in the likeness of 
Alcibiades? Who does not know —if he read 
Posidippus over again — that Praxiteles, putting 
forth his utmost skill,'+ fashioned the face of the 
Cnidian Venus on the model of the courtesan 
Gratina, whom the unhappy man loved desper- 
ately? But is this the only Venus to whom there 
has been given beauty taken from a harlot’s face } 
Phryne,'S the well-known native of Thespia — as 
those who have written oz Thespian affairs relate 
—when she was at the height of her beauty, 
comeliness, and youthful vigour, is said to have 
been the model of all the Venuses which are 
held in esteem, whether throughout the cities of 
Greece or here, © whither has ‘flowed the longing 
and eager desire for such figures. All the artists, 





9 Lit., “is there any figure to find.” 

10 Habitus. 

Wl Ex foribus, Cf. Tertull., de /dol., ch..15: ‘‘In Greek writers 
we also read that Apollo @upatos and the demones Anteltt.watch 
over doors.” ; 

12 So the edd, , reading petas- un-culum for the MS, -z0-. 

13 Lit., ‘* are.” 

14 Lit., “with strife of skills.” 

15 MS. ’Phyrna, but below PAryna, which is read in both instances 
by Hild. and Oehler. 

16 So Meursius, followed by Orelli, reading zstzc for the MS. iste, 


812 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





therefore, who lived at that time, and to whom 
truth gave the greatest ability to portray like- 
nesses, vied in transferring with all painstaking 
and zeal the outline of a prostitute to the images 
of the Cytherean. The beautiful shoughts' of 
the artists were full of fire ; and they strove each 
to excel the other with emulous rivalry, not that 
Venus might become more august, but that 
Phryne? might stand for Venus. And so it was 
brought to this, that sacred honours were offered 
to courtesans instead of the immortal gods, and 
an unhappy system of worship was led astray by 
the making of statues.3 That well-known and + 
most distinguished statuary, Phidias, when he 
had raised the form of Olympian Jupiter with 
immense labour and exertion,5 inscribed on the 
finger of the god PaNTARCES® 7s BEAUTIFUL, — 
this, moreover, was the name of a boy loved by 
him, and that with lewd desire, —and was not 
moved by any fear or religious dread to call the 
god by the name of a prostitute ; nay, rather, to 
consecrate the divinity and image of Jupiter to 
a debauchee. To such an extent is there wan- 
tonness and childish feeling in forming those 
little images, adoring them as gods, heaping upon 
them the divine virtues, when we see that the 
artists themselves find amusement in fashioning 
them, and set them up as monuments of their 
own lusts! For what veason is there, if you 
should inquire, why Phidias should hesitate to 
amuse himself, and be wanton when he knew 
that, but a little before, the very Jupiter which 
he had made was gold, stones, and ivory,” form- 
less, separated, confused, and that it was he him- 
self who brought all these together and bound 
them fast, that their appearance * had been given 
to them by himself in the imitation? of limbs 
which he had carved ; and, which is more than ° 
all, that it was his own free gift, that /wpiter had 
been produced and was adored among men? ?! 

14. We would here, as if all nations on the 
earth were present, make one speech, and pour 
into the ears of them all, words which should 
be heard in common: '? Why, pray, is this, O 
men! that of your own accord you cheat and 
deceive yourselves by voluntary blindness? Dis- 








1 j.e., either the conceptions in their minds, or realized in their 
works. Orelli, followed by the German translator Besnard, adopting 
the former view, translates ‘‘ the ideas of the artists (die Ideale der 
Kiinstler) were full of fire and life.” 

2 fee note 15, p. 511.] 
3 [True, alas! to this day; notorious courtesans furnishing the 
models for the pictures and statues worshipped as saints, angels, etc. ] 

4 So Gelenius and Canterus, reading ef for Ms. est. 

5 Lit., “‘ with exertion of immense strength.” 

6 ms. Pantarches. This was a very common mode of expressing 
love among the ancients, the name of the loved one being carved on 
the bark of trees (as if the Loves or the mountain nymphs had done 
it), on walls, doors, or, as in this case, on statues, with the addition 
“beautiful” (Suidas, s. v. KaAoé and ‘Payvovoia Néueous, with 
Kiister’s notes). [Vol. ii. p. 187, note 1, this series. ] 

7 Lit., ‘‘ bones.” 

8 Lit., ‘ conditions,” Aadztus. 

9 Lit., “ similitude.” 

Io Lit., ‘‘ first among.” 

1 Lit., ‘ human things.” 

12 [Isa. xl 18-20, xliv. 9-20, xlvi, 5-8.] 








pel the darkness now, and, returning to the light 
of the mind, look more closely and see what 
that is which is going on, if only you retain your 
right,'3 and are not beyond the reach '* of the 
reason and prudence given to you.’5 Those 
images which fill you with terror, and which you 
adore prostrate upon the ground °° in all the tem- 
ples, are bones, stones, brass, silver, gold, clay, 
wood taken from a tree, or glue mixed with 
gypsum. Having been heaped together, it may 
be, from a harlot’s gauds or from a woman’s ‘7 
ornaments, from camels’ bones or from the tooth 
of the Indian beast,'® from cooking-pots and 

little jars, from candlesticks and lamps, or from 
other less cleanly vessels, avd having been melted 
down, they were cast into these shapes and 
came out into the forms which you ‘see, baked 
in potters’ furnaces, produced by anvils and 
hammers, scraped with the silversmith’s, and 

filed down with ordinary files, cleft and hewn 

with saws, with augers,’? with axes, dug and hol- 

lowed out by the turning of borers, az@ smoothed 

with planes. Is not this, then, an error? Is it 

not, to speak accurately, folly to believe shat a 

god which you yourself made with care, to kneel 

down trembling in supplication to that which has 

been formed by you, and while you know, and 

are assured that it is the product”° of the labour 

of your hands,?! — to cast yoursedf down upon 

your face, beg aid suppliantly, and, in adversity 

and time of distress, ask z¢ to succour ?? you with 

gracious and divine favour? 

15. Lo, if some one were to place before you 
copper in the lump, and not formed ?3 into any 
works of art, masses of unwrought silver, and 
gold not fashioned into shape, wood, stones, 
and bones, with all the other materials of which 
statues and images of deities usually consist, — 
nay, more, if some one were to place before you 
the faces of battered gods, images melted down *4 
and broken, and were also to bid you slay vic- 
tims to the bits and fragments, and give sacred 
and divine honours to masses without form, — 
we ask you to say to us, whether you would do 
this, or refuse to obey. Perhaps you will say, 
why? Because there is no man so stupidly 
blind that he will class among the gods silver, 








13 i.e., the faculty of discernment, which is properly man’s, 

14 Lit., “are in the limits of.” 

Is The ms. reads 47s — ‘‘ these,” emended, as above, vvdzs in the 
margin of Ursinus, Elm., and LB, 

16 Lit., “and humble.” 

17 i,e,, a respectable woman. 

18 j.e., the elephant’s tusk. 

19 So Salmasius, followed by Orelli, Hild., and Oehler, reading 
JSurfuracults, and LB., reading pevforaculis for the Ms. furfure 
aculets, 

20 So the margin of Ursinus, Meursius (according to Orelli), 
Hild., and Oehler, reading part-u-m for the MS. -e-— “is a past of 
your labour,” etc. 

21 Lit., “ of thy work and fingers.” 

22 So the ms., both Roman edd., Elm., and Orelli, reading #- 
minis favore, for which LB. reads favorem—“* the favour of the 
propitious deity to succour.’”” [Isaiah’s argument reproduced. ] 

23 Lit.., “‘ thrown together,” 

24 Rigaltius suggested confracta —“ shattered,” for Ms. -flata, 





‘ae. 





; ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


513 





copper, gold, gypsum, ivory, potter’s clay, and 
say that these very things have, and possess in 
themselves, divine power. What reason is there, 
then, that all these bodies should want the power 
of deity and the rank of celestials if they remain 
untouched and unwrought, dv¢ should forthwith 
become gods, and be classed and numbered 
among the inhabitants of heaven if they receive 
the forms of men, ears, noses, cheeks, lips, eyes, 
and eyebrows? Does the fashioning add any 
newness to these bodies, so that from this addi- 
tion you are compelled‘ to believe that some- 
thing divine and majestic has been united to 
them? Does it change copper into gold, or 
compel worthless earthenware to become silver? 
Does it cause things which but a little before 
were without feeling, to live and breathe?? If 
they had any natural properties previously,3 all 
these they retain* when built up in the bodily 
forms of statues. What stupidity it is—for I 
refuse to call it blindness —to suppose that the 
natures of things are changed by the kind of 
form zzto which they are forced, and that that 
receives divinity from the appearance given to 
it, which in its original body has been inert, and 
unreasoning, and unmoved by feeling ! 5 

16. And so unmindful and forgetful of what 
the substance and origin of the images are, you, 
men, rational beings® and endowed with the 
gift of wisdom and discretion, sink down before 
pieces of baked earthenware, adore plates of 
copper, beg from the teeth of elephants good 
health, magistracies, sovereignties, power, vic- 
tories, acquisitions, gains, very good harvests, 
and very rich vintages ; and while it is plain and 
clear that you are speaking to senseless things, 
you think that you are heard, and bring your- 
selves into disgrace of your own accord, by 
vainly and credulously deceiving yourselves.7 
Oh, would that you might enter into some 
statue ! rather, would that you might separate § 
and break up into parts? those Olympian and 
Capitoline Jupiters, and behold all those parts 
alone and by themselves which make up the 
whole of their bodies! You would at once see 
that these gods of yours, to whom the smooth- 
ness of ¢hetr exterior gives a majestic appearance 
by its alluring '° brightness, are on/y a framework 





1 So the edd., reading cog- for the Ms. cogzt-am7znz. 

2 Lit., ‘‘ be moved with agitation of breathing.” 

3 Lit., “ outside,” i.e., before betng in bodily forms. 

4 So Ursinus and LB., reading vetzn-e-ut for the MS. -ea-, which 
can hardly be correct. There may possibly be an ellipsis of sz be- 
fore this clause, so that the sentence would run: “If they had 
any natural properties, (if) they retain all these, what stupidity,” 


5 Lit., “‘ deprived of moveableness of feeling.’’ 
6 Lit., ‘a rational animal.” 
7 Lit., ‘‘ with deceit of vain credulity.” The edd. read this as an 
interrogation: ‘‘ Do you, therefore, sink down, adote, and bring your- 
selves into disgrace ?” 

8 So Orelli, Hild., and Oehler, adopting a conjecture of Grzvius, 
di-, for the MS. de-ducere — “‘ to lead down,” 

9 Lit., * resolved into members,” 

To Lit., *‘ by the charm of,” 











of flexible ‘' plates, particles without shape joined 
together; that they are kept from falling into 
ruin and fear of destruction, by dove-tails and 
clamps and brace-irons; and that lead is ru,x 
into the midst of all the hollows and where the 
joints meet, and causes delay useful in preserv- 
ing them. You would see, I say, at once shat 
they have faces only without the rest of the 
head,‘3 imperfect hands without arms, bellies and 
sides in halves, incomplete feet,'+ and, which is 
most ridiculous, raz they have been put together 
without uniformity in the construction of their 
bodies, being in one part made of wood, but in 
the other of stone. Now, indeed, if these things 
could not be seen through the skill with which 
they were kept out of sight,"5 even those at least 
which lie open to all should have taught and in- 
structed you that you are effecting nothing, and 
giving your services in vain to dead things. For, 
in this case,'° do you not see that these images, 
which seem to breathe,'?7 whose feet and knees 
you touch and handle when praying, at times 
fall into ruins from the constant dropping of 
rain, at other times lose the firm union of their 
parts from their decaying and becoming rotten,'® 
—how they grow black, being fumigated and 
discoloured by the steam of sacrifices, and by 
smoke, — how with continued neglect they lose 
their position '9 avd appearance, and are eaten 
away with rust? In this case, I say, do you not 
see that newts, shrews, mice, and cockroaches, 
which shun the light, build their nests and live 
under the hollow parts of these statues? that 
they gather carefully into these all kinds of filth, 
and other things suited to their wants, hard and 
half-gnawed bread, bones dragged ¢h7¢her in view 
of probable scarcity,?° rags, down, and pieces of 
paper to make their nests soft, and keep their 
young warm? Do you not see sometimes over 
the face of an image cobwebs and treacherous 
nets spun by spiders, that they may be able to 
entangle in them buzzing and imprudent flies 
while on the wing? Do you not see, finally, 
that swallows full of filth, flying within the very 
domes of the temples, toss shemselves about, and 
bedaub now the very faces, now the mouths of 





11 The ms. reads flev-222um, for which Hild. suggests fe as 
above, previous edd. reading /fat- — “‘ of cast plates; ’’ which cannot, 
however, be correct, as Arnobius has just said that the images were 
in part made of ivory. : 

12 Lit., ‘‘ delays salutary for lastingnesses.” The sense is, that the 
lead prevents the joints from giving way, and so gives permanence to 
the statue. 

13 Occipitits. 

14 Plantarum vestigia. 

15 Lit., “‘ from the art of obscurity.” 

16 i.e., if the nature of the images is really concealed by the skill 
displayed in their construction. 

17 Lit., ‘ breathing.” [Ps. cxv. 4-8.] 

18 Lit., ‘fare relaxed from decay of rottenness.”” 

19 j.e., fall from their pedestals. For the ms. reading sztus (re- 
tained in LB., as above), the margin of Ursinus, followed by the other 
edd. except the first four, and Oberthiir, read sz#z-— ‘lose their ap- 
pearance from mould.” . 

20 So LB. and Oehler, reading famzs zx spem for the MS. pannzs, 
omitted in other edd. All prefix Z, as above, to the next word, 
annos. 


$id 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





the deities, the beard, eyes, noses, and all the 
other parts on which their excrements' fall? 
Blush, then, even shough it ts late, and accept 
true methods and views from dumb creatures, 
and let these teach you that there is nothing di- 
vine in images, into which they do not fear or 
scruple to cast unclean things in obedience to 
the laws of their being, and led by their unerring 
instincts.? 

17. But you err, says my opponent, and are 
mistaken, for we do not consider either copper, 
or gold and silver, or those other materials of 
which statues are made, to be in themselves gods 
and sacred deities ; but in them we worship and 
venerate those whom their3 dedication as sacred 
introduces and causes to dwell in statues made 
by workmen. The reasoning zs not vicious nor 
despicable by which any one — the dull, and also 
the most intelligent — can believe that the gods, 
forsaking their proper seats — that is, heaven — 
do not shrink back and avoid entering earthly 
habitations; nay, more, that impelled by the 
rite of dedication, they are joined to images! 
Do your gods, then, dwell in gypsum and in 
figures of earthenware? Nay, rather, are the 
gods the minds, spirits, and souls of figures of 
earthenware and of gypsum? and, that the mean- 
est things may be able to become of greater im- 
portance, do they suffer themselves to be shut 
up and concealed and confined in* an obscure 
abode? Here, then, in the first place, we wish 
and ask to be told this by you: do they do this 
against their will—that is, do they enter the 
images as dwellings, dragged to “hem by the rite 
of dedication—or are they ready and willing? 
and do you not summon them by any considera- 
tions of necessity? Do they do this unwillingly ? 5 
and how can it be possible that they should be 
compelled “0 submit to any necessity without 
their dignity being impaired? With ready as- 
sent?® And what do the gods seek for in figures 
of earthenware that they should prefer these 
prisons 7 to their starry seats, — that, having been 
all but fastened to them, they should ennoble * 

earthenware and the other substances of which 
images are made? 


18. What then? Do the gods remain always 





1 Deonerati proluvies podicis. [So Clement, vol. ii. p. 186, at 
note x, this series. ] 

Lit., “‘incited by the truth of nature.” The ms. and both 
Roman edd. read @-, all others zzstincta, as above. 

3 Lit., “‘ the sacred dedication.” 

4 Lit., ‘ concealed in the restraint of.” 

$3 The MS. reads zxrogatz (the next letter being erased, having 
probably been s redundant) s¢ zzvz#z, corrected in the margin of Ursi- 
nus and Oehler, as above, -¢7s z#. 

© Lit., ‘‘ with the assent of voluntary compliance.” ‘‘ Do you 
say,” or some such expression, must be understood, as Arnobius is 
asking his opponent to choose on which horn of the dilemma he wishes 
to be impaled. 

7 Lit., “‘ bindings.” 

8 So Gelenius, Conteris, Elm., Oberth., and Orelli, reading nodz/z- 
tent. No satisfactory emendation has been proposed, and contradic- 
tory accounts are given as to the reading of the ms. Immediately 
after this sentence, LB., followed by Orelli, inserts a clause from the 


next chapter. Cf. the following note. 








in such substances, and do they not go away to 
any place, even though summoned by the most 
momentous affairs? or do they have free passage, 
when they please to go any whither, and to leave 
their own seats and images? If they are under 
the necessity of remaining, what can be more 
wretched than they, what more unfortunate than 
if hooks and leaden bonds hold them fast in 
this wise on their pedestals? but z/ we allow 
that they prefer zhese images to heaven and the 
starry seats, they have lost their divine power.? 
But if, on the contrary, when they choose, they 
fly forth, and are perfectly free to leave the stat- 
ues empty, the images will then at some time 
cease to be gods, and it will be doubtful when 
sacrifices should be offered, — when it is right 
and fitting to withhold them. Oftentimes we see 
that by artists these images are at one time made 
small, and reduced to the size of the hand, at an- 
other raised to an immense height, and built up 
to a wonderful size. In this way, then, it follows 
that we should understand that the gods contract 
themselves in?° little statuettes, and are com- 
pressed till they become like ™ a strange body ; 

or, again, chat they stretch themselves out to a 

great length, and extend to immensity in images 

of vast bulk. So, then, if this is the case, in 

sitting statues also the gods should be said to be 

seated, and in standing ones to stand, to be run- 

ning in those stretching forward to run, to be 

hurling javelins in those represented as casting 

them, to fit and fashion themselves to their 

countenances, and to make themselves like * the 

other characteristics of the body formed by the 

artist. 

19. The gods dwell in images — each wholly 
in one, or divided into parts, and into members ? 
For neither is it possible that there can be at 
one time one god in several images, nor, again, 
divided into parts by his being cut up.'3 For 
let us suppose that there are ten thousand images 
of Vulcan in the whole world: is it possible at 
all, as I said, that at one time one dezty can be 
in all the ten thousand? I donot think so. Do 
you ask wherefore? Because things which are 
naturally single and unique, cannot become 
many while the integrity of their simplicity ™ is 
maintained, And this they are further unable 





9 It will be seen that these words fit into the indirect argument of 
Arnobius very well, although transposed in LB. to the end of last 
chapter, and considered a gloss by Orelli and Hildebrand. ‘‘ See the 
consequences,” Arnobius says, “of supposing that the gods do not 
quit these images: not merely are they in a wretched case, but they 
must further lose their power as divinities.” Meursius, with more 
reason, transposes the clause to the end of the next sentence, which 
would be justifiable if necessary. 

10 Perhaps “into,” as Arnobius sometimes uses the abl. after z# 
instead of the acc. 

It Lit., “ compressed to the similitude of.” 

12 Lit., “ to adapt their similitude to.” 

13 Lit., “a cutting taking place.” 

14 i.e., of their character as independent and not compounded. 
This is precisely such an expression as that which closes the fourth 
book, and its occurrence is therefore an additional ground for re 
garding the earlier passage as genuine. 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





515 





to become if the gods have the forms of men, as’ 


your belief declares; for either a hand sepa- 
rated from the head, ‘or a foot divided from the 
body, cannot manifest the perfection of the 
whole, or it must be said that parts can be 
the same as the whole, while the whole cannot 
exist unless it has been made by gathering 
together its parts. Moreover, if the same dezty 
shall be said to be in all “he statues, all reason- 
ableness and soundness is lost to the truth, if 
this is assumed that at one time one can remain 
in “hem all; or each of the gods must be said 
to divide himself from himself, so that he is 
both himself and another, not separated by any 
distinction, but himself the same as another. 
But as nature rejects and spurns and scorns 
this, it must either be said and confessed that 
there are Vulcans without number, if we decide 
that he exists and is in all the images ; or he will 
be in none, because he is prevented by nature 
from being divided among several. 

20. And yet, O you— if it is plain and clear 
to you that the gods tive, and that the inhabitants 
of heaven dwell in the inner parts of the images, 
why do you guard, protect, and keep them shut 
up under the strongest keys, and under fasten- 
ings of immense size, under iron bars, bolts,' 
and other such things, and defend them with a 
thousand men and a thousand women to keep 
guard, lest by chance some thief or nocturnal rob- 
ber should creep in? Why do you feed dogs in 
the capitols?? Why do you give food and nour- 
ishment to geese? Rather, if you are assured 
that the gods are there, and that they do not de- 
part to any place from their figures and images, 
leave to them the care of themselves, let their 
shrines be always unlocked and open; and if 
anything is secretly carried off by any one with 
reckless fraud, let them showthe might of divinity, 
and subject the sacrilegious robbers to fitting 
punishments at the moment of their theft and 
wicked deed. For it is unseemly, and sub- 
versive of their power and majesty, to entrust 
the guardianship of the highest deities to the 
care of dogs, and when you are seeking for 
some means of frightening thieves so as to keep 
them away, not to beg it from che gods them- 
selves, but to set and place it in the cackling of 
geese. 

21. They say that Antiochus of Cyzicum took 
from its shrine a statue of Jupiter made of gold 
ten‘ cubits Azgh, and set up in its place one 
made of copper covered with thin plates of 





: Claustris repagulis pessulis. 

2 Cf. p. 481, n. 5. Geese as well as dogs guarded the Capitol, 
having been once, as the well-known legend tells, its only guards 
against the Gauls. 

3 The MS. first four edd., and Elm. read xomzne —“‘ under the 
name of,” corrected szomzne by Meursius and the rest. 

4 So the MS., reading decem, but as Clement says mevrexaiSexa 
™xav, we must either suppose that Arnobius mistook the Greek, or 
transcribed it carelessly, or, with the margin of Ursinus, read guzn- 
decim — “‘ fifteen.” 








gold. If the gods are present, and dwell in 
their own images, with what business, with what 
cares, had Jupiter been entangled that he could 
not punish the wrong done to himself, and avenge 
his being substituted in baser metal ? When the 
famous Dionysius — but z# was the younger 5 — 
despoiled Jupiter of his golden vestment, and 
put instead of it one of wool, avd, when mocking 
Aim with pleasantries also, he said that that which 
he was taking away was cold in the frosts of 
winter, this warm, that that one was cumbrous 
in summer, that this, again, was airy in hot 
weather, — where was the king of the world that 
he did not show his presence by some terrible 
deed, and recall the jocose buffoon to soberness 
by bitter torments? For why should I mention 
that the dignity of A%sculapius was mocked by 
him? For when Dionysius was spoiling him of his 
very ample beard, which was of great weight and 
philosophic thickness,° he said that it was not 
right that a son sprung from Apollo, a. father 
smooth and beardless, and very like a mere boy,” 
should be formed with such a beard that it was 
left uncertain which of them was father, which 
son, or rather whether they were of the same® 
race and family. Now, when all these things 
were being done, and the robber was speaking 
with impious mockery, if the deity was con- 
cealed in the statue consecrated to his name and 
majesty, why did he not punish with just and 
merited vengeance the affront of stripping his 
face of its beard and disfiguring his countenance, 
and show by this, both that he was himself pres- 
ent, and that he kept watch over his temples and 
images without ceasing ? 

22. But you will perhaps say that the gods do 
not trouble themselves about these losses, and 
do not think that there is sufficient cause for 
them to come forth and inflict punishment 
upon the offenders for their impious sacrilege.? 
Neither, then, if this is the case, do they wish 
to have these images, which they allow to be 
plucked up and torn away with impunity ; nay, 
on the contrary, they tell ws plainly that they 
despise these s¢a/wes, in which they do not care 
to show that they were contemned, by taking 
any revenge. Philostephanus relates in his Cy- 
priaca, that Pygmalion, king *° of Cyprus, loved 
as a woman an image of Venus, which was held 








5 Stewechius and Heraldus regard these words as spurious, and 
as having originated in a gloss on the margin, sez. junior —“‘to 
wit, the younger.” Heraldus, however, changed his opinion, because 
Clement, too, says, “ Dionysius the younger.” The words mean 
more than this, however, referring probably to the fact that Cicero 
(de Nat. Deor. -» lil, 33, 34,35) tells these and other stories of the 
elder Dionysius. To this Arnobius calls attention as an error, by 
adding to Clement’ s phrase ‘‘ but.” 

6 Only rustics, old-fashioned people, and philosophers wore the 
beard untrimmed; the last class wearing it as a kind of distinctive 
mark, just as Juvenal (iii. 15) speaks of a thick woollen cloak as 
marking a philosopher. [Compare vol. i. p. 160; also ii. p, 321, n.9.] 

7 Impuberi. 

Lit., ““one,’ 
9 Lit., ‘‘ punishment of violated religion.” 
10 Clemens says merely “‘ the Cyprian Pygmalion.” 


516 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





by the Cyprians holy and venerable from ancient 
times,' his mind, spirit, the light of his reason, 
and his judgment being darkened ; and that he 
was wont in his madness, just as if he were deal- 
ing with his wife, having raised the deity to his 
couch, to be joined with it in embraces and 
Jace to face, and to do other vain things, carried 
away by a foolishly lustful imagination.? Simi- 
larly, Posidippus,3 in the book which he mentions 
to have been written about Gnidus and about its 
affairs,‘ relates that a young man, of noble birth, — 
but he conceals his name, — carried away with 
love of the Venus because of which Gnidus is fa- 
mous, joined himself also in amorous lewdness to 
the image of the same deity, stretched on the 
genial couch, and enjoying 5 the pleasures which 
ensue. To ask, again, in like manner: If the 
powers of the gods above lurk in copper and the 
other substances of which images have been 
formed, where in the world was the one Venus 
and the cther to drive far away from them the 
lewd wantonness of the youths, and punish their 
impious touch with terrible suffering?® Or, as 
the goddesses are gentle and of calmer disposi- 
tions, what would it have been for them to as- 
suage the furious joys of? the wretched men, and 
to bring back their insane minds again to their 
senses ? 

23. But perhaps, as you say, the goddesses 
took the greatest pleasure in these lewd and 
lustful insults, and did not think that an action 
requiring vengeance to be taken, which soothed 
their minds, and which they knew was suggested 
to human desires by themselves. But if the 
goddesses, the Venuses, being endowed with 
rather calm dispositions, considered that favour 
should be shown to the misfortunes of the blinded 
youths ; when the greedy flames so often con- 
sumed the Capitol, and had destroyed the Cap- 
itoline Jupiter himself with his wife and _ his 
daughter,® where was the Thunderer at that time 
to avert that calamitous fire, and preserve from 
destruction his property, and himself, and all his 
family? Where was the queenly Juno when a 
violent fire destroyed her famous shrine, and 
her priestess? Chrysis in Argos? Where the 
Egyptian Serapis, when by a similar disaster zs 
vemple fell, burned to ashes, with all the mys- 
teries, and Isis? Where Liber Eleutherius, when 
his temple fell at Athens? Where Diana, when 
hers fell at Ephesus? Where Jupiter of Dodona, 


1 Lit., ‘of ancient sanctity and religion.” 

2 Lit., ‘* imagination of empty lust.” 

3 Cf. ch. 13. 

4 So Gelenius, reading reds for the ms. and first ed. xe @ (Ms. 
ab) se. 

S Lit., ‘‘ in the limits of.” 

6 Lit., “‘ agonizing restraint.” 

7 Lity “to.” 

8 Cf. p. 315, n. 2, supra. 

9 So Clemens narrates; but Thucydides (iv. 133) says that 
“straightway Chrysis flees by night for refuge to Phlious, fearing 
the Argives;’ while Pausanius (ii. 59) says that she fled to Tegea, 
taking refuge there at the altar of Minerva Alea. 





when Azs fell at Dodona? Where, finally, the 
prophetic Apollo, when by pirates and sea rob- 
bers he was both plundered and set on fire,'° so 
that out of so many pounds of gold, which ages 
without number had heaped up, he did not have 
one scruple even to show to the swallows which 
built under his eaves,'™ as Varro says in his Sa- 
ture Menippee ?** Tt would be an endless task 
to write down what shrines have been destroyed 
throughout the whole world by earth quakesand 
tempests—what have been set on fire by ene- 
mies, and by kings and tyrants — what have been 
stript bare by the overseers and priests them- 
selves, even though they have turned suspicion 
away from them '3— finally, what have been robbed 
by thieves and Canacheni,'* opening “hem up, 
though barred by unknown means ;'5 which, in- 
deed, would remain safe and exposed to no 
mischances, if the gods were present to defend 
them, or had any care for their temples, as is 
said. But now because they are empty, and 
protected by no indwellers, Fortune has power 
over them, and they are exposed to all accidents 
just as much as are all other things which have 
not life.?® 

24. Here also the advocates of images are 
wont to say this also, that the ancients knew 
well that images have no divine nature, and 
that there is no sense in them, but that they 
formed them profitably and wisely, for the sake 
of the unmanageable and ignorant mob, which 
is the majority in nations and in states, in order 
that a kind of appearance, as it were, of deities 
being presented to them, from fear they might 
shake off their rude natures, and, supposing that 
they were acting in the presence of the gods, 
put‘? away their impious deeds, and, changing 
their manners, learn to act as men;'® and that 
august forms of gold and silver were sought for 
them, for no other reason than that some power 
was believed to reside in their splendour, such 
as not only to dazzle the eyes, but even to strike 
terror into the mind itself at the majestic beam- 
ing lustre. Now this might perhaps seem to be 





Io From Varro’s being mentioned, Oehler thinks that Arnobius 
must refer to various marauding expeditions against the temples of 
Apollo on the coasts and islands of the A2gean, made at the time of 
the piratical war. Clemens, however, speaks distinctly of the destruc- 
tion of the temple at Delphi, and it is therefore probable that this is 
referred to, if not solely, at least along with those which Varro men- 
tions. Clement, vol. it. p. 187. 

Il Lit., “ his visitors,” ospzti's. 

12 Varro Menippeus, an emendation of Carrio, adopted in LB. 
and Orelli for the Ms. se thenzpeus. 

13 Lit., ‘‘ suspicion being averted.” 

14 It has been generally supposed that reference is thus made to 
some kind of thieves, which is probable enough, as Arnobius (end of 
next chapter) classes all these plunderers as “‘ tyrants, kings, robbers, 
and nocturnal thieves;” but it is impossible to say precisely what is 
meant. Heraldus would read Saracenz — ‘‘ Saracens.” 

1s Lit., “with obscurity of means.” The phrase may refer either 
to the defence or to the assault of temples by means of magic arts. 

16 Lit., ‘‘ interior motion.” 

17 Lit., “lop away,” deputarent, the reading of the ms., Hild., 
and Oehler; the rest reading LONE TE lay aside.” [The same 
plausible defences are used to this day by professed Christians. See 
Sesuits at Rome, by Hobart Seymour, p. 38, ed. New York, 1849.] 

18 Lit, ‘* pass to human offices,” 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


5H 





said with some reason, if, after the temples of the 
gods were founded, and their images set up, there 
were no wicked man in the world, no villany at 
all, 7 justice, peace, good faith, possessed the 
hearts of men, and no one on earth were called 
guilty and guiltless, all being ignorant of wicked 
deeds. But now when, on the contrary, all 
things are full of wicked men, the name of inno- 
cence has almost perished, avd every moment, 
every second, evil deeds, till now unheard of, 
spring to light in myriads from the wickedness 
of wrongdoers, how is it right to say that images 
have been set up for the purpose of striking ter- 
ror into the mob, while, besides innumerable 
forms of crime and wickedness,' we see that 
even the temples themselves are attacked by 
tyrants, by kings, by robbers, and by nocturnal 
thieves, and that these very gods whom antiquity 
fashioned and consecrated to cause terror, are 
carried away? into the caves of robbers, in spite 
even of the terrible splendour of the gold ?3 

25. For what grandeur— if you look at the 
truth without any prejudice 4—1is there in these 
images5 of which they speak, that the men of 
old should have had reason to hope and think 
that, by beholding them, the vices of men could 
be subdued, and their morals and wicked ways 
brought under restraint?® The reaping-hook, for 
example, which was assigned to Saturn,” was it to 
inspire mortals with fear, that they should be willing 
to live peacefully, and to abandon their malicious 
inclinations? Janus, with double face, or that 
spiked key by which he has been distinguished ; 
Jupiter, cloaked and bearded, and holding in his 
right hand a piece of wood shaped like a thun- 


_derbolt ; the cestus of Juno,° or the maiden lurk- 


ing under a soldier’s helmet ; the mother of the 
gods, with her timbrel; the Muses, with their 
pipes and psalteries ; Mercury, the winged slayer 
of Argus ; AXsculapius, with his staff; Ceres, with 
huge breasts, or the drinking cup swinging in 
Liber’s right hand; Mulciber, with his work- 
man’s dress; or Fortune, with her horn full of 
apples, figs, or autumnal fruits ; Diana, with half- 
covered thighs, or Venus naked, exciting to 
lustful desire ; Anubis, with his dog’s face; or 
Priapus, of less importance? than his own 





1 Lit., “crimes and wickednesses.” 


2 Lit., “‘ go,” vadere. 

3 Lit., “with their golden and to-be-feared splendours them- 
selves,” 

4 Lit., ‘‘ and without any favour,” gratificatione. 


., ‘what great #izzg have these images in them.” 

6 Sothe ms., first four edd., Elm., Hild., and Oehler, reading 
mores et maleficta, corrected in the others a maleficto — “ morals 
withheld from wickedness.” 

7 Cf. ch. 12, p. 511. 

8 The reference is probably to some statue or picture of Juno 
represented as girt with the girdle of Venus (//., xiv. 214). 

9 Lit., “‘ inferior.” 





genitals: were these expected to make men 
afraid ? 

26. O dreadful forms of terror and '° frightful 
bugbears '! on account of which the human race 
was to be benumbed for.ever, to attempt noth- 
ing in its utter amazement, and to restrain itself 
from every wicked and shameful act — little sic- 
kles, keys, caps, pieces of wood, winged sandals, 
staves, little timbrels, pipes, psalteries, breasts 
protruding and of great size, little drinking cups, 
pincers, and horns filled with fruit, the naked 
bodies of women, and huge veretra openly ex- 
posed ! Would it not have been better to dance 
and to sing, than calling it gravity and pretend- 
ing to be serious, to relate what is so insipid and 
so silly, that images ‘? were formed by the ancients 
to check wrongdoing, and to arouse the fears of 
the wicked and impious? Were the men of that 
age and time, in understanding, so void of reason 
and good sense, that they were kept back from 
wicked actions, just as if they were little boys, 
by the preternatural "3 savageness of masks, by 
grimaces also, and bugbears?'t+ And how has 
this been so entirely changed, that though there 
are so many temples in your states filled with 
images of all the gods, the multitude of criminals 
cannot be resisted even with so many laws and 
so terrible punishments, and their audacity can- 
not be overcome *s by any means, and wicked 
deeds, repeated again and again, multiply the 
more it is striven by laws and severe judgments 
to lessen the number of cruel deeds, and to quell 
them by the check géven by means of punish- 
ments? But if images caused any fear to men, 
the passing of laws would cease, nor would so 
many kinds of tortures be established against the 
daring of the guilty: now, however, because it 
has been proved and established that the sup- 
posed *° terror which is said to flow out from the 
images is in reality vain, recourse has been had 
to the ordinances of laws, by which there might 
be a dread of punishment which should be most 
certain fixed in men’s minds also, and a con- 
demnation settled ; to which these very images 
also owe it that they yet stand safe, and secured 
by some respect being yielded to them. 





10 Formidinum. 

Il Terrores. 

12 Or, perhaps, “‘ relate that images so frigid and so awkward.” 

13 The ms. and both Roman edd. read smonstruostssima-s torvt- 
tate-s annts, corrected by Gelenius and later edd. wzonstrnuostsstmd 
torvttate anzmos, and by Salmasius, Orelli, Hild., and Oehler, as 
above, m. t, sannzs. 

14 The Ms., first fouredd., Elm., and Oberthiir read wzanus, which, 
with anzmos read in most (cf. preceding note), would run, “that 
they were even kept back, as to (i.e., in) minds and hands, from 
wicked actions by the preternatural savageness of masks.” The other 
edd. read with Salmasius, as above, mazzzs. 

Is Lit., “cut away.” 

16 Lit., “ opinion of.” 


518 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





BOOK VII. 


3. Since it has been sufficiently shown, as far 
as there has been opportunity, how vain it is to 
form images, the course of our argument requires 
that we should next speak as briefly as possible, 
and without any periphrasis, about sacrifices, 
about the slaughter and immolation of victims, 
about pure wine, about incense, and about all 
the other things which are provided on such 
occasions.’ For with respect to this you have 
been in the habit of exciting against us the most 
violent ill-will, of calling us atheists, and inflict- 
ing upon us the punishment of death, even by 
savagely tearing us to pieces with wild beasts, on 
the ground that we pay very little respect ? to the 
gods ; which, indeed, we admit that we do, not 
from contempt or scorn of the divine,3 but be- 
cause we think that such powers require nothing 
of the kind, and are not possessed by desires for 
such things.* 

What, then,5 some one will say, do you think 
that no sacrifices at all should be offered? To 
answer you not with our own, but with your 
Varro’s opinion—none. Why so? Because, 
he says, the true gods neither wish nor demand 
these ; while those °® which are made of copper, 
earthenware, gypsum, or marble, care much less 
for these things, for they have no feeling; and 
you are not blamed? if you do not offer them, 
nor do you win favour if you do. No sounder 
opinion can be found, zone truer, and ove which 
any one may adopt, although he may be stupid 
and very hard 4 convince. For who is so ob- 
tuse as either to slay victims in sacrifice to those 
who have no sense, or to think that they should 
be given to those who are removed far from them 
in their nature and blessed state ? 

2. Who are the true gods? you say. To 
answer you in common and simple language, we 
do not know ;® for how can we know who those 





2 Lit., “in that part of years.” 

2 Lit., ‘‘ attribute least.” 

3 Lit., ‘‘ divine spurning.” 

4 [When good old Dutch Boyens came to the pontificate as 
Wadrian VI., he was accounted a “ barbarian” because he so little 
appreciated the art-treasures in the Vatican, on which Leo X. had 
lavished so much money and so much devotion. His pious spirit 
seemed oppressed to see so many heathen images in the Vatican: 
sunt idola ethnicorum was all he could say of them, —a most cred- 
itable anecdote of such a man in such times. See p. 504,n. 6, supra.] 

5 [In the Edin. edition this is the opening sentence, but the editor 
remarks]: ‘‘ By some accident the introduction to the seventh book 
has been tacked on as a last chapter to the sixth, where it is just as 
out of place as here it is in keeping. [I have restored it to its place 
accordingly. ] 

6 Lit., “‘ those, moreover.” 

7 Lit., “ nor is any blame contracted.” 

8 On this Heraldus [most ignorantly] remarks, that it shows con- 
clusively how slight was the acquaintance with Christianity possessed 
py Aramis, when he could not say who were the true gods. [The 

in. editor clears up the cases as follows:] This, however, is to 
forget that Arnobius is not declaring his own opinions here, but meet- 
ing his adversaries on their own ground. He knows who the true 
God is — the source and fountain of all being, and framer of the uni- 








are whom we have never seen? We have been 
accustomed to hear from you that an infinite 
number? are gods, and are reckoned among ’° 
the deities; but if these exist '’ anywhere, and 
are true gods, as Terentius ™ believes, it follows 
as a consequence, that they correspond to their 
name ; that is, that they are such as we all see 
that they should be, and that they are worthy to 
be called by this name; nay, more, —to make 
an end without many words, — shat they are such 
as is the Lord of the universe, and “he King 
omnipotent Himself, whom we have knowledge 
and understanding exough to speak of as the true 
God when we are led to mention His name. 
For one god differs from another in nothing as 
respects his divinity ; ‘3 nor can that which is one 
in kind be less or more in its parts while its own 
qualities remain unchanged.'4 Now, as this is 
certain, it follows that they should never have 
been begotten, but should be immortal, seeking 
nothing from without, and not drawing any 
earthly pleasures from the resources of matter. 
3. So, then, if these things are so, we desire 
to learn this, first, from you — what is the cause, 
what the reason, that you offer them sacrifices ; 
and then, what gain comes to the gods them- 
selves from this, and remains to their advantage. 
For whatever is done should have a cause, and 
should not be disjoined from reason, so as to be 
lost ‘5 among useless works, and tossed about 
among vain and idle uncertainties.‘° Do the 
gods of heaven’? live on these sacrifices, and 
must materials be supplied to maintain the union 
of their parts? And what man is there so igno- 
rant of what a god is, certainly, as to think that 
they are maintained by any kind of nourishment, 
and that it is the food given to them? which 
causes them to live and endure throughout their 
endless immortality? For whatever is upheld 
by causes and things external to itself, must be 
mortal and on the way to destruction, when any- 
thing on which it lives begins to be wanting. 
Again, z¢ zs impossible to suppose that any one 
believes this, because we see that of these things 





verse (ii. 2), and if there are any lesser powers called gods, what their 
relation to Him must be (iii. 2, 3); but he does not know any such 
gods himself, and is continually reminding the heathen that they know 
these gods just as little. (Cf. the very next sentence.) 

9 Lit., “as many as possible.” 

Io Lit., “ in the series of.” 

tl Lit., “are.” 

12 ij e,, M. Terentius Varro, mentioned in the last chapter. 

13 Lit., “(in that in which he is a god.” 

14 Lit., ‘‘ uniformity of quality being preserved.” 


15 The ms. and edd. read xt 2% opertbus feratur cassts —‘‘ so as 
to be borne among,’’ emended by Hild. and Oehler ¢teratur — “ worn 
omey among.” 

16 Lit., ‘in vain errors of inanity.” 

17 The ms. and edd. have here forte — “ perchance” 


18 Lit., “ gift of food,” 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


519 





_which are brought to their altars, nothing is 
added to and reaches the substance of the 
deities ; for either incense is given, and is lost 
melting on the coals,! or the life only of the 
victim is offered to the gods,? and its blood is 
licked up by dogs ; or if any flesh is placed upon 
the altars, it is set on fire in like manner, and 7s 
destroyed, and falls into ashes, — unless per- 
chance the god seizes upon the souls of the vic- 
tims, or snuffs up eagerly the fumes and smoke 
which rise from the blazing altars, and feeds upon 
the odours which the burning flesh gives forth, 
still wet with blood, and damp with its former 
juices.3 But if a god, as is said, has no body, 
and cannot be touched at all, how is it possible 
that that which has no body should be nourished 
by things pertaining to the body, — that what is 
mortal should support what is immortal, and 
assist and give vitality to that which it cannot 
touch? This reason for sacrifices is not valid, 
therefore, as it seems ; nor can it be said by any 
one that sacrifices are kept up for this reason, 
that the deities are nourished by them, and sup- 
ported by feeding on them. 

4. If perchance it is not this,4 are victims not 
slain in sacrifice to the gods, and cast upon their 
flaming altars to give them 5 some pleasure and 
delight? And can any man persuade himself 
that the gods become mild as they are exhila- 
rated by pleasures, that they long for sensual 
enjoyment, and, like some base creatures, are 
affected by agreeable sensations, and charmed 
and tickled for the moment by® a pleasantness 
which soon passes away? For that which is 
overcome by pleasure must be harassed by its 
opposite, sorrow ; nor can that be free from the 
anxiety of grief, which trembles with joy, and is 
elated capriciously with gladness.?7 But the gods 
should be free from both passions, if we would 
have them to be everlasting, and freed from the 
weakness of mortals. Moreover, every pleasure 
is, as it were, a kind of flattery of the body, and 
is addressed to the five well-known senses ; but 
if the gods above feel it,’ they must partake also 





It must have taken much time to overcome this distaste for the 
use of incense in Christian minds. Let us wait for the testimony 
of Lactantius. ] 

2 Or perhaps, simply, “ the sacrifice is a living one,” anzmalis 
est hostia, Macrobius, however (Saz,, iii. 5), quotes Trebatius as 
saying that there were two kinds of sacrifices, i in one of which the 
entrails were examined that they might disclose the divine will, while 
in the other the life only was consecrated to the deity, This is more 
precisely stated by Servius (7., iii. 231), who says that the Aostza 
animalts was only slain, that in other cases the blood was poured on 
the altars, that in others part of the victim, and in others the whole 
animal, was burned. It is probable, therefore, that Arnobius uses the 
words here in their technical meaning, as the next clause shows that 
none of the flesh was offered, while the blood was allowed to fall to 
the ground, [I am convinced that classical antiquities must be 
more largely studied in the Fathers of the first five centuries. ] 

3 ie., the juices which formerly flowed through the living body. 

4 The heathen opponent is supposed to give up his first reason, 
that the sacrifices provided food for the gods, and to advance this new 
maagestcn, that they were intended for their gratification merely. 

5 Lit., ‘‘ for the sake of.” 

6 Lit., ‘with the fleeting tickling of.” 

7 Lit., “‘ with the levities of gladnesses.” 

8 ie., "pleasure. 








of those bodies through which there is a way te 
the senses, and a door dy which to receive pleas- 
ures. Lastly, what pleasure is it to take delight 
in the slaughter of harmless creatures, to have 
the ears ringing often with their piteous bellow- 
ings, to see rivers of blood, the life fleeing away 
with the blood, and the secret parts having been 
laid open, not only the intestines to protrude with 
the excrements, but also the heart still bounding 
with the life left in it, and the trembling, palpi- 
tating veins in the viscera? We half-savage men, 
nay rather, — to say with more candour what it 
is truer and more candid to say, —we savages, 
whom unhappy necessity and bad habit have 
trained to take these as food, are sometimes 
moved with pity for them ; we ourselves accuse 
and condemn ourselves when the thing is seen 
and looked into thoroughly, because, neglecting 
the law which is binding on men, we have broken 
through the bonds which naturally united us at 
the beginning.? Will '° any one believe that the 
gods, who are kind, beneficent, gentle, are de- 
lighted and filled with joy by the slaughter of 
cattle, if ever they fall and expire pitiably before 
their altars?‘* And there is no cause, then, for 
pleasure in sacrifices, as we see, nor is there a 
reason why they should be offered, since there 
is no pleasure afforded by them ; and if perchance 
there is some,’ it has been shown that it cannot 
in any way belong to the gods. 

5. We have next to examine the argument 
which we hear continually coming from the lips 
of the common people, and fizd embedded in 
popular conviction, that sacrifices are offered to 
the gods of heaven for this purpose, that they 
may lay aside their anger and passions, and may 
be restored to a calm and placid tranquillity, the 
indignation of their fiery spirits being assuaged. 
And if we remember the definition which we 
should always bear steadily in mind, that all agi- 
tating feelings are unknown to the gods, the 
consequence is, a belief'3 that the gods are 
never angry; nay, rather, that no passion is 
further from them than that which, approaching 
most nearly to che spirit of wild beasts and sav- 
age creatures, agitates those who suffer it with 
tempestuous feelings, and brings them into dan- 
ger of destruction. For whatever is harassed 
by any kind of disturbance," is, it is clear, capa- 
ble of suffering, and frail; that which has been 
subjected to suffering and frailty must be mortal ; 
but anger harasses and destroys '5 those who are 





9 Naturalis inttiz consortia. 

10 So the Ms. and first ed., according to Oehler, reading cred-e-t, 
the others 7 —«" does,” 

Tl Lit., “‘ these.” 

12 Arnobius says that the sacrifices give no pleasure to any being, 
or at least, if that is not strictly true, that they give none to the gods, 
[See Elucidation VI. ., infra.) 

13 So the ms., LB., Oberthiir, Orelli, Hild., and Oehler, reading 
consec-, for which the rest read consen- -taneum "est credere—“ it is 
fitting to believe.” 

14 Lit., “ motion of anything.” 

15 Cf i, 18, 


520 


Sp AE as en ee 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





subject to it: therefore that should be called 
mortal which has been made subject to the 
emotions of anger. But yet we know that the 
gods should be never-dying, and should possess 
an immortal nature ; and if this is clear and cer- 
tain, anger has been separated far from them 
and from their state. On no ground, then, is it 
fitting to wish to appease that in the gods above 
which you see cannot suit their blessed state. 

6. But let us allow, as you wish, that the gods 
are accustomed to such disturbance, and that 
sacrifices are offered and sacred solemnities per- 
formed to calm it, when, then, is it fitting that 
these offices should be made use of, or at what 
time should they be given? — before they are 
angry and roused, or when they have been 
moved and displeased even?! If we must meet 
them with sacrifices before their anger is rouse, 
lest they become enraged, you are bringing for- 
ward wild beasts to us, not gods, to which it is 
customary to toss food, upon which they may 
rage madly, and turn their desire to do harm, 
lest, having been roused, they should rage and 
burst the barriers of their dens. But if these 
sacrifices are offered to satisfy? the gods when 
already fired and burning with rage, I do not in- 
quire, I do not consider, whether that happy 3 
and sublime greatness of spirit which belongs to 
the deities is disturbed by the offences of little 
men, and wounded if a creature, blind and ever 
treading among clouds of ignorance, has com- 
mitted any blunder, —said anything by which 
their dignity is impaired. 

7. But neither do I demand that this should 
be said, or that I should be told what causes the 
gods have for their anger against men, that hav- 
ing taken offence they must be soothed. J do 
ask, however, Did they ever ordain any laws 
for mortals? and was it ever settled by them 
what it was fitting for them to do, or what it was 
not? what they should pursue, what avoid; or 
even by what means they wished themselves to 
be worshipped, so that they might pursue with 
the vengeance of their wrath what was done 
otherwise than they had commanded, and might 
be disposed, if treated contemptuously, to avenge 
themselves on the presumptuous and transgress- 
ors? As I think, nothing was ever either settled 
or ordained by them, since neither have they 
been seen, nor has it been possible for it to be 
discerned very clearly whether there are any.4 
What justice is there, then, in the gods of heaven 
being angry for any reason with those to whom 





I Lit., “set in indignations.” 

2 Lit., ‘‘ if this satisfaction of sacrifices is offered to.” 

3 So the ms. and most edd., reading Jaeta, for which Ursinus 
suggested Janta — “‘ splendid,” and Heraldus e/ata —‘“‘ exalted.” 

4 It is perhaps possible so to translate the MS. xeqgue sz sunt ullt 
apertissima petutt cognitione dignoscz, retained by Orelli, Hild., 
and Oehler, in which case sz swm¢ 2é/Z must be taken as the subject 
of the clause. The other edd., from regard to the construction, read 
yes¢—“‘ nor, if they have been scen, has it been possible.” 








|they have neither deigned at any time to show 


that they existed, nor given nor imposed any 
laws which they wished to be honoured by them 
and perfectly observed ? 5 

8. But this, as I said, I do not mention, but 
allow it to pass away in silence. ‘This one thing 
I ask, above all, What reason is there if I kill a 
pig, that a god changes his state of mind, and 
lays aside his angry feelings and frenzy ; that if 
I consume a pullet, a calf under his eyes and on 
his altars, he forgets the wrong which [ did to 
him, and abandons completely all sense of dis- 
pleasure? What passes from this act°® to modzfy 
his resentment? Or of what service? is a goose, 
a goat, or a peacock, that from its blood relief 
is brought to the angry goad? Do the gods, then, 
make insulting them a matter of payment? and 
as little boys, to zwduce them /o give up their fits 
of passion® and desist from their wailings, get 
little sparrows, dolls, ponies, puppets,® with 
which they may be able to divert themselves, do 
the immortal gods in such wise receive these 
gifts from you, that for them they may lay aside 
their resentment, and be reconciled to those 
who offended them? And yet I thought that 
the gods —if only it is right to believe that they 
are really moved by anger—lay aside their 
anger and resentment, and forgive the sins of 
the guilty, without any price or reward. For 
this belongs specially to deities, to be generous 
in forgiving, and to seek no return for their gifts.? 
But if this cannot be, it would be much wiser 
that they should continue obstinately offended, 
than that they should be softened by being cor- 
rupted with bribes. For the multitude increases 
of those who sin, when there is hope given of 
paying for their sin; and there is little hesi- 
tation to do wrong, when the favour of those 
who pardon offences may be bought. 

g. So, if some ox, or any animal you please, 
which is slain to mitigate and appease the fury 
of the deities, were to take a man’s voice and 
speak these '° words: “Is this, then, O Jupiter, 
or whatever god thou art, humane or right, or 
should it be considered at all just, that when 
another has sinned I should be killed, and that 
you should allow satisfaction to be made to you 
with my blood, although I never did you wrong, 
never wittingly or unwittingly did violence to 
your divinity and majesty, being, as thou know- 
est, a dumb creature, not departing from‘ the 
simplicity of my nature, nor inclined to be fickle 
in my’? manners? Did I ever celebrate your 





5 Lit., ‘‘ kept with inviolable observance.” 

6 Lit., “ work.” 

7 Lit., “‘ remedy.” 

8 So Panes seems to be generally understood, i.e., images of Pan 
used as playthings by boys, and very much the same thing as the 
puppets — Awful — already mentioned. 

9 Lit., ‘‘ to have liberal pardons and free concessions,” 

Io Lit., ‘‘in these.” 

11 J it., * following.” 

12 Lit,, “‘ to varieties of manifold,” 





it 
4 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


—_— 


games with too little reverence and care? did I 


drag forward a dancer so that thy deity was 
offended? did I swear falsely by thee? did I 
sacrilegiously steal your property and plunder 
your temples? did I uproot the most sacred 
groves, or pollute and profane some hallowed 
places by founding private houses? What, then, 
is the reason that the crime of another is atoned 
for with my blood, and that my life and innocence 
are made to pay for wickedness with which I 
have nothing to do? Is it because I am a base 
creature, and am not possessed of reason and 
wisdom, as these declare who call themselves 
men, and by their ferocity make themselves 
beasts?' Did not the same nature both beget 
and form me from the same beginnings? Is it 
not one breath of life which sways both them 
and me? Do I not respire and see, and am I 
not affected by the other senses just as they are? 
They have livers, lungs, hearts, intestines, bellies ; 
and do not I have as many members? They 
love their young, and come together to beget 
children ; and do not I both take care to pro- 
cure offspring, and delight in it when it has been 
begotten? But they have reason, and utter 
articulate sounds; and how do they know 
whether I do what I do for my own reasons, 
and whether that sound which I give forth is my 
kind of words, and is understood by us alone? 
Ask piety whether it is more just that I should 
be slain, that I should be killed, or that man 
should be pardoned and be safe from punish- 
ment for what he has done? Who formed iron 
into a sword? was it not man? Who drought 
disaster upon races ; who imposed slavery upon 
nations? was it not man? Who mixed deadly 
draughts, and gave them to his parents, broth- 
ers, wives, friends? was it not man? Who found 
out or devised so many forms of wickedness, 
that they can hardly be related in ten thousand 
chronicles of years, or even of days? was it not 
man? Is not this, then, cruel, monstrous, and 
savage? Does it not seem to you, O Jupiter, 
unjust and barbarous that I should be killed, that 
I should be slain, that you may be soothed, and 
the guilty find impunity?” 

It has been established that sacrifices are of- 
fered in vain for this purpose then, viz., that the 
angry deities may be soothed ; since reason has 
taught us that the gods are not angry at any 
time, and that they do not wish one thing to be 
destroyed, to be slain for another, or offences 
against themselves to be annulled by the blood 
of an innocent creature.? 

10. But perhaps some one will say, We give 
to the gods sacrifices and other gifts, that, being 
made willing in a measure to grant our prayers, 





T-Lit., “leap into.” 











2 [This very striking passage should lead us to compare the widely 
different purpose of Judaic sacrifices. See Elucidation VI., zxz/ra.] 


521 





they may give us prosperity and avert from us 
evil, cause us to live always happily, drive away 
grief truly, and any evils which threaten us from 
accidental circumstances. This point demands 
great care; nor is it usual either to hear or to 
believe what is so easily said. For the whole 
company of the learned will straightway swoop 

upon ws, who, asserting and proving that what- 

ever happens, happens according to she decrees 

of fate, snatch out of our3 hands that opinion, 

and assert that we are putting our trust in vain 

beliefs. Whatever, they will say, has been done 

in the world, is being done, and shall be done, 

has been settled and fixed in time past, and has 

causes which cannot be moved, by means of 

which events have been linked together, and 

form an unassailable chain of unalterable neces- 
sity between the past and the future. If it has 

been determined and fixed what evil or good 
should befall each person, it is already certain; 
but if this is certain and fixed, there is no room 
for all the help given by the gods, their hatred, 
and favours. For they are just as unable to do 
for you that which cannot be done, as to prevent 
that from being done which must happen, ex- 
cept that they will be able, if they choose, to 
depreciate somewhat powerfully that belief 
which you entertain, so that they*+ say that even 
the gods themselves are worshipped by you in 
vain, and that the supplications with which you 
address them are superfluous. For as they are 
unable to turn aside the course of events, and 
change what has been appointed by fate, what 
reason, what cause, is there to wish to weary and 
deafen the ears of those in whose help you can- 
not trust at your utmost need ? 

11. Lastly, if the gods drive away sorrow and 
grief, if they bestow joy and pleasure, how 5 are 
there in the world so many® and so wretched men, | 
whence come so many unhappy ones, who lead a 
life of tears in the meanest condition? Why are 
not those free from calamity who every moment, 
every instant, load and heap up the altars with sac- 
rifices? Do we not see that some of them, say 
the learned, are the seats of diseases, the light of 
their eyes quenched, and their ears stopped, 
that they cannot move with their feet, that they 
live mere trunks without the wse of their hands, 
that they are swallowed up, overwhelmed, and 
destroyed by conflagrations, shipwrecks, and dis- 
asters ;7 that, having been stripped of immense 
fortunes, they support themselves by labouring 
for hire, avd beg for alms at last; that they are 
exiled, proscribed, always in the midst of sorrow, 
overcome by the loss of children, avd harassed 





3 Lit., “‘ from the hands to us,” 70dz's, the reading of the Ms., both 
Roman edd., Gelenius, LB., and Oehler; for which the rest give 
vobts — ** out of your hands.” 

4 i.e., the learned men reterred to above. 

5 Lit., “‘ whence.” 

© Lit., ‘* so innumerable.” 

7 Lit, “ ruins.” 


522 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


ee ee ee 


by other misfortunes, the kinds and forms of 
which no enumeration can comprehend? But 
assuredly this would not occur if the gods, who 
had been laid under obligation, were able to 
ward off, to turn aside, those evils from those 
who merited iis favour. But now, because in 
these mishaps there is no room for the interfer- 
ence of the gods, but all things are brought 
about! by inevitable necessity, the appointed 
course of events goes on and accomplishes that 
which has been once determined. 

12. Or the gods of heaven should be said to 
be ungrateful if, while they have power to pre- 
vent, it, they suffer an unhappy race to be in- 
volved in so many hardships:and disasters. But 
perhaps they may say something of importance 
tn answer to this,and not such as should be 
received by deceitful, fickle, and scornful ears. 
This. point, however, because it would require 
too tedious and prolix discussion,? we hurry past 
unexplained and untouched, content to have 
stated this alone, that you give to your gods dis- 
honourable reputations if you assert that on no 
other condition do they bestow blessings and 
turn. away what is injurious, except they have 
been. first bought over with the blood of she- 
goats and sheep, and with the other things which 
are put upon their altars. For it is not fitting, 
in the first place, that the power of the deities 
and the surpassing eminence of the celestials 
should be believed to keep their favours on sale, 
first to receive @ price, and then to bestow 
them; and then, which is much more unseemly, 
that they aid no one unless they receive shecr 
demands, and that they suffer the most wretched 
to undergo whatever perils may befall them,3 
while they could ward “hese off, and come to 
their aid. If of two who are sacrificing, one is 
a scoundrel, and rich, the other of small for- 
tune, but worthy of praise for his integrity and 
goodness, — if the former should slay a hundred 
oxen, and as many ewes with their lambkins, the 
poor man burn a little incense, and a small piece 
of some odorous substance, — will it not follow 
that it should be believed that, if only the deities 
bestow nothing except when rewards are first 
offered, they will give their favour 5 to the rich 
man, turn their eyes away from the poor, whose 
gifts were restricted not by his spirit, but by the 
scantiness of his means?® For where the giver 
is venal and mercenary, there it must needs be 





: 1 So Canterus suggests conf-cunt for the Ms. confic- —“ bring 
about.’ 

2 Lit., ‘‘it is a thing of long and much speech.” 

3 Lit., athe fortunes of perils,” 

4 The MS. reading is hoc est unus, corrected honestus —“ hon- 
ourable”’ (which makes the comparison pointless, because there is no 
reason why a rich man, if good, should not be succoured as well as a 
poor), in all edd., except Oehler, who reads seclestus, which departs 
too far-from the Ms. Perhaps we should read, as above, inhonestus. 

5’So the s., LB., Hild., and Oehler, and the other edd., adding 
et auxin —* and help.” 

© Lit., ““whom not his mind, but the necessity of his property, 
made restricted.” 














that favour is granted according to the greatness 
of the gift dy which it is purchased, and that a 
favourable decision is given to him from whom 7 
far the greater reward and bribe, chough this be 
shameful, flows to him who gives it.’ What if 
two nations, on the other hand, arrayed against 
each other in war, enriched the altars of the 
gods with equal sacrifices, and were to demand 
that. their power and help should be given to 
them, the one against the other: must it not, 
again, be believed that, if they are persuaded to 
be of service by rewards, they are at a loss be- | 
tween both sides, are struck motionless, and do 
not perceive what to do, since they understand 
that their favour has been pledged by the ac- 
ceptance of the sacrifices? For either they will 
give assistance to this side and to that, which is 
impossible, for 2 that case they will fight them- 
selves against themselves, strive against their own 
favour and wishes; or they will do nothing to 
aid either nation? after the price of their aid 
has been paid and received, which is very 
wicked. All this infamy, therefore, should be 
removed far from the gods; nor should it be 
said at all that they are won over by rewards 
and payments to confer blessings, and remove 
what is disagreeable, if only they are true gods, 
and worthy to be ranked under this name. For 
either whatever happens, happens inevitably, and 
there is no place in the. gods for ambition and 
favour ; or if fate is excluded and got rid of, it does 
not belong to the celestial dignity to sell the boon 
of its services,'° and the conferring of its bounties. 
13. We have shown sufficiently, as I suppose, 
that-victims, and the things which go along with 
them, are offered in vain to the immortal gods, 
because they are neither nourished by them, nor 
feel any pleasure, nor lay aside their anger and 
resentment, so as either to give good fortune, or 
to drive away and avert the opposite. We have 
now to examine that point also which has been 
usually asserted by some, and applied to forms 
of ceremony. For they say that these sacred 
rites were instituted to do honour to the gods 
of heaven, and that these things which they do, 
they do to show ¢kem honour, and to magnify 
the powers of the deities by them. What if 
they were to say, in like manner, that they keep 
awake and sleep, walk about, stand still, write 
something, and read, to give honour to the gods, 
and make them more glorious in majesty? For 
what substance is there added to them from the 
blood of cattle, and from the other things which 
are prepared in sacrificing ? what power is given 
and added to them? For all honour, which is 





7 Lit., ‘‘ inclines thither whence.” 

8 i.e., the decision. 

9 Lit., “ both nations.” 

To Lit., ‘‘ the favours of good work,” dox7 operts favor-es et, the 
reading of Hild. and Oehler (other edd. -evz—‘‘ the favour of its 
service” ) for Ms.,fabore sed. 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 523 


’ 


' said to be offered by any one, and to be yielded 
‘to reverence for a greater being, is of a kind hav- 


ing reference to the other; and consists of two 
parts, of the concession of the giver, and the 
increase of honour of the receiver. As, if any 
one, on seeing a man famed for his very great 
power ‘ and authority, were to make way for him, 
to stand up, to uncover his head, and leap down 
from his carriage, then, bending forward to salute 
him with slavish servility and? trembling agita- 
tion, I see what is aimed at in showing such re- 
spect: by the bowing down of the one, very great 
honour is given to the other, and he is made to 
appear great whom the respect of an inferior 
exalts and places above his own rank.3 

14. But all this conceding and ascribing of 
honour about which we are speaking are met with 
among men alone, whom their natural weakness 
and love of standing above their fellows * teach 
to delight in arrogance, and in being preferred 
above others. But, I ask, where is there room 
for honour among the gods, or what greater ex- 
altation is found to be given 5 to them by piling 
up® sacrifices? Do they become more vener- 
able, more powerful, when cattle are sacrificed zo 
them? is there anything added to them from 
this? or do they begin to be more ¢vuly gods, 
their divinity being increased? And yet I con- 
sider it almost an insult, nay, an insult altogether, 
when it is said that a god is honoured by a man, 
and exalted by the offering of some gift. For 
if honour increases and augments the grandeur 
of him to whom it is given, it follows that a deity 
becomes greater by means of the man from whom 
he has received thé gift, and the honour con- 
ferred on him; and thus the matter is brought 
to this issue, that the god who is exalted by hu- 
man honours is the inferior, while, on the other 
hand, the man who increases the power of a 
deity zs his superior.” 

15. What then! some one will say, do you 
think that no honour should be given to the 
gods at all? If you propose to us gods such as 
they should be if they do exist, and such as ® we 
feel that we all mean when we mention 9 that 
name, how can we but give them even the great- 
est honour, since we have been taught by the 
commands which have especial power over us,'° 





I Lit., “of most powerful name.’ 

2 Lit., “ imitating a slave’s arity” —ancillatum, the emenda- 
tion of Hemsterhuis, adopted by Orelli, Hild., and Oehler for the 
ee MS. ancillarum. 

3 Lit, © “ things.” 

4 Lit., “in higher places.” 

5 tie « what eminences is it found to be added,” adder. So 
Hild. and Oehler for the reading of Ms., first four edd., and Ober- 
thiir addere —“‘ to add,” emended in rest from margin of Ursinus 
accedere, much as above. 

6 So the Ms., reading conjectionzbus, which is retained in no edd., 
whee th its primary meaning is exactly what the sense here requires. 


7 The last clause was omitted in first four edd. and Elmh., and | 


was inserted from the ms. by Meursius. 

8 Lit., ‘“ whom.” 

9 Lit, “say in the proclamation of.” 

Io Lit., “ more powerful commands,” 1.e., by Christ’s injunctions. 
It seems hardly possible that any one should suppose that there is 








to pay honour to all men even, of whatever rank, 
of whatever condition they may be? What, 
pray, you ask, is this very great honour? One 
much more in accordance with duty than is paid 
by you, and directed to '! a more powerful race, 
we reply. ‘Tell, us, you say, in the first place, 
what is an opinion worthy of the gods, right and 
honourable, and not blameworthy from its being 
made unseemly by something infamous? We 
reply, one such that you believe that they neither 
have any likeness to man, nor look for any- 
thing which is outside of them and comes from 
without ; then—and this has been said pretty 
frequently — that they do not burn with the fires 
of anger, that they do not give themselves up 
passionately to sensual pleasure, that they are 
not bribed to be of service, that they are not 
tempted to injure ovr enemies, that they do not 
sell their kindness and favour, that they do 
not rejoice in having honour heaped on them, 
that they are not indignant and vexed if it is 
not given ; but — and this belongs to the divine 
—that by their own power they know them- 
selves, and that they do not rate themselves by 
the obsequiousness of others. And yet, that we 
may see the nature of what is said, what kind 
of honour is this, to bind a wether, a ram, a bull 
before the face of a god, and slay them in his 
sight? What kind of honour is it to invite a god 
to a banquet of blood, which you see him take 
and share in with dogs? What kind of honour 
is it, having set on fire piles of wood, to hide 
the heavens with smoke, and darken with gloomy 
blackness the images of the gods? But if it 
seems good to you that these actions should be 
considered in themselves,” not judged of accord- 
ing to your prejudices, you will find that those 
altars of which you speak, and even those beau- 
tiful ones which you dedicate to the superior 
gods,'3 are places for burning the unhappy race 
of animals, funeral pyres, and mounds built for 
a most unseemly office, and formed to be filled 
with corruption. 

16. What say you, O you ! is that foul 
smell, then, which is given forth and emitted by 
burning hides, by bones, by bristles, by the 
fleeces of lambs, and the feathers of fowls, — 
2s tha¢ a favour and an honour to the deity? and 
are the deities honoured by this, to whose tem- 
ples, when you arrange to go, you come ‘ 
cleansed from all pollution, washed, and _per- 
fectly '5 pure? And what can be more polluted 








here any reference to Christ’s command to His disciples not to exercise 
lordship over each other, yet Orelli thinks that there is perhaps a 
reference to Mark x, 42, 43._ If a particular reference were intended, 
we might with more reason find it in 1 Pet. ii. 17, ‘ Honour all men.” 

II Lit., “established in.” 

I? Lit, ‘‘ weighed by their own force,” wz. 

3 ie. altarraque hec pulchra. 

14 Lit., ‘you show yourselves,” prestatis, 

15 Lit., “ most.” So Tibullus (Z/eg., ii. 1,13): “ Pure things plese 
the gods. rene (i.e., to the sacrifice) with ‘clean garments, and with 
clean hands take water from the fountain,” — perfect cleanliness being 
scrupulously insisted on. 


524 


PF ei Oop eT ae 
a | 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





than these, more unhappy,’ more debased, than 
if their senses are naturally such that they are 
fond of what is so cruel, and take delight in 
foul smells which, when inhaled with the breath, 
even those who sacrifice cannot bear, and cer- 
tainly not a delicate? nose? But if you think 
that the gods of heaven are honoured by the 
blood of living creatures deing offered to them, 
why do you not sacrifice to them both mules, 
and elephants, and asses? why not dogs also, 
bears, and foxes, camels, and hyzenas, and lions? 
And as birds also are counted victims by you, 
why do you not sacrifice vultures, eagles, storks, 
falcons, hawks, ravens, sparrow-hawks, owls, and, 
along with them, salamanders, water-snakes, vi- 
pers, tarantule? For indeed there is both blood 
in these, and they are in like manner moved by 
the breath of life. What is there more artistic 
in the former kind of sacrifices, or less ingenious 
in the latter, that these do not add to and in- 
crease the grandeur of the gods? Because, says 
my opponent, it is right to honour the gods of 
heaven with those things by which we are our- 
selves nourished and sustained, and live ; which 
also they have, in their divine benevolence, 
deigned to give to us for food. But the same 
gods have given to you both cumin, cress, turnips, 
onions, parsley, esculent thistles, radishes, gourds, 
rue, mint, basil, flea-bane, and chives, and com- 
manded them to be used by you as part of your 
food ; why, then, do you not put these too upon 
the altars, and scatter wild-marjoram, with which 
oxen are fed, over them all, and mix amongst 
them onions with their pungent flavour? 

17. Lo, if dogs — for a case must be imagined, 
in order that things may be seen more clearly — 
if dogs, I say, and asses, and along with them 
water-wagtails, if the twittering swallows, and 
pigs also, having acquired some of the feelings 
of men, were to think and suppose that you 
were gods, and to propose to offer sacrifices in 
your honour, not of other things and substances, 
but of “hose with which they are wont to be 
nourished and supported, according to their 
natural inclination, — we ask you to say whether 
you would consider this an honour, or rather a 
most outrageous affront, when the swallows slew 
and consecrated flies to you, the water-wagtails 
ants ; when the asses put hay upon your altars, 
and poured out libations of chaff; when the 
dogs placed bones, and burned human excre- 
ments* af your shrines ; when, lastly, the pigs 
poured out before you a horrid mess, taken from 





I This Heraldus explains as ‘“‘ 


*‘ more unclean.” 

2 Ingenua, i.e., such as any respectable person has. 

3 To this the commentators have replied, that mules, asses, and 
dogs were sacrificed to certain deities. We must either admit that 
Arnobius has here fallen into error, or suppose that he refers merely 
to the animals which were usually slain, or find a reason for his neg- 
lecting it in the circumstances of each sacrifice. 

4 [The wit of Arnobius must be acknowledged in this scorching 
gatire, Compare the divine ordinar tes, Exod. xxix. 13, 14.] 


of worse omen,” and Oehler as 














their frightful hog-pools and filthy maws? Would 
you not in this case, then, be inflamed with rage 
that your greatness was treated with contumely, 
and account it an atrocious wrong that you were 
greeted with filth? But, you reply, you honour 
the gods with the carcasses of bulls, and by slay- 
ing 5 other living creatures. And in what respect 
does this differ from that, since these sacrifices, 
also, if they are not yet, will nevertheless soon 
be, dung, and will become rotten after a very 
short time has passed? Finally, cease to place 
fire upon ® your altars, then indeed you will 7 see 
that consecrated flesh of bulls, with which you 
magnify the honour of the gods, swelling and 
heaving with worms, tainting and corrupting the 
atmosphere, and infecting the neighbouring dis- 
tricts with unwholesome smells. Now, if the gods 
were to enjoin you to turn these things * to your 
own account, to make your meals from them 9 in 

the usual way, you would flee to a distance, and, 

execrating the smell, would beg pardon from the 

gods, and bind yourselves by oath never again 

to offer such sacrifices to them. Is not this con- 

duct of yours mockery, then? is it not to confess, 

to make known that you do not know what a 

deity is, nor to what power the meaning and title 

of this name should be given and applied? Do 

you give new dignity to the gods by new kinds 

of food? do you honour them with savours and 

juices, and because those things which nourish 

you are pleasing and grateful to you? do you 

believe that the gods also flock up to evoy their 

pleasant taste, and, just as barking dogs, lay 

aside their fierceness for mouthfuls, and pretty 

often fawn upon those who hold “hese out? 

18. And as we are now speaking of the ani- 
mals sacrificed, what cause, what reason is there, 
that while the immortal gods — for, so far as we 
are concerned, they may all be gods who are be- 
lieved to be so—are of one mind, or should be 
of one nature, kind, and character, all are not 
appeased with all the victims, but certain deztes 
with certain azimads, according to the sacrificial 
laws? For what cause is there, to repeat the 
same question, that that deity should be hon- 
oured with bulls, another with kids or sheep, this 
one with sucking pigs, the other with unshorn 
lambs, this one with virgin heifers, that one with 
horned goats, this with barren cows, but that with 
teeming *° swine, this with white, that with dusky '* 





5 Lit., ‘by slaughters of,” cedzbus. 

6 Lit., “under,” i.e., under the sacrifices on your altars. 

7 So all edd., reading cerne-, except both Roman edd., Hild., and 
Oehler, who retain the ms. cernz-t7s — “ you see.” 

8 In translating thus, it has been attempted to adhere as closely 
as possible to the ms. reading (according to Crusius) gva sz—cor- 
rected, as above, gv@ in LB.; but it is by no means certain that 
further changes should not be made. 

9 Lit., “prepare luncheons and dinners thence,’ 
putrefying carcasses. ¥ 

10 The ms. and first four edd. read zxgentibus scrofis —“ with 
huge breeding swine,” changed by rest, as above, zzczent-, from the 
margin of Ursinus. : 

Il Or “ gloomy,” ¢e¢#rzs, the reading of Ms. and all edd. since LB., 
for which earlier edd. give atrts — “‘ black.” 


’ ie., from the 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


525 





victims, one with female, the other, on the con- 
trary, with male animals? For if victims are 
slain in sacrifice to the gods, to do them honour 
and show reverence for them, what does it mat- 
ter, or what difference is there with the life of 
what animal this debt is paid, their anger and 
resentment put away? Oris the blood of one 
victim less grateful and pleasing to one god, 
while the other’s fills him with pleasure and joy? 
or, as is usually done, does that dezty abstain 
from the flesh of goats because of some reveren- 
tial and religious scruple, another turn with dis- 
gust from pork, while to this mutton stinks? and 
does this one avoid tough ox-beef that he may 
not overtax his weak stomach, and choose ten- 
der‘ sucklings that he may digest them more 
speedily ?? 

1g. But you err, says my opponent, and fall 
into mistakes ; for in sacrificing female victims 
to the female deities, males to the male deztes, 
there is a hidden and very? secret reason, and 
one beyond the reach of the mass. I do not 
inquire, I do not demand, what the sacrificial 
laws teach or contain ; but if reason has demon- 
strated,* and truth declared, that among the gods 
there is no difference of species, and that they 
are not distinguished by any sexes, must not all 
these reasonings be set at nought, and be proved, 
be found to have been believed under the most 
foolish hallucinations? I will not bring forward 
the opinions of wise men, who cannot restrain 
their laughter when they hear distinctions of sex 
attributed to the immortal gods: I ask of each 
man whether he himself believes in his own mind, 
and persuades himself that the race of the gods 
is so distinguished that they are male and female, 
and have been formed with members arranged 
suitably for the begetting of young? 

But if the laws of the sacrifices enjoin that like 
sexes should be sacrificed to like, that is, female 
victims to the female gods, male victims, on the 
contrary, to the male gods, what relation is there 
in the colours, so that it is right and fitting that 
to these white, to those dark, even the blackest 
victims are slain? Because, says my opponent, 
to the gods above, and “dose who have power to 
give favourable omens,’ the cheerful colour is 
acceptable and propitious from the pleasant ap- 
pearance of pure white ; while, on the contrary, 
to the sinister deities, and those who inhabit the 
infernal seats, a dusky colour is more pleasing, 
and one tinged with gloomy hues. But if, again, 
the reasoning holds good, that the infernal re- 





I Lit., ‘‘ the tenderness of.”” 

2 [The law of clean and unclean reflects the instincts of man, as 
here appealed to; but compare and Aatzently study these texts: Lev. 
x, 10 and Ezek. xxii. 26; Lev. xi. and Acts x. 15; Rom. xiv. 14 and 
Luke xi. 41.] 

3 Lit., “ more.” 

4 So the s., Elm,, LB., Orelli, Hild , and Oehler, reading wzcerzt, 
for which the others read 7usserzt — ‘‘ has bidden.”’ 

S Lit., “ prevailing with favourableness of omens,” omznum, for 
which the ms. and first four edd. read #-— ‘‘ of men.” 





gions are an utterly vain and empty name,° and 
that underneath the earth there are no Plutonian 
realms and abodes, this, too, must nullify your 
ideas about black cattle and gods under the 
ground. Because, if there are no infernal re- 
gions, of necessity there are no ai Manium also. 
For how is it possible that, while there are no 
regions, there should be said to be any who 
inhabit them ? 

20. But let us agree, as you wish, that there 
are both infernal regions and A/anes, and that 
some gods or other dwell in these by no means 
favourable to men, and presiding over misfor- 
tunes; and what cause, what reason is there, 
that black victims, even? of the darkest hue, 
should be brought to their altars? Because dark 
things suit dark, and gloomy things are pleasing 
to similar beings. What then? Do you not see 
— that we, too, may joke with you stupidly, and 
just as you do yourselves §— that the flesh of 
the victims is not black,? zo their bones, teeth, 
fat, the bowels, with '° the brains, and the soft 
marrow in the bones? But the fleeces are jet- 
black, and the bristles of the creatures are jet- 
black. Do you, then, sacrifice to the gods only 
wool and little bristles torn from the victims? 
Do you leave the wretched creatures, despoiled 
it may be, and shorn, to draw the breath of 
heaven, and rest in perfect innocence upon their 
feeding-grounds? But if you think that those 
things are pleasing to the infernal gods which are 
black and of a gloomy colour, why do you not 
take care that all the other things which it is cus- 
tomary to place upon their sacrifices should be 
black, and smoked, and horrible in colour? Dye 
the incense if it is offered, the salted grits, and 
all the libations without exception. Into the 
milk, oil, blood, pour soot and ashes, that this 
may lose its purple hue, that the others may be- 
come ghastly. But if you have no scruple in 
introducing some things which are white and 
retain their brightness, you yourselves do away 
with your own religious scruples and reasonings, 
while you do not maintain any single and uni- 
versal rule in performing the sacred rites. 

21. But this, too, it is fitting that we should 
here learn from you: If a goat be slain to Jupi- 
ter, which is usually sacrificed to father Liber and 
Mercury,"' or if the barren heifer be sacrificed to 
Unxia, which you give to Proserpine, by what 
usage and rule is it determined what crime there 
is in this, what wickedness or guilt has been con- 





6 That Arnobius had good reason to appeal to this scepticism as 
a fact, is evident from the lines of Juvenal (it. 149-152): “ Not even 
children believe that there are any Manes and subterranean realms,” 

7 Lit., “and.” Immediately after, the Ms. is corrected in later 
writing color-es (for -7s) — ‘‘ and the darkest col vurs.” 

8 Stmiltter This is certainly a suspicious reading, but Arnobius 
indulges occasionally in similar vague expressions, 

9 Lit., ‘is white.” 

Io Or, very probably, ‘‘ the membranes with (i.e., enclosing) the 
brains,” omenta cum cerebris, 

II Goats were sacrificed to Bacchus, but not, so far as is known, 
to Mercury. Cf. c. 16, p. 524, n. 3. 


526 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





tracted, since it makes no difference to the wor- 
ship offered to the detty what animal it is with 
whose head the honour is paid which you owe? 
It is not lawful, says my opponent, that these 
things should be confounded, and it is no small 
crime to throw the ceremonies of the rites and 
the mode of expiation into confusion. Explain 
the reason, I beg. Because it is right to conse- 
crate victims of a certain kind to certain deities, 
and that certain forms of supplication should be 


also adopted. And what, again, is the reason. 


that it is right to consecrate victims of a certain 
kind to certain deities, and that certain forms of 
supplication should be also adopted, for this very 
rightfulness should have its own cause, and spring, 
be derived from certain reasons? Are you going 
to speak about antiquity and custom? / so, 
you relate to me merely the opinions of men, 
and the inventions of a blind creature: but I, 
when I request a reason to be brought forward 
to me, wish to hear either that something has 
fallen from heaven, or, which the subject rather 
requires, what relation Jupiter has to a bull’s 

blood that it should be offered in sacrifice to 
him, not to Mercury ov Liber. Or what are the 
natural properties of a goat, that they again should 
be suited to these gods, should not be adapted 
to the sacrifices of Jupiter? Has a partition of 
the animals been made amongst the gods? Has 
some contract been made and agreed to, so that * 
it is fitting that this one should hold himself back 


from the victim which belongs to that, that the | 


other should cease? to claim as his own the blood 
which belongs to another? Or, as envious boys, 
are they unwilling to allow others to have a share 
in enjoying the cattle presented to them? or, as 
is reported to be done by races which differ 
greatly in manners, are the same things which 
by one party are considered fit for eating, rejected 
as food by others? 

22. If, then, these things are vain, and are 
not supported by any reason, the very offering 3 
of sacrifices also is idle. For how can that 
which follows have a suitable cause, when that 
very first statement from which the second flows 
is found to be utterly idle and vain, and estab- 
lished on no solid basis? To mother Earth, 
they say, is sacrificed a teeming+ and pregnant 
sow ; but to the virgin Minerva is slain a virgin 
calf, never forced 5 by the goad to attempt any 
labour. But yet we think that neither should a 
virgin have been sacrificed to a virgin, that the 
virginity might not be violated in the brute, for 





1 Lit., “ by the paction of some transaction is it,” etc. 
ea tSonall except both Roman edd., which retain the Ms. reading 
dest-d-eret (corrected -72- by Gelenius) —‘‘ wish.” 

3 So the ms., Hild., and Oehler, reading d-atio, approved of by 
Stewechius also. The others read 7- — ‘ reasoning on behalf.” 

4 [uct-ens, so corrected in the margin of Ursinus for Ms. zzg- 
—‘“‘huge.” Cf. ch. 18, p. 524, n. 10. 

S The ms. reads exczttata conatus (according to Hild.); 
rected, as above, by the insertion of ad. 


cor- 





which the goddess is especially esteemed ; nor 
should gravid and pregnant victims have been 
sacrificed to the Earth from respect for its fruit- 
fulness, which ® we all desire and wish to go on 
always in irrepressible fertility? For if because 
the Tritonian goddess is a virgin it is therefore 
fitting that virgin victims be sacrificed to her, 
and zf because the Earth is a mother she is in 
like manner to be entertained with gravid swine, 
then also Apollo should be honoured by the sac- 
rifice of musicians because he is a musician ; 
Esculapius, because he is a physician, by the 
sacrifice of physicians; and because he is an 
artificer, Vulcan by the sacrifice of artificers ; and 
because Mercury is eloquent, sacrifice should be 
made to him with the eloquent and most fluent. 
But if it is madness to say this, or, to speak with 
moderation, nonsense, that shows much greater 
madness to slaughter pregnant swe to the 
Earth because she is even more prolific; puve 
and virgin hezfers to Minerva because she is 
pure, of unviolated virginity. 

23. For as to that which we hear said by you, 
that some of the gods are good, that others, 
on the contrary, are bad, and rather inclined to 
indulge in wanton mischief,’ and that the usual 
rites are paid to the one party that they may 
show favour, but to the others that they may not 
do you harm, —with what reason this is said, 
we confess that we cannot understand. For to 
say that the gods are most benevolent, and have 
gentle dispositions, is not only pious and _reli- 
gious, but also true; but that they are evil and 
sinister, should by no means be listened to, in- 
asmuch as that divine power has been far re-. 
moved and separated from the disposition which 
does harm.? But whatever can occasion calam- 
ity, it must first be seen what it is, and shen it 
should be removed very far from the name of 
deity. 

Then, supposing that we should agree with you 
that the gods promote good fortune and calam- 
ity, not even in this case is there any reason why 
you should allure some of them to grant you 
prosperity, and, on the other hand, coax others 
with sacrifices and rewards not to do you harm. 
First, because the good gods cannot act badly, 
even if they have been worshipped with no hon- 
our, -— for whatever is mild and placid by nature, 
is separated widely from the practice and devising 
of mischief ; while the bad knows not to restrain 
his ferocity, although he should be enticed # do 
so with a thousand flocks and a thousand altars. 
For neither can bitterness change itself into 
sweetness, dryness into moisture, the heat of 





6 eget i.e., the earth. 
ingularly enough, for fecunds ‘tate Oberthiir reads uirginitate 
tiaeseaguepable virginity,” which is by no means universally 
desired i in the earth. Orelli, as usual, copies without remark the mis- 
take of his predecessor, 
8 Lit., ‘more prompt to lust of hurting.” 
9 Lit., “ nature of hurting.” 


en Ee Oe ee eee 


—— 











fire into cold, or what is contrary to anything 
take and change into its own nature that which 
is its opposite. So that, if you should stroke a 
viper with your hand, or caress a poisonous scor- 
pion, the former will attack you with its fangs, 
the latter, drawing itself together, will fix its sting 
in you, and your caressing will be of no avail, 


since both creatures are excited to do mischief, 


not by the stings of rage, but by a certain pecul- 
iarity of their nature. It is thus of no avail to wish 
to deserve well of the sinister deities by means 
of sacrifices, since, whether you do this, or on 
the contrary do not, they follow their own nature, 
and by inborn laws and a kind of necessity are 
led to those things, 70 do which ' they were made. 
Moreover, in this way? both &7zds of gods cease 
to possess their own powers, and to retain their 
own characters. For if the good are worshipped 
that they may be favourable, and supplication is 
made in the same way to the others, on the con- 
trary, that they may not be injurious, it follows 
that it should be understood that the propitious 
deities will show no favour if they receive no 
gifts, and become bad instead of good ;3 while, 
on the contrary, the bad, if they receive offerings, 
will lay aside their mischievous disposition, and 


_ become thereafter good: and thus it is brought 


to this issue, that neither are these propitious, 
nor are those sinister ; or, which is impossible, 
both are propitious, and both again sinister. 

24. Be it so; let it be conceded that shese 
most unfortunate cattle are not sacrificed in the 
temples of the gods without some religious obli- 
gation, and that what has been done in accord- 
ance with usage and custom possesses some 
rational ground: but if it seems a great and 
grand thing to slay bulls to the gods, and to burn 
in sacrifice the flesh of animals whole and entire, 
what is the meaning of these relics connected 
with the arts of the dZag¢ which the pontifical 
mysteries have restored to a place among the 
secret laws of the sacred rites, and have mixed 
up with religious affairs? What, I say, is the 
meaning of these things, apexaones, hircia, sili- 
cernia, longavi, which are names and kinds of 
sausages,‘ some stuffed with goats’ blood,5 others 
with minced liver? What zs the meaning of te- 
de, uenia, offz, not those used by the common 
people, but those named and called off penite ? 





1 The Ms. reads ad ea gue fact? sunt, understood seemingly as 
above by the edd., by supplying ad before gue. Oecehler, however, 
proposes guza — “ because they were made for them.” The read- 
ing must be regarded as doubtful. 

2 i.e., if sacrifices avail to counteract the malevolent dispositions 
of the gods. 

3 Lit., “these.” This clause, omitted by Oberthiir, is also omit- 
ted without remark by Orelli. 

4 So the edd., reading farciminum for the Ms. factnorum, cor- 
rected by Hild. fartorum—“ of stuffings.” Throughout this pas- 
sage hardly one of the names of these sacrificial dainties is generally 
agreed upon; as many are met with nowhere else, the ms. has been 
adhered to strictly. 

5 16. robabty the Azrcz@. of the others, s¢zcernza seem to have 
been put on the table at funerals. 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





527 


—of which the first® is fat cut into very small 
pieces, as dainties7 are; that which has been 
placed second is the extension of the gut by which 
the excrements are given off after being drained 
of all their nourishing juices; while the ofa 
penita is a beast’s tail cut off with a morsel of 
flesh. What zs the meaning of polimina, omenta, 
palasea, or, as some call it, plasea ?— of which 
that named omentum is a certain part enclosed 
by the reservoirs of the belly are kept within 
bounds ; the A/asea is an ox’s tail® besmeared 
with flour and blood; the poiimina, again, are 
those parts which we with more .decency call 
proles, —by the vulgar, however, they are usu- 
ally termed ¢eses. What 7s the meaning of fitilla, 
Srumen, africia, gratilla, catumeum, cumspohum, 
cubula ?— of which the first two are names of 
species of pottage, but differing in kind and qual- 
ity ; while the series of names which follows de- 
notes consecrated cakes, for they are not shaped 
in one and the same way. For we do not choose 
to mention the caro strebula which is taken from 
the haunches of bulls, the roasted pieces of meat 
which are spitted, the intestines first heated, and 
baked on glowing coals, nor, finally, the pickles,? 
which are made by mixing four kinds of fruit. 
In like manner, we do not choose to mention the 
Jendica, which also are the hzve,'° which the lan- 
guage of the mob, when it speaks, usually terms 
lia; ** nor, in the same way, the erumne,’ which 
are the first part of the gullet,’ where ruminating 
animals are accustomed to send down their food 
and bring it back again; nor the magmenta,"* 
augmina, and thousand other kinds of sausages 
or pottages which you have given unintelligible 
names to, and have caused to be more revered 
by common people. 

25. For if whatever is done by men, and es- 
pecially in religion, should have its causes, — 
and nothing should be done without a reason in 
all that men do and perform, — tell us and say 
what is the cause, what the reason, that these 
things also are given to the. gods and burned 
upon their sacred altars? For here we delay, 
constrained most urgently ¢o waz? for this cause, 
we pause, we stand fast, desiring to learn what 
a god has to do with pottage, with cakes, with 
different Aznds of stuffing prepared in manifold 
ways, and with different ingredients? Are the 





6 i.e., teda. 

7 So Salmasius and Meursius corrected the ms. cat7Wlaminu-a-m 
by omitting @. 

8 i.e., tail-piece. 

9 Salsamina, by which is perhaps meant the grits and salt cast 
on the victim; but if so, Arnobius is at variance with Servius (Virgil, 
£cl., viii. 8), who expressly states that these were of spelt mixed 
only with salt; while there is no trace elsewhere of a different usage. 

10 The first four edd. retain the unintelligible ms. dre. 

II j.e., the entrails. The Ms., first four edd., and Elm. read z7/a. 

12 So the ms., LB., Oberthiir, Orelli, Hild., and Oehler; but 
@rumne is found in no other passage with this meaning. 

13 Lit., “‘ first heads in gullets.” 

14 By this, and the word which follows, we know trom the etymol- 
ogy that “‘ offerings” to the gods must be meant, but we know nothing 
more. 


528 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





deities affected by splendid dinners or luncheons, 
so that it is fitting to devise for them feasts with- 
out number? Are they troubled by the loath- 
ings of their stomachs, and is variety of flavours 
sought for to get rid of their aversion, so that 
there is set before them meat at one time roasted, 
at another raw, and at another half cooked and 
half raw? But if the gods like to receive all 
these parts which you term /resicig,' and if 
these gratify them with any sense of pleasure or 
delight, what prevents, what hinders you from 
laying all these upon “heir altars at once with 
the whole animals? What cause, what reason 
is there that the haunch-piece? by itself, the 
gullet, the tail, and the tail-piece3 separately, 
the entrails only, and the membrane‘ alone, 
should be brought to do them honour? Are the 
gods of heaven moved by various condiments? 
After stuffing themselves with sumptuous and 
ample dinners, do they, as is usually done, take 
these little bits as sweet dainties, not to appease 
their hunger, but to rouse their wearied palates,5 
and excite in themselves a perfectly voracious 
appetite? O wonderful greatness of the gods, 
comprehended by no men, understood by no 
creatures! if indeed their favours are bought 
with the testicles and gullets of beasts, and if 
they do not lay aside their anger and resentment, 
unless they see the entrails® prepared and offe 
bought and burned upon their altars. 

26. We have now to say a few words about 
incense and wine, for these, too, are connected 
and mixed up with your ceremonies,”’and are 
used largely in your religious acts. And, first, 
with respect to that very incense which you use, 
we ask this of you particularly, whence or at 
what time you have been able to become ac- 
quainted with it, and to know it, so that you 
have just reason to think that it is either worthy 
to be given to the gods, or most agreeable to 
their desires. For it is almost a novelty; and 
there is no endless succession of years since it 
began to be known in these parts, and won its 
way into the shrines of the gods. For neither 
in the heroic ages, as it is believed and declared, 
was it known what incense was, as is proved by 
the ancient writers, in whose books is found no 
mention ® of it; nor was Etruria, the parent and 
mother of superstition, acquainted with its fame 
and renown, as the rites of the chapels prove ; 





1 i.e., cut off for sacrifice. 

2 Caro strebula, 

3 Plasea, 

4 The ms, reads unintelligibly xo»men gue, corrected by Gelenius 
omentum, as above. 

$ Lit., ‘admonish the ease of the palate; ” a correction of Salma- 
sius, by omitting a from the ms, palatz-a admoneant. 

6 Nenia. 

7 Lit., ‘‘ these kinds of ceremonies, too, were coupled and mixed,” 
etc. 

8 On this Oehler remarks, that the books of Moses show that it 
was certainly used in the East in the most ancient times. But Arno- 
bius has expressly restricted his statement to the use of incense “in 
these parts.” 


- 











nor was it used by any one in offering sacrifice 
during the four hundred years in which Alba 
flourished ; nor did even Romulus or Numa, who 
was skilful in devising new ceremonies, know 
either of its existence or growth, as the sacred 
grits? show with which it was customary that the 
usual sacrifices should be performed. Whence, 
therefore, did its use begin to be adopted? 
or what desire of novelty assailed the old and 
ancient custom, so that that which was not 
needed for so many ages took the first place in 
the ceremonies? For if without incense the 
performance of a religious service is imperfect, 
and if a quantity of it is necessary to make the 
celestials gentle and propitious to men, the an- 
cients fell into sin, nay rather, their whole life 
was full of guilt, for they carelessly neglected to 
offer that which was most fitted to give pleasure 
to the gods. But if in ancient times neither men 
nor gods sought for this incense, it is proved 
that to-day also that is offered uselessly and in 
vain which antiquity did not believe necessary, 
but modern times desired without any reason.’° 
247. Finally, that we may always abide by the 
rule and definition by which it has been shown 
and determined that whatever is done by man 
must have its causes, we will hold it fast here 
also, so as to demand of you what is the cause, 
what the reason, that incense is put on the altars 
before the very images of the deities, and that, 
from its being burned, they are supposed to be- 
come friendly and gentle. What do they acquire 
from this being done, or what reaches their 
minds, so that we should be right in judging that 
these things are well expended, and are not con- 
sumed uselessly and in vain? For as you should 
show why you give incense to the gods, so, too, 
it follows that you should manifest that the gods 
have some reason for not rejecting it with dis- 
dain, nay more, for desiring it so fondly. We 
honour the gods with this, some one will perhaps 
say. But we are not inquiring what your feeling 
is, but the gods’ ; nor do we ask what is done by 
you, but how much they value what is done to 
purchase their favour. But yet, O piety, what or 
how great is this honour which is caused by the 
odour of a fire, and produced from the gum of 
a tree? For, lest you should happen not to 
know what this incense is, or what is its origin, 
it is a gum flowing from the bark of trees, 7us¢ 
as from the almond-tree, the cherry-tree, solidi- 
fying as it exudes in drops. Does this, then, 
honour and magnify the celestial dignities? or, 
if their displeasure has been at any time excited, 
is it melted away before the smoke of incense, 
and lulled to sleep, their anger being moderated ? 
Why, then, do you not burn indiscriminately the 
juice of any tree whatever, without making any 


- 





9 Prum far. 
10 [See p. 519, note 1, supra.] 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





distinction? For if the deities are honoured by 
this, and are not displeased that Panchean gums 
are burned to them, what does it matter from 
what the smoke proceeds on your sacred altars, 
or from what kind of gum the clouds of fumiga- 
tion arise ? 

28. Will any one say that incense is given to 
the celestials, for this reason, that it has a sweet 
smell, and imparts a pleasant sensation to the 
nose, while the rest are disagreeable, and have 
been set aside because of their offensiveness? 
Do the gods, then, have nostrils with which to 
breathe? do they inhale and respire currents of 
air so that the qualities of different smells can 
penetrate them? But if we allow that this is 
the case, we make them subject to the condi- 
tions of humanity, and shut them out from the 
limits of deity ; for whatever breathes and draws 
in draughts of air, to be sent back in the same 
way, must be mortal, because it is sustained by 
feeding on the atmosphere. But whatever is 
sustained by feeding on the atmosphere, if you 
take away the means by which communication 
is kept up,’ its life must be crushed out, and its 
vital principle must be destroyed and lost. So 
then, if the gods also breathe and inhale odours 
enwrapt in the air that accompanies them, it is 
not untrue to say that they live upon what is re- 
ceived from others,? and that they might perish 
if their air-holes were blocked up. And whence, 
lastly, do you know whether, if they are charmed 
by the sweetness of smells, the same things are 
pleasant to them which ave pleasant to you, and 
charm and affect your different natures with a 
similar feeling? May it not be possible that the 
things which give pleasure to you, seem, on the 
contrary, harsh and disagreeable to them? For 
since the opinions of the gods are not the same, 
and their substance not one, by what methods 
can it be. brought about that that which is unlike 
in quality should have the same feeling and per- 
ception as to that which touches it.3 Do we not 
every day see that, even among the creatures 
sprung from the earth, the same things are either 
bitter or sweet to different species, that to some 
things are fatal which are not pernicious to 
others, so that the same things which charm 
some with their delightful odours, give forth 
exhalations deadly to the bodies of others? But 
the cause of this is not in the things which can- 
not be at one and the same time deadly and 
wholesome, sweet and bitter; but just as each 
one has been formed to receive impressions from 
what is external,‘ so he is affected :5 his condi- 


! Lit., ‘ the returns by which the vital alternation is restored and 
withdrawn.” 

2 So the s., Hild., and Oehler, reading suffec-tiontbus alienis, 
for which the rest read sufi- — “‘ the fumigations of others.” 

3 Lit., “* feel and receive one contact.’ 

4 Lit., ‘‘as each has been made for the touching of a thing coming 
from without.” 

5 So Gelenius and later edd., reading aficttur for the unintelligi- 
ble reading of Ms. and Roman edd., eficz# — “‘ effects.” 














tion is not caused by the influences of the things, 
but springs from the nature of his own senses, 
and connection with the external. But all this 
is set far from the gods, and is separated from 
them by no small interval. For if it is true, as 
is believed by the wise, that they are incorpo- 
real, and not supported by any excellence of 
bodily strength, an odour is of no effect upon 
them, nor can reeking fumes move them by 
their senses, not even if you were to set on fire 
a thousand pounds of the finest incense, and the 
whole sky were clouded with the darkness of 
the abundant vapours. For that which does not 
have dodily strength and corporeal substance, 
cannot be touched by corporeal substance ; but 
an odour is corporeal, as is shown by the nose 
when touched dy one: therefore it cannot, ac- 
cording to reason, be felt by a deity, who has no 
body, and is without any feeling and thought.® 
29. Wine is used along with incense ; and of 
this, in like manner, we ask an explanation why 
it is poured upon it when burning. For if a 
reason is not? shown for doing this, and its 
cause is not® set forth, this action of yours must 
not now be attributed to a ridiculous error, but, 
to speak more plainly, to madness, foolishness, 
blindness. For, as has been already said pretty 
frequently, everything which is done should have 
its cause manifest, and not involved in any dark 
obscurity. If, therefore, you have confidence in 
what is done, disclose, point out why that liquor 
is offered ; that is, wy wine is poured on the 
altars. For do the bodies of the deities feel 
parching thirst, and is it necessary that their dry- 
ness be tempered by some moisture? Are they 
accustomed, as men are, to combine eating and 
drinking? In like manner, also, after the solid 9 
food of cakes and pottages, and victims slain 7” 
honour of them, do they drench themselves, and 
make themselves merry with very frequent cups 
of wine, that their food may be more easily 
softened, and thoroughly digested? Give, I beg, 
to the immortal gods to drink ; bring forth gob- 
lets, bowls,'° ladles, and cups ; and as they svuff 
themselves with bulls, and luxurious feasts, and 
rich food,—lest some piece of flesh hastity 
gulped down should stick in passing through the 
stomach, run up, hasten, give pure wine to Jupi- 
ter, the most excellent, the supreme, lest he be 
choked. He desires to break wind, and is un- 





6 So all edd., without remark, reading cog-zt-atione, althcugk 
“ meditation ” has nothing to do with the sense of smell, and has not 
been previously mentioned. We should probably read cog-2-atioue — 
‘ relation,” i.e., to such objects. 

7 So LB. and Oehler, reading 72-sz. (MS. sz), and other edd. insert- 
ing #oz, the negative being absolutely necessary to the sense, and 
supplied in the next clause. 

Lit., ‘* nor will it have its cause.” 

9 Although this is clearly the meaning, Stewechius explained so/7- 
dos by referring to the ancient belief that such offerings should be 
wholly consumed, and no fragment left. 

to Brie, drinking-cups, but of their peculiar shape or purpose we 
know nothing. 
It Lit., badly.” 


530 


able; and unless that hindrance passes away 
and is dissolved, there is very great danger that 
his breathing will be stopped and‘ interrupted, 
and heaven be left desolate without its rulers. 
30. But, says my opponent, you are insulting 
us without reason, for we do not pour forth wine 
to the gods of heaven for these reasons, as if we 
supposed that they either thirsted, or drank, or 
were made glad by tasting its sweetness. It is 
given to them to do them honour; that their 
eminence may become more exalted, more illus- 
trious, we pour libations on their altars, and 
with the Aaéf-extinguished embers we raise sweet 
smells,2 which show our reverence. And what 
‘greater insult can be inflicted upon the gods 
than if you believe that they become propitious 
on receiving wine, or, if you suppose that great 
honour is done to them, if you only throw and 
drop on the live coals a few drops of wine? 
We are not speaking to men void of reason, or 
not possessed of common understanding : in you, 
too, there is wisdom, there is perception, and in 
your hearts you know, by your own} judgment, 
that we are speaking truly. But what can we do 
with those who are utterly unwilling to consider 
things as they are, to converse themselves with 
themselves? For you do what you see to be 
done, not that which you are assured should be 
done, inasmuch* as with you a custom without 
reason prevails, more than a perception of the 
nature of circumstances based on a careful ex- 
amination of the truth. For what has a god to 
do with wine? or what or how great is the power 
in it, that, on its being poured out, his eminence 
becomes greater, and his dignity is supposed # 
be honoured? What, I say, has a god to do 
with wine, which is most closely connected with 
the pursuits of Venus, which weakens the strength 
of all virtues, amd is hostile to the decency of 
modesty and chastity, — which has often excited 
men’s minds, and urged them to madness and 
frenzy, and compelled the gods to destroy their 
own authority by raving avd foul language? Is 
not this, then, impious, and perfectly sacrilegious, 
to give that as an honour which, if you take too 
eagerly, you know not what you are doing, you 
are ignorant of what you are saying, avd at last 
are reviled, and become infamous as a drunkard, 
a luxurious and abandoned fellow? 

31. It is worth while to bring forward the 
words themselves also, which, when wine is of- 
fered, it is customary to use and make supplica- 
tion with: “Let the deity be worshipped with 








I Lit., “‘ being strangled, may be.” 

2 So Les Orelli, and Oehler, reading with Salmasius 7--scos 
(Ms. -z-). Gelenius proposed czzssas, which would refer to the steam 
of the sacrifices. 

3 Lit., ‘‘ interior.” 

4 So most edd., reading xtmzrum quia plus valet, for which the 
Ms., followed b both Roman edd., Hild., and Oehler, read primum 
q: 2. ; which | ild. would explain, “because it prevails above all 
rather than;” but this is at least very doubtful. 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


-—_—_ 


this wine which we bring.”’5 The words “ which 
we bring,” says Trebatius, are added for this pur- 
pose, and put forth for this reason, that all the 
wine whatever which has been laid up in closets 
and storerooms, from which was taken that which 
is poured out, may not begin to be sacred, and 
be reft from the use of men. This word, then, 
being added, that alone will be sacred which is 
brought to ¢he place, and the rest will not be con- 
secrated.© What kind of honour, then, is this, in 
which there is imposed on the deity a condition,” 
as it were, not to ask more than has been given? 
or what is the greed of the god, who, if he were 
not verbally interdicted, would extend his desires 
too far, and rob his suppliant of his stores? 
“Let che deity be worshipped with this wine 
which we bring :”’ this isa wrong, not an honour. 
For what if the deity shall wish for more, and 
shall not be content with what is brought! 
Must he not be said to be signally wronged who 
is compelled to receive honour conditionally? 
For if all wine in cellars whatever must become 
consecrated were a limitation not added, it is 
manifest both that the god is insulted to whom 
a limit is prescribed against his wishes, and that 


in sacrificing: you yourselves violate the obliga- 


tions of the sacred rites, who do not give as 
much wine as you see the god wishes to be given 
to himself. ‘‘ Let she deity be worshipped with 
this wine which we bring :” what is this. but say- 
ing, “‘ Be worshipped as much as I choose ; re- 
ceive as much dignity as I prescribe, as much 
honour as I decide and determine by a strict 
engagement ® that you should have?” O sub- 
limity of the gods, excelling in power, which 
thou shouldst venerate and worship with all cere- 
monial observances, but on which the worshipper 
imposes conditions, which he adores with stipu- 
lations and contracts, which, through fear of one 
word, is kept from excessive desire of wine ! 

32. But let there be, as you wish, honour in 
wine and in incense, let the anger and displeas- 
ure of the deities be appeased by the immola- 
tion and slaughter of victims: are the gods 
moved by garlands also, wreaths and flowers, by 
the jingling of brass also, and the shaking of 
cymbals, by timbrels also, aza@ also by sympho- 
nious fzpes?9 What effect has the clattering of 
castanets, that when the deities have heard them, 
they think that honour has been shown to them, 
and lay aside their fiery spirit of resentment in 
forgetfulness? Or, as little boys are frightened 
into giving over their silly wailings by hearing 





: Vino inferio. 

6 Lit., ‘‘ bound by religion.” 

7 This is admirably illustrated in an inscription quoted by Heral- 
dus: “ Jupiter most excellent, supreme, when this day I give and 
dedicate to thee this altar, I give and dedicate it with these conditions 
and limits which I say openly to-day.” 

Circumscriptione verborum, 

9 Symphonie, Evidently musical instruments; but while Isidore 
speaks of them as a kind of drum, other writers call them trumpet 
and pipes. 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





_ the sound of rattles, are the almighty deities also 
soothed in the same way by the whistling of 
pipes? and do they become mild, 2s their indig- 
“nation softened, at the musical sound of cym- 
bals? What is the meaning of those callst which 
you sing in the morning, joining your voices to 
the music of the pipe? Do the gods of heaven 
fall asleep, so that they should return to. their 
‘posts? What zs che meaning of those slumbers * 
to which you commend them with auspicious sal- 
tations that they may be in good health? Are 
they awakened from sleep; and that they may 
‘be able. to be overcome by it, must soothing lul- 
labies be heard? The purification, says my of- 
ponent, of the mother of the gods is to-day.2_ Do 
the gods, then, become dirty ; and to get rid of 
the filth, do those who wash ¢hem need water, 
and even some cinders to rub them with?3 The 
feast of Jupiter is to-morrow. Jupiter, I sup- 
pose, dines, and must be satiated with great 
banquets, and long filled with eager cravings for 
Jood by fasting, and hungry after the usual ¢ in- 
terval. The. vintage festival of Asculapius is 
being celebrated. The gods, then, cultivate vine- 
yards, and, having collected gatherers, press the 
wine for their own uses.5 The ectisternium of 
Ceres® will be on the next Ides, for the gods 
have couches ; and that they may be able to lie 
on softer cushions, the pillows are shaken up 
when they have been pressed down.” It is the 
birthday of Ze//us ;*® for the gods are born, and 
have festal days on which it has been settled 
that they began to breathe. 

33. But the games which you celebrate, called 


Florahia and Megalensia,9 and all the rest which } 


you wish to be sacred, and to be considered re- 
ligious duties, what reason have they, what cause, 
that it was necessary that they should be insti- 
tuted and founded and designated by the names *° 
of deities? The gods are honoured by these, 
says my opponent, and if. they have any recol- 
lection of offences committed 't by men, they lay 





1 At daybreak on opening, and at night on closing the temple, the 
priests of Isis sang hymns in praise of the goddess (cf. Jos. Scaliger, 
Castigationes ad Cat., etc., p. 132); and to these Arnobius refers 
“sarcastically, as though they had been calls to awake, and lullabies to 
sing her asleep, : 

2 i,e., March 27th, marked Lavazzo in a calendar prepared during 
the reign of Constantius. 

3 Lit., “and some rubbing of cinders added,” alzgua frictrone 
ctnerts ; an emendation of Ursinus for the possibly correct MS. anztz- 
qua f. c. —‘‘ the ancient rubbing,” i.e., that practised in early times. 

4 Lit., “anniversary.” 

5 So the later edd., adopting the emendation of ad suas usiones 
for the corrupt Ms. ad (or ab) suastontbus. 

6 i.e., feast at which the image of Ceres was placed on a couch, 
probably the Cereadza, celebrated in April. This passage flatly con- 
tradicts Prof, Ramsay’s assertion (Az., p. 345) that dectzsternzum is 
not applied to a: banquet offered to a goddess; while it corroborates 
his statement that such feasts were ordinary events, not extraordinary 
solemnities, as Mr. Yates says (Smith’s Azt.,s. v.). See p. 519, n. 2. 

7 Lit., *‘ the impression of-the cushions 1s lifted up and raised,” 
i.e., smoothed. : : 

8 Thus the 25th of January is marked as the birthday of the 
Graces, the rst of February as that of Hercules, the 1st of March as 
that of Mars, in the calendar already mentioned. - 

9 ‘Lhe former dedicated to Flora (cf. iii. 25), the latter to Cybele. 

to Singular. 

11 So the margin of Ursinus, Elm., LB., Orelli, Hild., and 
Oehler; the ms. reading not being known. 





53! 


it aside, get rid of it, and show themselves gra- 
cious to us again, their friendship being renewed. 
And what is the cause, again, that they are made 
quite calm and gentle, if absurd things are done, 
and idle fellows sport before the eyes of the 
multitude? Does Jupiter lay aside his resent- 
ment if the Amphitryon of Plautus is acted and 
declaimed? or if Europa, Leda, Ganymede, or 
Dane is represented by dancing, does he restrain 
his passionate impulses? Is the Great Mother 
rendered more calm, more gentle, if she beholds 
the old story of Attis furbished up by the play- 
ers? Will Venus forget her displeasure if she 
sees mimics act the part of Adonis also in a bal- 
let? 2 Does the anger of Alcides die away if the 
tragedy of Sophocles named 7Z7rachinia, or the 
Flercules of Euripides, is acted? or does Flora 
think 3 that honour is shown to her if at her 
games she sees that shameful actions are done, 
and the stews abandoned for the theatres? Is 
not this, then, to lessen the dignity of the gods, 
to dedicate and consecrate to them the basest 
things which a rigidly virtuous mind will turn 
from with disgust, the performers of which your 
law has decided to be dishonoured and to be 
considered infamous? ‘The gods, forsooth, de- 
light in mimics ; and that surpassing excellence 
which has not been comprehended by any human 
faculty, opens ‘+ its ears most willingly to hear 
these A/ays, with most of which they know they 
are mixed up to be turned to derision ; they are 
delighted, as it is, with the shaved heads of the 
fools, by the sound of flaps, and by the zozse of 
applause, by shameful actions and words, by huge 
red fascina. But further, if they see men weak- 
ening themselves to the effeminacy of women, 
some vociferating uselessly, others running about 
without. cause,'5 others, while their friendship is 
unbroken, bruising and maiming each with the 
bloody cestus, these contending in speaking with- 
out drawing breath,'® swelling out their cheeks 
with wind, and shouting out noisily empty vows, 
do they lift up their hands to heaven zm fheir 
admiration, start up moved by such wonders, 
burst into exclamations, again become gracious 
to men? If these things cause the gods to for- 
get their resentment, if they derive the highest 
pleasure from comedies, Atellane farces, and 
pantomimes, why do you delay, why do you 
hesitate, to say that the gods themselves also 
play, act lasciviously, dance, compose obscene 
songs, and undulate with trembling haunches? 





12 Lit., “in dancing motions.” 

13 So Meursius, Orelli, and Oehler, reading exzstzmat-ve, all the 
others retaining the Ms. -%7-—‘‘Is Flora thought to be treated,” 
etc. 

14 Lit., “‘ adapts.” 

15 Here also there is doubt as to what the reading of the Ms. is. 
The rst ed. reads sze culpa —“‘ without blame,” which is hardly in 
keeping with the context, emended causa, as above, by Gelenius. 

16 So Orelli explains certare hos spiritu as referring to a contest 
in which each strove to speak or sing with one breath longer than the 
rest. 


532 


For what difference is there, or what does it mat- 
ter, whether they do these things themselves, or are 
pleased and delighted to see them done by others ? 
34. Whence, therefore, have these vicious 
opinions flowed, or from what causes have they 
sprung? From this it is clear, in great measure, 
that men ave unable to know what God is, 
what is His essence, nature, substance, quality ; 
whether He has a form, or is limited by no bodily 
outline, does anything or not, is ever watchful, 
or is at times sunk in slumbers, runs, sits, walks, 
or is free from such motions and inactivity. Be- 
ing, as I have said, unable to know all these 
things, or to discern them by any power of rea- 
son, they fell into these fanciful beliefs, so that 
they fashioned gods after themselves, and gave 
to these such a nature as they have themselves, 
in actions, circumstances, and desires. But if 
they were to perceive that they are worthless 
creatures,’ and that there is no great difference 
between themselves and a little ant, they would 
cease, indeed, to think that they have anything 
in common with the gods of heaven, and would 
confine their unassuming insignificance? within 
its proper limits. But now, because they see 
that they themselves have faces, eyes, heads, 
cheeks, ears, noses, and all the other parts of our 
limbs and muscles, they think that the gods also 
have been formed in the same way, that the 
divine nature is embodied in a human frame ;3 
and because they perceive that they themselves 
rejoice and are glad, and again are made sad by 
what is too disagreeable, they think that the 
deities also on joyous occasions are glad, and on 
less pleasant ones become dejected. They see 
that they are affected by the games, and think 
that the minds of the celestials are soothed by 
enjoying games ; and because they have pleasure 
in refreshing themselves with warm baths, they 
think that the cleanness produced by ¢ bathing is 
pleasing to the gods above. We men gather our 
vintages, and they think and believe that the 
gods gather and bring in their grapes ; we have 
birthdays, and they affirm that the powers of 
heaven have birthdays. But if they could 
ascribe to the gods ill-health, sickness, and bodily 
disease, they would not hesitate to say that they 
were splenetic, blear-eyed, and ruptured, because 
they are themselves both splenetic, and often 
blear-eyed, and weighed down by huge hernia. 
35. Come now: as the discussion has been 
prolonged and led to these points, let us, bring- 
ing forward what each has to say,° decide by a 
brief comparison whether your ideas of the gods 





Lit., “an animal of no value.” 

Lit., “‘ the modesty of their humility.” 

Latics they contain their nature in a corporeal form.” 
Diteyt Ot 

Cf. p. 531, n. 8. 
Litspes ee opposition of the parts of each.” Considerable diffi- 
culty has been felt as to the abrupt way in which the book ends as it 
is arranged in the Ms. Orelli has therefore adopted the suggestion of 


CuR Wwe 

















yh. 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN, 


erent ES ae 


above are the better, or our thoughts preferable, 
and much more honourable and just, and such as 
to give and assign its own dignity to the divine 
nature. And, first, you declare that the gods, 
whom you either think or believe to exist, of 
whom you have set up images and statues in all 
the temples, were born and produced from the 
germs of males and females, under the necessary 
condition of sexual embraces. But we, on the 
contrary, if they are indeed true gods. and have 
the authority, power, dignity of this name, con- 
sider that they must either be unbegotten, for it 
is pious to believe this, or, if they have a be- 
ginning in7 birth, it belongs to the supreme God 
to know by what methods He made them, or 
how many ages there are since He granted to 
them to enter upon the eternal being of His own 
divine nature. You consider that the deities have 
sexes, and that some of them are male, others 
female; we utterly deny that the powers of 
heaven have been distinguished by sexes, since 
this distinction has been given to the creatures 
of earth which the Author of the universe willed 
should embrace and generate, to provide, by 
their carnal desires, one generation of offspring 
after another. You think that they are like men, 
and have been fashioned with the countenances 
of mortals; we think that the images of them 
are wide of the mark,’ as form belongs to a 
mortal body; and if they have any, we swear 
with the utmost earnestness and confidence that 
no man can comprehend it. By you they are 
said to have each his trade, like artisans; we 
laugh when we hear you say such things, as we 
hold and think that professions are not necessary 
to gods, and it is certain and evident that these 
have been provided to assist poverty. 

36.9 You say that some of them cause dissen- 
sions, that there are others who inflict pesti- 
lences, others who excite love and madness, 
others, even, who preside over wars, and are 
delighted by the shedding of blood; but we, 
indeed, on the contrary, judge that ¢hese things 
are remote’? from the dispositions of the deities ; 


an anonymous critic, and transposed cc. 35, 36, 37 to the end. This 
does not, however, meet the difficulty; for the same objection still 
holds good, that there is a want of connection and harmony in these 
concluding chapters, and that, even when thus arranged, they do not 
form a fitting conclusion to the whole work, 

Tit hvote 

8 Lit., “that effigies have been far removed from them.” This 
may be understood, either as meaning that the gods had not visible 
form at all, or, as above, that their likenesses made by men showed 
no resemblance, 

9 50 in Orelli, 

Io jt is important to notice the evidence in this one sentence of 
haste and want of revision. In the first line we find a genitive (d7s- 
cordiarum —“ dissensions”’), but not the noun on which it depends; 
and in the apodosis a verb (dzs7unctas esse — ‘‘ have been removed,” 
i.e., ‘are remote”) has no subject, although its gender ipo CE 
requires that Aas res, or some such words, be supplied. ne omis- 
sion might have been easily ascribed to a slip on the part of the copy- 
ist; but two omissions such as these occurring so closely, must, it 
would seem, be assigned to the impetuous disregard of sznuti@ with 
which Arnobius blocked out a conclusion which was never carefully 
revised. (Cf. Appendix, note 1, and p. 539, n. 8.) The importance 
of such indications is manifest in forming an opinion on the contre- 
versy as to this part of the work, 





t 





or if there are any who inflict and bring these 
ills on miserable mortals, we maintain that they 
are far from the nature of the gods, and should 
not be spoken of under this name. You judge 
that the deities are angry and perturbed, and 
given over and subject to the other mental affec- 
tions ; we think that such emotions are alien 
from them, for ¢hese suit savage beings, and those 
who die as mortals.'. You think that they re- 
joice, are made glad, and are reconciled to men, 
their offended feelings being soothed by the 
blood of beasts and the slaughter of victims ; 
we hold that there is in the celestials no love 
of blood, and that they are not so stern as to 
lay aside their resentment only when glutted 
with the slaughter of animals. You think that, 
by wine and incense, honour is given to the 
gods, and their dignity increased ; we judge it 
marvellous and monstrous that any man thinks 
that the deity either becomes more venerable by 
reason of smoke,? or thinks himself supplicated 


_by men with sufficient awe and respect when 


they offer3 a few drops of wine. You are per- 
suaded that, by the crash of cymbals and the 
sound of pipes, by horse-races and theatrical 
plays, the gods are both delighted and affected, 
and that their resentful feelings conceived before + 
are mollified by the satisfaction which these 
things give; we hold it 7 de out of place, nay 
more, we judge it incredible, that those who have 
surpassed by a thousand degrees every kind of 
excellence in the height of their perfection, 
should be pleased and delighted with those 
things which a wise man laughs at, and which 
do not seem to have any charm except to little 
children, coarsely and vulgarly educated. 

37. Since these things are so, and since there 
is so great difference between 3 our opinions and 
yours, where are we, on the one hand, impicus, 
or you pious, since the decision as to3 piety and 
impiety must be founded on the opinions of the 
two parties? For he who makes himself an 
image which he may worship for a god, or 
slaughters an innocent beast, and burns it on 
consecrated altars, must not be held to be de- 
voted to religion.’ Opinion constitutes religion, 
and a right way of thinking about the gods, so 
that you do not think that they desire anything 
contrary to what becomes their exalted position, 
which is manifest.© For since we see all the 
things which are offered to them consumed here 
under our eyes, what else can be said to reach 





1 Lit, ‘are of . . . those meeting the functions of mortality,” 
obeunti-um, corrected by Gelenius (according to Orelli) for the ms. 
-bus, retained, though unintelligible, by Canterus, Oberth., and 
Hild. 

2 oes P: 519, note r, and p. 528, cap. 26, supra.]} 

3 Lit., “of.” [Cap. 29, p. 529, supra.] 

+ Lit., “some time.” 

5 Lit., *“‘ divine things,” é 

6 So the ms., both Roman edd. Hild., and Ochler, reading 
prompiea; corrected presumpte —~“ taken for granted,” in the 
fest- 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 











533 


them from us than opinions worthy of the gods, 
and most appropriate to their name? ‘These 
are the surest gifts, these true sacrifices; for 
gruel, incense, and flesh feed the devouring 
flames, and agree very well with the parentalia7 
of the dead. 

38.8 If the immortal gods cannot be angry, 
says my opponent, and their nature is not agi- 
tated or troubled by any passions, what do the 
histories, the annals mean, in which we find it 
written? that the gods, moved by some annoy- 
ances, occasioned pestilences, sterility,'° failure 
of crops, and other dangers, to states and na- 
tions ; and that they again, being appeased and 
satisfied by means of! sacrifices, laid aside their 
burning anger, and changed the state of the 
atmosphere and times into a happier one? 
What 7s the meaning of the earth’s roarings, the 
earthquakes, which we have been told occurred 
because the games had been celebrated careless- 
ly, and their nature and circumstances had not 
been attended to, and yet, on their being cele- 
brated afresh, and repeated with assiduous care, 
the terrors of the gods were stilled, and ey were 
recalled to care and friendship for men? How 
often, after that —in obedience to the commands 
of the seers and the responses of the diviners 
—sacrifice has been offered, and certain gods 
have been summoned from nations dwelling be- 
yond the sea, and shrines erected to them, and 
certain images and statues set on loftier pillars, 
have fears of impending dangers been diverted, 
and the most troublesome enemies beaten, and 
the republic extended both by repeated joyous 
victories, and by gaining possession of several 
provinces! Now, certainly this would not hap- 
pen if the gods despised sacrifices, games, and 
other acts of worship, and did not consider them- 
selves honoured by expiatory offerings. If, then, 
all the rage and indignation of the deities are 
cooled when these things are offered, and if 
those things become favourable which seemed 
fraught with terrors, it is clear that all these 
things are not done without the gods wishing 
them, and that it is vain, and shows utter igno- 
rance, to blame us for giving them. 

39.12 We have come, then, in speaking, to 
the very point of the case, to that on which the 
question hinges, to the real and most intimate 
part of the discussion, which it is fitting that, 
laying aside superstitious dread, and putting away 
partiality, we should examine whether these are 
gods whom you assert to be furious when of- 
fended, and to be rendered mild by sacrifices ; 


7 i.e., offerings to parents, as the name implies, and other rela: 
tives who were dead. 
8 35 in Orelli. vi ‘ 
9 it. “in the writings of which we read.” 
To Pl. 
II Lit., “ by satisfaction of.” 
12 36 in Orelli. [See note 1, Appendix, p. 539, 2#/ra.] 


534 





or whether they are something far different, and 
should be separated from the notion of this 
name and power. For we do not deny that all 
these things are to be found in the writings of 
the annalists which have been brought forward 
by you in opposition ; for we ourselves also, ac- 
cording to the measure and capacity of our 
abilities, have read, and know, that it has been 
recorded that once at the /udi circenses, cele- 
brated in honour of Jupiter the supreme, a mas- 
ter dragged across the middle of the arena, and 
afterwards, according to custom, punished with 
the cross, a very worthless slave whom he had 
beaten with rods. Then, when the games were 
ended, and the races not long finished, a pesti- 
lence began to distress the state ; and when each 
day brought fresh ill worse than what was be- 
fore,t and the people were perishing in crowds, 
in a dream Jupiter said to a certain rustic, ob- 
scure from the lowliness of his lot, that he should 
go? to the consuls, point out that the dancer 3 
had displeased him, that it might be better for 
the state if the respect due to the games were 
paid to them, and they were again celebrated 
afresh with assiduous care. And when he had 
utterly neglected to do this, either because he 
supposed it was an empty dream, and would find 
no credence with those to whom he should tell 
it, or because, remembering his natural insignifi- 
cance, he avoided and dreaded approaching 
those who were so powerful,* Jupiter was ren- 
dered hostile to the lingerer, and imposed as 
punishment oz Aim the death of his sons. After- 
wards, when he5 threatened the man himself 
with death unless he went to announce his dis- 
approval of the dancer, — overcome by fear of 
dying, since he was already himself also burning 
with the fever of the plague, having been in- 
fected, he was carried to the senate-house, as 
his neighbours wished, and, when his vision had 
been declared, the contagious fever passed away. 
The repetition of the games being then decreed, 
great care was, on the one hand, given to the 
shows, and its former good health was restored 
to the people. 
40.° But neither shall we deny that we know 
this as well, that once on a time, when the state 
and republic were in difficulties, caused either 
by7 a terrible plague continually infecting the 
people and carrying them off, or by enemies 
powerful, and at that time almost threatening to 
rob it of its liberty® because of their success in 
battle, — by order and advice of the seers, cer- 








I Lit., “ added evil heavier than evil.” 

2 So later edd., reading vaderet from the margin of Ursinus, 
while the first three retain the Ms. reading suaderet — ‘‘ persuade.” 

3 Le., the slave writhing under the scourge. 

4 Lit., “* of so great power.’ 


ie., "Jupiter. 
7 in Orelli. 
rte “which either a . . . made,” etc. 
3 Lit., ‘‘ very near to danger of carrying off liberty,” 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 





tain gods? were summoned from among nations 
dwelling beyond the sea, and honoured with mag- 
nificent temples ; and that the violence of the 
plague abated, and very frequent triumphs were 
gained, the power of the enemy being broken, 
and the territory of the empire was increased, 
and provinces without number fell under your 
sway. But neither does this escape our knowl- 
edge, that we have seen it asserted that, when 
the Capitol was struck by a thunderbolt, and 
many other things in it, the image of Jupiter 
also, which stood on a lofty pillar, was hurled 
from its place. Thereafter a response was given 
by the soothsayers, that cruel and very sad mis- 
chances were portended from fire and slaughter, 
from the destruction of the laws, and the over- 
throw of justice, especially, however, from ene- 
mies themselves belonging to the nation, and 
from an impious band of conspirators ; but that 


these things could not be averted, nay, that the 


accursed designs could not be revealed, unless 
Jupiter were again set up firmly on a higher pil- _ 
lar, turned towards the east, and facing the rays 
of the vzs¢mg sun. Their words were trustworthy, 
for, when the pillar-was raised, and the statue 
turned towards the sun, the secrets were revealed, 
and the offences made known were punished. 
41.'° All these things which have been men- 
tioned, have indeed a miraculous appearance, — 
rather, they are believed to have it, —if they 
come to men’s ears just as they have been brought 
forward ; and we do not deny that there is in 
them something which, being placed in the fore 
front, as the saying is, may stun the ears, and 
deceive by its resemblance to truth. But if you 
will look closely at what was done, the person- 
ages and their pleasures,"' you will find that there 
is nothing worthy of the gods, and, as has already 
been said often, xothing worthy to be referred 
to the splendour and majesty of this race. For, 
first, who is there who will believe that he was 
a god who was pleased with horses running to 
no purpose,’? and considered it most delightful 
that he should be summoned %3 by such sports ? 
Rather, who is there who will agree that that was 
Jupiter — whom you call the supreme god, and 
the creator of all things which are — who set out 
from heaven to behold geldings vieing w7th each 
other in speed, and running ‘4 the seven rounds 
of the course; and that, although he had him- 
self determined that they should not be equally 
nimble, he nevertheless rejoiced to see them pass 





9 Chil. 73. 

To 38 1 in Orelii, 

11 So the ms., LB., Hild., and Oehler, reading Be IE: tates, i.e., 
the (games and feasts spoken of previously; the other edd. read - ne 
— “wishes.” 

12 Oehler explains frustra by ottose—‘‘ who was leisurely de- 
lighted; ” but there is no reason why it should not have its usual 
meaning, as above. [See note 1, Appendix, p. 539.] 

13 j.e., from heaven. Instead ‘of e- -vocart, however, Heraldus has 
proposed a-—‘‘be diverted. ; 

14 Lit.,‘‘ unfolding.” 





l 
i} 
nr 
4 
é 
; 
., 
4 
me 
2 
: 
a 
‘ 
4 ; 


a Se 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


535 





each other, and be passed, some in their haste 
falling forward upon their heads, ed overturned 
upon their backs along with their chariots, others 
dragged along and lamed, their legs being broken ; 
and that he considered as the highest pleasures 
fooleries mixed with trifles and cruelties, which 
any man, even though fond of pleasure, and not 
trained to strive after seriousness and dignity, 
would consider childish, and spurn as ridiculous ? 
Who is there, I say, who will believe — to repeat 
this word assiduously — that he was divine who, 
being irritated because @ s/ave was led across the 
circus, about to suffer and be punished as he de- 
served, was inflamed with anger, and prepared 
himself to take vengeance? For if the slave was 
guilty, and deserved to be punished with that 
chastisement, why should Jupiter have been 
moved with any indignation when nothing was 
being done unjustly, nay, when a guilty fellow 
was being punished, as was right? But if he 
was free from guilt, and not worthy of punish- 
ment at all, Fupiter himself was the cause of 
the dancer’s vitiating the games,’ for when he 
might have helped him, he did him no service — 
nay, sought both to allow what he disapproved, 
and to exact from others the penalty for what he 
had permitted. And why, then, did he complain 
and declare that he was wronged in the case of 
that dancer because he was ied through the midst 
of the circus to suffer the cross, with his back 
torn by rods and scourges ? 

42.7 And what pollution or abomination could 
have flowed from this, either to make the circus 
less pure, or to defile Jupiter, seeing that in a 
few moments, in @_/ew seconds, he beheld so 
many thousands throughout the world perish by 
different kinds of death, and with various forms 
of torture? He was led across, says my opponent, 
before the games began to be celebrated. If 
from a sacrilegious spirit and contempt? for re- 
ligion, we have reason to excuse Jupiter for being 
indignant that he was contemned, and that more 
anxious care was not given to his games. But 
if from mistake or accident that secret fault was 
not observed and known, would it not have been 
right and befitting Jupiter to pardon human fail- 
ings, and grant forgiveness to the blindness of 
ignorance? But it was necessary that it should 
be punished. And after this, will any one 
believe that he was a god who avenged and 
punished neglect of a childish show by the de- 
struction of a state? that he had any seriousness 
and dignity, or any steady constancy, who, that 
he might speedily enjoy pleasure afresh, turned 
the air men breathed ‘ into a baneful poison, and 
ordered the destruction of mortals by plague 





5 Lit., ‘‘ was in the cause of the vicious dancer.” 
9 in Orelli. 

3 3 & all edd., rejecting s from Ms. contemptu-s. 

4 Lit. * draughts of air,’ 





and pestilence? If the magistrate who presided 
over the games was too careless in learning who 
on that day had been led across the circus, and 
blame was therefore contracted, what had the 
unhappy people done that they should in their 
own persons suffer the penalty of another’s of- 
fences, and should be forced to hurry out of life 
by contagious pestilences? Nay, what had the 
women, whose weakness did not allow them to 
take part in public business, the grown-up $5 
maidens, the little boys, finally the young chil- 
dren, yet dependent for food on their nurses, — 
what had these done that they should be assailed 
with equal, with the same severity, and that 
before ¢hey tasted the joy of life® they should 
feel the bitterness of death? 

43.7 If Jupiter sought to have his games cele- 
brated, and that afresh,® with greater care ; if. 
he honestly sought to restore? the people to 
health, and that the evil which he had caused 
should go no further and not be increased, would 
it not have been better that he should come to 
the consul himself, to some one of the public 
priests, the pontfex maximus, or to his own 
fiamen Dials, and in a vision reveal to him the 
defect 7 the games occasioned by the dancer, 
and the cause of the sadness of the times? 
What reason had there been that he should 
choose, to announce his wishes and procure the 
satisfaction desired, a man accustomed to Ave 
im the country, unknown from the obscurity of 
his name, not acquainted with city matters, and 
perhaps not knowing what a dancer is? And 
if he indeed knew, as he must have known if 
he was a diviner,'° that this fellow would refuse 
to obey, would it not have been more natural 
and befitting a god, to change the man’s mind, 
and constrain him to be willing to obey, than 
to try more cruel methods, and vent his rage 
indiscriminately, without any reason, as robbers 
do? For if the old rustic, not being quick in 
entering upon anything, delayed in doing what 
was commanded, being kept back by stronger 
motives, of what had his unhappy children been 
guilty, that_/wp7ter’s anger and indignation should 
be turned upon them, and that they should pay 
for another’s offences by being robbed of their 
lives? And can any man believe that he zs a 
god who zs so unjust, so impious, and who does 
not observe even the laws of men, among whom 
it would be held a great crime to punish one 
for another, and to avenge one man’s offences 
upon others?'? But, Zam old, he caused the 





5 So, by omitting two letters, all edd. except 1st and Ursinus, 


which retain Ms. adult- er-@ — “‘ adulterous.” 
6 Lit., “ light.” ; : 
s o in Orelli. The ms., rst edd., and Ursinus want sz. 
4 


8 Lit., ‘‘and restored.” [Conf. Pont. Max. here named, with 
vol. ms Pp. 74.) 
he Ms. and Ursinus read »eddere-t — 
rece: as above, by omission of ¢. 
TO i,e. »ifhhe is a god. Cf. ili. 20 5 
tt Lit., “the necks of.” 


“if he was to restore; ” 


[specially, note 3, p. 469]. 


536 


SA a 


ee ie 


ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 








man himself to be seized by the cruel pestilence. 
Would it not then have been better, nay rather, 
juster, if it seemed that this should be done, that 
dread of punishment should be first excited by 
the father, who' had been the cause of such 
passion by? his disobedient delay, than to do 
violence to the children, and to consume and 
destroy innocent persons to make him sorrow- 
ful?3’ What, pray, was che meaning of this fierce- 
ness, this cruelty, which was so great that, his 
offspring being dead, it afterwards terrified the 
father by his own danger! But if he had chosen 
to do this long before, that is, in the first place, 
not only would not the innocent brothers have 
been cut off, but the indignant purpose of the 
deity also would have been known. But cer- 
tainly, 7¢ wz be said, when he had done his 
duty by announcing the vision, the disease im- 
mediately left him, and the man was forthwith 
restored to health. And what is there to admire 
in this if he removed‘ the evil which he had 
himself breathed into the man, and vaunted 
himself with false pretence? But if you weigh 
the circumstances thoroughly, there was greater 
cruelty than kindness in his deliverance, for _/wi- 
ter did not preserve him to the joys of life who 
was miserable and wishing to perish after his 
children, but to learn his solitariness and the 
agonies of bereavement. 

44.5 In like manner we might go through the 
other narratives, and show that in these also, and 
in expositions of these, something far different 
from what the gods should be is said and de- 
clared about them, as in this very story which I 
shall next relate, one or two only being added 
to it, that disgust may not be produced by 
excess.© After certain gods were brought from 
among nations dwelling beyond the sea, you say, 
and after temples were built to them, after their 
altars were heaped with sacrifices, the plague- 
stricken people grew strong avd recovered, and 
the pestilence fled before the soundness of health 
which arose. What gods, say, I beseech? 
fEsculapius, you say, the god of health, from 
Epidaurus, and zow settled in the island in 
the middle of the Tiber. If we were disposed 
to be very scrupulous in dealing with your asser- 
tions, we might prove by your own authority that 
he was by no means divine who had been con- 
ceived and born from a woman’s womb, who 
had by yearly stages reached that term of life at 





I Lit., “the terror of coercion should begin from the father with 
whom.” 


2 Lit., “even, ” et. 
3 Lit., ‘‘ to his grief.” 
4 The Ms. reads redt- ulit, emended vet- — “‘ gave back,” i.e., got 


nie of, by 1st ed. and Ursinus; and vef-, as above, by Gelenius and 
others. 
S 4r in Orelli. ieee Appendix, note 1, p. 539.] 
6 In the ms. and both Roman edd. the section translated on p. 
39 is inserted here. Ursinus, however (pp. 210-211), followed by 
Fizraldus (312-313), enclosed it in brackets, and marked it with aster- 
isks. In a 
rejected. 


l other edd. it is either given as an appendix, or wholly 


.|agreeable burden. 





which, as is related in your books, a thunderbolt 
drove him at once from life and light. But we 
leave this question: let the son of Coronis be, 
as you wish, one of the immortals, arid possessed 
of the everlasting blessednéss7 of heaven. From 
Epidaurus, however, what was brought except 
an enormous serpent? If we trust the annals, 
and ascribe to them well-ascertained truth, noth- 
ing else, as it has been recorded. What shall 
we say then? That Atsculapius, whom you 
extol, an excellent, a venerable god, the giver of 
health, the averter, preventer, destroyer of sick- 
ness, is contained within the form and outline 
of a serpent, crawling along the earth as worms 
are wont to do, which spring from mud; he 
rubs the ground with his chin and breast, drag- 
ging himself in sinuous coils; and that he may 
be able to go forward, he draws on the last part 
of his body by the efforts of the first. 

45.° And as we read that he used food also, 
by which bodily existence is kept up, he has a 
large gullet, that he may gulp down the food 
sought for with gaping mouth; he has a belly to 
receive it, and a place where he may digest 
the flesh which he has eaten and devoured, that 
blood may be given to his body, and his strength 
recruited ;° he has also a draught, by which the 
filth is got rid of, freeing his body from a dis- 
Whenever he changes his 
place, and prepares to pass from one region to 
another, he does not as a god fly secretly through 
the stars of heaven, and stand in a moment where 
something requires his presence, but, just as a 
dull animal of earth, he seeks a conveyance 
on which he may be borne ; he avoids the waves 
of the sea; and that he may be safe and sound, 
he goes on board ship along with men; and 
that god of the common safety trusts himself 
to weak planks and to sheets of wood joined to- 
gether. Wedo not think that you can prove 
and show that that serpent was Atsculapius, 
unless you choose to bring forward this pretext, 
that you should say that the god changed him- 
self into a snake, in order that he might be able"! 
to deceive men as to himself, who he was, or to 
see what men were. But if you say this, the 
inconsistency of your own statements will show 
how weak and feeble such a defence is.'?_ For if 
the god shunned being seen by men, he should 
not have chosen to be seen in the form of a 
serpent, since in any form whatever he was not 
to be other than himself, but aways himself. But 
if, on the other hand, he had been intent on al- 
lowing himself to be seen — he should not have 


7 Lit., “sublimity.” 
8 42 in Orelli, 
9 So the edd., reading e¢ for ms. «¢ (according to Crusius). 
10 Lit., “ restoration be supplied to his saenee 7 
It So Gelenius, serly adding ¢ to the Ms. Zosse. 
ote very doubtful. 
“how weakly and feeble it is said.” 


The passage ig, 








ARNOBIUS AGAINS? THE HEATHEN, 





537 





refused to allow men’s eyes to look on himt — 
why did he not show himself such as he knew 
that he was in his own divine power?? For this 
was preferable, and much better, and more be- 
fitting his august majesty, than to become a 
beast, and be changed into the likeness of a ter- 
rible animal, and afford room for objections, 
which cannot be decided,3 as to whether he was 
a true god, or something different and far re- 
moved from the exalted nature of deity. 

46.4 But, says my opponent, if he was not a 
god, why, after he left the ship, amd crawled to 
the island in the Tiber, did he immediately be- 
come invisible, and cease to be seen as before? 
Can we indeed know whether there was anything 
in the way under cover of which he hid himself, 
or any opening 7” the earth? Do you declare, 
say yourselves, what that was, or to what race 
of beings it should be referred, if your service of 
certain personages is 7m i¢se/f certain.s Since 
the case is thus, and the discussion deals with 
your deity, and your religion also, it is your part 
to teach, and yours to show what that was, rather 
than to wish to hear our opinions and to await 
our decisions. For we, indeed, what else can 
we say than that which took place and was seen, 
which has been handed down in all the narra- 
tives, and has been observed by means of the 
eyes? ‘This, however, undoubtedly we say was 
a colubra® of very powerful frame and immense 
length, or, if the name is despicable, we say i¢ 
was a snake,’ we call it a serpent,’ or any other 
name which usage has afforded to us, or the 
development of language devised. For if it 
crawled as a serpent, not supporting itself and 
walking on feet,? but resting upon its belly and 
breast ; if, being made of fleshly substance, it 
day stretched out in '° slippery length ; if it had a 
head and tail, a back covered with scales, di- 
versified by spots of various colours; if it had 
a mouth bristling with fangs, and ready to bite, 
what else can we say than that it was of earthly 
origin, although of immense and excessive size, 
although it exceeded in length of body and 
greatness of might that which was slain by Reg- 
ulus by the assault of his army? But 7f we 
think otherwise, we subvert and overthrow the 
truth. It is yours, then, to explain what that 





I These words, xon debuzt oculorum negare conspectut, should, 
Orelli thinks, be omitted; and certainly their connection with the 
rest of the sentence is not very apparent. 

2 Lit., ‘he was, and such as he had learned that he was, con- 
tained in the power of his divinity.” 

3 Lit., ‘‘ to ambiguous contradictions.” 

4 43 in Orelli. : ries 

5 Lit., “if your services of certain persons are certain,” i.e., if 
these facts on which your worship is built are well ascertained. 

6 What species of snake this was, is not known; the Latin is 
therefore retained, as the sentence insists on the distinction. 

7 Anguem. 

8 Serpentem. ; . 

9 Lit., ‘‘ bearing himself on feet, nor unfolding below his own 

i ” 


S. 
Lit,,. “to a.” : 2 
33 So Hild, and Oehler, reading /abefac-t-amus for the Ms. -2-. 











was, or what was its origin, its name, and nature. 
For how could it have been a god, seeing 
that it had those things which we have men- 
tioned, which gods should not have if they intend 
to be gods, and to possess this exalted title? 
After it crawled to the island in the Tiber, forth- 
with it was nowhere to be seen, by which it is 
shown that it was a deity. Can we, then, know 
whether there was there anything in the way under 
cover of which it hid itself,’ or some opening z” 
the earth, or some caverns and vaults, caused by 
huge masses being heaped up irregularly, into 
which it hurried, evading the gaze of the be- 
holders? For what if it leaped across the river? 
what if it swam across it? what if it hid itself in 
the dense forests? It is weak reasoning from 
this,"3 to suppose that that serpent was a god 
because with all speed it withdrew itself from 
the eyes of the bcholders, since, by the same rea- 
soning, it can be proved, on the other hand, that 
it was not a god. 

47.74 But if that snake was not a present deity, 
says my opponent, why, after its arrival, was the 
violence of the plague overcome, and health re- 
stored to the Roman people? We, too, on the 
other hand, bring forward the question, If, ac- 
cording to the books of the fates and the re- 
sponses of the seers, the god sculapius was 
ordered to be invited to the city, that he might 
cause it to be safe and sound from the contagion 
of the plague and of pestilential diseases, and 
came without spurning ¢he proposal contemptu- 
ously, as you say, changed into the form of ser- 
pents, — why has the Roman state been so often 
afflicted with such disasters, so often at one time 
and another torn, harassed, and diminished by 
thousands, through the destruction of its citizens 
times without number? For since the god is 
said to have been summoned for this purpose, 
that he might drive away utterly all the causes 
by which pestilence was excited, it followed that 
the state should be safe, and should be always 
maintained free from pestilential blasts, and un- 
harmed. But yet we see, as was said before, 
that it has over and over again had seasons made 
mournful by these diseases, and that the manly 
vigour of its people has been shattered and 
weakened by no slight losses. Where, then, was 
ZEsculapius? where that defiverer promised by 
venerable oracles? Why, after temples were 
built, and shrines reared to him, did he allow 
a state deserving his favour to be any longer 
plague-stricken, when he had been summoned 
for this purpose, that he should cure the diseases 
which were raging, and not allow anything of the 





12 This sentence alone is sufficient to prove that these chapters 
were never carefully revised by their author, as otherwise so glaring 
repetitions would certainly have been avoided. 

13 Here the ms. and both Roman edd. insert the last clause, ‘‘ what 
. .. forests.” 

14 44 in Orelli, 


538 


sort which might be dreaded to steal on them 
afterwards ? 

48." But some one will perhaps say that the 
care of such a god has been denied ? to later and 
following ages, because the ways in which men 
now live are impious and objectionable ; that it 
brought help to our ancestors, on the contrary, 
because they were blameless and guiltless. Now 
this might perhaps have been listened to, and 
said with some reasonableness, either if in an- 
cient times all were good without exception, or 
if later times produced 3 only wicked people, and 
no others.4 But since this is the case that in 
great peoples, in nations, nay, in all cities even, 
men have been of mixed 5 natures, wishes, man- 
ners, and the good and bad have been able to 
exist at the same time in former ages, as well as 
in modern times, it is rather stupid to say that 
mortals of a later day have not obtained the aid 
of the deities on account of their wickedness. 
For if on account of the wicked of later gen- 
erations the good men of modern times have 
not been protected, on account of the ancient 
evil-doers also the good of former times should 
in like manner not have gained the favour of the 
deities. But if on account of the good of an- 
cient times the wicked of ancient times were 
preserved also, the following age, too, should 
have been protected, although it was faulty, on 
account of the good of later times. So, then, 
either that snake gained the reputation of dezng 
a deliverer while he had been of no service at 
all, through his being brought 4 she city when 
the violence of the disease ° was already weakened 
and impaired, or the hymns of the fates must be 
said to have been far from giving? true indica- 
tions, since the remedy given by them is found 
to have been useful, not to all in succession, but 
to one age only. 

49.5 But the Great Mother, also, says my of- 
ponent, being summoned from Phrygian Pessinus 
in precisely the same way by command of the 
seers, was a cause of safety and great joy to the 
people. For, on the one hand, a long-powerful 
enemy was thrust out from the position he had 
gained in® Italy ; and, on the other, its ancient 
glory was restored to the city by glorious and 
illustrious victories, and the boundaries of the 
empire were extended far and. wide, and their 
rights as freemen were torn from races, states, 
peoples without number, and the yoke of slavery 





ARNOBIUS AGAINST THE HEATHEN. 


~ 


imposed on them, and many other things ac- 
complished at home and abroad established the 
renown and dignity of the race with irresistible 
power. If the histories tell the truth, and do 
not insert what is false in their accounts of events, 
nothing else truly '° is said to have been brought 
from Phrygia, sent by King Attalus, than a stone, 
not large, which could be carried in a man’s 
hand without any pressure—of a dusky and 
black colour—not smooth, but having little cor- 
ners standing out, and which to-day we all see 
put in that image instead of a face, rough and 
unhewn, giving to the figure a countenance by 
no means lifelike.™ 

50.7 What shall we say then? Was Hannibal, 
that famous Carthaginian, an enemy strong and 
powerful, before whom the fortunes of Rome 
trembled in doubt and uncertainty, and its great- 
ness shook—was he driven from Italy by a 
stone ?'3 was he subdued by a stone? was he 
made fearful, and timid, and unlike himself by a 
stone? And with regard to Rome’s again spring- 
ing to the height of power and royal supremacy, 
was nothing done by wisdom, nothing by the 
strength of men ; and, in returning to its former 
eminence, was no assistance given by so many 
and so great leaders by their military skill, or by 
their acquaintance with affairs? Did the stone 
give strength to some, feebleness to others? Did 
it hurl these down from success, raise the for- 
tunes of others which seemed hopelessly over- 
thrown? And what man will believe that a stone 
taken from the earth, having ‘4 no feeling, of sooty 
colour and dark'5 body, was the mother of the 
gods? or who, again, would listen to this, — for 
this is the only alternative, —that the power*® 
of any deity dwelt in pieces of flint, within ‘7 
its mass,'® and hidden in its veins? And how 
was the victory procured if there was no deity 
in the Pessinuntine stone? We may say, by the 
zeal and valour of the soldiers, by practice, 
time, wisdom, reason ; we may say, by fate also, 
and the alternating fickleness of fortune. But 
if the state of affairs was improved, and success 
and victory were regained, by the stone’s assist- 
ance, where was the Phrygian mother at the time 
when the commonwealth was bowed down by 
the slaughter of so many and so great armies, 
and was in danger of utter ruin? Why did she 
not thrust herself before the threatening, the 
strong exemy? Why did she not crush and re- 








I 45 in Orelli. 

2 i: “ wanting.” 

3 The s., 1st ed , Hild., and Oehler read gener-ent, corrected in 
the rest, as above, -avent. 

4 Lit., “all wicked and distinguished by no diversity.” 

5 Lit., ‘‘ the human race has been mixed in,” etc. 

6 So all edd., reading vz moré7, except Hild., who retains the ms. 
vt urdt, in which case the italics should denote ‘‘of the disease,” 
instead of ‘to the city.” The construction, however, seems to make 
it impossible to adhere to the ms. 

Lit., ‘‘ to have erred much from.” 
846i in Orelli. 

9 Lit., “from the possession of Italy.” 





Io So all edd. to Orelli, adding -e72 to the Ms. guzd. [See, con 
cerning Pessinus, Pp. 492, supra. ] 


Il Lit., ‘‘a face too little expressed with imitation,’ 
Oey) in Orelli, 

13 Lit., ‘did a stone drive,” etc. 

14 Lit., “‘ moved by.” 


15 So the ms. and edd.; but, on account of the unnecessary repeti- 
tion, Ursinus proposed to delete atv. Unger (Anal. Propert., Ps 
87) has suggested very happily @7t¢7— “‘ of confined, i e., small body.” 

16 Vim, _ suggested by (Orelli, and adopted by Hild. and Oehler. 

17 Lit., ‘ subjected to.’ 

13 So Hild. and Oehler, reading sxolz for the unintelligible ms, 
more, 





ae a ae ee ae on ae 


APPENDIX. 539 
aoe 


pel assaults ' so terrible before these awful blows 
fell, by which all the blood was shed, and the 
life even failed, the vitals being almost exhausted ? 
She had not been brought yet, says my opponent, 
nor asked to show favour. Be it so;? but a kind 
helper never requires to be asked, always offering 
assistance of his own accord. She was not able, 
you say, to expel the enemy and put him to flight, 
while still separated from Italy3 by much sea 
and land. But to a deity, if really one,*+ noth- 
ing whatever is remote, to whom the earth is a 
point, and by whose nod all things have been es- 
tablished. 

51.5 But suppose that the deity was present 
in that very stone, as you demand should be 
believed: and what mortal is there, although he 
may be credulous and very ready to listen to 
any fictions you please, who would consider that 
she either was a goddess at that time, or should 
be now so spoken of and named, who at one 
time desires these things, at another requires 
those, abandons and despises her worshippers, 
leaves the humbler provinces, and allies herself 
with more powerful and richer peoples, truly ° 





I Lit., “so great assaults of war.” 

2 So Oehler, adding -o to the ms. est. The word immediately 
preceding is in the ms. avorem—“ panic,” which is of course utterly 
out of place, and is therefore corrected, as above, / in all edd., except 
tst, Ursinus, and Hild. 

3 So— ab Italia — Oehler has admirably emended the ms. aédz- 
tabilia. 

4 Lit., “if he is.” 

5 48 in Orelli. 

6 All edd., except Hild. and Oehler, begin a new sentence here, 
and ee the construction, seemingly following the mistake of the 
Ist e 





loves warfare, and wishes to be in the midst of 
battles, slaughter, death, and blood? If it is 
characteristic of the gods — if only they are true 
gods, and those who it is fitting should be named 
according to the meaning of this word and the 
power of divinity —to do? nothing wickedly, 
nothing unjustly, to show? themselves equally 
gracious to all men without any partiality, would 
any man ée/eve that she was of divine origin, or 
showed ® kindness worthy of the gods, who, mix- 
ing herself up with the dissensions of men, de- 
stroyed the power of some, gave and showed 
favour to others, bereft some of their liberty, 
raised others to the height of power, —who, that 
one state might be pre-eminent, having been 
born to be the bane of the human race, subju- 
gated the guiltless world? 


7 “Todo... toshow,” so the edd., dropping -#¢ from the Ms. 
Jacere-nt... prabere-nt. 

8 Lit., ‘‘showed.” Ursinus and Heraldus supposed that some 
paragraphs are now wanting which were originally found here, It™ 
should be noticed that in the ms. the usual subscription is found de- 
noting the end of a book. ‘‘ The seventh book of Arnovius (szc) ends, 
the eighth (i.e., Octavzus of Minucius Felix) begins,” so that the 
present arrangement is not due to the binder, nor clearly to the copy- 
ist who wrote these words. Nothing can be more certain than that 
we do not have these chapters as Arnobius intended to leave them; 
but there is not the slighest reason to suppose that he actually left 
them otherwise than they have come down to us. Remembering this, 
we may well suppose that we have only the first draught of them. 
If so, the difficulties vanish, for nothing would be more natural than 
that, when Arnobius was drawing near the close of his work, the ideas 
of the conclusion in which the discussion was to be fairly summed up 
should force themselves upon his attention, and that he should there- 
fore turn aside at once to give them expression roughly, without seek- 
ing completeness and elaboration, and should then hastily resume his 
argument, of course with the intention of afterwards revising and re- 
arranging the whole. We may infer that the re-arrangement was 
never effected, as there are sufficient proofs that the revision was 
never accomplished, whatever may have been the reason. 





APPENDIX.! 


We do not deny that all these things which 
have been brought forward by you in opposition 
are contained in the writings of the annalists. 
For we have ourselves also, according to the 
measure and capacity of our powers, read these 
same things, and know that they have been 
alleged ; but the whole discussion hinges upon 
this: whether these are gods who you assert are 
furious when displeased, and are soothed by 
games and sacrifices, or are something far differ- 








I This section, which is found in the ms. after the first sentence 
of ch. 44, was retained in the text of both Roman editions, marked 
off, however, by asterisks in that of Ursinus, but was rejected by Ge- 
lenius and later editors as the useless addition of some copyist. Oehler 
alone has seen that it is not ‘‘a collection of words gathered care- 
lessly and thoughtlessly” (Hildebrand), and maintained that we have 
in it the corrections of Arnobius himself. If the three paragraphs are 
read carefully, it will be observed that the first is a transposition and 
reconstruction of the first two sentences of ch. 39; the second a re- 
vision of the interrogations in ch. 41, but with the sentence which 
there precedes placed after them here, whilst the third is made up of 
the same sentences in a revised and enlarged form. Now this must 
be regarded as conclusive evidence against the hypothesis that these 
sentences were originally scribbled carelessly on the margin, and 
afterwards accidentally incorporated in the text. Cf. p. 532, n. 10. 





ent, and should be separated from the notion 
even of this, and from its power. 

For who, in the first place, thinks or believes 
that those are gods who are lost in joyful pleasure 
at theatrical shows? and ballets, at horses running 
to no purpose ; who set out from heaven to be- 
hold silly and insipid acting, and grieve that they 
are injured, and that the honours due to them 
are withheld if the pantomimist halts for a little, 
or the player, being wearied, rests a little ; who 
declare that the dancer has displeased them if 
some guilty feYow passes through the middle of 
the circus to suffer the penalty and punishment 
of his deeds? All which things, if they be sifted 
thoroughly and without any partiality, will be 
found to be alien not only to the gods, but to 
any man of refinement, even if he has not been 
trained to the utmost gravity and self-control.3 





2 Lit., “ motions.” ; ’ < 
3 Lit., “to the heights (afzces) of gravity and weight,” i e., of that 
constancy of mind which is not moved by trifles, 


540 


For, in the first place, who is there who would 
suppose that those had been, or believe that they 
are, gods, who have a nature which tends to! 
mischief and fury, and lay these? aside again, 
being moved by a cup of blood and fumigation 
with incense ; who spend days of festivity, and 
jind the liveliest pleasure in theatrical shows 3 
and ballets; who set out from) heaven to see 
geldings running in vain, and without any rea- 
son, and rejoice that some of them pass “he 
rest, that others are passed,‘ rush on, leaning for- 
ward, and, with their heads towards the ground, 
are overturned on their backs with the chariots 
to which they are yoked, are dragged along crip- 





1 Lit., “of hurting and raging.” 

2 i,e., evil dispositions. 

3 Lit., “‘ motions.”’ 

4 So the Ms., according to Crusius, inserting ¢vazszrz, which is 
omitted by Hild., either because it is not in the Ms., or because he 
neglected to notice that Orelli’s text was deficient. If omitted, we 
should translate, ‘‘ that some pass, leaning forward, and rush with 
their heads towards the ground.” 





ELUCIDATIONS. 


pled, and limp with broken legs; who declare 
that the dancer has displeased them if some 
wicked fellow passes through the middle of the 
circus to suffer the punishment and penalty of 
his deeds ; who grieve that they are injured, and 
that the honours due to them are withheld if the 
pantomimist halts for a little, the player, being 
wearied, rests a little, that puer matrimus happens 
to fall, stumbling through some 5 unsteadiness ? 
Now, if all these things are considered thor- 
oughly and without any partiality, they are found 
to be perfectly ® alien not only to the character 
of the gods, but to that of any man of common 
sense, even although he has not been trained to 
zealous pursuit of truth by becoming acquainted 
with what is rational.’ 


S$ Lit., “of something.” 

6 Lit., “far and far.” 

7 [For puer matrimus (one whose mother is yet living), see p. 486, 
note 11, sugra, And for the argument, here recast, turn to cap. 41, 


P. 534- 


ELUCIDATIONS. 


I. 


(Note 9, p. 459.) 


Tuis is a most extraordinary note. The author uses “so to say” (= “as it were”) merely 
to qualify the figure, which a pagan might think extravagant. “This is, as zt were, the door of 
life”? the expression qualifies the rhetoric, not the Scripture, as such. On the contrary, I should 
adduce this very passage as an instance of our author’s familiarity alike with the spirit and the 
letter of two most important texts of the Gospel, which he expounds and enforces with an earnest 
intelligence, and with a spirit truly evangelical. 


II. 


(Covered with garments, note 7, p. 469.) 


A heathen might have retorted, had he known the Scriptures, by asking about the “ white 
robes” of angels, and the raiment of the risen Redeemer; e.g., Rev. i. 13. “Curious and 
unlearned questions” concerning these matters have been stirred by a certain class of Christians. 
(See Stier' and Olshausen.?) But let us not reason from things ¢errestrial as regards things 
celestial: our coarse material fabrics are “shadows of the true.” The robes of light are realities, 
and are conformed to spiritual bodies, as even here a mist may envelop a tree. Because of 
men’s stupid and carnally gross ideas, let it be said of “harps” and “ phials,” and all like phrase- 
ology as to things heavenly, once for all, “it doth not yet appear” what it means; but they inti- 
mate veadities unknown to sense, and “ full of glory.” 





—_ 





I Words of Fesus, vol. viii. p. 63, trans., ed. Edinburgh, 1858. 
2 New-Testament Commentary, Kendrick’s trans., vol. iti, p. 120, ed. 1858, 





‘ELUCIDATIONS, | 541 





Il. 
(The eyes of Jupiter, p. 483.) 


Arnobius with remorseless vigour smites Jove himself, — the Optimus Maximus of polytheism, 
— and, as I have said, with the assurance of one who feels that the Church’s triumph over “ lords 
_ Many and gods many ” is not far distant. The scholar will recall the language of Terence,’ where 
the youth, gazing on the ohscene picture of Jupiter and Dande, exclaims, — 


‘What! he who shakes high heaven with his thunder 
Act thus, and I, a mannikin, not do the same? 
Yes, do I, and right merrily, forsooth!” 


On which the great African Father? remarks pithily, “ Omnes enim cultores talium deorum, mox 
ut eos libido perpulerit, magis intuentur guid Fupiter fecerit, quam quid docuerit Plato, vel 
censuerit Cato.” And here is not only the secret of the impotence of heathen ethics, but the 
vindication of the Divine Wisdom in sending the God-Man. Men will resemble that which they 
worship : law itself is incapable of supplying a sufficient motive. Hence,3 “what the law could 
not do, in that it was weak, . . . God sending Fis own Son,” etc. Thus “ the foolishness of God 
is wiser than men,” and “ the love of Christ constraineth us.” 


“Talk they of morals? O Thou bleeding Lamb! 
The grand morality is love of Thee.” 


The world may sneer at faith, but only they who defeve can Jove ; and who ever loved Christ 
without copying into his life the Sermon on the Mount, and, in some blest degree, the holy 
example of his Master? 


IV, 
(For those freed from the tendage of the flesh, p. 488 and note 11.) 


The early Christians prayed for the departed, that they might have their consummation in 
body and spirit a¢ the last day. Thus, these pravers for the faithful dead supply the strongest 
argument against the purgatorial system, which supposes the dead in Christ (1) not to be in re- 
pose at first, but (2) capable of being delivered out of “ purgatory’ into heaven, sooner or later, 
by masses, etc. Thus, their situation in the intermediate state is not that of Scripture (Rev. xiv. 
13), nor do they wait for glory, according to Scripture, until that day (2 Tim. iv. 8). Archbishop 
Usher, therefore, bases a powerful argument against the Romish dogma, on these primitive prayers 
for the departed. Compare vol. ili. p. 706, and vol. v. p. 222, this series. 

He divides it into five heads, as follows : 4 — 

“(1) Of the persons for whom, after death, prayers were offered ; 

“(2) Of the primary intention of these prayers ; 

“ (3) Of the place and condition of souls departed ; 

(4) Of the opinion of Aerius, the heretic, touching these prayers ; and 

“(5) Of the profit, to the persons prayed for, of these prayers.” 

And his conclusion is, after a rich collation of testimonies, that “the commemoration and 
prayers for the dead used by the ancient Church had not any relation with purgatory, and there- 
fore, whatsoever they were, Popish prayers we are sure they were not.” 

1 Eunuch., iii. 5. 
2 August., De Cruttate, book ii. cap. 7. 


3 Rom. viii. 3-39. : 
4 Quoted in Tracts for the Times (p. 30), vol. iii., ed. New York, 1840. 


842 ELUCIDATIONS. 





Vv. 
(The pine . . . sanctuary of the Great Mother, p. 504.) 


I RECALL with interest the pine-cone of Dante’s comparison (Jnferno, canto xxxi. 59) as 
I saw it in the gardens of the Vatican. Valuable notes may be found in Longfellow’s translation, 
vol. i. p. 328. It is eleven feet high, and once adorned the summit of Hadrian’s mausoleum, so 
they say ; but that was open, and had no apex on which it could be placed. It is made of bronze, 
and, I think, belonged to the mysteries satirized by our author. It is less pardonable to find the 
vilest relics of mythology on the very doors of St. Peter’s, where I have seen them with astonish- 
ment. ‘They were put there, according to M. Valery,! under Paul V.; “and among the small 
mythological groups,” he adds, “may be distinguished Fupiter and Leda, the Rape of Ganymede, 
some nymphs and satyrs, with other very singular devices for the entrance of the most imposing 
of Christian temples.” It is painful to think of it; but the heathenism to which the age of Leo 
X. had reduced the court of Rome must be contrasted with the ideas of a Clement, an Athenag- 
oras, and even of an Arnobius, in order to give us a due sense of the cvzs¢s which, after so many 
appeals for a reformation “in the head and the members” of the Latin communion, brought on 
the irrepressible revolt of Northern Europe against the papacy. 


Vi. 
(Sacrifices, p. 519.) 


It must be felt that Arnobius here lays himself open to a severe retort. The God of Chris- 
tians is the author of sacrifice, and accepts the unspeakable sufferings of the innocent Lamb for 
the sins of the whole world. 

The answer, indeed, suggests itself, that the sacrifices of the heathen had no apparent relation 
whatever ¢o faith in this Atoning Lamb; none in the mysterious will of God that this faith 
should be nurtured before the Advent by an institution iz which He had no pleasure, but which 
was profoundly harmonious with human thought and the self-consciousness of human guilt. 

Arnobius would have written better had he been a better-instructed Christian. He demol- 
ishes pagan rites, but he should have called up the Gentile mind to the truths covered under its 
corruptions and superstitions. On this subject the reader will do well to consult the work of a 
modern Arnobius, the eccentric Soame Jenyns, who called out such a controversy in the last cen- 
tury about the truths and errors of his View of the Internal Evidence of the Christian Religion, 
to which he had become a convert from previous scepticism. ‘This essay attracted the attention 
of the Count (Joseph) de Maistre, who read it in the French translations of MM. le Tour- 
neur and de Feller both, reflected it in his Constdérations sur la France, and reproduced some 
of its admirable thoughts in the Sozvées de St. Pétersbourg.4 From these two striking writers, the 
one an Anglican and the other a rabid Ultramontane, I must permit myself to condense an out- 
line of their views of sacrifice. 

So long as we know nothing of the origin of evil, we are not competent judges of what is or 
is not a suitable remedy. Nobody can assure us that the sufferings of one may not be in some 
way necessary to the good of the many. A tax may thus be laid upon innocence in behalf of the 
guilty, and a voluntary sacrifice may be accepted from the Innocent (the Holy One) for the 
payment of the debts of others. In spite of something illogical which seems to cling to this 
idea, the fact of its universal adoption in all ages among men must be accounted for, — the fact 





1 He was royal librarian at Versailles under Charles X. See his Travels zu [taly (Clifton’s trans.), p. 501, ed. Paris, 1842. 
2 It appeared in Paris 1764. A more literal translation (by the Abbé de Feller) was published, Liege, 1779. 

3 Published in 1794. 

4 Works, vol. vi. p. 140, ed. Paris, 1850. 


ee ap 





ELUCIDATIONS. 543 





that all nations have always accepted this principle of expiatory sacrifice, innocent men and inno 
cent beasts suffering for the unjust. Never could this principle have been thus universalized by 
human wisdom, for it seems to contradict reason; nor by human stupidity, for ignorance never 
could have proposed such a paradox; nor could priestcraft and kingcraft have obtained for it, 
among divers races and forms of society, with barbarians and philosophers, freemen and slaves, 
alike, a common acceptance. It must therefore proceed (1) from a natural instinct of humanity, 
or (2) from a divine revelation: both alike must be recognised as the work of our Creator. Now, 
Christianity unveils the secret, presenting the Son of God, made man, a voluntary sacrifice for 
the sins of the whole world. If it be a mystery, still we do not wonder at the idea when we see 
one man paying the debts of another, and so ransoming the debtor.’ Christianity states this as 
God’s plan for the ransom of sinners. Such is the fact: as to the why, it says nothing? As to 
the philosophy of these mysteries, we reason in vain; and, happily, the Gospel does not require 
us toreason. The Nicene Creed formulates the truth: “ For us men and for our salvation He came 
down,” etc. But we are called to profess no more than “I believe ; help Thou mine unbelief.” 

De Maistre responds as follows: This dogma is-universal, and as old as creation ; viz., the re- 
versibility of the sufferings of innocence for the benefit of the guilty. As to the fall of man, “ earth 
felt the wound ;”3 “ the whole creation groaneth and travaileth 4 in pain together.’”’ In this con- 
dition of things the human heart and mind have universally acquiesced in the idea of expiation.5 
. . . And as well the Gentile sacrifices (corrupted from Noah’s pure original) as those which were 
perpetuated in their purity by the Hebrews on one sfot, and looking to their only explanation in 
the coming of ove Redeemer, bear witness to the Wisdom which framed the human mind and 
adapted its ordinances thereto with profound and divine comprehension of all human wants and all 
human capabilities. When the infinite Victim exclaimed upon the cross, “IT Is FINISHED,” the 
veil was rent, the grand secret was unfolded. For this event, God had prepared all mankind by 
the system of sacrifice which, even in its corruption, had made preparation for the true elucidation. 

In a word, then, Arnobius should have said this, as the Church was always saying it in the per- 
petual commemoration of Calvary, in her Holy Eucharist, and in her annual Paschal celebration. 
It was all summed up by the prophet a thousand years before “ the Lamb of God” was slain. By 
the prophet, the Lamb Himself expounds it all : °— 

“Sacrifice and meat-offering Zhou wouldest not, but mine ears hast Thou opened: burnt-offer- 
ings and sacrifice for sin hast Thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of 
the Book 7¢ is written of Mer, that I should fulfil Thy will, O my God. I am content to do it; 
yea, Thy law is within my heart.” 

The expiatory sacrifice, the voluntary Victim, the profound design of God the Father, are all 
here. But the infinite value of the sacrifice was unfolded when the Son of man was identified by 
the poor Gentile centurion: “Truly this was the Son of God.” 


1 De Maistre quotes, “ Potest unus ita pro alio peenam compensare vel debitum solvere ut ille sa¢zsfacere merito dici possi.” _Beliar- 
min, Of#., tom. iii. col. 1493, ed. Ingolstadt, r16o0r. 

2 See Jenyns, p. 67 (ed. eighth), Philadelphia, 1780. 

3 Milton, Paradise Lost, ix. 785. 

4 Rom. viii. 19. 

5 Plato, Repub., Opf., tom. vi. pp. 225-226, ed. Bipont. 

6 De Maistre cites the example of Decius from Livy, vol. i. p. 477, Piaculum deorum ira, etc.; and I commend the inquiring 
reader to his very curious and entertaining Eclaircissement sur les Sacrifices, pp. 321-425, ubz supra, appended to the same work. Let 
me also add a reference to the other Decius, vol. i. p. 607. See lib. viii, cap. 9, and lib. x. cap. 28. My edition is the valuable (Parisian) 
Frousheim & Crevier, A.D. 1735. 





v 











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4 
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GREGORY THAUMATURGUS, DIONYSIUS OF 
ALEXANDRIA, AND JULIUS AFRICANUS. 


Africanus, Julius, life and works 
(J. A.), 123-124, 140 (note). 
Alexandria, church of, suffering and 
martyrdoms in (D. A), 108-109. 

All Saints, homily on (G. T.), 72; 
feast of, 73 (note). 

Anathemas on twelve heretical tenets 
(Gi2.),-S0: 

Angel, Guardian, office and benefits 
of (G. T.), 24. 

Annunciation, the, homilies on 

T.), 58-67. 
Antony and Cleopatra, history of 


(J. A.), 135: 

Apocalypse, the, how understood 
(D. A.), 83; authorship of, 84, 
TIO (note). 

Arian heresy condemned (G. T.), 4o. 

Aristotelian philosophy in the early 
Church, Dupin’s note on (G. T.), 
57 (note). 

Atomic theory of Epicurus, stated 
(D. A.), 84; refuted by analogies, 
85, by the constitution of the 
universe, 86, by the human con- 
stitution, 88. 


Baptism, of Christ, homily on (G. T.), 
68-71; of heretics, disallowed 
by African councils (D. A.), 1o2. 
Basilides, bishop, epistle to (D. A.), 


94. 
Berytus, school of Roman law 
. T.), 4, 26. 
Birth of Christ, apocryphal fables 
concerning (J. A.), 127. 


Captives, Christian, crue] treatment 
of (G. T.), 19. 

Chronology of Old-Testament his- 
tory, Egyptian, Chaldean, and 
Greek. (J. A.), 130-134. 

Councils, Gécumenical (G. T.), 53 
(note). 

Covetousness, sin and punishment 
of (G. T.), 18. 


Daniel, seventy weeks of (J. A), 134. 

Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, 
life and -character of (D. A.), 
77; works of, 78-79; sufferings 
in Decian persecution, 96-103, 
and under Gallus and Valerian, 
105. 








INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 


Dionysius, bishop of Rome, epistle 
to (D. A.), 92. 


Ecclesiastes, book of, metaphrase of 
(G. T.), 9; comment on (D. A), 
Wate 

Epicurean theories of nature refuted 
(D. A.), 84; other fallacies of 

this philosophy, 88-91. 


Fabius, peter of Antioch, epistle 
to (D. A.), 97. 
Faith, the decline of (G. T.), 7 


| Fast, ‘ante-paschal, how kept éb. A.), 


94-95: 
Fatherhood of God, eternal, therefore 
Christ eternal (D. A.), 92. 


Gallandi, Bzblioth. Patrum (D. A.), 
120 (note). 

Gallus, emperor, persecutor of Chris- 
tians (D. A.), 106. 

Genealogies of Christ (J. A.), 125- 
126, 139 (note). 

Gratitude, ae of, how acceptable 
(G. T.), 23. 

Gregory Thaumaturgus, bishop of 
Neo-Cezesarea, a pupil of Origen 
(G. T.), 3; student of, law, 4; 
surname, life, and character, 5, 6 
his own account of his conver- 
sion, 25; how led to Berytus, 26; 
meeting with Origen, 27. 


Heresies, twelve, anathematized, 
(G>T.), 50-53. Sie 

Holy Spirit, personality and divinity 
of (G. T.), 41. 


Incarnation, the, how understood 
(G. T.), 41,44, 50; mystery of, 67. 


Lapsed, the, reconciliation of (D. A.), 
120. 
Law, Roman, in the Pandects of 
Justinian, Christian origin of 
T.), 4- 


Macrianus, instigator of the persecu- 
tion under Valerian (D. A.), 106. 
Magnificat, the, comment on (G. T.), 


4. 
Martyrs of Alexandria (D. A.), 97- 
IOI. 


Matter not ungenerated (D. A.), gt. 
Millennium, the, errors concerning 
(D. A.), 81 


Names, Christian, in the early Church 
-), 83 and note. 
Novatus, Epistle to (D. A.), 97. 


Origen, teacher of Gregory (G. T.), 
27; their friendship, 28; his 
teaching of logic, 29, of natu- 
ral science, 30, of morals, 31; 
his exposition of Holy Scripture, 
36; considerations on his faults, 
39 (note). 


Passion of Christ, voluntary (D.A.), 
115, 118; chronology of (J. A.), 
136. 

Penitents, place and privileges of 


GNit.); 20: 

Peter, St., his office and work at Rome 
(G. T.), 47 (note). 

Philosophy, study of, leads to piety 
(Go 1); 2773 schools of Greek, 
their contentions and errors, 35. 


Sabellian heresy on the origin of mat- 
ter (D. A.), 91 


; | Serapion, absolution of (D. A.), tor. 


Soul, the, how apprehended (G. T.), 
54; existence and nature of, 55; 
immortal, 55; rational, 56. 

Symphorosa, St, and her seven sons, 
passion of (J. A.), 138-139. 

Synod, a primitive, under Dionysius 
(D. A.), 82 and note. 


Theophany, the, at the Baptism of 
of Christ (G. T.), 68-71. 

Trinity, the, doctrine of (G. T.), 42; 
proofs from Holy Scripture, 43, 
46; mystery of, 48 ; Ante-Nicene 
Fathers on, 49 (note). 


Valerian, emperor, persecutor of 
Christians (D. A.), 106, 107. 


Will, divine and human in Christ 
(DicAS)pEr4, 207. 

Word, the, how divine (G. T.), 41; 
consubstantial with the Father, 
45, (D. A.) 120; eternal genera- 
tion of (D. A.), 92, 120. 


547 


POU fe te 
' Ls . ‘ A 


GREGORY THAUMATURGUS, DIONYSIUS OF 
ALEXANDRIA, AND JULIUS AFRICANUS. 


INDEX OF TEXTS. 





PAGE PAGE PAGE PAGE 


Gen.i.2. . 43| Ps. civ. 2. Matt. iii. 13. 68 | Luke xxii. 42, 


e e e e ° e ° 68 e e e e 
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iii, 17. . 6 « 119 civ.23 . - + » 87 HIV 4k erat eens xxiii, 56 . - 95 
iii, 19. 2. « 119 cxix.6 . 6 6. . 113 WBE F ies fo eee 40 EXXIVe11g/25 = 05 
XVte MTs eo Od CXIX. 7362 OO HITZ veto, ol, ASO PORN tome ste en lees I 
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Ex. vi.230 0. 6 6. 125 cxxxix. 12-16. . 88 IVinlicnen tiene tie LO fe Grenier eS) 
Vie 25 5 + e+ 125 ECXXXIXE Olen ae) OO Ve 10) 125536 199 LPG paises, coi pers 
min 2... 63] Prov. viii. 30... 92 AXA ZON gate et OO) HONS soa ep Cs 
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xii. 30. : 108 XS Sitao Mer nena XVa27 eo) ww 08 Py (eee meeesye 
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XXV. seen 37, ROM HEP? Gu Geen SS XKVIL TOM eh 44) V1. SO) ei etek se 
2 Chron. vi. 36. soo XXIXe UM teases et 00) |) Marks sivmncai meee seOO Vills12) > yc 20 
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xxxvi.6. . . . 113] Ezek. i. 22, 26, ae 7 62 140 nse te eemenOd Xi) 210) 52 
RIVAL gl hs, os 6 os 193 xiii. 3. . 107 BS en On xiv.6 . . nag! 
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XCMLOME.) 'oc te teen TO ASE Ee hetteng sik 23 Ale 232A eect eae O XV1s:93) ies a 
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xcvi. II-I3. . . 58 120) 21 een Vili 4 pee nee OO XVIL2 sete ee 02 
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948 


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sy 46 i a aecien 
125|1 Thess. v. 16-18 
86 


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72\2 Tim. iv. 21. 





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ANATOLIUS AND MINOR WRITERS, ARCHELAUS, ALEXANDER 
OF) .LYCOPOLIS, (PETER (OF CALEXANDRIA, 
ALEXANDER OF ALEXANDRIA. 


Acts of the Apostles, Pamphilus’ 
summary of contents, 166-168. 

Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, 
notices of, 290. 

Alexander of Cappadocia, notices of, 
153; friend of Origen, 154. 
Alexander, Bishop of Lycopolis, life 
and writings, 240; theories con- 
cerning his history, 253; a wit- 
ness to the Christian Faith, 253. 

Alexandria, church of, the ecclesias- 
tical metropolis of Christendom 
in the East, 257; presbyters of, 
298; its ecclesiastical independ: 
ence, 304. 

Alexandrian school, its origin from 
Apollos, 236; its influence on 
Catholic theology, 289, 303. 

Anatolius of Alexandria, life and 
works of, 145. 

Apollos, founder of Alexandrian the- 
ology, 236. 

Archelaus, Bishop, 176; date and 
character of his writings, 177. 

Arius, heresiarch, ordained and de- 
posed by Peter of Alexandria, 
262, 265; restored, 268 ; his final 
excommunication, 290 ; his here- 
sies refuted, 291-297. 


Basilides, teacher of dualism, 233. 
Bisho>, not to ordain out of his own 
diocese, 164. 


Christ, Incarnation of, 221, 297, 300; 
His Passion, events of, 301. 
Church Catholic, Ante-Nicene the- 

ory of, 304. 


Devil, the, origin and agency of, 205. 

Dualism, Manichzan, refuted, 196; 
origin from Scythianus, 229; 
taught by Basilides, 233. 


Easter, time of, how computed, 145- 
I5I. 


ok 


INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 


Egyptian proselytes, makers of the 
golden calf, 204. 

Emperor, how to be served in his 
household, 159. 


Free-will belongs to man, 204. 


Heresies, how originated, 241. 
Incarnation of Christ, why essential, 
221, 300; faith of the Church in, 


295, 297+ 
Judas Iscariot, crime of, 207. 


Lapsed, Canons of Peter of Alexan- 
dria on, 269; case of slaves, 
271, of freemen, 272; confess- 
ors in prison, 272; rashly in- 
curring danger, 273; clergy, 274; 
purchase of safety, 276; flight 
from persecution, 277; Dupin’s 
judgment of these Canons, 284. 

Law of Moses, in what sense a min- 
istration of death, 203; not to 
be contemned by Christians, 215. 

Laymen to speak publicly only by 
the bishop’s leave, 154. 

Library, imperial, care of, 160. 

Light, creation and nature of, 193. 

Lucian, Epistle of Theonas to, on 
duties of the imperial house- 
hold, 158. 


Malchion, presbyter of Antioch, no- 
tice of, 169. 

Man, his creation in soul and body, 
298. 

Manes, heresies of, 182, 213, 241; 
claims to be the Paraclete, 187, 
209; his dualism refuted, 196; 
its origin, 229; his history, 230; 
his cosmogony, 242; borrows 
from heathen mythology, 242, 
245; his theory of matter self- 
contradictory, 244. 

Marcellus, story of, 179. 


Mareotis, presbyters of, 299. 

Martyrdom, Christian, described by 
Phileas, 162. 

Mathematics, fragments of Anato- 
lius’ treatise on, 51. 

Matter, Manichzan theories of, con- 
tradictory, 244. 

Meletius of Lycopolis, schism of, 
239, 283. iV 

Monasticism, Eastern, origin and re- 
sults of, 279. 

Moses a type of Christ, 220. 


Pamphilus, priest and martyr, notice 
of, 165. 

Paraclete, the, imparted specially to 
St. Paul, 208; falsely claimed by 
Manes, 209. 

Passover, when kept by the Jews, 
280; by our Lord, 282. 

Paul of Samosata, his character and 
heresies, 169; deposed, 170. 
Peter, bishop of Alexandria, life and 
works, 258; ordains and excom- 
municates Arius, 262, 265; his 
persecution and imprisonment, 
262; his passion and martyrdom, 

264-267. 

Phileas, bishop of Thmuis, biographi- 
cal notice of, 161; epistle to 
his people, 162. 

Pierius of Alexandria, notices of, 156, 
nS7. 


Quartodeciman controversy, 148, 149. 


Scripture, study of, counselled, 16r. 

Scythianus, first teacher of dualism, 
229. 

Stationary days, observance of, 278. 


Theognostus of Alexandria, cate- 
chist, notice of, 155. 

Theonas of Alexandria, bishop, no- 
tice of, 158. 


4 
; 
H. 
3 

. 

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3 





ANATOLIUS AND MINOR WRITERS, ARCHELAUS, ALEXANDER 
OF LYCOPOLIS, PETER OF ALEXANDRIA, 


Gen. i. aXe. 0% 
i. II,I2 . 
126286 
i. 205s) % 
OE LP = 6 eke 
vi. Qeetare 
VIN) Peon 
XV. 5 es te 
XIX OL che 
RATT sn 
xxxii. 26 . 
XXXVili. 26 
xlix. 10-12 

BXoilsucerc oe 

Wiis Goo 

ix. 32. . 
Xie uc é 
Kilo e116 ve 
XMGec. 
xii. 18, 19 . 
xii. 35 +s 
Sa) omen 
xvi. mes 
KVL rots eo 
AX Sier tel ve 
XXIeAa cs 
XIN Once 
xxiv. 18. . 
XXXii. A 
XXXIV. : 
XXXIV. 33. 
XXXIV. 35 - 


Lev. xxiii. 5-7 
xxill. 6. 
Num. xii. 24 
XV. 32. 
XV. 32 
aide 
XVviii. I 
Xviil. I 


Deut. 


oO “te 6 te} ten Jo 


XXvili. 66 
xxix. 29 . 
XXXil. 22. 


Josh. ix. 
1 Sam. 11.6 . 


xxi. 13. 
2 Sam. xiv. 33 « 


xvi. 3 


1 Kings xix. 9 . 


Jobii.1o. . 
iv. 18 


ec ee #e @ @ 





INDEX OF TEXTS. 


PAGE 
196|Ps.v.9 . . 
281 Kiey ihe ies 
283 XXxvi. 9. 
300 xlv.I. . 
206 XIV 7/7 
252 XCv. 10, II 
294 CVnS) 
293 CXv ie 
277 CX: Sec es 
251 CXxxil. I. 
266 CXXXI Die 
219| Prov. vi. . 
219 viii. 3 
220 X1l1l. Oo 
220 XVill. 3 
281 xxii. 2 
220 XXxli. 2 
281 xxiv. 16 
148 | Eccles. i. 15 . 
148|Isa.i.2 . 
214 iota. 
220 Vili. 3, 4 
220 ix;002 
220 xxvi. 18 
163 xlii. 14 
214 XLV 47 als 
163 HUNNS 3 cee 
220 liieSi 
220 lvii. 20, 21 
220 Lx e15-2'% 
219 Ixvi. 21< 
220 Ixvi. 24. 
149 | Jer. iii. 23 
148 | Lam. iii. 3 
281 | Ezek. xxvit. 15. 
204 | Dan. iv. 35 . 
214|Jonahii4 . 
234 | Mal.iii6 
219| Matt.i.25 . 
216 ii. 11-13 
219 iE BG 
235 ii. 13-16 
234 dinlOu. 
268 ii. 16 
234 iii. 7, 8 
271 iii. 17 
268 ili. 17 
268 iii. 17 
279 iv. 2 
217 iv. 3 
235 lv. 10 . 


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ALEXANDER OF ALEXANDRIA. 


PAGE 
269 
214 
217 
217 
158 
159 
195 
214 
262 
216 
194 
194 
273 
279 
277 
234 
217 
217 
189 


182 
187 
222 
217 
220 
192 
192 
216 
273 
273 
273 
222 
265 
220 
234 
224 
223 


211 
295 
217 
156 
204 
223 
234 


236 
201 
220 
220 
223 


Matt. xvi.16 . . 
XVie oie wee 
XVI Zine. 
xvi. 23 . 
XVIN2O - 6% 
xvii. 2. J 
XVill. 20 se 
xix. IT : 
xix. 12 P 
XIX. 2D esis 
xxi. 19 ° 
xxii. 29 
XXN. 42) yee 
xxill. 6 
xxiii. 25. 
xxiii. 27. 

xxiii. 35 - 
xxiii. 35 . 
xxiv. 4, § 
xxiv. 23-26 . 
xxiv. 24 . . 
Xxiv. 45, a 
XXV. 29 
KAVA os 
XXV. 44 

xxv. 46 . 
xXxvi. 17. 
xxvi. 38 . 
XXVi. 41 . 
xxvi. 55 . 
XXvii. 2 
X27. 


Markoiiel tein oni 


Luke 


35? 


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Wincouemeenn 
11.27 ele 
iv. 33+ 
vill, 15. 
Xi 25 

Xie 30s 

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XXV. 25 

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1 35 

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iv. 18, 19. 
Ving 4s 
vi. I 


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552. ANATOLIUS AND MINOR WRITERS: INDEX OF TEXTS. 





PAGE PAGE PAGE PAGE 
Luke vi.29. . . . 214|Johnxiv.17. . . . 200/1 Cor. ix.25. . . . 159|Eph.vi.12. . « 187 
ix. Mol WS Solr £42) xiv. Lost cae 200 xi, IQ. 2 2 © 213 Phil. i. ry 24 ie, 26: is ST 
ix. ix. 595 60) yay 224) xiv. 28. Atm erie) xii, 18 2 6 . 193 sete 02 
ao Fe noe Ye RIV Teo te aie a eo xiii, 4 . 6 . (274 ii Wg ton toe apie 
" tS foe Oe a OS KV eT) hel cen so OL xiii. 8-10. . 211 ey pe ve Pe oe Lee 
> ai OO Ae he 2K XV Oe soe ys 2OO KUL Go 9) 2 187 BG pa tows Ge a vies 
X22. 2. . . 2iI KVM 219) one L5O xiii,Q, 10 . . 211 UsQ\e vs ale) ty ered 
boa Mgmt weer rae 127 MVEA tae ei eeOs xii, IE 6 6. 224 ii, T3 Vee emneane te, 
xi. 39. 6 194 xvi. 18. ish MEO7, Baha Gh oh le 54 Ui iSeena eed 
xi 42.0. « « 104 XVI Zo aye se zOO SAN GUE. Op noe 3 MLSTAls) vous eanrey 2 
oO Ga, ade an 234 XVI sete? wean F200 XV =Olreh feck one Toe OA tens io. eG) 
XU 27 arene MemerzTic xviii. 28 Fy, eae? XVAO} LO ena ZOO HL IO vere io en ae 
RVs omer eld. xix. 13, 14 zo KV ats s eS 1V.27 io Salem eee Lon 
xiv. 3 Sie Gea G) Sab Gegiies = cia tal ee tee XV.12-20) 2!) «) 220) Coli. 10,57 9 une 203 
ele) tas ide ae) KIXAG Tiers . 228 KVac eo sah et 12355 ey oo ee eOO) 
xvi. Sa Sees mELOON PACES ICO tebe or te an 2TO KVG2 seb tee e226 fi-245) 5 ie veReZOO MN 
XVJe TON se 215 VarlOugrs : 234 xv. 46-50 . . 214 ii, 6-9 . . © « 209 
XVi.IQ . « « 216 Vile SOfecma serene ey, XVGAi see ts 202 LEE penis le ay 
XVI 20 ees ponee 7 IX:LG ces fone ZO XV. 54, 55 feo, Press) i¥.6.° 2 30 » I6f 
SOQ. Dg oN My IXs4 Ones sierra 4 xv. 56 si6 SOL] YChess, Ved, 2 p+ 2k2 
xxi. 8 . . 298 XU eAe es aoe 22771 2 COrsi. x Se oh OL | Te Luni. OQyeteet sh ZO4 
KX se eetaies 148 Xe Oe O merce cae 77, Hie O-ET sonal etd Weerg ease poet 
XK 4G et Beye sy 290 MULLS ae 154 Ta 7pre a ieee ZOL MTG a oe ton PRD) 
xxiii, 34 . + 220 Xivn22i 5 ERS Il: Fenn euneeele WADA <9 Gunde eiey! 
(ve CoG Sa GL essy) xiv. 23. ene 220 Ue Se ina. hte IV.'3<7. 0) eu e290 
TE Gs 292 XVI ON IO wrate a 277 iii. 14-17. 219 iv. I-4 . . - 209 
Tagine i 297 KVL. 24ers sie) 2230 Vc etc ia iate rape LO 7) Vi2) ore wee oh OL 
desis Ge htel XVil1 20 eee erem 230 iv. 4. Seo, eee) Vi. 354 + + « 296 
batig 197 xix, 26-30. 277 Vez. ec seo Vi.§- - + + 169 
i. 12 ‘ 201 Soto se Ala elev Wolves Go A ey Vii 11,12. . 278 
er Aee ier te 280 XX 32 eet see alctae 204 Vi. 14,15 «.« 294|2 Timi. 17. 2 2) 208 
ie Ar 283 XXiG30 ire estes 205 Vi LO- ote aelO3 11523 ep neuen 
i. 16 sue Z2T ROM. AeylL se wleuse ec ye vii. 10 Gia x kroy) ili, 4. 6 6 ae 
i. 17 280 PENG 8G gg HON viii.g . . . 280 ili,6. . . . 212 
Re oe iy Rp ee aye ii. I Wises 208 ix. 14,15 . . 208 ili. 8,9. . . 210 
Teal Omer outcie re 205 Mi 20)ssg eee eid xi. 3-5 - «© « 208 iii. 8,9. . . 221 
i. 18 sue 229 ii. 29 Sint 218 Xl [Os eugsce TOL IVt7 Ores 209 
ipl Ouen So eee Il sn20,wuristuastase 214 xi. 23. . . . 209/Tit.ii.7 2. . 6 274 
i. 18 cee 207 Wellements atd xl. 32,33 + + 27 Hie Cig 6 Gon. Bas 
iii. 13 eee 23 NR OBE Ga e oe a PC X18, Oe one 209 | deDsads oe eet ait 207 
Ventana fs eleven 20S Vili2—14 ene ie se 2O8 XUIE 3) 0 os) fee LOO BiH Oa cig, AC 
Vonl 7Aoies ct eee 203 Virld nee e202) xiii, 300. « + 208 i Pp ecg Sto iG. Beh. EXO 7/ 
VotAS—47) -o Vemuen 222k Villines seeolt Xie 3 eae 5. eats) lil. S3Oue sae cae 210 
V1 40 misciaiieieen Zi Villy 32 este vgs 204) Gal te O-8) les ears 209 VETS) culo el eeery, 
Samet hd. tron eee} Xe Ue ee ees ZOO Siren ol ie eeN2tS Viec4i cis lence 156 
Wilt 4 Alonsus aie ek Oy, Ky O—1Om aye oraz T2OOnae peursunenZOO) Vico recone 182 
WIN. 44's is) aye 201 X17 Cee ee OT ihe Gp weer asients) un Fpha) Vio tue eee sly 
wilt ad sence 202) Ik pat heeiee ch ace ace PAY) Hn TO von veeranheae Los Vill. 13 9e0 ks 188 
will, 44. 6. . 204 Xi 1Oe ee ae 278 dlcLOnau mene ie Gd XI. TOs sue wr sa 299 
Gill vAAeaies a Age 20 XV Do LO nee 208 Lena 226 xi. 32 He cel 27 
WINS Agi ten) waite 20) XVo1S carew een ee ne sOS iii. 13 5 EE 201 XU) Se ui saesnae se 
WAMITAA Wn sy © cel 6 207, XV1N2O.s ae ee TOR iii. 13 é . 203] Jas. i. 4 alot enine a 
Atom Memes 205111 Cor teOa sn ae ean. 203 Viigo haber ee 18 iii. 2  Senraene 
x. 15 crmrelinre Se Lis ares esceea LOS 1V.c Aves 226 |cls Pet. Fe Wire cme eel SO) 
XO 7am ete LOZ sh Ee Coed es Gu 6 2-F0) Viet] uci 6 weteen 20) 20bet. ue Be ard 200 
Xa GOmeeir ss iWetne = 204 Lil 17 ons tn eee LO 3) phe ll. Quis req tea vee 2 20)| Le) OB cans eee zO0) 
xX.30 . . » . 298 Vig darters. 11.0; 01s) amie een 2o0 lislavals - 276 
rable po) tr de ae weep) Noe eA. SG eRe Np btePe ts O Ch a sawsoy/ iVecIS) ements 162 
xiv. 8,9 294 vi. 14. 226 iii. 8 sips te 209 v.19. « - 188 
xiv. 9 A 207 vii. 7. 157 Ved) 5 « 159/2Johnx.. . « « « 2098 
xiv. 10 298 vii. 18, 19 218 VilTd) Jeo. e ferie) 210 
xiv. 12 200 vii. 35 182 Vi Sica et aeennoyl 
xiv. 15,16 . . 208 IX; Qirs ike 194 Vi.Q + + 273 


a ag 


et 


Adam, type of Christ, 318; of the 
Father, 402. 

Agnos-tree, emblem of the resurrec- 
tion, 369, 375. 

Angels, creation and fall of, 370. 

Anna, type of the Gentiles, 391. 


Baptism, a birth into Christ, typified 
in the Apocalypse, 337; sin af- 
ter, why possible, 365. 

Birth of Christ, nature, prophecies, 
and types of, 386, 389. 

Body, essential to the perfect man, 
370; not destroyed by death, 373, 
but real as well as spiritual in the 
resurrection, 375; essentially im- 
mortal, 377. 


Canticles, the, interpreted of virgin- 
ity, 321-324. 

Chastity, the government of the soul, 
347; Spiritual keeping of, 351. 

Christ, His union with the Church, 
319; why subject to the law of 
Moses, 385. 

Church, the bride of Christ, 319; 
typified by the woman of the 
Apocalypse, 336, 355 (note); 
meaning of the word, 381; apos- 
trophe to, 392. 

Coats of skins, to Adam, signify 
mortality, 370. 

Continence, how taught by St. Paul, 
321; pleasing to God, 342. 
Cross of Christ, blessing and glory 
of, 399, 400; figure of, in the 

vexilla, 399, 402 (note). 


Days of the creation, errors in inter- 
preting, 381. 

Dragon of the Apocalypse inter- 
preted, 338. 


Evil, origin of, not from God, 358, 
but in free-will, 362; a power 
over man, 371; consists in igno- 
rance of God, 382. 


Fate, not the cause of all things, nor 
controlling man, 342. 

Free-will, God’s gift to man, 342, 362; 
necessary to obedience, 362. 


Generation of man, in what sense 
God’s work, 312; proof of the 
resurrection of the body, 368. 








METHODIUS. 





INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 


God, His government in nature, 357 ; | 
not the author of evil, 358. 


Heresies foretold in the Apocalypse, 
338. 
Hymn of the virgins, 351-352. 


Images of kings, why honoured, 369; 
of angels, in honour of God, 
369; otherwise explained, 378, 
382 (note). 


Job, Book of, by Moses, 381; faith 
of, 401. 

Jonah, history of, interpreted, 378. 

Justin Martyr, on the resurrection 
of the body, 374. 


Man, consists of both soul and body, 
370; made in God’s image, 370. 

Marriage, how honourable, 314, 316; 
type of Christ and the Church, 
317; second, how far allowed 
by St. Paul, 321. 

Martyrdom honoured by Christ, 382. 

Mathematicians, astronomical theo- 
ries of, considered, 340. 

Matter not uncreated, 358-361, 380. 

Methodius, bishop of Tyre, biographi- 
cal notice of, 307. 





Numbers of the Apocalypse, sym- 
bolism of, 339. 


Palm Sunday, events and lessons of, 
395-398. 

Paradise distinct from heaven, 370. 

Passion of Christ, nature and pur- 
pose of, 399, 400. 

Patriarchs, the, types of the Holy 
Trinity, 403 and note. 

Pearls before swine interpreted, 379. 


Repentance, timely, effaces sin, 382. 
Resurrection, typified by the Feast 
of Tabernacles, 345; of the flesh 
as well as of the soul, 364; a 
restoration of the perfect man, 
365, and of creation, 366; not a 
transformation into the nature of 
angels, 367; Christ’s answer to 
the Sadducees concerning, 367 ; 
its mystery paralleled by the 
generation of man, 368; not a 
destruction of the body, 373, but 
its renewal as a spiritual body, 
375; shown by Moses and Elias | 





at the Transfiguration, 375, by 
Enoch, 376, by the parable of 
Dives and Lazarus, 377, and by 
the history of Jonah, 378. 


Sadducees, Christ’s answer to, 367. 

Sikera, a spurious wine, 327. 

Simeon, his song interpreted, 387, 
388; a type of ancient Israel, 
391; apostrophe to, 393. 

Sin, why possible after baptism, 365; 
law of, in man, 372. 

Soul of man, the image of Christ, 
329; not properly incorporeal, 
377+ 


Tabernacle, the, type of the Church 
and of heaven, 328. 

Tabernacles, Feast of, spiritually in- 
terpreted, 344; type of the res- 
urrection, 363 

Trees, the, parable of, interpreted, 
348. 


Virgin, the Blessed, panegyric of, 390, 


93 

Virginy, why difficult and excellent, 
310; by what steps attained, 
311; an imitation of Christ, 312; 
does not dishonour marriage, 
314-316; an espousal of Christ, 
320; St. Paul’s teaching thereon, 
322; a gift of God, 322; how 
perfected, 326; taught in the 
Canticles, 331-334; its rewards 
in heaven, 335, 353 (note); imi 
tation of the Church in the wil- 
derness, 339; other types in the 
Apocalypse, 340; of the mother 
of Christ, 385. 

Virgins, the ten, parable of, inter- 
preted, 329. 


Watches of the night, spiritually in- 
terpreted, 326. 

Willow, the, why a type of chastity, 

_ 324, 346. ‘ 

Wine in Holy Scripture, true and 
spurious, 327, 349. 

Wisdom, the artificer of all things, 
369, 381; why not found by the 
Greeks, 401. 

Woman of the Apocalypse, a type of 
the Church, 336; her child typifies 
not Christ, but Christians, 337. 


Zechariah, vision of, interpreted, 350 


553 





METHODIUS. 


INDEX OF TEXTS. 


PAGE PAGE PAGE PAGE 

Genii diy, spel se seen GOL | LAVe ls T3005 4) oy GEL) PS, Xlive FO) (oe ceo 310) || Sasi tienen metas eS 
Let AC Naeem Fae X1COur ie eee xlv. 2. BE iepdain Br Vis) Gusts ee 398 
Ll Oumae aster ier 2310) XVI LO tke too UT PANTS CD 334 Sbbechein mn OG) BCH 
i. 28 : 313 XXo 75 «omnes OLE xlv. 2. oh ke en 307 Ni Aartiannelivares Bad 
dee snaneg4d xxiii. 39-42 . . 344 xlv. Io Pe bd vi. 6 See 390 
OAS Re ene eH 18 XX 40s e45 xlv. Io oe 352 vig . Sen ee gan 
ils meat Man Site awe oni ton ree ye 7.%) MAVaGLA hss bell te 332 vi. 10 Ree Cue eo 
Wy Oy5 9k: Sore ees BIAS XXL 02303 ec tee SCO SVenn Sank Oren se 334 Natt Nem eo 5 391 
VG RRR IL NET fa RUM 3 recieiiis ves 330 xlvi. 4,5. .« - 389 viii. 1 327 
HSURS eevee eta in S20 MNUMAVIVEN2 ie iceienietn GOS, XIV SME ete 391 Xe 2am Ac = Siete) 
De Py aut Web ae aehie) Mistdadi sana hee Qe? XIVil. il 9 oe + 394 ix.6. Al tS 397 
U2 2A e ct ees kO Viruoeier abe een 320) XIVU2i he veteagennsO2 Sie “ - 320 
N1et2 33 eo Alana 0 7 XVI TO Gane! pike 50 Lcny een aoe arent oes pd per Arce lr 2yoh7) 
Hse2gie4 er ttt G04, Xxxili. 5. . . 347 Le Bilge sigh joi oui AOS xii. 6. NER veo 
ii, 24. . . . 320|Deut.vii'5 . . . . 340 [SSMS eit Bpeyr a tcectoyl XXViE ce seen Or, 
TIL SW ys Menaan hkl ue 3 XVlil. 15-19... 391 IXVUG 4 re leeraten GOS, SXVIU LOW ee Oy 
GER Vakeler ater EK Gas se cia E TXVilie 24/7 wip meeeaaeO) XXIX 222,024) Ge. ces 300) 
Mega teye G solsipe ae 8G) 2Sseth Be, Gee Ak Sey) ExXI 195.19) ih «330 xxxvilil. 21. . . 350 
TC tie ema HC, so Sahai hee iG Sie) IXEXIV Oe taitt< 4) 304 5d Be eu encerge sce 20'S) 
WisiEQ)seee easel 350 PEXKLLs 40 (omer ke eA. EXXKV Oye steed: pata ck (ens Gey 
TEM ren eee S05 || ROO Vie a7 couse ete SOO PXXXVIIGI3 suey ea gO2 XUi=-7 ake eae SOO 
lic LO Mey eee 4 IXeOeLS, eases 348 aR 7 Me Bare cen eteyt pabbhcunaee 5 AG a. 2ei8y/ 
IMBC 6 ki ols Sy kch |e Sree hence. qtilys Mem tS bid REVEs. ccleaner 304 xlii. 18-20. . . 305 
U2 Etat eee O04) 2 OAM Vin zoatlcnr ate ness XCVINOT)ciueh peace ZOO Edihibe top ne ro OhiG see) 
LiL22iee tas TT Vins toy Gee water XCVIL Lk eee OO Xlly.4 9 eeu o24 
AVe iS ter Mice ayn 1350: NITE) Se EF XCVLUL 2acsnce (une sOO) SliV. despa 2) 
Aven tOsee ie titel 3 52 VISEA Maes ree SOM: COMA T IC were come Con Stove pdhipacieeritetn era Zsa) 
Vi 20 Rene laces 349 RMR 7 wen 00 EPL ciety Wi =a0,® XlVeISije re eae G00 


IXeZ2ciien ewe 345) 1 Kings-xix. 40. 2 349 CLVARUG (one tke a eeEeGAD KlIXSQ lcs lbcna eeedOn 
RVs Older cen fe 6325 | SINGS MlsE Li creo to ZOO CLY5 One areas 300 12, Sec citer ea nem GOO 


XXVilZO bees a 2 304 L1HZO Wie! saxctnwern SOO ClVa Gleeson es 44 Lil, 2. since vamteleemq Ot 
RXV Aimee 350 WEE G | ame her8) GAN ORNS US Ah oe See) Lil: Gieeatecet ESO) 
XXXVI Aw ous 50 Vicker ciiewad olsun G00 CVE 6 prong ot voice 337, iV Te Wiine tee aos 
PO Sabi Rit lg as 1S ery) teat aay Bate: CVA G22) eee ay, Vig 22. cee ee eenemsoO 
MIX Ope tS0 5) ODX-10 ens een er GTA! CXVill 26 puree Od. Exiles ayets aeaeltanns 25 
soll Olaetenemrene: oiaate 323 XXi; 22g seem Or CEXK LO gan 902 bea Mcernine ecto out S10 
lil 2, rah eaeesee ana XRIL2 Os peer AOE (so. Qgh omen, Se ere) Ix; THA as ea 
UL, 02 escent eae OS XMXVTS ED ae ease 7, CEXKVIL wean esc iba bene LE re rien ceaicy Stel) 
MGs ioe G8 oe Be REKVI= E4) oc awl CXXRVIl eral seemed TEXT O i on kane ee, 
DLs:2 3 \ shales ie eres OF, XLAG Veet aan AL CXXXVN gi 2 eens 24 IXVi507_sr ee eae 
WU SDT 0, perme RN GAO) UES. 3 abnmen men. o8l AO CAXXVILNS; 0) eae ged lbainy Upjohn, ella ch aia 
MU clos Sin 4.330 Gel eae tees aeRO (postal: epee rol @ih lye 6 cr eg BHI 
Sd ae sabe hee Gy agtoe) Wissen aikek ng aGOO exli.3- « - » 326 bE PAA itcs tig — S43 
UPN. =a ne ees aO Wis 2inn Wheaten s MOA CXIVAIES Occ tec tO 5 TLS she at eu ome 2O) 
MeL y ol aise tule) eyed Will-c2is ene es OO exlvili, 11,12. . 304 Wipe, wale adios Se 
SAN: PASC eros yrre estoy) Ville So tot ei cigeweye O07 CIXVILLGe tr oust see ROO ViltvAr ga eee OT 
SVAN os ice) tied GOO) XVI OMaiape rs Nee su SOeh MEL OV eS yl Olcnire temas S Villy 1391-0) eset ng AS 
sabe 10}; Mee perpaeenpe we lote! pa eet Be Sl Bee Bar DisuL Ojre isa eee AO > ithe eae CEA ane (5 
SS te) AER eear alee eo} XIX; 2 UK Qaton ce erlang rk NGe Retigenrinree ne X1113 23) one eons 393 
ORV OE se GOO rod tbe ge hesshis Vill Or) vo eee sO XVI 3, Acree eee PE 
XXVA2 ZI 6 eee OO KEXV Oleg bye voraren 307, VIC 225— -aeeeeeSOr XVI: 3—Ol) apy sow 90S 
ORM AOU ore i 320 KEK VI Opa aie so0) | LSderlsaceue i. een mmm KL ye a ost eee OM TE 
RRM Ones op) sO XXKVI Ooi aeean se LE I 2O sae te uk eaeueOS XXI11624) eae ener emne SOD) 
ERICH OMe crs O5 XXXVIUUS econ eee SLE NAscoeined msg Morne ROO, RXLVn ine Thee Nao) 
POOR LGA omnes) KN 4 ee) eke ne 347 Vis 1-9 21s 6 «) - 384) Lami 27™. eee 320 


554 


METHODIUS: INDEX,OF “TEXTS: he) 




















PAGE PAGE PAGE PAGE 
PIZeketl, 22 seme wep COG eukes 20 gaa sat S00 /Romavilnc si wm en o7aGalavellos : 343 
OMG Bo Ba Go HERS) Uy 2O— 32min 0 e308 viii. 2, 11, 3,4» 373 V. 22, 23 S53 BXe) 
XXXVI 40) 2.) 305!) Lego ecmes Wik te) 302 Ville 19-209 he) 9 GOO)Ephei. 5 ie vs 304 
WA oa 5 0 3CS) Wiese. S pag) seh SIS HB Oe eg Bie i, 21 & Ogi) 
Dan. iii. 21. . . . 388 WHE 20 ey Pelee 305 Ms'33) at at sia BOS ETCH Ay oo aor S16 
ili. 56... . 395 Kae 4aiey eleceeael e305 XLVE/OW sie: les lee Siz) eA MTF! tee 37, 
AX Z ie) ways ees S75 XS doe ee eee wGO7e eC Ofeda 200 toh le smn sO7, Vt 2 53200 resi es 2O 
Ras Pe ee ROH KPO ies eno Alou 7a Nie taro OG Vii 20) 278 it eet GLO 
NOC THA why cuted feu 3O7, Sa SG) Gg 2 eS LViepd Gams te ales ZO Vi29—32\ 06 is) eg 1O 
; il. 21-23. . . 350 xii. 35-38 . « 326 Ws oe ho fetes} Vir 25-320 cue mee Ey 
hy 2) eg Se So gy) SOAR) be aa se NAO Wa. seers pense NRG oe a SB) 
Amosiv.5 . . . . 324 SOOOE Bingn eam SES vii. 2.°. . + 321 Ve32 ie ee) ee) 
Xe UD pero vena 307; MEA 5 aol Geis) vii. 2-6. . «321 pb TG Boca! 6, | SFE) 
INCI AZE og GG BIR) KVIO) pou rena NI Gio) asus oak Vigil 2, ayete rei ES 7/2 
is@ley ine) Gg 4 6 a eth) XVi02Onm een S777 vii. 3,9. . » 321 Wideh  o th SWE 
: WG 2 95 Ga Ge eS) XIX) 27am em OA: vii. fe be ig) Seer Wis, T4=17 e051 0 1972 
) nile 2 PG. a ey aatevl XI 975 30m gOS Vil 20 ues eee ee Se Mls (Oe rises F000 
, ere sere ret 303 XIX Ome mere peERSOU: Vill 2G0e gic ee ae WEIGY LG eb Sk) 
ZechsiveT—3, ~ s-« 350 XK 94 he teen S27, VI1E020 re gol 3474 DO tl Sietete ete ere eg Se 
EXO adie meer infer sOO) PL OLNGtas ine aeoumemiaults 383 Wibeae ye Ao oh) Biel6) Eel ape ca! Sieh) 
Mal. iv. 6 s 8 + 394 Heaths Saul ik een te oy vii. 32-34 . . 322 Lis TOn sate isl aren gOS 
Matt. i. 18 6. 18h et SBR eA eae Ben ae iquateso Vila 3ds teem UL Lib eT Losec eet oS 
ae ares 32 iG io! Ge ae Seco eels VERY 5 gs BH hee ae ce Al Sy 
v. : 354 IK) a. Cosa ee Wile, 35 tspn eantennG22) | Ole elit seu eu ure mem 7 
VenlSiule aa Bhs UE eeernstmre ee SOS WAN SO. Gee he i405 oo. Be) 
v. 16: 330 Lis 1 Oa manes h/e350 vii. 37. . . . 322|1 Thess. iv. 16 330 
aq Vv. 35 392 SIS domi) la Webi wae 377, vii. 38 . - . 316 LV. 10,177 5 6330 
vii. . Son Berl Ley]. epesetats aa GOS Ko Ligeti cnt TS 72 LV 7 eet sO 
vii. 6 6B yRS VO ee taste nee SOO py ao oN ee ee Vf Jy ANSE3 Secaenses 
ix. 12 esto WAG bag | Omen ees a nine Rie a ee ese Ke MADE TU) Foe cd aly 
xi. 28. 303 AVA vepe ey Sen Ged ee Ree GY Goeth on, yn Lol ere et teem OE 
E xii. 27 . 300 Vos eiieniicn a ok 300) XUltel 2a eee 2 Lise apese teense eG LO 
XILg2O som iene) 1307, Agel (Be ig Seto rane) fh “8 re revit Vip LO} ee oma 20) 
SIPAOM eer a O7S Weel Ms. he Aas eiole) XVini 2 2a ete LO Vis 16). ee 0 
Saibh Moh NY gs ao eee VIG Dole eaaicoi <4 305 XVici 220 uctonice a age 300i lee ilices tteeemaeue cent 2O 
XIV LO sb iod o,)305 Veo eo meee OA KVAPAU AC Me ees 32 son Be we 5 hehe) 
Xvll.7- 6 6 + 392 SG py eo us eet 0. U6 OS xv. 42. . « 374|Hebit . . . . - 323 
. XIX. 4,5 + + + 364 ER CMe aan Ale SF, XVevAO yew oe GOS i. 3-5 co seen BOO 
RAK DU, ove, core a5 ERNE a A ONG MSGS KViar AO ee e374 EO GN gen 5 5 Bir 
RIX l oie eee se see LO panty ieee ele cia veto Vet MV «SON or ce ase QOG NAY Bieri el eG) 
OTE So eieaeseine e305 paNeniGrG 16 Mote eM XVe 60! woe SPE 1X54 tie peer es OO) 
Sesh Oyo oo sus sey XIV POM MNCs W331 Bi Ges ee ee, Bieie} 1XS°A iy 'sic sesame OO 
xxi. IO. 66) BOS SAG ao hae oe I KVea emeteres eam 47/4 OR een ee. Gl ope 
xxi. 14-16 + + 397 XV USPS Mek es est 327, exXve i Rica A ERO! SRG. BB Bele 
SENS 6 SA SPS RN eo esas career 300) 2 GOFadN AOU aise oes SOO MUO cae elemgeo 
S.C ) A eae) XViD See oa OS hata ss 6%) RU LO ease mye RG 
XM 3 eos oO TU MA CES XVI 200 cs pee 307 A Vel pneu Been MiG on ese ete gOS) 
Seaitnelole Gia ee SKS XXVMLezOn se ee gOr VoD 2 some 373} Jas de 18 ne ak 05/0 307 
Seah Sey Go. ae > EiS.8)| | I Royee na Moro aes able) Vo 2) Bae eee Ault etnal: Ages ier 387 
xxii. 38... 392 Wi BAR aig aly «jaan 323 War woo Go 4y7! iQ - + + 6 393 
XXV2-22) 0) | os SIA WARE Pty pts Man ees) MO oe Beye eh Oeu tscie Mome 324 
XXIVIS 5-0 ee OO Milian aie? wens ey 3 7.1 ELGG Ae eee VES Vie reste te O7, 
SoS Go Se ale Ps0) Wa Sy er aA Wei LQuremivode «2 feh 0A0) Ea OLIV u1 QO! aire ake meee 7 
SSaG Oo OO Bee VSO parma 37 O Vils 4 ceneegeel =e 0 7a) UGC Villeseet aeince mee SS 
5 SAIN ES Soma) SE VilsEG tL Ovemn a ne 37,! Ks 45 pie ieee bald Sy WENO Waskee By ace tolane logan 375 
Markie 22 titee toes 0307 Ale hee Seyi SOR Ese Sue se mire hao SG) 
MENT ON cotilo= ole el GOO Wile pL yea onstee asene7 1 M1 2a) sae eee TO Wile Antec eneaemea ae 
DETAO Modo ole SEL Vile EA clipes pS7d S 8b eA a) it ety: Bed Mille Obst siete 
2b KS) 5 Go cee toy RUINS eee earn 37.0 SSN ed ee ee) XUT-O ier ea er SS 
Luke i.17 . « « + 394 nips tls Sh es) See eh Meal Atapmaicceie S40) XN Nn Oreste ine) Lesh g 3) 
qT Upon ae sarees) 1. 300: Vil L510 oe) «0.372 GC Ee atte be~ 2 Gf9) KiVenl—Ameteeecs Ts kt 
Mh 7 Ole ne SOT, Vill Olmecte neues 71 | Cral lly © owas: peeve GOS KIVend ieee wer SSE 
oe 6 WO aia Mele) Wiles Q) piste 37,2 lvardy Saetisier es OO XIV. Ash aeteteos ang S 
TIGhYA teas cam stent 2OO, vii. 22-24 . . 372 LvsslO etrepiee eeu oma 3 CO. XXe Ole) oh. mise eeGAG 


a2 amuse ee S05 Val 2 Guard caile 37.2 LVAuLO nel eee 337 KE Sesser 


i 
Ec 


ARNOBIUS. 





ANALYSIS OF CONTENTS. 


BOOKS Siren yeni et Tost hie hone 


ARGUMENT.— The enemies of Christianity were 
wont to say that, since its appearance on earth, the 
gods had shown their hatred of it by sending upon 
men all manner of calamities, and that, owing to the 
neglect of sacred rites, the divine care no longer 
poeoes the world. Arnobius begins by showing 

ow baseless this opinion is (1), for the laws and 
course of nature remain unchanged (2) ; and though 
the heathen said that since Christianity came into 
the world there had been wars, famines, pestilences, 
and many other similar calamities, these were not 
new evils, for history tells of terrible misery and 
destruction resulting from such causes in past 
ages (3-5); while it should also be noticed, that 
through the gentle and peaceful spirit of Christi- 
‘anity, the world is already relieved in part, and that 
war would be unknown, and men live peacefully to- 
gether, if it prevailed universally (6). If asked, 
What are, then, the causes of human misery? Ar- 
nobius answers that this is no part of his subject 
(7), but suggests that all evil results necessarily 
from the very nature of things, —is, indeed, per- 
haps not evil at all, but, however opposed to the 
pleasures or even interests of individuals, tends to 
general good (8-11); and that it is therefore some- 
what presumptuous in man, a creature so ignorant 
of himself, to seek to impose conditions on the su- 
perior powers (12). He further shows the futility 
of blaming the Christians for all these ills, by re- 
minding his opponents that there had been no un- 
varying series of calamities since Christianity came 
to earth, but that success had counterbalanced de- 
feat, and abundance scarcity; so that arguments 
such as these would prove that the gods were angry 
at times, at times forgot their anger (13-16). But, 
Arnobius asks, if the gods can be enraged, does not 
this argue mortality and imperfection in them (17, 
18), and even injustice (19), or weakness, if they 
need the aid of men in punishing their enemies (20) ? 
As, however, all alike suffer, it is absurd to say that 
‘Christians are specially aimed at; and, indeed, this 
is a cry raised by those interested in upholding the 
superstitious rites of antiquity (21-24). But assum- 
ing that the gods could be enraged, why should they 
be angry at Christians more than others? Because, 
the heathen said, Christianity introduced new and 
impious forms of religion. In reply to this, Arno- 
bius points out that Christians are nothing but 
worshippers of the Supreme God, under Christ’s 
teaching and guidance (25-27) ; and shows how ab- 
surd it is to accuse those of impiety who worship 
the Creator and Supreme Ruler, while those who 
serve the lesser gods—even foul and loathsome 


556 


PP. 413-432 | deities — are called religious (28-30) ; and then turns 


to God Himself, beseeching pardon for these igno- 
rant worshippers of His creatures, who had neg- 
lected Himself (31). He merely notices but refuses 
to discuss the position of those who deny that God 
exists, holding it impious even to reason about this, 
as though it were questionable, while there is an 
instinctive belief and reverence implanted in our 
breasts (31-33). But, his opponents said, we wor- 
ship Jupiter as the supreme God. Jupiter, how- 
ever, Arnobius points out, cannot claim this rank, 
for he is admittedly not self-existent (34); or if, as 
some said, Jupiter 1s only another name for the Su- 
preme Being, then, as all alike worship Him, all 
must be regarded by Him alike (35). But, his op- 
ponents urged, you are guilty not in worshipping 
God, but in worshipping a mere man who died on 
the cross; to which Arnobius replies, in the first 
place, by retorting the charge as bearing much more 
forcibly on the heathen themselves (36, 37); and 
then argues that Christ has sufficiently vindicatéd 
His claims to divinity by leading the blind and err- 
ing and lost into the ways of truth and salvation, 
and by His revelation of things previously unknown 
(38, 39) ; while, again, His death on the cross does 
not affect His teaching and miracles, any more than 
the loss of life deprived of fame Pythagoras, Socrates, 
Aquilius, Trebonius, or Regulus (40), and contrasts 
favourably with the stories told about Bacchus, As- 
culapius, Hercules, Attis, and Romulus (41); and, 
finally, asserts Christ’s divinity as proved by His 
miracles (42), which are compared with those of the 
Magi both as to their end and the manner in which 
they were wrought (43, 44); and the chief features 
of the miracles of His life on earth and His resur- 
rection, of the power of His name, and the spread 
of His Church are summarily noticed (45-47). Ar- 
nobius next remarks that the heathen did not even 
pretend that their gods had healed the sick without 
using medicines, merely by a word or touch, as 
Christ did (48); and, recalling the thousands who 
had in vain sought divine aid at temple or shrine, 
says that Christ sent none away unhelped (49), and 
that He gave this same power to His followers also 
(50), which neither priest nor magician is found to 
possess (51, 52). His divinity was shown also by the 
wonders which attended His death (53). Eye-wit- 
nesses —and these most trustworthy — testified to 
Christ’s miracles (54); and the acceptance by the 
whole world, in so short a time, of His religion, at- 
tests its truth (55). It might be said, however, that 
the Christian writers were not trustworthy, and ex- 
aggerated the number and importance of Christ’s 
miracles (56): in reply to which, Arnobius shows 
that their writings rest on as good authority as those 





ARNOBIUS: ANALYSIS OF CONTENTS. 





of the heathen (57), and that their greater novelty 
and literary rudeness are in their favour rather than 
otherwise, and are certainly of no weight against 
them (57-59). But, said the heathen, if Christ was 
God, why did He live and die as a man? Because, 
it is replied, God’s own nature could not be made 
manifest to men (60), and His reasons for choosing 
so to manifest Himself, and not otherwise, though 
they may be wsthin our reach, are certainly con- 
cealed in much obscurity (61); while as to Christ’s 
death, that was but the dissolution of His human 
frame (62). Hurrying, it would seem, to conclude 
this part of the discussion, Arnobius hastily points 
out the great powers which Christ might have 
wielded in His own defence, if He had refused to 
submit to the violence offered Him, which however 
were unused, because He rather chose to do for His 
disciples all that He had led them to look for (63). 
If, then, kings and tyrants and others who lived 
most wickedly, are honoured and deified, why should 
Christ, even if He asserted falsely that He was a 
heaven-sent Saviour, be so hated and assailed (64) ? 
If one came from distant and unknown regions, 
promising to deliver all from bodily sickness, how 
gladly would men flock to do him honour, and 
strive for his favour! How extraordinary, then, is 
the conduct of those who revile and abuse, and 
would destroy, if they could, Him who has come 
to deliver us from spiritual evils, and work out our 
salvation (65)! 


BOOK II. : : ° . ° 5 


ARGUMENT. — The question is again asked, Why 
is Christ so bitterly hated, while it cannot be said 
that He ever injured any one (1)? Because, an op- 
ponent is supposed to reply, He drove religion from 
the earth by withholding men from worshipping the 
gods. In this, however, it is shown that He did not 
assail, but built up religion, as He taught men to 
worship the creator and source of all things, God 
Supreme, the worship of whom is surely the truest 
religion (2, 3). It is declared to be mere folly in 
the heathen to disbelieve Christ’s message, for the 
future alone can prove or disprove the truth of what 
is foretold; but when there are the two prospects, 
that if Christ’s words are false, His followers lose 
nothing more than others, but that, on the other 
hand, if He spoke truly, those who refuse to believe 
in Him suffer an infinite loss, it is more rational to 
choose the course which tends to no evil and may 
lead to blessing, rather than that which it is cer- 
tain leads to no good, and may bring us to terrible 
woe (4,5). Is the truth of Christianity not mani- 
fested, he goes on to ask, in the readiness with 
which it has been received by men of every class in 
all parts of the world, and by the noble constancy 
with which so many have endured suffering even to 
death, rather than abandon or dishonour it (5)? 
And if, as was often the case, any one should say 
that there were indeed many who received Christ’s 
Gospel, but that these were silly and stupid people, 
Arnobius reminds him that learning and grammati- 
cal knowledge alone do not fit a man to decide be- 
tween truth and falsehood, tosay what may and 
what cannot take place (6); and this is shown by 
the uncertainty and confusion which surround even 
those matters which force themselves on our notice 
every day, such as the nature and origin of man, 
the end of his being, the mode in which he was 
quickened into life, and many other similar ques- 
tions (7). Moreover, the heathen laughed at the 
faith of the Christians; but in doing so, Arnobius 
asks, did they not expose themselves to ridicule? 
For does not the whole conduct of life depend on 


PP: 433-463 


the belief that the end will correspond to our aims 
and actions (8)? Again, most men put faith in one 
or other of the leading philosophers (9); and these, 
in turn, trust their own fancies, and put faith in their 
own theories, so that faith is common to all men 
alike (10). And if the heathen put faith in the 
philosophers, the Christians have no less reason to 
put faith in Christ; while, if a comparison be en- 
tered into, no other can point to such wonderful 
powers and such marvellous deeds as are recorded 
of Him (11). Not by such subtle quibbling as men 
brought against it did the new religion make its 
way, but by the marvellous and unheard-of mira- 
cles which attested its truth, so that it won followers 
among all tribes on the face of the earth; and if 
any man was ignorant of these facts, it was because 
he had not chosen to know them, and had suffered 
the truth to be obscured by those interested in up- 
holding error (12). Arnobius goes on to show that 
many Christian doctrines which were ridiculed as 
such by the heathen, were held by the philosophers 
also; referring more particularly to the worship of 
one God, the resurrection of the dead (13), and the 
quenchless fires of punishment, from which he takes 


‘| occasion to point out that man’s true death comes 


not at, but after the soul’s separation from the body, 
and to discuss the nature of the soul (14). The 
soul is not, he maintains, immortal in itself, or of 
divine origin — if it were born of God, men would 
be pure and holy, and of one opinion (15) — but 
has been made vicious and sinful by causes to be 
found in the world; while, if it had been made 
by the Supreme God, how could His work have 
been marred by that which was less powerful (16) ? 
Arnobius next endeavours to show that we are in 
nothing distinguished from the brutes: so far as 
body, the maintenance of life, and the reproduction 
of the race are concerned, we are found to be alike, 
while the heathen are reminded of the doctrine of 
the transmigration of souls (16); and if stress is 
laid on man’s reason and intelligence as a distinc- 
tive characteristic, it is first suggested that all men 
do not act rationally, and the question is then 
asked, What is the reason which man possesses, 
and not the beasts (17)? Man’s practical skill 
is no proof of superior reason, for its exercise is 
necessitated by his excessive poverty; and it is, 
moreover, not a faculty native in the soul, but one 
acquired only after long years under the pressure of 
necessity (18). The arts, grammar, music, oratory, 
and geometry are similarly noticed, and the doctrine 
of reminiscence rejected (19). Arnobius next sup- 
poses a boy to be brought up wholly apart from 
human society, and seeks to establish his position 
by the supposed results of imaginary questions put 
to this hypothetical being (20-23); and then goes 
on to attack the contrary opinions which Plato had 
sought to establish in a somewhat similar way, by 
challenging him to question the boy just imagined, 
who is, of course, found to be exactly what was in- 
tended (24); and thus gives his creator a triumph, 
by showing conclusively that man untaught is igno- 
rant as a stock or stone, while on being taught 
other creatures can learn also —the ox and ass to 
grind and plough, the horse to run in harness, and 
the like (25). Pursuing the same subject, it is 
argued that if the soul loses its former knowledge 
on uniting with the body, it cannot be incorporeal, 
and cannot therefore be immortal (26, 27); and 
further, that if the soul’s former knowledge were 
lost through the influence ot the body, the knowl- 
edge acquired in this life should in like manner 
be lost (28). Those who assert the soul’s immor- 
tality are accused of teaching that which will add 
to the wickedness of men: for how shall any one 
be restrained even by the fear of a higher power, 


S07 


558 


who is persuaded that his life cannot be cut short 
‘by any power (29)? while if he is threatened with 
the punishments of the infernal regions, he will 
laugh them to scorn, knowing that what is incor- 
ruptible cannot be affected by mere bodily ills. If 
the soul is immortal, Arnobius affirms there is no 
need or ground for philosophy, that is, ethics, whose 
purpose is to raise man above the brutish pleasures 
of sense to a virtuous life: for why should not a 
soul which cannot perish give itself up to any pleas- 
ures? while if the soul is mortal, slifosophy is in 
precisely the same position, aiming to do for man 
what will not profit him if done (30). The soul, he 
concludes, is neither mortal nor immortal (31); and 
there is therefore good reason that those who have 
no confidence in their power to help themselves, 
should welcome a saviour in one more powerful 
(32, 33). Christians and heathen alike, then, look 
for the deliverance of their souls from death; and 
neither party, therefore, has any reason to mock the 
other in this (33, 34). Such, too, is the condition 
of all spirits which are supposed to exist (35) ; and 
it is only through God’s goodness that any spirit be- 
comes immortal (36). It is next argued at great 
length, and with some prolixity, that the soul is not 
sprung from God, on the ground of its vicious and 
imperfect nature (37-46); and it is then shown that, 
in denying the soul’s divine origin on this ground, 
we are acting most reasonably, although we cannot 
say what its real origin is (47, 48); while if any one 
attempts to show that the soul is not imperfect and 
polluted by sin by pointing to good and upright 
men, he is reminded that the whole race cannot take 
its character from a few individual members, and 
that these men were not so naturally (49, 50). 
There is nothing ridiculous, Arnobius goes on to 
say, in confessing ignorance of such matters; and 
the preceding statements are to a certain extent 
supported by Plato’s authority, in so far as he sepa- 
Yates the formation of man’s soul from the divine 
acts (51, 52). But if this belief be mistaken, what 
harm does it do to others (53)? From this there 
naturally follows a discussion of the origin of evil, 
the existence of which cannot be denied, though its 
cause is beyond our knowledge; it is enough to 
know that all God does is good (54, 55). How idle 
atask it would be to attempt the solution of such 
problems, is seen when we consider how diverse are 
the results already arrived at, and that each is sup- 
ported on plausible grounds (56, 57); which clearly 
shows that man’s curiosity cannot be certainly satis- 
fied, and that one man cannot hope to win general 
assent to his opinions (57). Arnobius now proposes 
to his opponents a series of questions as to men 
and things, after answering which they may with 
more reason taunt him with his ignorance of the 
soul’s origin (58, 59); and says that, because of the 
vanity of all these inquiries, Christ had commanded 
them to be laid aside, and men to strive after the 
knowledge of God (60), and the deliverance of their 
souls from the evils which otherwise await them 
(61), — a task to be accomplished only through the 
aid of Him who is all-powerful (62). The condi- 
tion of those who lived before Christ came to earth 
is to be learned from His teaching (63); and His 
bounty extends to all, though all do not accept it 
(64); for to compel those to turn to Him who w// 
not come, would be to use violence, not to show 
mercy (65). No purity therefore, or holiness, can 
save the man who refuses to accept Christ as his 
Saviour (66). Arnobius next deals with the objec- 
tion that Christianity is a thing of yesterday, for 
which it would be absurd to give up the more an- 
cient religions, by asking if it is thus that we look 
upon the various improvements which have been 
suggested from time to time by the increase of 








| 


ARNOBIUS: ANALYSIS OF CONTENTS. 


knowledge and wisdom (66-68). All things, more- 
over, have had a beginning — philosophy, medicine, 
music, and the rest (69), even the gods themselves 
(70); but all this is wholly beside the mark, for the 
truth of a religion depends not on its age, but on 
its divine origin. And if, a few hundred years be- 
fore, there was no Christianity, the gods were in 
like manner unknown at a still earlier period (71). 
But Christianity worships that which was before all, 
the eternal God, although late in its worship, because 
there was not the needed revelation sooner (72). 
Arnobius again asserts that Christianity does not 
stand alone, for it was at a comparatively late time 
that the worship of Serapis and Isis, and of others, 
was introduced; and so Christianity too had sprung 
up but lately, because it was only then that its 
teacher had appeared (73): and having considered 
why Christ was so late in appearing among men 
(74, 75), and why Christians are allowed to un- 
dergo such suffering and trial on earth (76, 77), 
he earnestly exhorts all to see to the safety of their 
souls, and flee for salvation to God, seeing that such 
terrible dangers threaten us, lest the last day come 
upon us, and we be found in the jaws of death (78). 


BOOK III. ° saa Re : : 


ARGUMENT. —In the two preceding books, Ar- 
nobius endeavoured to repel the objections raised 
against Christianity; but already, he says, it had 
found able defenders, though strong enough in its 
own might to need none (1); and therefore, having 
replied to the charge of neglecting the worship of 
the gods, by asserting that in worshipping the Su- 
preme God, the Creator of the universe, any other 
gods, if there are such, receive honour, inasmuch as 
they are sprung from Him (2, 3), he goes on to attack 
heathenism itself, pointing out that the other gods 
cannot be proved to exist, their names and number 
being alike unknown (4, 5). These gods, moreover, 
are spoken of as male and female, but the divine 
cannot be liable to such distinctions, as Cicero 
showed (6); whom it would be well, therefore, for 
the heathen to refute, instead of merely raising an 
unreasoning clamour against his writings (7). The 
use by Christians of a masculine term to denote 
the Deity, is merely a necessity of speech; but 
the heathen expressly attributed sex to their deities 
(8), who would therefore, being immortal, be innu- 
merable; or if the gods did not beget children, why 
had they sex (9)? Arnobius then inveighs against 
this opinion as degrading and dishonouring the 
gods (10), and says that it is far more likely that 


| they would afflict men to punish such insults, than 


to take vengeance on Christians, who did them no 
dishonour (11). He then goes on to speak of bod- 
ily form, denying that it is attributed to the Deity 
by Christians (12), while the heathen boldly asserted 
that their gods had Auman bodies, which, Arnobius 
shows, makes it necessary to ascribe to some gods 
the basest offices (13-15). It might, however, be 
said that the gods were not really supposed to have 
such bodies, but were so spoken of out of respect. 
This, Arnobius shows, is not honouring, but insult- 
ing, them as much as possible (16). If the Deity 
has any mortal shape, we do not know it (17); He 
may hear, see, and speak in His own, but not in our 
way (18); and it is unbecoming to ascribe even our 
virtues to God, — we can only say that His nature 
cannot be declared by man (19). 

The offices ascribed to the gods are next derisive- 
ly commented on (20, 21) ; and as to the suggestion 
that the gods impart a knowledge of the arts over 
which they preside, without being practically ac- 
quainted with them, it is asked why the gods should 


+ Pp 464-475 





i 


~~ = 


ARNOBIUS: ANALYSIS OF CONTENTS, 





seek this knowledge, when they had no opportunity 
of turning it to account (22). It might, however, 
be said that it belonged to the gods to secure a pros- 
perous issue to human undertakings. Why, then, 
failure, ruin, and destruction (23)? Because, it 


would be answered, of neglected rites, and sacri- 


fices withheld. Is, then, Arnobius asks, the favour 
of the gods to be purchased ? is it not theirs to give 

to those utterly destitute (24) ? Unxia, Cinxia, Vita, 
' and Potua are held up as foul parodies on Deity 
' (25). Mars and Venus being taken as fair exam- 
ples (26, 27), the conclusion is reached, that such 
cote presiding over lust, discord, and war, cannot 

e believed in (28). The inconsistent and mutu- 
ally destructive opinions entertained with regard to 
Janus, Saturn (29), Jupiter, Juno (30), and other 
gods, render belief in them impossible (31-34) ; 
while if, as some believe, the world is a living being, 
the deities cannot exist which are said to be parts 
of it, as the sun, moon, etc., for the whole will have 
life, not its members (35). Thus the heathen plain- 
ly subvert all faith in their religion, however zeal- 
ous against Christian innovations (36). They do 
so still further, by the ridiculous inconsistency of 
their opinions as to the origin and numbers of 
their gods, in particular of the Muses (37, 38); the 
Novensiles (38, 39); the Penates (40); and the 
Lares (41). 

Arnobius, having thus shown that the heathen are 
in doubt and ignorance as to all their gods, a cir- 
cumstance giving rise to confusion in seeking to 
celebrate their rites (42, 43), calls upon them to de- 
cide on their creed, and abide by it (44). 


BOOK IV. ; 5 . ; 5 - pp. 476-488 


ARGUMENT. — Arnobius now attacks the heathen 
mythology, pointing out that such deities as Piety, 
Concord, Safety, and the like, could only be mere 
abstractions (1, 2); while, as to many others, it 
would be difficult to suppose — especially when 
facts are compared with theories —that they were 
seriously spoken of as deities, e.g., Luperca, Przes- 
tana, Pantica (3), and Pellonia (4); the sinister 
deities (5); Lateranus, a god degraded to the 
kitchen (6); and others to whom were assigned ob- 
scene and trifling offices (7); and asking whether 
the existence of these deities depended on the 
things for which they cared, or the performance of 
the offices over which they were set, and how, if 
they were first in the order of existence, they could 
be named from things which did not then exist, and 
how their names were known (8). Common-sense 
will not allow us to believe in gods of Gain, Lust, 
Money, and the rest (9); and besides, we could not 
stop here, for if there were gods to preside over 
bones, honey, thresholds, we should find it impossi- 
ble to deny that everywhere and for everything there 
are special gods (10).. What proof, it is asked, do 
the gods give of their existence? do they appear 
when invoked? do they give true oracles (11)? how 
were they made known to men, and how could it be 
certain that some one did not take the place of all 
those supposed to be present at different rites (12)? 
Arnobius next goes on to point out that several 
deities were spoken of under one name, while, on 
the contrary, several names were sometimes applied 
to one deity (13); e.g., there were three Jupiters, 
five Suns and Mercuries, five Minervas (14), four 
Vulcans, three Dianas and Aésculapii, six called 
Hercules, and four called Venus, and others, in like 
manner, from which would arise much confusion 
(15); for if Minerva were invoked, the five might 
be supposed to appear, each claiming the honour 
of deity as her own, in which case the position of 


the worshipper would be one of danger and per- 
plexity (16). The others might be similarly referred 
to, and this alone would make it impossible to be- 
lieve in these deities (17). And if it should be said 
that these writings are false, it might be answered 
that it is only of such published statements that 
notice could be taken; and that, if they were dis- 
credited, this fact should be made evident; and, 
finally, that from them all the religious ideas of the 
heathen were drawn(18). In saying that a god was 
sprung from such a father and mother, the thought 
might have suggested itself, that in this there was 
something human, something not befitting deity 
(19); but, so far from this, they had added every- 
thing degrading and horrible (20). Jupiter had 
such an origin, they said, and the Thunderer was 
once a helpless infant tended by his nurse (21); 
and — which was even more degrading and unseem- 
ly —in turn he, too, was subject to lust and passion, 
even descending to intercourse with mortals (22, 23). 
Here, Arnobius says, would be found the cause of 
all the miseries of which they complained, and these, 
therefore, were to be laid to the account, not of the 
Christians, but of the heathen, for it was they who 
devised such hideous, absurd, and blasphemous tales 
about the deities, which are either utterly false, or 
conclusively disprove the existence of such gods 
(24-28). Here it might have been shown that all 
the gods were originally men, by referring to vari- 
ous historians (29); but this is not done, because 
the purpose of Arnobius was merely to show that it 
was the heathen, not the Christians, who did the 
gods dishonour. True worship is not ritual ob- 
servance, but right thoughts; and therefore the re- 
sentment of the gods would be excited rather by 
the infamous tales of the heathen, than by the neg- 
lect of the Christians (30, 31); and whoever might 
have invented them, the great body of the people 
were to blame, in that they Mowed tt to be done, 
and even took pleasure in reading or hearing such 
stories, although they had secured not merely the , 
great, but even private persons from libels and cal- 
umnies by the strictest laws (32-34). But not 
merely did they suffer things to be written with im- 
punity which dishonoured the gods, similar plays 
were also acted on the stage (35); and in these the 
gods were even made a laughing-stock, to the great 
delight of crowded audiences (35, 36). And yet, 
though they were so open and unblushing in the 
insults which they offered the gods, they did not 
hesitate to accuse the Christians of impiety, who 
were not guilty in this respect at all (37). If, 
therefore, the gods are angry, it is not because 
of the Christians, but because of their own worship- 


pers (38). 


BOOK V. é : ° ° 


ARGUMENT. — It might be said that these charges 
were founded by Arnobius on the writings of poets 
and actions of stage-players, and that the heathen 
generally could not therefore be held guilty. Such 
a defence, however, would not avail those who in 
their histories and religious rites were not less 
impious and insulting to the deities. Arnobius 
proceeds, therefore, to narrate the story, told by 
Antias, of Jupiter’s being tricked by Numa (1), 
and criticises it minutely, showing the manifest 
absurdity and impiety of representing man as over- 
coming and deluding the gods (2-4). He next re- 
lates from Timotheus the origin of Acdestis (5); 
the base and degrading expedients which the gods 
were compelled to adopt in order that they might rid 
themselves of his audacity; and the extraordinary 
birth (6) and death of Attis, and institution of the 


559 


pp. 489-50! 


OWA geek Rie rae ees Oe 
i) oe at 
J ‘ 
7 af 


560 ARNOBIUS: ANALYSIS OF CONTENTS. 





rites of the Great Mother in memory of him (7). 
This story also is criticised at Bees length, its ab- 
surdity, indecency, and silliness being brought prom- 
inently forward (8-14); while it is pointed out that 
the truth or falsehood of the story is of no conse- 
quence to the argument, as all that Arnobius wishes 
to prove is, that any deities which exist are more 

rossly insulted by their own worshippers than by 

shristians (15). But, he says, how can you main- 
tain that this story is false, when the ceremonies 
you are ever observing always refer to the events 
of which it speaks (16, 17)? 

Neglecting many similar stories as too numerous 
to be related, he merely mentions Fenta Fauna, the 
birth of Servius Tullius (18), the Omophagia, rites 
of Venus, Corybantia, and the Bacchanalia which re- 
late the dismembering of Bacchus (19). The story 
is next related of Jupiter’s amours with Ceres as a 
bull, and with Proserpine as a serpent (20, 21), in 
which, Arnobius says, it might be thought that it was 
wished to make Jupiter an embodiment of all the 
vices (22); and then notes, with bitter irony, how the 
Supreme Ruler is belittled by their trivial and de- 
grading tales (23). Passing now to the other deities, 
Arnobius narrates the wanderings of Ceres, and the 
origin, in consequence, of the Thesmophoria and 
Eleusinia (24-27). So, too, the obscene Alimontia 
are shown to have an origin as shameful (28); and 
Arnobius indignantly asks, whether such a tale does 
not strike at the foundation of all morality? and 
whether Christians are to be forced, by fear of tor- 
ment and death, to worship such deities (29), for 
disbelief in whom he cannot but wonder that men are 
called atheists (30)? Since, then, it is the heathen 
who so insult their own deities, the wrath of the 
gods must be against their worshippers, not against 
Christians (31). 

The suggestion that these stories are allegories 
(32) he scouts as utterly absurd, pointing out the 
impossibilty of finding any meaning in some parts 
of the fables, insisting that as every detail is not 
allegorical, no part can be, and supposing that he 
thus shows that these must be accounts of actual 
events (33-39). If, however, these tales are alle- 
gories, do they not, Arnobius asks, do the gods 
wrong by imputing to them as crimes what are 
merely natural phenomena (40)? that is, do they 
not turn into obscenity that which is pure and hon- 
ourable in itself, while allegory is rather used to hide 

under a cloak of decency what is indecent (41)? 
There is but one other pretext, that the gods them- 
selves would have their mysteries made allegories, 
not choosing that they should be generally under- 
stood. But how was this ascertained? and why 
would they not allow the truth to be told, against 
which no objection could be taken, preferring inde- 
cent and shameful allegory (42)? These explana- 
tions, then, are merely attempts to get rid of 
difficulties (43); attempts, too, which could not be 
very successful, for many shameful tales do not 
admit of explanation as allegories (44). What re- 
markable modesty is this, to blush at the mention 
of bread and wine, and fearlessly to say “ Venus” 
for a shameful act! (45.) 


BOOK VI. . 5 : Pp. 506-517 


ARGUMENT. — Having shown how impious were 
the opinions entertained by the heathen about their 
own gods, Arnobius next meets the charge of im- 
poy made against Christians because they neither 

uilt temples, nor set up statues, nor offered sacri- 
fices. This, however, he asserts was not the fruit 
of impiety, but of nobler beliefs (1). For, admitting 
that they are gods, they must be free from all im- 


* 


perfection, and therefore self-sufficient, not depend- 


| ent on aid from without, nor afflicted with the desires 


and passions of mortals. To think thus, he adds, 
is not to hold the gods in contempt (2). But if they 
are such, of what use would temples be to them? 
Is it not sheer madness to think that you honour 
your superiors when you judge of them by your own 
necessities? Do the gods need shelter from cold 
and heat, from rain or storm? And although to 
men temples may seem magnificent, to the gods of 
heaven they can be only mean cells (3). But, it 
might be said, temples are built not to shelter the 
gods, but that we may address them face to face, as 
it were. Then, if prayers were offered to the gods 
under the open heaven, they would not be heard. 
But the true God must hear prayers wherever of- 
fered, nay, must be present even in the silent recesses 
of the heart, to know what is thought, what is de- 
sired, even though it be not expressed, for it is His 
to fill all things with His power, and not to be pres- 
ent in one place only (4). Otherwise there could be 
no hope of help; for if prayers were made to one 
deity from different parts of the earth, while he 
could be present only in one, then either all would 
be alike neglected, or one only would be heard and 
answered (5). 

These temples, however, which were said to have 
been built in honour of the gods, were in reality 
places of sepulture. Thus Cecrops was buried in 
the temple of Minerva at Athens, and others, both 
men and woinen, in various well-known shrines (6), 
even the Capitol being only the sepulchre of Olus; 
and thus the heathens are shown to have been 
guilty either of worshipping the dead as gods, or of 
dishonouring the gods by making tombs their tem- 
ples (7). 

As to images, if there are really gods in heaven 
to whom supplication can be made, why, Arnobius 
asks, should figures of them be made on earth? and 
if they are not believed to be in heaven, it is still 
more difficult to say of what use these images are 
(8). We worship the gods, the heathen said, by 
means of their images. Can the gods, therefore, 
Arnobius_asks, receive homage only when offered 
to statues? What can be more insulting than to 
believe in a god, and pray to a statue, to hope for 
aid from a deity, but to ask it from his image (9)? 
Moreover, how could it be known that those figures 
were indeed images of the gods? The moon is ever 
in motion; how could the figure of a woman which 
never Stirred be her likeness? But if the gods were 
not such as their statues — which no one supposed 
—what audacity was shown in giving to them what- 
ever figures men pleased (10)! Little occasion had 
they to laugh at the superstitious worship of rivers, 
stones, sabres, and pieces of wood by ancient and 
barbarous peoples, while they themselves prayed to 
little figures of men. Did they, then, believe that 
the gods were like men? No, Arnobius says; only 
they found themselves committed to a false position, 
and would rather maintain it with violence and cru- 
elty than admit that they were in error (11). Hence 
it was that such extraordinary forms and equipments 
were given to the gods. But if the images were 
secretly removed from their proper places, and the 
insignia of one given to another, it would be impos- 
sible to say which was Jupiter, which Mars. How 
absurd to form images of the gods, which depend 
for their individuality on the dresses put upon them 
(12)! It was a small thing, however, to distinguish 
the gods by means of reaping-hooks, tridents, horns, 
or hammers; but it was no light matter that the gods 
should be fashioned like lewd men and women, and 
that thus divine honours should be paid to harlots 
(13). Arnobius next insists that images are but dead 
matter, moulded, cut, filed, and hewn into form by 


ye 
4 
ty 


= 


ao, we 


ne ee eS Ea 


Terra 





i ARNOBIUS: ANALYSIS OF CONTENTS. 





men; and that it is therefore absurd for a man to 
worship what he has himself made (14). No one 
would worship, he says, a mass of metal or a heap 
of stones, or even fragments of images; but why, 
while the parts are thus regarded as merely dead 
matter, should they, when formed into an image, 
become divine (15). Still men asked blessings from 
earthenware, copper, and ivory, and supposed that 
their prayers were heard by senseless figures, for- 


getting how and from what they were formed; that 


It was man’s skill which gave them all their gran- 
deur, for within them there was only hideous empti- 
ness; and that they were destroyed by time, used 
as coverts by mean and loathsome creatures, and 
bemired by birds, the dumb animals thus teaching 
their master, man, that the images which he wor- 
shipped were beneath his notice (16). But, was the 
reply of the heathen, we worship not the images, but 
the deities, which are brought into them by their 
consecration. Do the gods, then, quit heaven to 
give dignity to what is base? And if so, do they 
enter these images willingly or unwillingly? If un- 
willingly, is their majesty not lessened ? it willingly, 
what can they find there to entice them from their 
starry seats (17)? It is further asked, Do the gods 
always remain in these images, or come and go at 
will? If the former, how wretched is their case! 
If the latter, how is it to be known when the god is 
in the image so that he should be worshipped, and 
when: he has quitted it so that it may be safely 
neglected? Moreover, in small figures, do the gods 
become small? in those represented as sitting, do 
they sit? and do they thus conform in all respects 
to their images (18)? But there are either as many 
gods as statues, or no statue can be tenanted by a 
god, because one god cannot occupy different images 
(19). But if the gods dwell in their own images, why 
do they not themselves defend these, instead of leav- 
ing it to dogs and geese and watchers to protect 
their effigies from fire or thieves (20)? Nay, more, 
why do they allow themselves to be robbed and in- 
sulted by the stripping from their images of what 
is valuable (21)? It might be said that the gods 
despised such trifles; but if so, that showed that 
they despised the images as well. Arnobius then 
relates the stories of men falling in love with statues 
of Venus, and asks, where was the goddess, that she 
did not repel and punish such insulting wantonness, 
or at least recall the frenzied youths to their senses 
(22)? If any explanation could be found for this, 
there was none, however, for the fact that so many 
temples had been destroyed by fire and spoiled by 
robbers, without the interference of their presiding 
deities (23). Finally, if it were said that images had 
been devised in ancient times to terrify men from 
their wickedness by the belief that gods were at 
hand to see and punish their crimes, Arnobius ad- 
mits that there would be some reason in this, if 
temples and images caused peace, justice, and purity 
to prevail on the earth; but points out that this had 
not been the result, for crime and wickcdness abound 
everywhere ; and temples, and even the images which 
were to force men to be just, are plundered without 
fear (24). He then asks what power Saturn’s sickle, 
the winged shoes of Mercury, or any of the other 
insignia of the gods possess, to move men’s minds 
to fear (25); and whether it had ever been thought 
that men could’be frightened by a hideous face, as 
children by some bugbear. The enactment of laws, 
however, shows clearly that images or temples have 
no such power (26). 


BOOK VII. . “i - - 5 


ARGUMENT. — He proceeds to meet the charge, 
that Christians are atheists because they offer none 


pp. 518-540 





of the usual divine honours to God. The fact he 
admits, but asserts that in so doing Christians really 
comply with God’s will. To vindicate the Christians 
from any charge of impiety because they offered no 
sacrifices, Arnobius quotes Varro's opinion, that the 
true gods could not wish for these, whilst the images 
could care for nothing (1). The true gods, though 
unknown because unseen, must be, so far as their 
divinity is concerned, exactly alike, so as never to 
have been begotten, or be dependent on anything 
external to themselves (2). But if this is the case, 
on what ground ought sacrifices to be offered — as 
food for the gods? but whatever needs help from 
without, must be liable to perish if this is withheld. 
Moreover, unless the gods feed on the steam and 


vapour of the sacrifices, it is plain that they receive: 


nothing, as the fire on the altar destroys what is 
placed on it; whilst, finally, if the gods are incorpo- 
real, it is difficult to see how they can be supported 
by corporeal substances (3). It might indeed be 
supposed that the gods took some pleasure in hav- 
ing victims slain to them; but this is exposed to two 
objections, — that to feel pleasure necessitates the 
capacity of feeling pain, whilst these two states are 
becoming only in the weakness of mortals, and re- 
quire the possession of the. senses, which can only 
accompany a bodily form, from which the gods are 
supposed to be free; and that, secondly, to feel 
pleasure in the sufferings of animals, is hardly con- 
sistent with the divine character (4). It was com- 
monly held that sacrifices propitiated the deities, 
and appeased their wrath. Against this Arnobius 
protests as utterly inconsistent with the view of the 
divine nature, which he conceives it necessary to 
maintain so persistently (5). But conceding this 
point, for the sake of argument, two alternatives 
are proposed: such sacrifices should be offered 
either before or after the divine wrath is excited. 
If the former is chosen, this is to represent the gods 
as wild beasts to be won from their savageness by 
throwing to them sops, or that on which to vent 
their rage; if the latter, without waiting to discuss 
whether the divine greatness would be offended by 
a creature so ignorant and unimportant as man (6), 
or what laws the gods have established on earth by 
the violation of which they might be enraged (7), it 
is asked why the death of a pig, a chicken, or an ox 
should change the disposition of a god, and whether 


the gods can be bribed into a gracious mood. More- © 


over, if the divine pardon is not given freely, it 
would be better to withhold it, as men sin more 
readily when they believe that they can purchase 
pardon for themselves (8). A protest is put into 
the mouth of an ox against the injustice of compel- 
ling cattle to pay the penalty of men’s offences (9). 
Arnobius then points out that the doctrine of fate, 
that all things proceed from causes, and that there- 
fore the course of events cannot be changed, does 
away with all need to appeal to the gods to reader 
services which are not in their power (10). Finally, 
the miseries of men are a conclusive proof that the 
gods cannot avert evil (11), otherwise they are un- 
grateful in allowing misfortunes to overwhelm their 
worshippers. A brief résumé is given of the pre- 
ceding arguments, illustrated by the cases of two 
men, of whom one has but little to give, whilst the 
other loads the altars with his offerings; and of two 
nations at war with each other whose gifts are equal, 
— which show how untenable the hypothesis is, that 
sacrifices purchase the favour of the gods (12). 
Another pretext urged was, that the gods were 
honoured by the offering of sacrifices. How Could 
this be? Honour consists in something yielded and 
something received (13). But what could the gods 
receive from men? how could their greatness be 
increased by men’s actions (14)? The true deities 


5 


561 


562 ARNOBIUS: ANALYSIS OF CONTENTS. 





should indeed be honoured by entertaining thoughts 
worthy of them; but what kind of honour is it to 
slay animals before them, to offer them blood, and 
send up wreaths of smoke into the air (15)? Still, 
if such horrid sights and smells were thought pleas- 
ing to the gods, why were certain animals and cer- 
tain things chosen to be sacrificed, and not others 
(16)? The absurdity of offering to the gods the 
food used by us, is shown by supposing that pigs, 
dogs, asses, swallows, and other birds and beasts, 
were to sacrifice to men, in like manner, ants, hay, 
bones, and the filth even which some of them eat 
(17). It is then asked why to one god bulls were 
sacrificed, to another kids, to a third sheep; to 
some white, to others black, to some male, to others 
female animals (18). The usual answer was, that 
to the gods male victims, to the goddesses females, 
were sacrificed, which brings up again the question 
as to sex amongst the deities. Put passing this by, 
what is there in difference of colour to make the 
gods pleased or displeased as the victim might be 
white or black?. The gods of heaven, it might be 
said, delight in cheerful colours, those of Hades in 
loomy ones. In the time of Arnobius, however, 
ew believed that there was any such place as 
Hades; and if this were so, there could be no gods 
there (19).. But conceding this point also, and ad- 
mitting that to their savage dispositions gloomy 
colours might be pleasing, Arnobius suggests that 
only the skins of animals are black, and that there- 
fore the flesh, bones, etc., should not be offered, nor 
the wine, milk, oil, and other things used in sacri- 
fices which are not black (20). It is next asked why 
certain animals were sacrificed to certain gods, and 
not to others; to which the only answer is, that it 
had been so determined by the men of former times 
(21). Or if it be suggested that a reason is seen 
in the sacrificing of fruitful and barren victims to 
mother earth and the virgin Minerva, such reason- 
ing requires that musicians should be sacrificed to 
Apollo, physicians to A®sculapius, and orators to 
Mercury (22). Returning to the argument, that 
sacrifices should be offered to the gods to win 
favours from the good, to avert the malice of the 
bad, Arnobius points out, first, that it is impossible 
that thére should be evil deities; and, secondly, that 
to suppose that the sacrifices were effectual, is to 
suppose that by them an evil deity could be changed 
into a good, and that, through their being withheld, 
a beneficent deity might become malevolent; which 
is as absurd as if one were to expect, on caressing 
a viper or scorpion, that he would escape being 
stung (23). He proceeds to call attention to various 
kinds of puddings, cakes, pottages, and other deli- 
cacies used in ceremonies, asking with scorn for 
what: end they were employed (24, 25). It is next 
pointed out, that no reason can be offered for the 
use of incense, which was certainly unknown in the 
heroic ages, and unused even in Etruria, the mother 
of superstition, and could not have been burned on 
the ‘altar until after the time of Numa. If, there- 
fore, the ancients were not guilty in neglecting to 
burn incense, it could not be necessary to do so (26). 
Moreover, of what service was incense to the gods? 
If they were honoured by its being burned, why 
should not any gum be so used (27)? If incense is 
prefetred because of its sweet smell, the gods must 
have noses, and share man’s nature. Further, they 
may not be ‘affected as we are by odours, and what 
is pleasant to us may be disagreeable to them; and 
vice versa,’ But such considerations are inadmissi- 
ble with regard to the gods, for reason demands 


that they should be immaterial, and that therefore 
they should not be affected by odours (28). Arno- 
bius next shows that the use of wine in ceremonies 
was as little based on reason as that of incense, for 
deities cannot be affected by thirst (29); and how 
could they be honoured with that which excites to 
vice and impairs man’s reason (30)? The formula 
with which libations were made is ridiculed as nig- 
gardly and stingy (31); and the wreaths and gar- 
lands worn by the celebrants, and the noise and 
clangour of their musical instruments, are also 
turned into mockery (32); whilst it is shown that, 
to speak of the gods bone honoured by the games 
dedicated to them, is to say that they were honoured 
by being publicly insulted in the ribald plays which 
were acted at these times, and by licentious. and 
lustful conduct (33). All these detestable opinions 
originated in man’s inability to understand what the 
deity really is, and in his therefore attributing to 
the divine nature what belongs to himself alone (34). 
In the three chapters which follow, he contrasts the 
opinions of heathen and Christians as to the divine 
nature, showing that to the former nothing seemed 
too bad to be attributed to their gods; while the 
latter, not professing to worship the gods, insulted 
them less by not holding such opinions (35-37). 

The pestilences and other calamities are next dis- 
cussed, which were supposed to have been sent by 
the gods as punishments for sacrifices or other hon- 
ours withheld from them (38). Thus it was related 
that, the dud Circenses having been violated, a pes- 
tilence ensued until they were once more celebrated 
in due form (39). Other pestilences also were got 
rid of, and enemies overcome, when gods had been 
brought across the seas and established at Rome; 
while, on the Capitol’s being struck by lightning, 
evil was averted only by rearing towards the east 
an image of Jupiter in a higher place (40). But 
how can the story of the /udi Circenses be believed, 
which represents Jupiter as delighting in childish 
amusements, angry without cause, and punishing 
those who had done no wrong (41, 42), and going 
so far astray in making choice of a man to declare 
the cause of his anger (43)? In like manner Arno- 
bius discusses the transportation of A®sculapius, in 
the form of aserpent, from Epidaurus to the island 
in the Tiber, after which it was said the people 
were restored to health (44-46). In reply to the 
question how it was that the plague ceased if the 
god did not really come to Rome, Arnobius asks 
how it was that, if the god did come to Rome, he 
did not preserve the city from all disease and pesti- 
lence thereafter (47); and as to the argument, that 
this did not happen because in later ages wicked. 
ness and impiety. prevailed, reminds his opponent 
that at no epoch was Rome a city of the good and 
pious (48). So, too, the Great Mother was said 
to have been brought frem Phrygia to enable the 
Romans to overcome Hannibal. But all that was 
brought was a stone (49); and are we to suppose 
that Hannibal was overcome by a stone, and not b 
the energy, resolution, and courage of the Romans? 
But if the Great Mother really drove Hannibal 
from Italy, why did she delay doing so until carried 
over the seas to Rome (50)? But without insisting 
on these objections, who will call her a goddess who 
is perfectly capricious, abandons her worshippers 
to settle amongst those who are more powerful, and 
loves'to be in the midst of slaughter and bloodshed, 
whilst the true gods must be perfectly just and 
equally well disposed to ali mep (51)? 





ARNOBIUS. 


INDEX OF SUBJECTS 


[It has been thought best to include, in this Index to ARNoBIUS, the very full mythological and historical references of the Edinburgh edition, 
as valuable to students in antiquarian and classical subjects, though less practically necessary as an aid to Christian inquiry. ] 


Abdera, proverbial for stupidity, 494. 

Saat language, punished by law, 
497 

Acantho, mother of the fourth Sun, 


480. 

Acdestis, birth of, 491; a hermaphro- 
dite, 491; self-mutilated by the 
craft of Bacchus, 491; love of 
Attis, 492; fatal consequences 
of his fury, 492. 

Achaia, Christianity attested by mir- 
acles in, 438. 

Acheron, 439, 500. 

Achilles, 485. 

Acorns and chestnuts, the food of 
primitive men, 442, 459. 

Acrisius, buried in temple of Minerva 
at Larissa, 508. 

Actzon, the horned hunter, 473. 

Actors, freed from taxes, 488. 

Admetus, served by Apollo, 484. 

Adonis, loved by Proserpine, 485. 

Adulterers, punished with death, 
483. 

ffacus, son of Jupiter, first builder 
of temples, 507; loved by the 
Nereid, 485. 

élius, held that the Novensiles were 
the Muses, 474. 

ZEneas, son-in-law of Latinus, 461; 
son of Venus, 485; deified, 474. 

fEsculapius, son of Coronis, 422; 
killed by lightning, 424, 484; 
deified because he discovered 
use of herbs, 423, 424, 474; giver 
of health, 459, 470; distinguished 
by his staff, 517; golden beard 
torn from a Statue of, 515; three 
gods named, 480; vintage festi- 
val of, 531; brought to Rome 
in form of a serpent, 536. 

Aéther, father of Jupiter, 480; shown 
not to be a god, 473. 

/Ethusa, loved by Apollo, 485. 

Etna, torches of Ceres lit at, 499, 
503. 

Agdus, Mount, 491. 

Agesarchus, 509. 

Aii Locutii, 420. 


Alba, founded by Ascanius, 461 ; 
flourished for 400 years, 528; in- 
cense unknown in, 528. 

Alban Hill, white bulls sacrificed on, 


460. 
Alcibiades, the Hermz modelled 
after, 511. 


Alcmena, seduced by Jupiter, 460, 
498; mother of the Theban Her- 
cules, 483. 

Alcyone, 485 (note). 

Alemanni, said to have been over- 
come because Christians were 
to be found amongst them, 417. 

Alimontian mysteries, 500. 

Allegorical explanation of myths, 
464, 475; rejected by Arnobius, 
475, 476. 

Alope, loved by Neptune, 485. 

Ambiguity of words, Jupiter en- 
snared by, 489. 

Amphitheatres, places of bloodshed 
and wickedness, 488. 

Amphitrite, loved by Neptune, 485. 

Amymone, loved by Neptune, 485. 

Anchises, loved by Venus, 422, 485. 

Ancient customs, not adhered to by 
heathens as well as by Chris- 
tians, 459, 460. 

Angels’ names, used as incantations, 
425 (note). 

Animals, man closely allied to the 
other, 440, 441, 443, 444; man 
not morally superior to the other, 
520, 521 ; deified and worshipped, 
420. 

Ant, Jupiter’s conversion into an, 


405; 

Antiochus of Cyzicum, sacrilege of, 
545. 

Antiquity, the. most fertile source of 
errors, 429. 

Anubis, dog-faced, 517. 

Apis, born in the Peloponnese, 422; 
called Serapis by the Egyptians, 
422; those punished who re- 
vealed the abode of, 509. 

Apollo, son of Jupiter and Latona, 
460, 483 (note), 485; son of Mi- 


nerva and Vulcan, 480, 481; ac- 
companied his mother in her 
wanderings, 422; found refuge 
on a floating island, 422; called 
Clarian, Delian, Didymean, Phi- 
lesian, Pythian, 419; bow-bear- 
ing, 422, 483; Sminthian, 473; 
deceived those who enriched his 
temples, 484; served Admetus 
and Laomedon, 484; pirates 
plundered and burned temples 
of, 516 (note); identified with 
Bacchus and the sun, 473; Rit- 
uals of Numa did not contain 
name of, 462; four gods named, 
480; human heads offered to Dis 
and Saturn by advice of, 460, 
and Neptune, the Penates, 475; 
Hyperoche and Laodice buried 
in temple of Delian, 508; Tel- 
messus buried under the altar 
of, 508, 509; god of music, 526; 
mistresses of, 485; represented 
with lyre and plectrum, 511. 

Apollonius, the Magian, 428. 

Aquilius, 424. 

Arabia, Christianity tested by mira- 
cles in, 438. 

Arabians, worshipped an unshaped 
stone, 510. 

Arcadia, Mars born in, 484. 

Archesilas, affirms that man knows 
nothing, 437. 

Archytas, assigns all things to num- 
bers, 437- 

Argos, destruction by fire of eles 
of Juno at, 516. 

Argus, slain by Mercury, 480, 517. 

Aristotle, adds a fifth element to the 
primary causes, 437; affirmed 
that Minerva was the moon, 472. 

Armenian, Zoroaster an, 428 (note). 

Armenians, believed that one god 
was cause of all divine manifes. 
tations, 480. 

Arnobius, life, character, and writ. 
ings of, 403-411; editions of his 
works, 410; his own account of 
his conversion, 423. 


563 


564 


ARNOBIUS: INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 





Arsinoe, loved by Apollo, 485. 

Art of man, no proof of participation 
in the divine nature, 441. 

Asia, afflicted with mice and locusts 
because of the Christians, 417; 
Christianity attested by miracles 
in, 438. 

Asses, sacrificed to Mars by the Scyth- 
ians, 484. 

Assyrians, war of Bactrians with, 


415. 

Atellane farces, 531. 

Athenians, made their Hermz like 
Alcibiades, 511. 

Athens, fall of temple of Bacchus at, 
516; Cecrops buried in temple 
of Minerva at, 508. 

Atlantis, the fabled island, 415. 

Atlas, prop of the skies, 460; grand- 
father of Mercury, 469 (note). 

Attagi, Phrygian name of goats, 492. 

Attalus, sent from Phrygia to Rome 
a stone as the Great Mother, 


38. 

aie visited by Ceres, 504. 

Attis, worshipped in the temples of 
Cybele, 424 (notes) ; son of Nana, 
492; loved by Cybele, 486, 492; 
self-mutilation and death of, 492; 
rites established in honour of, 
492 (note) ; explained as the sun, 


595: 
Aulus, Capitol named from, 509. 
Aurora's love of Tithonus, 485. 
ea Jupiter drawn down to the, 
409. 


Bacchanalia, two kinds of, 496, 497. 

Bacchus, son of Semele, 473, 483; 
dashed by lightning from his 
mother’s womb, 422; born again 
from his father’s thigh, 483; 
giver of a good vintage, 459; 
represented as effeminate, 511, 
and as bearing a drinking-cup, 
517; phalli displayed at rites of, 
500; identified with the sun, 473; 
goats sacrificed to, 525 (note); 
calléd Evius, 500, Nysius, 500, 
Bromius, 483; torn in pieces by 
Titans, 424, 497; destruction of 
temple of, at Athens, 516. 

Bacis, the soothsayer, 431. 

Bactrian, Zoroaster a, 428 (note). 

Bactrians, war of Assyrians with, 


415. 

abe the Magian, 428. 

Banquets of the gods, 531. 

Bark, used in ancient times for cloth- 
ing, 459. 

Baubo, entertainer of Ceres at Eleu- 
sis, 499. 

Beetles, temples erected to, 420. 

Bellonz, 420, 471. 

Berecyntian, goddess, 494. 

Binding of Mars and Venus, ex- 
plained allegorically, 505. 

Birthdays of the gods, 531. 

Bocchores, 422. 

Bona Dea, story of, 496; original 
name, 422. 

Branch, a, worshipped by the Thes- 
pians, 510. 

Brides, hair of, arranged with Aasta 
celibaris, 460. 

Brimo, Ceres named, 497. 





Bromius, name of Bacchus, 483. 

Brunda, Simon Magus threw himself 
from house-top at, 438. 

Burnus, god of lust, 478. 


Celibaris hasta, used in arranging 
hair of brides, 460. 

Ceselii, 430. 

Cesius’ enumeration of the Penates, 


Calamities, common to all ages, not 
caused by Christians, 414. 

Calliope’s son, Orpheus, 499. 

Canacheni, 516. 

Canary Islands, 508. 

Cannz, proscription of Sulla com- 
pared to the battle of, 504. 

Capitol, Tolus Vulcentanus buried 
in the, 509; named from Olus, 
509 (note); destroyed by fire, 
516; struck by lightning, 534. 

Capitoline Jupiter, burned along with 
the temple, 516. 

Capitoline Hill, taken by Titus Ta- 
tius, 476, 477. 

Caprotina, name of Juno, 472. 

Carians, the, sacrificed dogs to Mars, 


404. 

Carneades, affirmed man’s ignorance 
of all things, 437. 

Castor and Pollux, called Tyndarian 
brothers, 460 (note); Dioscori, 
483; sons of Jupiter and Leda, 
460, 483; sons of Tyndareus, 
422; buried in Lacedzmonia, 
484 (note); three sets of gods 
named, 480, 

Castor, famed for his skill in mana- 
ging horses, 422. 

Castus, a fasting, 496. 

Catamitus, carried off to be a cup- 
bearer, 485; object of Jupiter’s 
lust, 498. 

Cato, 468. 

Cats, temples built to, 420, 

Caudine Forks, Romans sent under 
the yoke at, 477. 

Cecrops, buried in the temple of 
Minerva at Athens, 508. 

Celeus, daughters of, buried in temple 
at Eleusis, 508. 

Cerberus, 500. 

Ceres, born in Sicily, 422; deified 
because ‘she discovered use of 
bread, 423; gives good crops, 
459; lusted after Jasion, 455; 
mother of Jupiter, according to 
Phrygians, 497 ; violated by him, 
497; wanderings of, 499; her 
sacred rites called Greca, 462; 
identified with Diana and Luna, 
473; said by Czsius to be one 
of the Penates, 474; represented 
with protruding breasts, 466, 
517; her temple at Eleusis, 508 ; 
falling of rain upon the earth 
denoted by union of Jupiter and, 

02, 505; beata denoted by, 506; 
east in honour of, 531. 

Cestus, Juno’s, 517 (oe 

Chzronea, Plutarch of, 484. 

Chaldeans, mysterious learning of, 
415; believed that one God ap- 
peared in all divine manifesta- 
tions, 480. 

Childbirth, Juno set over, 470. 








Charms, used to appease unknown 
powers, 439. 

Christ, His worship no just cause 
of offence to heathenism, 422; 
effects of His teaching, 423, 438; 
His crucifixion and human na- 
ture no reproach, 424; no Ma- 

- gian, 425; His miracles works 
of blessing, 425, 426; gift of 
tongues attributed to Him, 425; 
proofs of His divinity, 425; not 
paralleled in heathen mythology, 
428; evidenced by the multitude 
of believers, 429; why incarnate, 
430, and enduring death, 431, 
432; His words and works in 
contrast with heathen philoso- 
phy, 438; true knowledge only 
in Him, 457- 

Christianity, objection of its late ori- 
gin answered, 461; other cavils 
against, apply equally to heathen 
mythology, 462, 463. 

Christians, excellence of their wor- 
ship, 419, contrasted with hea- 
then, 422; increase of, a proof 
of Christianity, 429; do not 
teach philosophical theories of 
the soul, nor of good and evil, 


454,455. ‘ 
Chrysippus, object of Jupiter’s lust, 
8 


485. 
Chrysippus, asserted that the world 
would be destroyed by fire, 437. 
Chrysis, Juno’s priestess, burned at 
Argos, 516 (note), 

Cicero, De Natura Deorum, mutila- 
tions of, 465. 

Cincian law against gifts to advo- 
cates, 460. 

Cincius, regards the Novensiles as 
the gods of conquered states, 
deities brought from abroad, 474. 

Cinxia, a name of Juno, 472; pre- 
sides over the loosening of the 
zone, 470; the Thespians wor- 
ship a branch as, 510. 

Cinyras, king of Cyprus, 484; king 
of Paphos, 509; deified Venus, 
a courtesan, 484; was buried in 
temple of Venus, 509; founder 
of the mysteries of Cyprian 
Venus, 496. 

Circe, mother of the fifth Sun, 480. 

Circus, story of re-celebration of the 
games of the, 425. 

Cleochus (or Clearchus), buried in 
the Didymzon at Miletus, 508 
(note). 

Clitor, daughter of, seduced by Jupi- 
ter, 485 

Cnidian Venus, copied from a cour- 
tesan, 5II. 

Cocytus, river in Hades, 439. 

Ceelus, father of Saturn and Ops by 
Hecate, 461, 472; of the second 
Jupiter, 480; of the first Mer- 
cury, 480; of the Muses, 473; of 
Janus by Hecate, 471; Venus 
produced from the genitals of, 


484. 
Complices and Consentes, said to be 
the Penates, 474 (note). 
Concord, temples built to, 476. 
Conserentes dit, parents of Servius 
Tullius, 496. 





g 
: 





_ - 


r ARNOBIUS: INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 


565 





Consus, god of devices, 470. 

Corniculum, Ocrisia brought to Rome 
from, 496. 

Cornificius, maintains that Noven- 
siles preside over renovation, 
474 (note). 

Coronis, mother of A‘sculapius, 422. 

Corybantes, rites of the, 497. 

Coryphasia, epithet of the fourth 
Minerva, 480, 481. 

Crates, affirms that there are eight 
Muses, 473. ; 

Crete, Jupiter born and buried in, 
480, 484. 

Cronius, 437 (note). 

Cupids, three sets of winged, 480. 

Curetes, drowned the cries of Jupiter, 
-475; saved him from death, 484, 

Cyceon, the draught offered to Ceres 
by Baubo, 499. 

Cyllenian, bearer of the caduceus, 472. 

Cyprian Venus, statue of, loved by 
Pygmalion, 515, 516. 

Cyrus, 428. 

Cytherean, the, i.e., Venus, 511, 512. 

Cyzicum, sacrilege of Antiochus of, 


515- 


Dactyli Idzi, identified with the 
Digiti Samothracii, 475. 

Dairas, buried in the enclosure at 
Eleusis, 508. 

Damigero, a Magian, 428. 

Danaé, loved by Jupiter, 498. 

Dancer stops, expiation required if 
the, 486. 

Daphne, loved by Apollo, 485. 

Dardanus, the Magian, 428; first 
celebrated rites of the Phrygian 
Mother, 462. 

Dead, prayers for the, 488 (note). 

Death, the second, nature of, 440. 

Decemvirs, decrees of the, 487. 

Deluge, Varro’s computation of the 
time of the, 493; human race 
destroyed by, 415. 

Democritus’ atomic theory, 437. 

Desires, Venus the mother of the, 


471. 

Deucalion and Pyrrha, re-peopled 
the earth, 491. 

Diagoras of Melos, denies that there 
are gods, 421 (note), 486. 

Dialis, flamen, mitred, 427, 488. 

Diana, daughter of Jupiter and La- 
tona, 460, 483; daughter of the 
first Minerva, 481 ; bow-bearing, 
found refuge on floating islands, 
422; mighty in hunting, 460, 
483; wars of the virgin, 486; 
represented with thighs half cov- 
ered, 517; an unhewn log wor- 
shipped by the Icarians for, 510; 
fall. of temple at Ephesus of, 
516; Leucophryne buried in 
temple of, 508; shrine in Delian 
Apollo’s temple of, 508; theolo- 
gians mention three goddesses 
named, 480; identified with 
Ceres and Luna, 473. 

Didymzon, Cleochus buried in the 
Milesian, 508 (note). 

Diespiter, son of Saturn and Ops, 
482; lusted after his mother 
Ceres, 497; names of some who 
bore children to, 460. 





Digiti Samothracii, said to be the 
Lares, 475. 

Dindymene, Pessinuntic, i.e., Cybele 
worshipped at Pessinus, 488 
(note). 

Diomede, plains of, i.e., Cannz, 477 
(note). 

Dione, bore Venus to Jupiter, 422, 


460. 

Dionysius, robbed Jupiter and Ascu- 
lapius of their beards, Pe 5. 

Dionysus (see Bacchus), five gods 
named, 480. 

Dioscori, sons of Leda and Jupiter, 
483 (note). 

Dis, identified with Summanus, 507 ; 
human heads offered to, 460; 
wounded by Hercules, 484; al- 
legorical explanation of rape of 
Proserpine by, 505; gate of, 
i.e., Hades, 500. 

Discordiz, 471. 

Dodona, Jupiter of, 516; fall of Ju- 
piter’s temple at, 516. 

Dogs, employed to guard the capi- 
tols, 515. 

Dysaules, a goatherd in Attica, 499. 


Earth, the, identified with the Great 
Mother, Ceres, and Vesta, 472; 
a pregnant sow sacrificed to, 
526; birthday of, 531. 

Egeria, Numa advised by, 489. 

Egypt, Christianity attested by 
mighty works in, 438; Apis 
called Serapis in, 422; letters 
invented by the fifth Mercury in, 
480. 

Egyptians, dumb animals worshipped 
by, 468; Christ said to have 
stolen the secrets of His power 
and teaching from the, 425, pun- 
ished those who revealed the 
dwelling-place of Apis, 509; 
called the second Minerva Neith, 
481; were afraid to utter the 
fourth Mercury’s name, 480; 
believed that one deity was man- 
ifested under the various divine 
manifestations, 479, 480. 

Electra, seduced by Jupiter, 498. 

Elements, number of the primary, 
455; mistake as to Aristotle’s 
conception of the elements, 437. 

Eleusinia, origin of the, 499; signs 
used in, 500, 

Eleusis, Ceres’ visit to, 499; Dairas 
and Immarnachus buried in the 
enclosure of, 508; temple of 
Ceres at, 508. 

Eleutherius, temple at Athens of 
Liber, 516. 

Endymion, loved by Luna, 485. 

Ennius, translated works of Euhem- 
erus, 486. 

Ephesus, fall of Diana’s temple at, 

16. 

htenny atomic theory of, 437; 
teaches that the soul is mortal, 
445+ ‘ 

Epidaurus, Aisculapius brought 
from, 536; he of, i.e., Aiscula- 
Pius, 469. 

Epirus, Christianity attested by 
mighty works in, 438. 

Equity deified, 476. 





Erechthidz, ie. Athenians, 500 
(notes). 

Erichthonius, buried in shrine of Mi- 
nerva, 508, 


Ethiopian sun, Isis tanned by, 422. 

Ethiopians, visited by the gods, 508. 

Etruria, mother of superstition, 528. 
arts of, i.e. charms and sacred 
rites, 496. © 

Etruscans, the, identified Penates, 
and Consentes, and Complices, 
474- 

Eubuleus, a swineherd in Attica, 


499. 
Eumolpidz, origin of, 499. 
Eumolpus, keeper of sheep in Attica, 


499. 

Europa, seduced by Jupiter, 498; 
represented on the stage, 531. 

Evil, origin of, not a Christian doc. 
trine, 454. 

Evius, performance of his shameful 
promise by, 500. 


Fabius, a favourite of Jupiter, 485. 
Fate, all things happen according to, 
Ns 

Fagin Fauna, i.e., Bona Dea, wife of 
Faunus, 422 (note), 496; unlaw- 
ful to bring in myrtle twigs to the 
rites of, 496; account of her 
death and rites, 496. 

Fatuz, 420. 

Fauni, 420. 

Faunus, son of Picus, ana father 
of Latinus, 461; ensnared and 
bound by Numa’s craft, 489; 
made the Aventine his haunt, 
489 (note). 

Fawn’s skin, worn by the initiated, 
504 (note). 

Februtis, a name of Juno, 472. 

Fescennine verses, sung at marriages, 
482. 

Fetiales, the forms of the, neglected, 
460 (note). 
Fillets, worn by 

(note). 
Fire, the origin of all things, 437. 
Flint, people of Pessinus worship a, 
10. 

Flew, watches over the blossoming 
of plants, 470; a harlot, 470; 
shameful actions done openly at 
games of, 531. 

Floralia, the, 531. 

Fluonia (or Fluvionia), a name of 
Juno, 472 (note). 

Fons, son of Janus, 471. 

Forks, Caudine, overthrow of Ro- 
mans at, 477. 

Fortuna Virginalis, maidens’ 
ments offered to, 460. 
Fortune, a deity, 459; one of the 
Penates, according to Cxsius, 
474, 475; represented with a 

horn filled with fruit, 517. 

Free-will, necessary to man’s nature, 
458. 

Frogier a god with lion’s face 
called, 510 (note). 

Furies, the, 471, 500. 


suppliants, 498 


gar- 


Gabinius, the consul, 462 (note). 
Getuli, afflicted with droughts be 
cause of the Christians, 417. 


566 


ARNOBIUS: INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 





Gain, gods of, 478. 

Galatians, Christianity attested by 
mighty works among the, 438. 

Galli, priests of the Great Mother, 
424; beat their breasts, wailing 
for Attis, 496. 

Gallus, mutilation of a daughter of, 
492,495. 

Ganymede, carried off to satisfy 
Jupiter’s lust, 506; represented 
on the stage in ballets, 531. 

Garamantes, the tawny, 508 

Gaul, innumerable Christians in, 417 
(note). 

Geese, the guardians of the Capitol, 
ry 

Geni of husbands, invoked at mar- 
riages, 460. 

Genii of states, 420 (note). 

Genius Jovialis, said to be one of 
the Penates, 474 (note), 475. 
Germans, irruptions of the, regarded 
as special calamities caused by 

the Christians, 415. 

Ghosts, the Lares said to be, 475. 

Gnidus, statue of Venus at, loved by 
a young man, 516. 

Goats, sacrificed to Bacchus and 
Mercury, 525 (note); torn in 
pieces by bacchanals, 496. 

God, the Creator of all, 420; belief 
in Him intuitive, 421; why 
alone worshipped, 464; incor- 
poreal, 467-469; His unity ac- 
knowledged by the heathen, 
480. 

Gods, heathen, human passions at- 
tributed to, 417; have no power 
over Christians, 418; not uncre- 
ated, 420, 422; worshipped for 
their crimes, 432; why not ac- 
knowledged by Christians, 464, 
507; their existence not proved, 
‘465; vilely represented in hea- 
then mythology, 466, 469, 470- 
472, 482-488; proved false by 
its contradictory fables, 473- 
482; tutelary, belief in, absurd, 
477-482; crimes and vices at- 
tributed to, 482-499, 539, 5403 


such fables not justified by alle- | 


gorical interpretation, 502-506; 
deities not honoured by temples 
and images, 508-510, nor by sac- 
rifices, 518, nor by incense and 
wine, 528, nor by other heathen 
rites, 530; anthropomorphic 
ideas of, false, 532. 

Gospel, the objections to, apply yet 
more to heathen mythology, 429 ; 
its language defended, 430; its 
effects shown in the lives of 
Christians, 435. 

Greeca, rites of Ceres, 462. 

Gratina, loved by Praxiteles, and 
taken as model of Cnidian Ve- 
nus, $11. 

Grits mixed with salt, or sacrificial 
meal offered to the gods, 470 
(note), 490. 

Grundules Lares, 419. 

Guardian deities, favour of, withheld, 
470. 

Guilt, contracted if the dancer 
halted or musician was silent, 


486. 








Hades, punishment in, 445; exist- 
ence of, denied, 522. 

Hammon, represented with a ram’s 
horns, 511. 

Hannibal's invasion of Italy, Phry- 
gian mother’s worship intro- 
duced at the time of, 462, 538; 
driven out of Italy by the god- 
dess, 538. 

iS sala deified and worshipped, 
479. 

Ffasta celibaris, hair of brides ar- 
ranged with, 460. 

Hearths, presided over by the god 
Lateranus, 477 (note). 

Heathen, the, hatred of the Chris- 
tians by, 422, 463, 488; reviled 
Christians as illiterate, 430; dis- 
honoured their own gods, 465, 
466, 501; dishonoured their gods 
in sacrificing to them, 524, 530. 

Hecate, mother of Saturn and Ops, 
461; mother of Janus, 471. 

Helenus, the soothsayer, 431. 

Hellespontian Priapus, 466 

Henna, grove of, whence Proser- 
pine was carried off, 503. 

Heraclitus, referred the origin of all 
things to fire, 437. 

Hercules, burned alive after punish- 
ment, 422, 424; son of Jupiter 
and Alcmena, 460, 485; this 
the Theban defended by his 
club and hide, 483; worshipped 
as divine, 462, 465; a mortal, 
deified, 474; wounded by Hip- 
pocoon’s children, 484; entan- 
gled in robe of Nessus, 488; 
violated the fifty daughters of 
Thestius, 485 ; wounded Dis and 
Juno, 484; put an end to human 
sacrifices in Italy, 460; was a 
slave at Sardis, 484; burned on 
Mount C&ta after an attack of 
epilepsy, 484; the Theban, 
burned on Mount (Eta, 422; 
the Phoenician, buried in Spain, 
422; six gods named, 480; dei- 
fied because he subdued robbers. 
wild beasts, and serpents, 423. 

Hermz at Athens like Alcibiades, 

II. 

Heroes of immense and huge bod- 
ies, 462. 

Ileroic ages, incense unknown in 
the, 528. 

Hesperides, golden apples of the, 


_ 497- 

Hippo of Melos, 486. 
Hippocoon’s _ children, 
wounded by, 484. 
Hippothoe, seduced by Neptune, 

484, 485. 

Hirtius and Pansa, deluge not quite 
two thousand years before the 
consulship of, 493 (note). 

Honour, deified and worshipped, 476. 

Hosthanes, grandfather of the Ar- 
menian Zoroaster, 428 

Human sacrifices, offered to Dis 
and Saturn, 460. 

Hyacinthus, 485. 

Hylas, 485. 

Hyperboreans, 508. 


Hercules 





Hyperiona, mother by Jupiter of the 
second Sun, 480, 483. 








Hyperoche, buried in the shrine of 
Diana, 508. 
Hypsipyle, loved by Apollo, 485. 


Ia, bride of Attis, 492; her blood 
turned into violets, 492. 

Iachus, nursed (or loved) by Ceres, 
466 (note). 

Ialysus, son of the fourth Sun, 480. 

Icarians, the, worship an unhewn log, 


510. 

Idaci Dactyli, Greek name of Digiti 
Samothracii, 475. 

Ignorance the lot of man, 437. 

Ilium, girt with walls by Apollo and 
Neptune, 474. 

Images, Christ raised men’s thoughts 
from senseless, 423; formed of 
clay, 423, 464, 514; tones stones, 
brass, silver, gold, wood, and 
other materials, 512; made like 
infamous men and women, 511, 
512; the gods said to be wor- 
shipped through, 509; fanciful 
shape of some, 510; disregarded 
by birds and beasts, 513, 514; 
the gods caused to dwell! in, 514, 
must be defended by men, not- 
withstanding the indwelling di- 
vinity, 515; despoiled by Antio- 
chus and Dionysius, 515; used 
lewdly, 515, 516, and even ut- 
terly consumed by fire, 516; set 
up to strike evil-doers with ter- 
ror, 516. 

Immarnachus, buried in the enclos- 
ure at Eleusis, 5038. 

Immortality of the soul, philosophi- 
cal theories discordant and un- 
tenable, 446; a gift of God, 447. 

Incense, unknown in the heroic age, 
528; not used by the Etruscans 
in their rites, 528, nor at Alba, 
528, nor by Romulus and Numa, 
28; termed Panchzan gum, 529. 

India, Christianity attested by mighty 
works in, 438; Liber sought to 
make himself master of, 456. 

Indians, the, believed that one god 
showed himself in all the mani- 
festations of the divine, 480. 

Indigetes, deified mortals, 432. 

Indigetes, living in the Numictus, 

Inferium vinum, phrase used in liba. 
tions, 530 (note). 

Inuus, guardian of flocks and herds, 
470. 

Iphigenia, stags spoken of instead 
of, 502. 

Isis, Ethiopian, 422; Egyptian, 486; 
lamenting her lost child and hus. 
band torn in pieces, 422; wor 
ship of, introduced after consul 
ship of Piso and Gabinius, 4643 
(note); statue of, burned, 516. 

Itali, Saturn concealed in the terri- 
tories of the, 484. 

Italy, visit of Hercules to, 460. 


Janiculum, founded by Janus, 422, 
471. 

Janus, 465; son of Celus and Hec. 
ate, 471; husband of Juturna 
and father of Fons, 471; first 
king in Italy, 471; represented 





ARNOBIUS: INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 


f 


567 





as doubled-faced, and carrying a 
spiked key, 517; said to be the 
world, the year, the sun, 471; 
supposed to procure a hearing 
for suppliants, 471, 472, and 
therefore mentioned first in all 
prayers, 471. 
Jasion, loved by Ceres, 485. 
Jovialis, genius, one of the Penates, 
. 474 (note), 475 (note). 
ulian, a magian, 428. 

Juno, 459, 465, 483; daughter of 
Saturn and Ops, 460; queen of 
the gods, 483; wounded by Her- 
cules, 484; named Lucina, and 
aiding women in childbirth, 466, 
469; said to be the air, 472 
(note) ; destruction of the tem- 
ple and priestess of, 516, and 
in the Capitol, of the statue of, 
516; named Caprotina, Cinxia, 
Februtis, Fluonia, 472; Ossipa- 
gina, Pomona, Populonia, 472; 
the cestus of, 517 (note); as 
Cinxia, a branch worshipped 
for, 510; Samians worship a 
plank instead of, 510 (note) ; 
one of the Penates, 475. 

Jupiter, the greatest and best, 421; 
is not God, 421, 422; had father 
and mother, 422; the Saturnian 
king, 483; son of AXther, 480; 
son of Ceelus, 480; son of Sat- 
urn, 480, of Saturn and Ops, 
460, 461, 472, 482; born in Crete, 
480; concealed in Crete, 472; 
buried in Crete, 480, 484; his 
cries concealed, 475, and his 
life saved by the Curetes, 484; 
overthrew his father, 484; the 
acts of, 485, madea meal unwit- 
tingly on Lycaon’s son, 484; 
married his sister, 484; at- 
tempted to violate the mother 
of the gods, 491; lusted after 
Alcmena, Danaé, Electra, Eu- 
ropa, and matrons and maidens 
without number, 460, 461, 498; 
even after the boys Catamitus, 
485, 498, and Fabius, 485; rav- 
ished his daughter Proserpine, 
498; for lustful purposes be- 
came an ant, a golden shower, a 
satyr, poe a swan, 483, 506, 
and a bull, 483, 497; spoken of 
as recounting his amours to his 
wife, 487; said to be the sun, 
472, and by others to be the 
ether, 472; three gods named, 
480; father of Apollo, Diana, 
Castor and Pollux, Hercules, 
Liber, Mercury, 460, 483, of the 
Muses, 473, of the Sun, 480, of 
Hercules, 485, 488; Diespiter, 
460, 461, 482; fall at Dodona of 
the temple of, 516; destruction 
of the statue of Capitoline, 516, 
534; termed Capitoline, 427, 516, 
the Thunderer, 516, the Olym- 
pian, 512, 513, the Supreme, 
460, the Stygian, ie., Pluto, 
460, Verveceus, 497 (note); of 
Dodona, 419, 516; bulls sacri- 
ficed to, 526; represented with 
a thanderbolt in his right hand, 
517, and as driving in a winged 








chariot, 472; gave power to the 
Novensiles to wield his thunder, 
474; Pales the steward of, 474; 
the counsellors of, 474, 475; one 
of the Penates, 47 3 3 represented 
as an adulterer, 488, and as eas- 
ily overreached, 489, 490; forced 
to leave heaven by Numa, 489; 
statues of, dishonoured, 515; 
descent of rain signified by the 
embraces of Ceres, 502, 505; 
the feast of, 531; ludi circenses 
celebrated in honour of, 534. 
Juturna, wife of Janus, 471. 


Kings, speaking against, considered 
treason, 487. 

Knees of images touched by suppli- 
ants, 513. 

Kronos, explained as chronos, i.e., 
time, 472; son of Ccelus and 
progenitor of the az magni, 472. 


Lacedzemon, Castor and Pollux bur- 
ied in, 484 (note). 

Laodamia, seduced by Jupiter, 498. 

Laodice, buried in the shrine of Di- 
ana, 508. 

Laomedon, served by Neptune, 484. 

Lares, commonly said to be gods of 
streets and ways, from the sup- 
posed etymology, 475; guard- 
ians of houses, 475; identified 
sometimes with the Curetes, 
sometimes with the Digiti Samo- 
thracii, 475; identified with the 
Manes, 4753 said to be gods of 
the air, and also to be ghosts, 


475: 

Lares Grundules, 419. 

Larissa, Acrisius buried in Minerva’s 
temple at, 508 (note). 

Lateranus, the genius of hearths, 
477 (note), 479. 

Latinus, grandson of Picus, and son 
of Faunus, 461; father-in-law of 
Aineas, 461. 

Latium, Saturn concealed in, 484. 

Latona, seduced by Jupiter, 498; 
mother of Apollo and Diana, 
422, 460, 469, 483; wanderings 
of, 422. 

Laure, Lares said to be derived 
from, 475. 

Laverna, goddess of thieves, 484. 

Lectisternium of Ceres, 531 (note). 

Leda, seduced by Jupiter, 460, 498 ; 
mother of Dioscori, 483; repre- 
sented on the stage, 531. 

Left and right, merely relative terms, 
477; lucky, 477. 

Lemnos, Vulcan wrought as a smith 
at, 480, 484. 

Leucophryne, buried in Diana’s sanc- 
tuary, 508. 

Libations, in honour of the gods, 
529, 530; formula used in, 530. 

Libels, severely punished, 487. 

Libentina, goddess of lust, 478. 

Libentini (?), 420 (note). 

Liber, a deified mortal, 462, 474; 
deified because he taught men 
to use wine, 423; son of Jupiter 
and Semele, 460, 483, 500; In- 
dian campaign of, 486; torn in 
pieces by the Titans, 424, 497 ; 








called Eleutherius, 516, Nysius. 
500 (note) ; visit to Tartarus of, 
500 ; filthy practices of, 500, 501 ; 
allegorical explanation of the 
tearing in pieces of, 505. 

Libera, i.e., Proserpine, daughter of 
Jupiter and Ceres, 497. 

Lima, goddess of thresholds, 478. 

Limentinus, god of thresholds, 478, 
479; gives omens in entrails of 
the victims, 479. 

Limi, preside over obliquities, 479. 

Lion, images with face of, 510. 

Locusts, destruction of crops by, 
said to be caused by Christians, 
414, 416, 417. 

Locutii, Aili, 419, 420 (note). 

Log, worshipped by the Icarians for 
Diana, 510. 

Lucina, aiding women in childbirth, 


469. 

Lucretius on the immortality of the 
soul, 445. 

Lullabies, sung to the gods, 531. 

Luna, lusted after Endymion, 485; 
identified with Diana and Ceres, 
473; cannot be a deity if a part 
of the world, 473. 

Luperca, a goddess named, because 
the she-wolf did not rend Romu- 
lus and Remus, 476. 

Lust, unnatural, attributed to the 
gods, 485. 

Lycaon, Jupiter ate part of the son 
of, 484. 

Lydia, 492. 

Lynceus, piercing gaze of, 483. 


Macarus, father of Megalcon, 484. 

Macedonia, Christianity attested by 
mighty works in, 438; starting- 
point of Alexander the Great, 
415. 

Magi, a heathen ceremonials, relics 
of the arts of the, 527; arts of 
the, had no good purpose, 425; 
demons won over by the charms 
of the, 457 ; said to raise by their 
incantations other gods than 
those invoked, 479; enumeration 
of famous, 428; used herbs and 
muttered spells in their incanta- 
tions, 428. 

Magian, used as equivalent to sor- 
cerer, 425 (note). 

Magistrate, insults to a, severely pun- 
ished, 487. 

Magnesia, Diana’s sanctuary at, 508. 

Magus, Simon, overthrown by Peter, 
438. 

Mita the beautiful, 422; mother of 
the third Mercury, 422, 460, 480, 
483, SII. 

Man, ignorant of his own nature, 
435, 430; such as the lower crea- 
tures, 440; possessed of reason, 
441; not immortal, 445, 446; 
wretchedness of the life of, 449, 
450, 451, 521; a microcosm, 443; 
not necessary in the universe, 
448; utmost extent of life of, 
461; depraved in coming into 
life, 440. 

Manes, the Lares said to be the, 475; 
inhabitants of infernal regions, 


y3" 


568 





Mania, mother of the Lares, 475. 

Manium, dii, 525. 

Marcius, a soothsayer, 431. 

Marcus Cicero, 4 

Marpesian rock, proverbial compari- 
son, 443. 

Marpessa, loved by Apollo, 485. 

Marriage, forms observed in, 460; 
three modes of contracting, 482; 


advocacy of promiscuous, 432. 
Marriages, Fescennine verses sung 
at, 482. 


Mars, born in Arcadia (?), 484; born 
in Thrace, 484; said to be Spar- 
tanus, 484; set over war, 471; 
held prisoner for thirteen months, 
484 (note); loved by Ceres, 485; 
ensnared by Vulcan, 484; 
wounded by men, 484; a spear 
worshipped by the Romans as, 
510; dogs and asses sacrificed 
to, 484; otherwise Mavors, 511; 
fighting signified by, 506; alle- 
gorical explanation of the bind- 
ing of Venus and, 505; the 
Romans spoken of as the race 
of, 488. 

Marsi, sold charms against serpent 
bites, 446. 

Martius Picus, entrapped by Numa’s 
craft, 489 (note). 

Mavors, i.e., Mars, 511. 

Medes, Christianity attested by 
mighty works amongst, 438. 

Megalcon, daughter of Macarus, and 
mistress of the Muses, 484. 

Megalensia, mode of celebration of, 


xe 
Meles, son of the river, i.e... Homer, 


404. 

Mellonia, goddess presiding over 
bees and honey, 478; supposed 
to introduce herself into the 
entrails of the victim to give 
omens, 479. 

Memory, wife of Jupiter, 460; mother 
of the Muses, 473. 

Men, sprung from the stones cast by 
Deucalion and Pyrrha, 491; in 
early times of immense size, 462, 
463; deified because of benefits 
conferred on the race, 422, 423; 
souls shut up in bodies, 439. 

Menalippe, seduced by Neptune, 485. 

Mens, wife of Jupiter, and mother 
of the Muses, 473; mother of 
Minerva, 472. 

Mercury, of service to men, 459, 462; 
son of Jupiter, 460, 480, 483; son 
of Maia, 422, 460, 480, 483, 511; 
grandson of Atlas, 469 (note) ; 
five gods named, 480; lusted 
after Proserpina, 480; eloquent 
in speech, 469 (note), 483; bearer 
of the caduceus, 472, of the 
harmless snakes, 483; born on 
the cold mountain top, 472; pre- 
sides over boxing and wrestling, 
470, and commercial intercourse 
and markets, 472; contriver of 
words, and named from the in- 
terchange of speech, 472; rep- 
resented with wings, 517, and 
wearing a broad-brimmed cap, 
511; beardless, 511; slayer of 
Argus, 480, 517; a thief, 484; 








termed Cyllenian, 472; the sec- 
ond, named Trophonius, under 
the earth, 480; the first, son of 
Coelus, and the fourth, of the 
Nile, 480; the fifth, slayer of 
Argus, and inventor of letters, 


480; goats sacrificed to, 525, 526. | 


Mercury, i.e., Hermes Trismegistus, 
439 (note). 

Merops, the first builder of temples, 
507 (note). 

Metrodorus, held the atomic theory, 


437- 

Midas first to establish worship of 
the Phrygian mother, 462; king 
of Pessinus, 492; wished to give 
his daughter in mafriage to Attis, 
492. 

Milestan Didymzon, Cleochus buried 
in the, 508 (note). 

Militaris Venus, presiding over the 
debauchery of camps, 478. 

Mind, the, affected by ailments of 
the body, 436. 

Minerva, 465; sprung from Jupiter’s 
head, 461, 472; daughter of Mens, 

, 472; daughter of Victory, 472; 
five goddesses named, 480; the 
first, mother of Apollo by Vul- 
can, 480; the second, identified 
with Sais, daughter of the Nile, 
480; the fourth, named Corypha- 
sia by the Messenians, 480; the 
fifth, daughter and slayer of Pal- 
las, 480; said by some to be 
one of the Penates, 475; the wars 
of, 486; worshipped because she 
discovered the olive, 423; gives 
light to secret lovers, 484; tem- 
ples of, used as places of burial, 
508 ; image of, burned, 516 (see 
p- 480); a heifer sacrificed to, 
526; termed Tritonian, 469, 526; 
represented with a helmet, 517; 
said by Aristotle to be the moon, 
472; said to be depth of ether, 
and memory, 472; spins and 
weaves, 469 (note); used to de- 
note weaving, 506; citizens of, 
i.e., Athenians, 500 (note) ; called 
Polias, 508. 

Miracles of Christ and His Apostles, 
their power and benefits proofs 
of the Gospel, 427. 

Money, a goddess, 479. 

Montinus, guardian of mountains, 
479- 

Moors, 417; worshipped the Titans 
and Bocchores, 422. 

Morning, hymns sung to the deities 
in the, 531 (note). 

Mother of the gods, married to 

. Saturn, 472; fed Nana with 
apples, 491; a pine brought into 
the sanctuary of, 496 (note), 504 ; 
a flint worshipped by the people 
of Pessinus for, 510; represented 
as bearing a timbrel, 517. 

Mother, Great, said to be the earth, 
472; Attis worshipped in the 
temples of, 424 (notes); repre- 
sented with fillets, 488; termed 
Pessinuntic Dindymene, 488 
(note); birth and origin of rites 
of, 491; did not-exist more than 
two thousand years before Christ, 








ee 


ARNOBIUS: INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 





493; brought from Pessinus to 
repel Hannibal, 538; a black 
stone worshipped instead of, 538; 
why represented as crowned with 
towers, 492, 496. © 

Mother, the Phrygian, first set up as 
a goddess, 462. 

Mulciber, dressed as a workman, 517. 

Murcia, guardian of the slothful, 479. 

Muses, the, daughters of Jupiter and 
Memory, 460, 473; of Coelus and 
Tellus, 473; three sets of Muses, 
480; nine in number, 473 (note), 
474; number of, stated differ- 
ently as three, four, seven, 473 
(notes), and eight, 473; said by 
some to be virgins, by others 
matrons, 473; identified with the 
Novensiles, 474; represented 
with pipes and psalteries, 517 ; 
handmaids of Megalcon, 484. 

Musician, guilt contracted at the 
games by the silence of the, 
486. 

Mutunus, a deity, 479. 

Myndus, Zeno of, 508. 

bella son of Clitor’s daughter, - 
485. 

Myneren the pontifical, 527; named 
tnitia, 496 (note); of Venus, 496; 
Phrygian, 496, 497 (note); of 
Ceres, 498 (note); Alimontian, 
§00, 504. 


Nenia, goddess of those near death, 
478. 

Nana, daughter of king Sangarius, 
491; debauched by anapple, 4o1, 
494; kept alive by the mother 
of the gods, 491 ; mother of Attis, 
492, 494. ; 

Nativities, art of calculating, 460. 

Natrix, the deadly, 417. 

Nebridz, family of the, 504 (note). 

Neith, name of the second Minerva 
in Egypt, 481. 

Nemestrinus, god of groves, 478 
(note). 

Neptune, believed to be serviceable 
to men, 459; king of the sea, 
472, 485, 511; brother of Pluto 
and Jupiter, 472; mistresses of, 
485; girt Ilium with walls, 474; 
served the Trojan Laomedon, 
484; lord of the fish and shaker 
of the earth, 472; one kind of 
Penates said by the Etruscans to 
belong to, 474; the Atlantis of, 
415 (note); armed with the tri- 
dent, 472, 511; said to :have 
been one of the Penates, 474, 
475; means the outspread water, 
472, 500. 

Nereid, loved AZacus, 485. 

Nile, father of the second Minerva, 
480, 481; father of the fourth 
Mercury and of Vulcan, 480. 


Ninus, leader of the Assyrians 
against the Bactrians, 415. 
Nisi, 430. 


Noduterensis, a goddess presiding 
over the treading out of grain, 
478 (note), 479. 

Nodutis, a god presiding over the 
shooting corn, 478. 

Nomads, 417. 


eee 


se 


SE De ey ee ee 


ARNOBIUS: INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 


. 569 


Novensiles, nine Sabine gods, or the 
Muses, 474, 476; presiding over 
renovation, 474; the nine gods 
who can thunder, 474 (note); 
foreign deities received by the 
Romans, 474; deified mortals, 


474- 

Numa, established forms of worship 
and sacrifice, 438, 528; unac- 
quainted with incense, 528; 
advised by Egeria how to learn 
the way to draw Jupiter to earth, 
489, overreached Jupiter by his 
readiness, 489; 490, 491. 

Numa Pompilius, name of Apollo 
not found in the rituals of, 462. 

Numenius, 437. 

Numicius, frequented by the zzdigetes, 
422. 

Nysius, Liber, 500. 


Ocrisia, brought as a captive from 
Corniculum, 496; mother of 
Servius, 496. 

(ta, the Pheenician Hercules burned 
on mount, 422, 484. 

Olive, Minerva the discoverer of the, 


472. 

Olus, Capitol named from, 509. 

Olympian Jupiter, 512, 513. 

Omens derived from points of spears, 
460 (note); from the entrails of 
victims, 460, 479; no longer ob- 
served in public business, 460. 

Omophagia, i.e., Bacchanalia, 496. 

Onion, thunder-portents averted with 
an, 489, 490. 

Ops, sprung from Ccelus and Hecate, 
461; mother of Jupiter and his 
brothers, 422, 460, 461, 472, 482. 

Orbona, guardian deity of bereaved 
parents, 478. 

Orcus, union of Proserpine with, 

02. 

Origin of things, Christ commanded 
men not to inquire into, 457. 
Ornytus, Pallus slain by, 484 (notes). 
Orpheus, the Thracian hard, 497; 
the Thracian soothsayer, 499 

(note). 

Osiris, husband of Isis, torn limb 
from limb, 422. 

Ossilago, a deity giving firmness to 
the bones of children, 478. 

Ossipagina, a name given to Juno, 
472. 


Pales, guardian of the flocks and 
herds, 470 (note); not a female, 
but a male steward of Jupiter, 
474; one of the Penates, 474, 


475: 

Palladim, the, formed from the re- 
mains of Pelops, 484. 

Pallas, father of the fifth Minerva, 
and slain by her, 480, 481. 

Pallas, surname of Minerva, 481; 
overcome and slain by Ornytus, 
474. 

Pamphilus, a magian and friend of 
Cyrus, 428. 

Panztius, a Stoic philosopher, 437. 

Panchzean gums burned to the gods, 

29. 
Pan Calin of the name, 476. 
Pansa, consulship of, 493 (note). 


Pantarces, a name inscribed on the 
finger of the statue of Olympian 
Jupiter, 512 (note). 

Pantica, i.e., Panda, 476. 

Paphos, oe king of, 5009. 

Parthians, Christianity attested by 
mighty works amongst the, 438. 

Patella, goddess of things to be 
brought to light, 478. 

Patellana, goddess of things already 
brought to light, 478. 

Patrimus, place in the ceremonies of 
the boy called, 486 (note). 

Pausi, 420. 

Peace deified, 476. 

Peleus, father of Achilles, loved by 
Thetis, 485. 

Pellonia, a goddess who repels ene- 
mies, 477. 

Peloponnese, Apis born in the, 422. 

Pelops, 485; the Palladium formed 
from the remains of, 484. 

Penates, said to be Neptune and 
Apollo, 474, 475; gods of the 
recesses of heaven, 474; said to 
be of four kinds, 474; said to 
be Fortune, Ceres, the genius 
Jovialis, and Pales, 474, 475; 
and by the Etruscans to be the 
Consentes and: Complices, 474. 

Perfica, goddess of filthy pleasures, 
478 (note). 

Peripatetics, Aristotle the father of 
the, 437. 

Persians, the, overcome because of 
the Christians, 417 ; Christianity 
attested by mighty works among, 
438; worshipped rivers, 510; 
skilled in secret arts, 480. 

Pertunda, a goddess presiding over 
the marriage couch, 478. 

Pessinuntic Dindymene, 488. 

Pessinus, people of, worshipped a 
flint for the mother of the gods, 
510; Great Mother brought 
from, 538; Midas king of, 492. 

Pestilence, sent to punish pollution 
of the circus, 534; abated when 
deities were brought from 
abroad, 534; put to flight by 
Esculapius, 536. 

Peta, presiding over prayers, 478. 

Peter’s victory over Simon Magus, 
438 (note). 

Phaethon, the sun the father of, 505; 
loved by Ceres, 485. 

Phalli displayed in honour of Bac- 
chus, 500; given in the myste- 
ries. of Venus, 496. 

Phidias, sculptor of the image of 
Olympian Jupiter, 512; carved 
on it the name of a boy loved 
by him, 512 (note). 

Philopator, i.e., Ptolemy IV., 509 
(note). 

Philosophers, pride of, 452, 453; by 
their disagreement show that 
nothing can be known, 437. 

Pheenician Hercules, 422. 

Phorbas, Attis found and -brought 
up by, 491. 

Phoroneus, the first builder of tem- 
ples, 507. 

Phrygia, the rock Agdus in, 491; 
mysteries celebrated in, 497. 

Phrygian mother, the, i.e., Cybele, 462. 





Phrygians, the, overcome with fear 
at the sight of the Great Mother 
and Acdestis, 492; Christianity 
attested by mighty works among, 
438 ; call their goats attagy, 492. 

Phryne, native of Thespia, used as 
model for the statues ef Venus, 
511 (note). 

Picus, son of Saturn, and father of 
Faunus, 461; drugged and made 
prisoner by Numa, 489; sur- 
named Martius, 489, 

Piety, altars and temples built to, 


_ 476. 

Pindar, the Beeotian, 484. 

Pine, Attis self-mutilated under a, 
492; borne to her cave by the 
Great Mother, 492; carried into 
the sanctuary of the Great 

. Mother on certain days, 496, 
504; wreathed with flowers, 492, 
496; bound with wool, 496 
(note). 

Pipe, a (¢bia), borne by Acdestis 
when he burst in upon the Phry- 
gians, 492. 

Piso, consulship of, 462 (note). 

Plank, a, worshipped by the Sami- 
ans for Juno, 510. 

Plato, head of philosophers, 416; 
the disciple of Socrates, 437; 
acknowledges the resurrection 
of the body, 439; contradictions 
in his theory of future punish- 
ment, 439; his doctrine of trans- 
migration, 440; his theory of 
reminiscences untenable, 443. 

Plutarch of Chzeronea, 484. 

Pluto, brother of Jupiter and Nep- 
tune, 472; king of the shades, 


499. 

Plutonian realms, i.e., infernal re- 
gions, 525. 

Polias, Erichthonius buried in the 
sanctuary of, 508. 

Pollux, son of Tyndareus, distin- 

uished as a boxer, 422; buried 

in Sparta, 484. 

Pomegranate tree, a, springs from 
the severed members of Acdes- 
tis, 491. 

Pomona, a name given to Juno, 472. 

Pompilius, the revered, 468; sacri- 
fices thoroughly cooked and con- 
sumed in time of, 460. 

Pontifex Maximus, 427, 488. 

Populonia, a name given to Juno, 


472. 

Portents, thunder, how averted, 489. 

Portunus, gives safety to sailors, 470. 

Potua, presiding over drinking, 470. 

Prezstana, named because Romulus 
excelled all with the javelin, 476. 

Praxiteles, in the Cnidian Venus, 
copied the courtesan Gratina, 

Il. 

Piasers for the departed in the early 
Church, §41 (note). 

Priapus, the Hellespontian god of 
lust, 466; represented with im- 
mense pudenda, 517. 

Proserpine, daughter of Ceres and 
Jupiter, 497; violated by her 
father, 497 ; carried off by Pluto 
from Sicily, 422, 499; called 
Libera, 497; named because 


57° 


ARNOBIUS: INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 





plants rise slowly, 472; lusted 

after by the first Mercury, 480; 
loved Adonis, 485; allegorical 

explanation of the rape of, 502, 
503; barren heifers sacrificed to, 
25: 

Precumane a vile lover of Bacchus, 
500; the god’s compliance with 
his request, 500, 5oI. 

Protagoras, doubts as to existence of 
a deity, 421 (note). 

Prothee, loved by Apollo, 485. 

Psylli, sellers of charms against ser- 
pents, 446. 

Punishment, future, nature of, 439. 

Purification of the mother of the 
gods, 531. 

Puta, a goddess presiding over the 
pruning of trees, 478. 

Pygmalion, king of Cyprus, 515; an 
image of Venus loved by, 515. 

Pyriphlegethon, a river in Hades, 439. 

Pyrrha, women formed from stones 
cast by, 491. 

Pythagoras of Samos, 437; placed 
the cause of things in numbers, 
437; burned to death in a tem- 
ple, 424. 

Pythian god, the, identified with the 
sun and Bacchus, 472; served 
Laomedon, 484 ; soothsayers are 
taught by, 470. 


Quindecemviri, the, wore wreaths of 
laurel, 488. 
Quirinus, excelled all in throwing 
the javelin, 476. 
Quirinus Martius, Romulus torn in 
pieces by the senators, called, 
- 424. 
Quirites, 477. 


Races, guilt contracted if the music 
stopped at the, 486; in the 


games of Jupiter, 534, 535, 
seven rounds of the course in, 


534- 
Regulus, cruel death of, 424; a huge 
serpent killed by the army of, 


537: 

Religion, credibility of, not depend- 
ent on antiquity, 461; opinion 
constitutes, not ceremony, 533. 

Reminiscences, Platonic theory of, 
untenable, 443. 

Renovation, the Novensiles gods of, 
474 (note). 

Resurrection, the, symbolized in Plu- 
to’s myth, 439. 

Rhodes, the fourth Sun born at, 480. 

Right and left merely relative terms, 


477- 

Rites of the mother of the gods, 
496; of Bona Dea, 496; of Bac- 
chus, Cyprian Venus, and the 
Corybantes, 496, 497; of Ceres 
in Phrygia, 497. 

Rituals of Numa, Apollo’s name not 
found in, 462. 

Rivers, worshipped in ancient times 
by the Persians, 510. 

Roman matrons, not allowed to drink 
wine, 460; kissed to test their 
sobriety, 460. 

Romans, the race of Mars, the im- 
perial people, 488; had changed 








their customs and ceremonies, 
459, 460; Pellonia goddess only 
of, 477; worshipped a spear for 
Mars, 510. 

Rome, age in time of Arnobius of 
the city, 461; Christianity at- 
tested by miracles in, 438. 

Romulus, founder of Rome, 468; 
sacrifices consumed in time 
of, 460; and his brother, 476; 
a deified mortal, 474; torn in 
pieces by the senators, 424; un- 
acquainted with incense, 528; 
called Quirinus Martius, 424. 


Sabine gods, the Novensiles, nine, 


474. 
Sabre, worshipped by the Scythians, 
10. 

Sacrifice, origin and meaning of, 542, 
543 (note). 

Sacrifices, Christians offered no, 507; 
Varro’s denial of any occasion 
for, 518; cannot feed gods, 518; 
cannot give pleasure to the gods, 
519; can neither prevent their 
anger, 520, nor satisfy their rage, 

20; no reason can be found 
or, 526; purity and cleanliness 
required at, 523 (note). 

Sadducees, attributing form to God, 
467 (note). 

pee ares and altars erected to, 
470. 

Sais, the Egyptian, offspring of the 
Nile, 480, 481; identified with 
the second Minerva, 480. 

Salt-cellars, tables consecrated by 
placing, 460. 

Salvation, why conditional, 458. 

Samians, the, worshipped a plank 
for Juno, 510. 

Samothracii Digit., named Idzi Dac- 
tyli, 475; said to be the Lares, 
475: 

Sangarius, a king or river, father of 
Nana, 491; attempted to starve 
his daughter to death, 491; ex- 
posed her child, 491. 

Sardis, Hercules a slave at, 484. 

Satirical poems punished by law, 
487. 

Saturn, son of Ccelus and Hecate, 
461; overthrew his father, 485 ; 
attempted to destroy his children, 
485; was driven from power by 
Jupiter, 484, 485; hid himself in 
Latium, 484; was thrown into 
chains for parricide, 484; father 
by Ops of Jupiter, 460, 461, 472, 
482, of the third Jupiter, 480; 
mother of the gods married to, 
472; founder of the Saturnian 
state, 422; father of the third 
Minerva, 480; when aged, taken 
in adultery by his wife, 485; 
tomb and remains of, in Sicily, 
484; identified with Kronos, and 
explained as chronos, 472}; pro- 
genitor of the azz magni, 472; 
planter of the vine, 472; bearer 
of the pruning-knife, 472, 511, 
517; presides over. sown crops, 
479; before Hercules’ visit to 
Italy, human sacrifices offered 
to, 460, 


Saturnian king, the, i.e., Jupiter, 483. 

| Satyr, Jupiter assumed the form of, 
485, 506. 

Scauri, 430. 

Scythian king and Circe, the fifth 
Sun the son of a, 480. 

Scythians, irruptions of the, laid to 
the charge of the Christians, 
415; sacrificed asses to Mars, 


484. 

Sebadia, 497 (note). 

Semele, mother of Liber by Jupiter, 
460, 473, 500, 506. 

Senators, Romulus torn in pieces by, 
424; abuse of, punished by law, 
487. 

Serapis, Apis in Egypt called, 422; 
the Egyptian, 486; introduction 
of the worship~of, 462 ; temple 
of, burned to ashes, 516. 

Seres, the, 508; Christianity attested 
by miracles among, 438. 

Serpent, Jupiter assumed the form 
of a, 485, 497. Pe 

Serpent-bites, charms against, 446 
(note). 

Servius Tullius, birth of, 496. 

Shrine of Juno at Argos, 516. 

Shrines, the Christians built no, 


507-19 

Sibyl, the, 431. 

Sicily, tomb and remains of Saturn 
in, 484; Proserpine carried off 
from, 499. 

Sickle, borne by Saturn, 511. 

Simon Magus, fiery car of, 438; over- 
throw and death of, 438 (note). 

Sinister deities, presiding over the 
left, 477. 

Sleep, what produces, 436. 

Slumber, is life anything but, 436. 

Sminthian mice, Apollo the destroy- 
er of, 473- 

Socrates, condemnation of, spoken 
of as the Trojan war, 504; not, 
made infamous by his condemna- 
tion, 424; Plato the disciple of, 


437- 

Solecisms and barbarisms objected 
to Christianity, 430. 

Sophists, pretentious show of the, 
430. 

Soul, the animal, does not partake 
of the divine nature, 444; philo- 
sophical theories of its immor- 
tality uncertain and contradic. 
tory, 446; made immortal only 
by God’s gift, 447, 454, 457- 

Souls said to pass into cattle, 440. 

Spain, 417; Hercules buried in, 422. 

Sparta. and Lacedzmon, Castor and 
Pollux buried in, 485. 

Spartanus, Mars identified with, 484. 

Spear, a, worshipped by the Romans 
for Mars, 510. 

Stage, gods brought on, 487, 488. 

States, genii of, 420 (note). 

Stentors, 462 (note). 

Sterope, loved by Apollo, 485. 

Stoic theory, of the world, 455; that 
souls survived death for a little, 


455: 
Stone, the Arabians worshipped an 
unhewn, 510. 





Stone, a, sent from Phrygia as th 
Great Mother, 538. i: 


; 
; 





ARNOBIUS: INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 


57! 





Stones, after the deluge men sprung 
from, 491; anointed with oil, and 
worshipped, 423. . 

Stygian Jupiter, i.e., Pluto, 460. 

Styx, a river in the infernal regions, 
439 (note), 500. 

Sulla, the proscription of, spoken of 
as the battle of Canne, 504. 

Summanus, i.e., Pluto, 476, 503. 


-Sumptuary laws, not observed in 


time of Arnobius, 460. 

Sun, the, all things vivified by the 
heat of, 413; said to be only a 
foot in breadth, 457; identified 
with Bacchus and Apollo, 473, 
and with Attis, 505; five gods 
said to be, 480; represented with 
rays of light, 511; father of 
Phaethon, 505. 

Supreme Jupiter, the, in opposition 
to the Stygian, 460. 

Swan, Jupiter changed into a, 483, 
5006. 

Syria, plagued with locusts because 
-of the Christians, 417. 


Tages, the Etruscan, 460. 

Tanaquil and the azz conserentes, 496. 

Tarpeian rock, the, taken by Titus 
Tatius, 477. 

Tartarus, the darkness of, has no 
terrors to the immortal, 445; 
visited by Liber, 500. 

Tellene _ perplexities, 
phrase, 500. 

Tellus, mother of the Muses, 473. 
(See also under Zarth.) 

Telmessus, city in Asia Minor, 508. 

Telmessus, the prophet buried under 
Apollo’s altar, 508, 509. 

Temples, in many cases tombs, 508, 
509; destroyed with their im- 
ages, and plundered, 516; built 
to cats, beetles, and heifers, 
420 (note); built that men might 
come near and invoke the gods, 
508; not raised by the Chris- 
tians, 507. 

Thales, attributed all things to water, 


proverbial 


437- 

Theatees, the gods exposed to insult 
and mockery in the, 487, 488. 

Theban Hercules, the, 422, 483. 

Themis, the oracle of, 4a1 (note). 

Theodorus of Cyrene, 421 (note), 486. 

Thesmophoria, origin of the, 498 
(note). 

Thespia, Phryne a native of, 51t. 

Thespians, the, worshipped a branch 
for Juno, 510. 

Thessaly, home of the Myrmidons, 
485. 

Thestius’ fifty daughters, and Her- 
cules, 485. 

Thetis, loved Peleus, 485. 

Theutis, the Egyptian, founder of 
astrology, 460. 

Thieves, Laverna the goddess of, 491. 

Thrace, Mars born in, 484. 

Thracian, the, bard, i.e., Orpheus, 
497; soothsayer, son of Calliope, 


499 





Thrasimene lake, Roman defeat at 
the, 477. 

Thunder, evil portended by, how 
averted, 489, 490. 

Thunderer, the, ie., Jupiter, 516. 

Thyle, remotest, 508. 

Tiber, Asculapius brought to the 
island in the, 536. 

Tinguitani, the, afflicted with 
droughts because of the Chris- 
tians, 417 (note). 

Titans, the, worshipped by the 
Moors, 422; Liber torn in pieces 

__ by, 424, 497. 

Tithonus, loved by Aurora, 485. 

Titus Tatius, the Capitoline taken 
by, 476, 477. 

Tolus Vulcentanus, Capitol named 
from, 509 (note). 

Transmigration of souls, 440. 

Treason to speak evil of kings, 487. 

Trebia, Novensiles worshipped at, 
474 (note). 

Trebian gods, i.e., the Novensiles, 
476. 

Trebonius, cruelly put to death, 424. 

Tree wreathed with flowers in mem- 
ory of Attis, 492 (note). 

Triptolemus deified because he in- 
vented the plough, 423; native 
of Attica, first to yoke oxen, 499. 

Tritonian maid, the, 469 (note), 526. 

Trojan wars, the condemnation of 
Socrates spoken of as the, 504. 

Trophonius, the second Mercury, 480. 

Tullius (M. Cicero), 504; the most 
eloquent of the Romans, 465. 

Tullius (Servius), king, half-raw sac- 
rifices offered under, 460. 

Tutelary demons, the Lares, 475. 

Tutunus, 478, 479. 

Tyndareus, father of Castor and Pol- 
lux, 422. 

Tyndarian brothers, the, 460 (note). 


Unxia, presiding over anointing, 470. 
Upibilia, keeps from wandering, 478. 


Varro, distinguished by the diver- 
sity of his learning, 493; denies 
that sacrifices are acceptable to 
the gods, 518. 

Velus, a magian, 428. 

Venus, the Cytherean, sprung from 
the sea-foam and the genitals of 
Ceelus, 484; daughter of Dione, 

22; lusted after Anchises, 422, 
485; a courtesan, 484, 486; dei- 
fied by Cinyras, 484; mother of 
the Desires, 471, of the imperial 
people, 488; wounded by a mor- 
tal, 484; represented on the stage 

. by lustful gestures, 488; in stat- 
ues and paintings nude, 511, 517; 
used to denote lust, 506; alle- 
gorical explanation of the bind- 
ing of, 505; named because love 
comes to all, 472; four goddesses 
named, 480; Cinyras buried in 
the temple of, 509; the courtesan 
Gratina the model of the Cnidi- 
an, 511; Phryne of more than 


one, 511; Pygmalion’s love for 
the Cyprian, 515; a youth’s love 
for the Cnidian, ee ; mysteries 
of Cyprian, 496. 
Venus Militaris, presiding over the 
debauchery of camps, 478. 
Vermilion, the images of the gods 
smeared with, 510. 

Verrii, 430. 

Vesta, the earth said to be, 472; 
ever-burning fire of, 460 (note). 

Vestals, guarding the sacred fire, 
488. 

Victa, presiding over eating, 470 
(note). 

Victims, Christians slew no, 507. 

Victory, Minerva the daughter of, 


472. 

Vigils in the Thesmophoria, 498 
(note). 

Vintage festival of Aisculapius, 531. 

Violets, sprung from blood cf Attis, 
492. 

Virginalis, Fortuna, 460. 

Virtue, altars and temples reared to, 
476. 

Vulcan, explained as fire, 472; lame, 
484; wrought as a smith in Lem- 
nos, 480, 484; son of the Nile, 
480; loved by Ceres, 485; father 
of the third Sun, 480, and of 
Apollo by the first Minerva, 
480; four gods named, 480; 
lord of fire, 460, 469, 470; repre- 
sented in workman’s dress, 511, 
with cap and hammer, 511. 

Vulturnus, the father-in-law of Janus, 
471. 


Wheat, introduced into Attica by 
Ceres, 504. 
Wicked, souls of, pass into beasts, 


440. 

Will, free, in salvation, 458. 

Winds, the, represented as blowing 
trumpets, 510, 

Wine, in the rites of Bona Dea, 
496; sanctuary of Attis not 
entered by those who had drunk, 
492; Roman matrons not al- 
lowed to drink, 460. 

Within, the Penates said to be those, 


474- 

World, the, uncreated and everlast- 
ing, 455 (note); created, but 
everlasting, 455; created and 
perishable, 455; theories of, 
421, 437, 455; destruction by fire 
of, 4375. 

Worship, true, in the heart, 486. 


Xerxes, the bridge and canal made 
by, 415. 


Zeno, the Stoic, 437; of Myndus, 
08. 

Zeie pes loved by Apollo, 485. 

Zoroaster, Bactrians led against the 
Assyrians by, 415; assigned by 
tradition to different countries 
and ages, 428 (note). 


Ex. xxix. 13, 14 
Whey og lOr as = 6 
Kies theaters 
1 Kings xviii. 27 
BSaexlviils wee ae 
exv. 4-8. . 
Isa. xl. 18-20 . 
xliv. 9-20 . 
xlvi. 28 x 
Ezek. xxii. 26 . 


oeere ee © © © @ 


PAGE 
524 
525 
525 
477 
440 
513 


512 
512 
525 


O02 26 2 ~ 65 el ene ene: 


573 


ARNOBIUS. 





INDEX OF TEXTS. 


Matt. v. 39 . 
XXVil. 51 
Mark x. 42, 43 
Luke xi. 41 . 
XxliL 45 
John ii. 25 


iv. 13-15 . 


Vi. 35-37 
viii. 46 





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PAGE 

415 | John viii. 46. 
428 XQ. 
523 X. 35 + 
52 xiv.6 . 
42 xvii. 3. 
425|Actsx.15 . 
458 | Rom. viii. 3-39 
458 Vili. 19 
432 xiv. 14 


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482 
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